THE MBUK ARCHIVES WACKY RACES!

We’ve all heard of mountain bike disciplines such as downhill, enduro and cross-country, but the sport has its more out-there competitions, too. In , riders have to complete an obstacle-filled ‘section’ without putting their foot down within a maximum of two minutes. Each infraction gains the competitor a point, and falling off or going the wrong way is an instant fail. Five points is the maximum you can rack up on each section, with zero to three points keeping you in the hunt for a podium position. (right) ditches the time limit and has two riders race head-to-head through an obstacle course. (top), meanwhile, combines the head-to-head racing of dual slalom with the freestyle elements of slopestyle. Competitors must stay in their ‘lane’ on parallel downhill courses filled with jumps and berms. But it’s not just about maximum speed – for each trick a rider lands, the judges will knock seconds off their finish time. (left) was a short-lived format introduced by the UCI, cycling’s international governing body, from 2011 to 2014 (and again in 2017), which pitted four riders head-to-head on a condensed XC track. They had to sprint out of the gate and try not to blow up before the finish line, which was only minutes away. Short-course XC World Cup qualifiers replaced this style of racing from 2015.