Cyclingnews subscribers will be familiar with our popular tech galleries from big races such as the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and Paris Roubaix, and now it's time to take that same formula off road.
As a result, tech reporter Neal Hunt was in Val di Sole at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, on the hunt for the latest tech that riders and teams were using to help get their riders into the famous rainbow stripes.
Here's what he had to say:
It's been a hot and sunny Mountain Bike World Championships here in Trentino, Italy, although given it took place in Val di Sole (Valley of the Sun), shouldn't really be a surprise.
All year, the talk has been about the incoming (32-inch) new wheel size and how it will become the new norm, but on the ground in Italy, that wasn't being evidenced just yet. Despite all of the chat from previous events like Eurobike, I expected to see more here.
A lot of bike brands have been talking about it taking over their ranges next year, and plenty of products looked production-ready, but strangely, only one or two riders were using them in XC practice.
Regardless, after several days poking and nosing around the pits, here's what I managed to find.
One brand with a race-ready bike was KTM, but none of its riders chose to race aboard the new tech, primarily because they hadn't had enough time to get used to it ahead of such an important race. Odd, given its bike in particular is the most production-ready example I've seen.
KTM has taken its Scarp XC race bike and adapted it for 32in wheels, and with production-ready parts from Mavic and Fox, it looks very much ready for release to me.
It carries over a lot of the features from the 29in model, including down tube storage and mounts for a neat multi tool that fits under the top tube.
Thomus has a very strong XC team here at Val Di Sole, with Sina Frei on the roster, but they too didn't have anyone (that I could find) racing on 32in, but they did have a very interesting and well-beaten test mule on their truck.
You can see all the details that engineers and test riders have noted on this well-worn test bike.
Details like tyre clearance that works with the rear wheel suspension travel are clearly still being worked out.
And getting riders to fit on the taller front ends is still a challenge, as highlighted by the custom-made headset top cap with the leading edge cut-off to give room for the negative-rise stem.
The Thomus team is sponsored by DT Swiss, and they looked like they had a new prototype lockout lever that combined front and rear suspension lockouts with a dropper post lever; it looked neater and had a lower profile than the current offering.
The Orbea Factory team was running the new unreleased prototype Fox Live valve system on a few of their bikes. It uses wireless pods on the fork and rear shock to control the damping on both ends.
You can control these with three buttons on the bars. The buttons cover fully open, smart/tuned mode, and full lockout. The grip tape and colours are not standard though, these are a neat addition from team mechanic Emil to help riders out and make sure they hit the right button while at 180BPM on track.
He also had the best mechanic's hack I've seen in some time: using a satellite Di2 shifter on an XTR shifter to give it a rapid-fire-like function. The new shifters are designed to be used with just the thumb, but this super cool trick means riders can use their index fingers too, just as you would on a standard Shimano cable shifter.
The short-course events are much faster and less technical than the XCO race, so riders are starting to embrace aerodynamics, and none more so than the Cannondale Factory team, who were running the latest 48/53 gravel wheels from Reserve, which are (unsurprisingly) 48 and 53mm deep with a 30mm internal width; ideal for XC tyres as well as gravel.
They also ran narrow bars, a lighter raw carbon frame finish and a big 38T chainring in the quest for XCC gold, and Brit Charlie Aldridge came oh-so-close to doing it.
Cannondale's own Lefty fork has been around in various guises for years now, but it's still a real head turner and even more so in its latest single crown Ocho version.
Cannondale weren't the only team experimenting with deeper section gravel wheels for XCO; the Mavic-sponsored KTM and Mondraker teams both had a prototype wheel that looks like it uses a gravel rim paired with an MTB hub for maximum speed.
Though likely to be faster, it looks like riders are only using it in the short course event.
It doesn't feature fancy carbon spokes, but still looks up to the job.
And the reason Mavic-sponsored riders aren't using the deep section in the XCO? They have a new superlight Crossmax Ultimate to use instead, which will be better on the climbs and more compliant on the technical sections.
The Hub is neatly done, and they use a round spoke for compliance and weight savings.
It features a 30mm wide (internal) rim, with carbon spokes and a ceramic bearing hub coming in at a claimed 1080g, which is crazy light for an MTB wheelset. The sight of the old Mavic SSC logo (Special Service des Courses) made me smile too; it's great to see the French brand's return to form.
It wasn't just Gravel wheels making an appearance. The Thomus team also had a few bikes set up with the super-fast Schwalbe G-One RS Pro tyres in a 60mm width for XCC.
A lot of the pre-race media focused on road stars Mathieu Van der Poel and Tom Pidcock, and the British star had a new paint scheme on his trusty Pinarello Dogma XC for the event.
Fresh from her silver medal in the XCC, we got a good look at Evie Richards' Trek Unbroken team bike too.
Willier may be better known for its road and gravel bikes, but it also makes a top-tier XC race bike.
Like the road and gravel bikes, though, the Urta is beautifully finished and one of the best-looking bikes here.
It's not all electronic gears and automatic suspension here at Val Di Sole, though. The KMC Nukeproof team runs a pretty unusual setup.
They pair TRP gears and brakes with DT Swiss wheels and suspension for a fully cable-operated setup. Could this easy-to-maintain, service-friendly option be the ideal setup for privateer racers too?
The DT Swiss lever handles suspension lockout and dropper post duties, and although functionally fine, it doesn't look as neat as the prototype version Thomus is running.
Unlike in Downhill, custom paint jobs are a little rarer in the XC ranks, though there were a few examples, my favourite being the Canyon Lux World Cup of the Swedish rider Jenny Rissveds.
The Canyon XC Racing team had other riders on custom paint, but the blue and yellow really caught my eye, reminding me of the dominant GT MTB teams of the '90s.
Although this Italian Il Tricolore inspired Lux is pretty cool too.
And for a true tech nerd like me, the Mountain bike pits are always a source of envy, as the World Cup mechanics always have the most amazing setups. The two standouts for me were this one from the Orbea Factory team...
And this from the Canyon XC Racing team. Check out that World Champs hammer.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
