5 Key Stats From XC Racers in the Pinkbike State of the Sport Survey 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Pinkbike State of the Sport Survey. This anonymous survey is designed to highlight key issues and riders' perspectives on the sport that we, pro riders, and Pinkbike readers all love so much. We surveyed the best riders in the world to hear their thoughts, ideas, concerns, and criticisms on mountain biking in 2024. Now, we're breaking down what we've learned. We're now publishing a series of articles that break down sections of the results, and you'll see the results in full shortly. This year, we introduced the public survey, which will help gauge public views on the sport and should make for some interesting comparisons to what the racers say. Stay tuned for that. To read the introduction to the survey click here, and to see all the other currently published SOTS articles click here.

---

Overview


While the level of XC just seems to be getting higher and higher and more riders than ever can win in both the men's and women's races, that doesn't mean that everything is perfect from the racer's standpoint. After asking some of the world's best XC racers what they think about the state of the sport, here are our key takeaways.

---

The Vast Majority of Racers Were Not Negatively Impacted By the New Race Organization

Unlike in downhill where racers were introduced to an entirely new format with semi-finals in 2023, Short Track (XCC) has been a part of the World Cup weekend schedule since 2018 and the race weekend schedule went largely unchanged with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) taking the reins of organization of the series.

While over 56.7% of riders are in favour of the schedule and 13.3% of riders chose the "Neutral" option which likely means they don't have strong feelings about the schedule, 30% do not like it. However, this is the same percentage we found in our last State of the Sport survey before Warner Bros. Discovery took over the organization.


While the majority of comments about the new organization were related to the broadcast and how racers would like there to be a bit more focus on the battles going on behind the top three, there were a couple of comments related to dissatisfaction with the way the events were organized, the schedule, and communication with riders.

---

Racers Enjoy Racing Short Track (XCC)

Since XCC was introduced in 2018, its value towards the overall has varied. Now, in addition to a preferred spot on the start line, a top Elite result in XCC will get you 80 points towards the overall, with more points (250) awarded to the top Elite XCO riders and that seems to be a sweet spot. There are also separate jerseys and overalls to compete for. In 2021, we saw the first-ever UCI World Champions for cross-country Short Track and in 2022, we saw a separate overall championship evolve for XCC.

While in years past it may not always have been the case, it seems that riders are now largely happy with the addition of the shorter, less technical race on Friday evening ahead of the main event on Sunday. However, 90% of the riders we surveyed said that they still prefer the XCO discipline over the XCC discipline.

---

Racers Do Not Want the Race Courses to Get More Technical

We often talk about how much more technical cross-country courses are these days and how cross-country bikes keep getting longer and slacker to keep up with them. Nowadays, you're just as likely to see bikes with 120mm of travel as you are with 100mm of travel and hardtails are few and far between.

An overwhelming majority of XC racers think that XC World Cup courses are now technical enough and do not want to see them get more technical in the coming years. In response to the question "I wish the XCO courses were more technical", almost 75% of racers think the courses don't need to become any more technical.


The XCC courses are much less technical and see much higher speeds over the 20 minutes of racing. Riders are more divided on whether they would like to see these courses become more technical or not, but only 20% think that the XCC courses should be more technical.

---

Riders Are Making More Heading Into An Olympic Year, But The Top Earners Are All Men

Although the industry may not be at its healthiest, it seems that most cross-country racers were able to secure the same wage they had in 2023 or a higher wage. 73% of riders surveyed make their full income from racing their cross-country bikes and the rest said that racing is at least 50% of their income. Only 6.7% of riders surveyed said that they were making less money than in 2023.


That being said, we received 50% men and 50% women who answered this survey and all of the top earners who answered our survey saying they made over $100,000 were men and the women have overwhelmingly lower salaries overall. The two riders (out of 30 XC racers that answered our survey) who stated they are making $250,000 - $500,000 USD are both men. Women's mountain biking is at such a high level right now and it's disappointing that we are still seeing the disparity in these salaries.


One thing that is equal is prize money, but unsurprisingly, an overwhelming 90% of riders are dissatisfied with prize money available for the World Cup podium. With several riders crossing over to road cycling where prize purses are much bigger, it makes it hard to swallow the €3750 (about $4,000 USD). 16.67% of riders think the prize money should be $5,000 to $10,000 USD, 30% of riders think the prize money should be $10,000 to $15,000 USD, 36.7% of riders surveyed think that the prize money should be $15,000 to $20,000 USD, and 16.7% of riders think it should be $20,000 USD or more.

---

Results are What Matter to Sponsors of XC Athletes, But That Doesn't Mean They Don't Worry About Social Media

While 90% of riders agree that consistent results are the number one most important thing in their discipline to prove their worth to sponsors and none have ever considered leaving XC racing to focus on creating media full time, when asked why they use social media, 53% said that they think it makes them more valuable to their sponsors.

When asked whether social media has a negative effect on their general well-being, 43% said that it does.

---

Posted In:
Racing and Events Pinkbike State Of The Sport Survey