The 2024 Paris Olympic Games are here and run from the 24th July to the 11th August. The main events for us here at BikePerfect are the mountain biking races and the XCOs (cross-country Olympic) scheduled for July 28th and 29th.
The women get things going at 13:10 on the 28th, with the men racing at the same time the following day. So what can you look forward to as the best mountain bike riders from around the globe battle it out for Olympic gold medal glory? Here's everything you need to know to watch and enjoy the XCO events…
The course
The XCO racing takes place at Elancourt Hill, located just a short distance from the Palace of Versailles, southwest of the Paris city center. The 36 women and 36 men chosen to represent their respective countries will battle it out on a 4.4km course based around pre-existing trails, transformed for the Olympics by South African trail builder Nick Floros. With just 110m of elevation gain per lap, the climbs are short and punchy, and it looks like a course that will deliver fast, close, and exciting racing.
The race distances will be determined just before the event and are based on estimated lap timings, so depending on the weather conditions it could be around 1-2 hours of racing. Below is a course preview with US Cycling's Anneke Beerten from the Test Event held just a few months ago.
How to watch
The TV coverage and schedules will differ depending on where you are based. For US viewers, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will air on NBC, USA Network and will be available to stream on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com. For UK viewers, the BBC is the place to be, with live and on-demand coverage across the main BBC channels or via the BBC iPlayer.
Elsewhere, Discovery+ is the rights holder for Paris 2024 and will show every moment of the games, with a total of 3,800 hours of live coverage across the entirety of the games. Discovery+ and Eurosport do require a subscription and you can find more information at Discovery+.
For Olympic viewers in a country with geo-blocking, with a bit of internet trickery live streaming is still an option. Using a piece of simple software called a VPN (virtual private network), gives users the ability to change their IP address and location. It means that you can easily switch your location to one streaming the event live, such as the US or UK, and access free on-demand content or live-streaming coverage.
Setting up a VPN is as easy as downloading, installing, and selecting the location you wish to use. There are plenty of VPN choices, but our tech-expert colleagues at TechRadar recommend Express VPN for its ease of use and privacy, which starts at $6.99 a month. Other top VPN providers are SurfShark and NordVPN.
The contenders
There are only a maximum of two spots per nation available in both the men's and women's events. So competition for the coveted spots has been intense, and some of the best XC riders on the planet will be missing out.
For the US, the riders lining up in Paris are Specialized Factory Racing's Haley Batten and Savilia Blunk from the Decathlon-Ford Racing Team. The US Men are Christopher Blevins, also from Specialized Factory Racing, and Riley Amos from Trek Factory Racing.
The rescheduled Covid-19 2020 Tokyo Olympics saw tremendous success for British mountain bikers, with the current XCO World Champion, Tom Pidcock taking gold – Britain’s first-ever Olympic MTB medal. Former women's World Champion, Evie Richards, also finished a credible 7th.
Pidcock is scheduled to challenge for a unique double and will race both the XCO and the road event. However, having left the Tour de France early with Covid-19 symptoms, at the time of writing, it's still unclear if Tom will defend his XCO title. The other selected Great Britain male rider is Charlie Aldridge and Evie Richards will line up with Ella Maclean-Howell.
On home soil, the French are fielding a strong squad with five-time World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Loana Lecomte. Lecomte won the test event at Elancourt Hill earlier in the year and we can expect a strong battle between those two. The French male squad has test event winner Victor Korektzy and World Cup podium regular Jordan Sarrou.
Elsewhere in the Men's XC, Nino Schurter will take to the start line for Switzerland, and we can expect a strong performance from Schurter – the GOAT of XCO racing. There will be no Mathieu van der Poel, having crashed out in Tokyo, the Men's Road World Champion is concentrating fully on the road event. Schurter's teammate Mathias Fluckiger, South African Alan Hatherly, German Luca Schwarzbauer, short track World Champion Sam Gaze, and Italian Luca Braidot are all noteworthy riders.
The women's lineup is also strong with riders like World Cup overall winner Puck Pieterse, the Swiss duo of Jolanda Neff and Alessandra Keller, and Australia's Rebecca Henderson all in the hunt in a stacked Women's field.
I think a fit Tom Pidcock will have too much for the rest of the field and put in a dominant display to defend his title. In the women's race, Pidcock's Ineos teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is my tip for the gold medal.
Other cycling events
There's plenty of other cycling to enjoy across the Olympic schedule with the BMX bike racing including Great Britain's Bethany Shriever looking to defend her title. With BMX freestyle, road racing and track racing, there is so much Paris 2024 Olympic two-wheeled action to enjoy.
