The Cape Pioneer Trek international mountain bike stage race, which takes place in South Africa’s Western Cape province from 18-24 October 2015, offers a total of 2660 points that could help determine which nations can send more riders to compete in the Cross-country event at the Rio Olympics next year.

 

While Olympic Cross-country (XCO) racing uses the lap format with high-intensity events lasting around 90 minutes, the International Cycling Union (UCI), has deemed stage races carrying UCI grading suitable to offer XCO UCI points to top finishers. These points are accumulated by country to determine how many riders each nation can send to compete for Olympic glory.

 

For the men’s event, nations ranked 1-5 on 25 May 2016 will be permitted to send three riders; nations ranked 6-13 may send two riders and nations ranked 14-23 may send one rider. For the women’s event, nations ranked 1-8 may send two riders and nations ranked 9-17 may send one rider.

 

While Olympic ambitions are currently being played out by the world’s best XCO racers in the UCI’s XCO World Cup Series in Europe and North America, the Cape Pioneer Trek’s points offering could become a key factor for some nations looking for a qualifying boost in terms of rider numbers.

 

After the 2015 XCO World Championships in Italy in early September there are no more XCO-specific points-scoring opportunities remaining for 2015. This makes a race like Cape Pioneer Trek attractive in terms of scoring ‘bonus points’.

 

Due to location, South African riders are obviously able to make the most of the points on offer at the two South African UCI-graded stage races, the ABSA Cape Epic and the Cape Pioneer Trek. But it’s likely that European nations in particular will look at the points on offer at the 2015 Cape Pioneer Trek and ensure some of their strong riders are on the start line.

 

The seven-day 2015 Cape Pioneer Trek covers a total of 541km an includes 11320 metres of vertical ascent. The stages aren’t significantly long, which actually suits most XCO specialists, who are more used to shorter, more intense racing. The route does include some rough surfaces, which also suits XCO racers who are generally more skilled than pure endurance specialists.

 

The UCI points on offer at the Cape Pioneer Trek are given to the top 25 finishers on the General Classification as follows for men and women: 80, 70, 60, 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1. Since riders compete in teams of two, both riders will be given the points.

 

In addition to UCI points, the Cape Pioneer Trek offers a total of 14774 Euro in prize money to UCI registered riders as well as television and other media coverage.

For a video summary of what the 2015 Cape Pioneer Trek holds, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpGA9gJIk0I&feature=youtu.be

 

To enter, or for more information, visit www.capepioneer.co.za

 

Current nation rankings and Olympic qualification points as at 10 July 2015 (based on the accumulated points of the top 3 ranked riders of each nation):

Men – 3 riders: 1 Switzerland 6039, 2 France 5229, 3 Czech Republic 3641, 4 Spain 3615, 5 Germany 3252

Men – 2 riders: 6 Italy 3170, 7 Netherlands 2797, 8 Belgium 2326, 9 Australia 2255, 10 Canada 2190, 11 South Africa 2157, 12 United States 2005

Men – 1 rider: 13 Slovakia 1953, 14 Portugal 1888, 15 Brazil 1777, 16 Austria 1748, 17 Sweden 1601, 18 Argentina 1520, 19 Israel 1325, 20 New Zealand 1317, 21 Japan 1266, 22 Hungary 1234, 23 Greece 1199

Women – 2 riders: 1 Switzerland 5484, 2 Canada 4269, 3 Slovenia 3527, 4 France 3424, 5 United States 3328, 6 Germany 3279, 7 Poland 3275, 8 Norway 3010

Women – 1 rider: 9 Belgium 2827, 10 Russia 2654, 11 Denmark 2430, 12 Brazil 2363, 13 Australia 2302, 14 Ukraine 2221, 15 Czech Republic 2187, 16 Italy 2092, 17 Austria 1897