Between the Tape
A lot has been said about Mathieu Van Der Poel and his diverse exploits across cyclocross, mountain biking and road cycling. Much like Pauline Ferrand Prevot and Marianne Vos, Mathieu has experienced great success mixing disciplines while racing them within the same calendar year. There are other riders who have diversified their interests but not quite with the same success.
Nino Schurter dabbled in road cycling for two World Tour races, the Tour of Romandie and Tour de Suisse, in 2014. His results weren’t too bad with a couple of top 10s but, regardless, this was positive for MTB XCO as road cycling media and fans learnt the name Schurter. Peter Sagan’s foray back into MTB XCO at the Rio Olympics was another coup with road cycling fans keen to see how the big star would go on the dirt, which likely led to them tuning into the race.
Adventures into other disciplines to ‘dip the toe’ is one thing but to build your calendar and team around a multi-discipline approach to cycling as a whole is something unique and one that Mathieu Van der Poel’s Corendon-Circus team has done very well. Van der Poel is their star rider but across the team’s MTB, Road and Cross sectors they are still very strong with riders focusing on each discipline and occasionally diversifying. Could they be stronger if they focused 100% on one discipline?
Maybe. But I for one would be a whole lot less interested in the team if they were a standalone road team. This is the big drawcard for a diversified team. They can bridge the divide between different ‘sports’ and showcase their sponsors to a wider audience base. They might not be able to dominate one discipline in terms of reach, but the fingers-in-many-pies approach could be more stable. If one discipline is under performing, they have a backup plan.
Other teams are seeing the benefits of diversifying, especially in a competitive sponsorship market. EF Education First, a World Tour road team, is allowing riders to race ‘alternative’ races like mountain bike races, such as the Leadville 100, and gravel races, like the Dirty Kanza, for 2019. This was done with the aim of bridging the divide between the top competitive side of bikes and where the consumer base is on the ground.
On mountain bikes, we have also seen riders from downhill teams, like Pivot Factory Racing, doing the Enduro World Series alongside their usual downhill World Cups. During the weekend that held both the EWS Les Orres and Vallnord downhill world cup races, the Pivot team did well with Eddie Masters taking the win at Les Orres and Emilie Siegenthaler getting 4th in Vallnord. This was great for Pivot and the team’s sponsors as it showed the diversity of their brands.
The XC world sees some riders take up the marathon or stage race challenge though often the focus is on XC during the season. The preseason Cape Epic and Marathon World Champs are the usual go-to events for XCO World Cup racers though some do national road races as tune ups during the season. I’ve always liked adding some marathon or stage racing during the season when it fits to spice things up.
Given the model executed by the CorendonCircus team and EF, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see other teams diversify in the future. Sure, not everyone can be Van der Poel and win the Amstel Gold road race one weekend and win an XC World Cup the next. But just having riders race in each discipline can put teams in a strong position in terms of reach. It would be interesting to see if a World Tour road team ever invests in XC or marathon racing to diversify their interests. Time will tell!