Defending Olympic gold medalist criticizes “bland” Paris 2024 MTB racecourse

Tom Pidcock, the defending Olympic gold medalist from Tokyo 2021, criticized the “bland” Paris 2024 mountain bike race course in a recent press conference, calling it “just gravel,” multiple media outlets report.

“It’s not the best course in the world,” said Pidcock in advance of Monday’s race. “I think they could have done a better job of making it a proper mountain bike course.

“We love mountain biking for what it is, that’s what drives us to do it, the courses you get to ride and the places you go to. There’s not much thinking that goes into it, you just go down one line.

“If you just gravel over a nice hillside, it’s not really mountain biking.”

“If you just gravel over a nice hillside, it’s not really mountain biking.”

Tom Pidcock

The mountain bike racecourse has been built on Elancourt Hill, the highest point in the Paris region. According to Olympics.com, “No major infrastructure will be created at the site in order to minimise the impact on its biodiversity. 95 per cent of the future trails for the Olympic mountain bike events, designed by South African expert Nick Floros, are based on existing paths. Even better, various routes will be left as a legacy of the Games and will offer a selection of accessible trails for all users, from children and families to experienced riders.”

Elancourt Hill itself is an artificial construction located on the site of former sandstone quarries. “After the quarries closed midway through the 19th century, the site became a landfill until it was closed in 1975,” according to Olympics.com. “An ambitious regeneration programme was carried out in the 1980s, transforming the hill into a public park.”

While it’s difficult to get a sense of the Paris course in advance of the race, the featured image on the Olympics.com page linked above shows riders grinding uphill on a gravel path that appears to be between 6 and 10 feet wide. Images in the Paris2024.org Press Library show a start and finish area that consists of an extremely wide gravel road. However, other images show riders jumping off of a stone lip during a test event.

According to an article published on Yahoo! Sports, the course is 4.4km long and offers 110 meters of elevation gain per lap. “Organisers say it consists of groomed gravel paths, a technical rock garden, twisting terrain and one challenging climb, which is bypassed on the opening 2.2km lap,” writes Tom Cary. 

Are these jumps and the rock garden the only features of any sort on the racecourse?

Possibly.

More importantly, will riders competing for a gold medal waste time throwing whips when they could scrub the jump(s) to maintain speed?

Unlikely.

The challenges of building the Olympic racecourse

In an April 2024 interview on the Singletracks podcast, Claudio Caluori — a seven-time Swiss National Champion whose trail building company, Velosolutions, was contracted to build the Olympic racecourse — shared the many challenges they faced during the construction process.

“It was one of the most complicated jobs ever,” said Caluori. “And you know it wasn’t the full on Velosolutions design. And it was also not that we were allowed to build what we thought was good. So there were so many companies involved, too. There was a designer, then there was a French trail building company responsible for it. Since somewhat they had the lead, they were not supposed to also build it. So they hired us to build it. And in between, there’s road construction companies and all sorts of things. So huge mess.”

“I think it’s gonna be good,” Caluori continued. “But the details, I mean, the features in there were not designed by us. And we were also not allowed to bring in our ideas. So we just had to build whatever was planned.”

World champion Evie Richards agrees

World champion (and Pidcock’s teammate), Evie Richards, echoed his sentiment but with a more understanding tone.

“I’d have it more natural, with a lot more natural features, rather than man-made,” said Richards. “But I think we normally see that at Olympic Games. 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.”

Updated 1pm MDT: This article has been updated with comments from Claudio Caluori.