Watch XTERRA World Cup live
With the European Championship and XTERRA Worlds going back to back as the final two stops of the World Cup, here’s everything you need to know about the first of three livestream races set to showcase the business end of the off-road triathlon pro series.
If you haven’t been paying close attention to the World Cup series, the off-road triathlon pro series is now reaching a critical point with another potential screamer of a finish set to play out—particularly in the men’s field. Series leaders Felix Forissier and Solenne Billouin could lock it up before even reaching the final stop, but the likes of Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen, Arthur Serrières, and Sandra Mairhofer will be hell-bent on stopping that from happening. Check out the preview video below to see how the series shifted at Stop #5 in Québec and what now lies ahead at the penultimate stop in Czech.
Stop #6 comes as the second of three back-to-back double-feature stops, with 175 series points at stake and the star-studded European Championship Full Distance race setting the tone for the fast-paced and livestreamed Short Track race the following day.
The Short Track format is a qualification-only race, with athletes needing to finish in the top 30 in the Full Distance race the day prior to earn their spot on the line. This means athletes will need to find the balance between leaving it all on the course in pursuit of a Full Distance win and still having something left in the tank for the Short Track. This year the points in both formats are almost equal, with 100 points for a Full Distance win and 75 for a Short Track win.
With 8 of the top 10 men and 9 of the top 10 women in the World Cup rankings set to start the Full Distance, it’s anybody’s call who gets it done. Felix Forissier and Solenne Billouin will be looking to put the nail in the coffin, but they’ll be up against some stiff competition looking to disrupt the series ahead of the final stop.
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Félix Forissier has seemed unbeatable at so many points during this season, but he will have an enormous amount of pressure coming into Czech. Not only is he the defending European Champion, but he was also fairly beaten by two key athletes in his last race. The first of those is his on-course rival, Arthur Serrières, who famously denied Forissier the World Championship title and the World Cup title in the dying kilometres of the series last year. The second is Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen, now the only man who can deny Forissier the World Cup title a second time around.
Forissier has enough of a lead to lock down the series with two big results in Czech, and if he can achieve that, he would have afforded himself the opportunity to focus purely on ending a phenomenal season with a World title. But racing is as much mental as it is physical, and knowing that his two biggest rivals are peaking at a critical point in the series will be a tough battle to fight as he looks to defend his regional title.
In the Short Track race, expect to see Forissier setting the pace up front, with the Frenchman having gone silver and gold in his last two Short Track races.
“My goal for Québec was to come in and keep my first place position in the World Cup rankings and now I’m fully focused on going the distance to win it all." - Felix Forissier.
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Sloth Nielsen’s second-place finish in the Québec Full Distance race was significant for a number of reasons. Not only did it show that he has made the gains necessary to beat Felix Forissier, but it also opened the door just enough for the Dane to pull off the impossible and take the World Cup series from the Frenchman in the final stretch. Granted, he will need to string together almost four perfect races, but if there is one man in this series who loves a challenge more than ever, it is Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen.
On paper, Sloth Nielsen is currently faster than Forissier on the bike and on foot but lacks speed in the water. In the Full Distance races, he has enough time on dry land to make up the gap from the water, but far less time to do the same in the Short Track format. Last time out in the Short Track format, he took second while Forissier took first. A good result for the Dane in the fast format, but he’ll need to finish ahead of Forissier this time to keep the hope of a series win alive.
"I have a good confidence boost from Quebec regarding my run. The show in Czech always gives a good insight into how fast and furious XTERRA racing really is.” - Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen
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The reigning World Champion and World Cup Champion is proving to be the ultimate disruptor in the second half of the series. The Frenchman chose to skip the first stop of the series and has since then failed to make up the deficit. He’s no longer in podium contention, but as he begins to peak just in time to defend his World title next month, he’s making a habit of denying other athletes the points they need.
Serrières is a famed fighter on the course, and you can guarantee he has his eye on three consecutive Full Distance wins to close the series. He crashed out hard in the Short Track race in Québec only to come back and win the Full Distance convincingly. He’ll now have his eye on picking up the European title for the fourth time in his career before his focus shifts to completing the threepeat of World Championship titles in Italy.
The Frenchman is just as rapid in the Short Track format as he is in the Full Distance, having taken gold in the first Short Track race this year before crashing in Québec while trying to keep up with Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen on the bike.
