Later this month the Tokyo 2021 Olympic mountain biking events take place. Here are the dates, UK/US event times, course details and a who's who of XC MTB.
On July 26th and 27th the Tokyo 2021 Olympic mountain biking takes place on the 4km lap of The Izu MTB Course. The Men’s XC is up first on Monday 26 July, with the Women’s XC on Tuesday 27 July. Here is our quick guide to the everything you need to know about it all.
Read more: Best XC race bikes – hardtail and full suspension
When is Tokyo 2021 Olympic mountain biking?
Men’s cross-country
Monday 26 July
- 7am UK BST
- 2am USA EST
- 1am USA CST
- 12am USA MST
- 11pm USA PST (Sunday 25 July!)
- 7pm Japan time
Women’s cross-country
Tuesday 27 July
- 7am UK BST
- 2am USA EST
- 1am USA CST
- 12am USA MST
- 11pm USA PST (Monday 26 July!)
- 7pm Japan JST
Who’s racing and who’s going to win?
There will be a total of around 50 racers in the Men’s field and 30 in the Women’s field.
The defending Olympic champions are Nino Schurter (Switzerland) and Jenny Rissveds (Sweden).
Team GB racers: Tom Pidcock and Evie Richards.
Team USA racers: Christopher Blevins, Haley Batten, Kate Courtney and Erin Huck.
mbr predictions: Although Jolanda Neff and Nino Schurter won the Olympic test event in 2020, a whole lot has changed in the world since then! The two current hot favourites for the Men’s XC – Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) – hadn’t even competed in a World Cup XC event back then.
Our predictions for gold medals are Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France).
The Izu MTB Course
Tokyo Olympic MTB course details
- Name: The Izu MTB Course
- Lap: 4km lap
- Total number of laps: not yet confirmed but expected to be 7-9 laps
- Ascent: 180 metres per lap
What’s the course going to be like? First of all, it needs to be said that it’s probably the best Olympic mountain biking course yet, ever since MTBing was introduced into the Olympics back in 1996.
The before (March 2019) and after (Sept 2019) pictures from the mountain bike course in Izu. It’s been nearly 12 months since the course build was started, now looking back we achieved so much. @nickmtbtrails pic.twitter.com/ZoPP3gxOp3
— Paul Davis ??? (@paul_davis67) February 24, 2020
While the pics chosen for the above Tweet emphasise the ‘zen garden centre’ vibe, there is plenty of tricky and testing sections tucked away along the 4km lap.
Check out the video above from Coach D (Founder of Coach D Mountain Bike Efficiency Training Systems) who was there at the test event last year.