After pre-cup last Sunday, the UCI is making changes on the Petrópolis course, probably in filling the doubles by transforming them into simple steeps or panettone, all to make it less dangerous.
To communicate this decision was Henry Avancini on the stories of Instagram, which designed and contributed to the practical realization of the track. Here are his words:
UCI has decided to change some features of the World Cup course in Petropolis. Speaking as a trail builder who curated the course, I believe the changes add a lot of risk to the race situations. I understand their concern (UCI) in making things safer in some scenarios, but I made sure to share my thoughts and concepts to explain why I believe the changes are not good.
The track remains the same, only now some jumps can be copied… I know the route, I built it and even though it is very challenging, the safety level is higher than most of the tracks we run on. By just sharing the information and reinforcing the fact that I disagree with the changes… also, I think some parts will be more dangerous now than before."
Avancini did not send them to say but he was very general and did not specifically mention the major problems that would arise. This video below has been around the world and shows the wild card that the athlete Lena Gerault of the KTM Vittoria team pulled during the tests:
But perhaps the most dangerous drop is the one we show on video, where you can clearly see how athletes arrive from a compression and then find themselves in a drop that throws them out badly. Logical that with the technique you overcome, but this in my opinion is very dangerous in a race cross country: not for height itself (athletes cross country Elite have no problem making even higher drops) but because of the compression that comes later.
Surely the cross country is changing and routes of this type are starting to require the telescopic handler: it is difficult to safely tackle such a route with the saddle high, even in the case of technical athletes because just a carelessness (due to tiredness, which is normal in a xc race ) and the fall comes, often with serious consequences given the lack of protection (of course they have to think about pedalling).
We hope it will remain a fun and technical World Cup without any serious incidents. If you want to see the latest video of Avancini in his Brazil, here is the video shot with Shimano.
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