Tom Pidcock and Evie Richards have likened the Olympic mountain bike course to a “gravel” circuit, according to a news report in Cycling Weekly.

Speaking at a press conference for the Games, the reigning Olympic champion Pidcock called the Élancourt Hill track “bland,” while former world champion Richards criticised the lack of natural features and options for line choices.

“It’s bland and I think they could have done a better job of making a more mountain bike course,” Pidcock said. “It’s not the best course in the world, but it’s the same for everyone so…”

The course at Élancourt rises just 231m, and has drawn criticism for being too manmade and not technical enough for the elite riders competing there. Check out our full course preview of the Élancourt Hill course and see what you think.

Evie Richards is one of the most skilfull rides in the XC scene, and would have preferred a more natural course to play to her strengths

Evie Richards described the course as “easier to learn”, with “less choices” than a World Cup track. “I suppose, technically, you still have to be good, because you still have to ride on gravel,” she said.

There’s also not much thinking to go into it, it’s kind of one line

The best XC courses from the 2024 have seen multiple lines develop over the course of the race, potentially giving faster and more skilful riders like Pidcock and Richards the chance to overtake or make up time.

“There’s also not much thinking to go into it, it’s kind of one line, you just go down there,” Pidcock said.

“We love mountain biking for the reasons that drive us to enjoy it for what it is,” Pidcock explained. “That’s the courses you get to ride, the places you get to go to. When you just gravel over a nice hillside, it’s not really mountain bike.”

a natural course which changes with the conditions is quite a cool thing, that’s what we love to race

Just why Élancourt Hill was chosen as the Olympic XCO venue isn’t entirely clear, but its proximity to Paris and the views of the Eiffel Tower and La Defence have been cited. It certainly doesn’t look as challenging a course as the World Cup track from Les Gets the riders competed at earlier this month, but that’s not to say it won’t make for exciting racing – check out our guide to how to watch the XC mountain biking this weekend.

If I was the designer I’d have it more natural, with a lot more natural features, rather than man-made

“I wouldn’t say it’s not hard enough,” Evie Richards said of the Paris course. “I think, just as mountain bikers, a natural course which changes with the conditions is quite a cool thing, that’s what we love to race. But I think they’ve done the best they’ve done, being how close it is to Paris. I suppose it’s not the easiest thing to do to just pop up a mountain bike course anywhere.

“If I was the designer I’d have it more natural, with a lot more natural features, rather than man-made. But I think we normally see that at Olympic Games,” Richards continued. “It’s normally a bit of a different course from what we’d race at World Cups, but I think that’s just because when we race World Cups, we’re normally in the Alps somewhere, somewhere in a nice ski resort. This is super close to the city centre.”

Elancourt Hill has been built for the Olympics and designed by Nick Floros, the man behind the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games courses.