“After four weeks of intense altitude training where I lived like a monk and worked hard, I gained extra speed that was missing earlier in the series. My performance in the Full Distance race in Québec [after crashing in the Short Track Race] has boosted my confidence for the upcoming XTERRA European and World Championships." - Arthur Serrières
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Those following the series this year will have been witnessing the two-time World Champion cement her legacy in the sport. The current series leader has not gone lower than the second step of the podium since she opened her campaign with a win in Taiwan. The French athlete has technically done enough to clinch the series if she can keep her body and bike together through the final four races, yet do not expect to see the French athlete playing it safe. With two World titles to her name and a World Cup title on the way, the European Championship is the only title missing from her growing list of accolades.
But Billouin will have her work cut out for her as she’ll be up against the only athlete to knock her off the top step of the podium this season—Sandra Mairhofer. The Italian has not raced the full World Cup circuit this year, but when she has, she has inflicted maximum damage. Expect these two to set a relentless pace in the Short Track when the action begins.
“I love the atmosphere in Czech, and they put in a lot of effort to create a challenging course. It's always a demanding race because most of the top athletes are competing. This race will help me debrief and finalise my training strategy leading up to the World Championship.” - Solenne Billouin
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Nobody in the women’s field has managed to solve the Billouin puzzle this season except for Sandra Mairhofer. Had the Italian raced all the stops, we could be looking at a very different leaderboard. Affectionately known in her home country as the ‘Multisport Queen’, Mairhofer has the ability to hold pace with the top swimmers before taking complete control of the race on the bike and run. She beat Billouin in both Belgium and Oak Mountain Full Distance races, and if she does it again in Czech, it will be her third European Championship title.
She has not been as successful in the Short Track format this year, with a fall in her only Short Track race in 2024 leaving her in fourth place. But she does have what it takes to win in this format, as displayed by her win in the Germany Short Track last year. Across both formats this weekend, expect all eyes to be on the Mairhofer-Billouin showdown.
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The local hero and number one breakout athlete of 2024, Aneta Grabmüller seemingly came out of nowhere this season to completely shake up the status quo at the top of the women’s rankings. Consistently the first out of the water, she opened her campaign with a fourth-place finish in Taiwan before taking silver in Greece. Her mid-season has been plagued with mechanical and health issues, but she’s now back to full health and with the full power of the crowd in Prachatice behind her this weekend.
Grabmüller is strong in both formats, but her lightning-fast swim gives her a particular advantage in the Short Track with her competitors having less time to close the gap. In her last Short Track outing, she claimed silver, which could be a gold in Czech with the power of the crowd behind her.
All World Cup Short Track races are invite only, with the number of athletes in each being raised to 30 for the 2024 series. In Czech, it will be the Full Distance race the day before that will determine who makes the cut, leaving athletes with the tough decision of how much to leave out on the course in pursuit of the Euro Champs title and how much to save in the gas tank for the Short Track race the next day.
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The Short Track race opens with a 2x 200m swim in the bronze waters of Ktišský Lake, with athletes crossing the floating pontoon halfway before diving back in for the second lap. Back on dry land, the battles will continue through 4x 1.9K loops on the purpose-built bike course before a sprint finish of 2x 1.3K loops on foot.
The first to cross the line will take the maximum 75 points, enough to make serious moves in the rankings depending on where the closest competitor finishes. Second place walks away with 70 points, third with 61 points, fourth with 56 points, and fifth with 51 points. Points are awarded all the way through to 30th position, with the full distribution of points available here.
It’s fast-paced, action-packed, and over in under 40 minutes, so make sure you’re ready to go when the action begins.
The livestream is free and available on the XTERRA YouTube Channel, so be sure to subscribe to get notified when the action begins.
The livestream begins on August 11 at 13:00 (GMT +2), with the women’s race up first at 13:10 and the men’s at 14:10.
The Czech Short Track race is the first of three livestream races set to close out the 2024 series, ending with the biggest race in off-road triathlon when the XTERRA World Championship returns to Italy’s Dolomite Mountains next month. Whether you’ve been following from the start or are just joining the series now, make sure to tune in for the final two races in September where the series and season will be settled, and the next World Cup Champions will be crowned.
Date: September 26
Livestream start: 14:00 (GMT +2)
Date: September 28
Livestream start: 9:45 (GMT +2)
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