So what’s happening in the MTB world? Well apart from the usual hacks-down-the-woods that you lot get up to, it’s all ‘away matches’, as the cricketers might say. Or maybe they wouldn’t.

Part One: MTB World Cup in Andorra
For all you wondering where that is…

So the biggest news is that there’s a World Cup landing in Vallnord, Andorra. It’s all coming together with XC, XC Eliminator, and DH all going on. With Nino Schurter and Tanja Zakelj currently in the lead in XC, and the siblings Gee and Rachel Atherton storming it in DH, it’s going to be an exciting event. The last round was the insane Val di Sole (have a look at the coverage here), where the happenings were nearly as mad as an Enduro World Series round. Brook MacDonald, Danny Hart, and Sam Hill (all favourites to win) crashed, while Aaron Gwin made enough small errors that his eventual result was hardly surprising – it won’t have made him a happy man. So how’s this going to come forward to Vallnord? Well from the pictures of the track we’ve seen, it’s looking very, very steep. Also dry, and dusty. Will Aaron Gwin get back up to form? Will Gee (and Rachel) Atherton continue to dominate? Time will tell.

On the XC front last round, Val di Sole, was a tight finish between Julien Absalon and Nino Schurter. There’s been a month gap between that round and this, though, so if any riders have upped their training hugely, we could see a few changes to the finishing order.

Here’s the run-down of what’s happening and when:

On the note of Vallnord, who can forget Sam Hill’s massive crash in 2009?!

So that’s that then. Red Bull will be putting a live stream out, and of course our sister site Dirt will have their filmers, the Parkin brothers, filming for Dirt TV.

Part Two: Round four of the Enduro World Series

… in Winter Park, Colorado. This coincides with the Colorado Freeride Festival, and is set to be an incredible race. Tracy Moseley is the notable figure in the lead for the women, with  win at all three races under her (now quite liberally medalled) belt. On the men’s front, it’s a race between Jerome Clementz (current leader), Nicholas Voullioz, and Fabien Barel, who have all won one round each. Barel stormed the first round in Punta Ala, much to the surprise of those who had banked heavily on the likes of Voullioz and Clementz – but they weren’t far behind, knocking him off the top spot in rounds two and three. In fact, Clementz managed to put a ridiculous 25 seconds into everyone else in stage one of the last round (Les 2 Alpes). Not something to be sniffed at. So who’s going to come out top from this round? Being enduro (and an EWS round at that), I don’t think anyone can predict what will happen. Punctures, crashes (hopefully none serious) and mechanicals all lead to a big jumbled roll of the dice.

EWS round 3 official highlights film from DirtTV:

Well there you go. Is anyone going out there to see them? Anyone watching the Red Bull feeds? And if not, have some great riding instead.

Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at the points standings and happenings so far in both the World Cup and EWS, coming tomorrow!