The South African team for the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships was officially announced today. But there’s already been some discontent around the small Downhill contingent. Cycling South Africa has weighed in to set the record straight.
By Sean Badenhorst
In 2023, 10 Downhill riders were selected for the South African World Champs team. This year, there are five and some top Downhill racers have taken to social media to voice their disapproval. Bike Network also published an article on Saturday, asking where is the sense in choosing a team that doesn’t fill South Africa’s allocated slots?
Former South African champion and international Downhill racing commentator, Andrew Neethling, also weighed in on the Bike Network article, asking what value there is in not selecting riders when slots are available and the riders self-fund their World Championships trip anyway.
We got in touch with Cycling South Africa’s Mountain Bike Director, Paola Damilano, to find out what CSA’s position is.
“We were asked by Bike Network for an explanation of the team selection, which Ian Smith, Convenor of Selectors, responded to telephonically earlier in the month, but unfortunately none of it was published,” Damilano indicated and then explained:
“It’s very simple. During 2023, all cycling disciplines were tasked with the following:
- Align and standardise all the selection policies of Cycling SA with the intention to also create a framework of funding some expenses of riders within the federation’s limitations.
- Ensure that riders being selected for national teams and awarded Protea Colours to represent the nation at World Championships and Olympic (and similar) Games, meet the required international standards to achieve results [thus making it a requirement for self-funded athletes to these events to also meet specific criteria].
- Outline targets and required performance standards at domestic and/or international competitions to select talent, thus ensuring that there are opportunities to qualify via a domestic and not only international pathways.
- Reviewing global best practices in the redrafting of all policies with consideration to cycling and other sports.
“We have outlined very specific performance criteria for each discipline and we published the selection criteria on 15 December 2023 for this year’s UCI World Champs and no riders made any protests or complaints. The onus is on the riders to familairise themselves with the policy and to plan their season accordingly in order to particpate in the required selection events and meet the performance standard required,” explained Damilano.
She went on to explain more about the opportunities for Downhill racers to qualify for World Champs selection.
“The Downhill riders have a National Championship as well as four National Cups to participate in and qualify (as our junior riders did). Some of our Elite riders opted out of the domestic series and to rather participate in international events. If you refer to our policy, there are opportunities to qualify in World Cup, UCI Class 1, Class 2 as well as IXS events. If a rider cannot attain the minimum of 3 points required, it means they are not at international standard for World Championship participation,” she said.
While the UCI allocates a set number of slots to each country for the UCI World Championships, Cycling South Africa has taken the approach that only the best performing racers that have satisfied the qualification criteria will be considered for team selection and that the goal is not to fill the allocated participation slots.
This is not unique to Cycling SA. There are similar clauses in many selection policies globally that indicate that slots may remain vacant if riders do not meet the set criteria. A recent example is for instance the Netherlands. They have qualified for a slot in the Men’s Mountain Bike Olympic Games race. Mathieu van der Poel has met the criteria, but he is unavailable. The Netherlands then concluded that because no other male racer met their selection criteria, they would forfeit the slot. The slot has since been awarded to Ukraine.
From the selection criteria, athletes who do not meet the performance standards of the policy cannot be selected or entered for national teams to World Championships and nominated for Protea Colours anymore.
“There is nothing positive about sending a rider to World Champs and they do not make the semi’s in the case of DHI or get pulled off after one or two laps in XCO. The question can be asked if the reputation of a rider who under-performs at World Champs is going to positively or negatively affect their and Cycling SA/South Africa’s reputation,” remarked Damilano.
When formulating the World Championships selection criteria that has been used for the past two years, CSA looked at the selection criteria of Australia, New Zealand and the USA as their riders face similar geographical challenges in a sport that’s very European focused.
The CSA selection criteria for the 2024 World Championships is very similar to that for the 2023 World Championships. The 2024 criteria includes Olympic Games elements for the XCO discipline, but the Downhill criteria is almost identical to what it was for last year’s World Champs in Scotland. The difference is that fewer riders achieved the minimum points required for World Championships selection between January and June 2024 owing to lower finishing results or failure to compete in the required selection events. Riders had to attain three points across more than 15 events. It’s also worth noting that riders’ performance at the previous year’s World Championships is also used in the selection data.
Several South African Downhill racers, including current Elite national men and women’s champions, Stefan Garlicki and Frankie du Toit posted on Instagram on Sunday linking to the Bike Network article and asking why CSA doesn’t fill its allocated slots, if only for riders to gain experience at international level.
“The World Champs is not where riders gain experience. Riders gain experience by entering and participating in South African series events as well as European races such as UCI World Cups or European downhill races such as those in the IXS series. Selecting for a World Championships is about selecting the best of the best to represent the country. This is in line with National and Cycling South Africa’s high-performance objectives in awarding Protea Colours to those who meet international performance standards,” said Damilano.
This is an excerpt from the Cycling South Africa MTB Selection Criteria document:
The objective is thus also to recognize the achievements of riders at the highest level, and to enhance, maintain and protect the status of merit-based Team SA Selection over time and that riders who do not meet selection standards will not be selected for World Championships and Olympic Games to gain experience.
The full CSA Mountain Bike Commission Selection Criteria can be found here.
There were five Elite men in the running for the 2024 Downhill World Champs team based on the selection criteria, with only Greg Minnaar (main image) achieving the required minimum standard.
Below is the selection criteria data for the 2024 UCI Downhill World Championships. This is also published and updated regularly on the Cycling South Africa website here.
The full South African mountain bike team for the 2024 UCI World Championships in Andorra from 25 August–1 September is:
Cross-Country Olympic (XCO)
Elite
- Candice Lill
- Alan Hatherly
- Johan Van Zyl
Under-23
- Tyler Jacobs
- Luke Moir
- Massi Ambrosi
- Michael Foster
- Unathi Nxumalo
Junior
- Jodi Mackinnon
- Samuel Cleary
- Omar Wilson
The full data for the XCO World Champs selection can be found on the CSA website here. Click on NATIONAL RANKINGS AND LONGLISTS.
Downhill (DHI)
Elite
- Frances Du Toit
- Greg Minnaar
Junior
- Arielle Behr
- Jenna Byrnes
- Ethan Hunter
