Windham World Cup takes MTB back to its birth-country, the USA. 

To coin a particularly daft but nonetheless universally understood phrase, it is a course of two halves. You climb, then you descend. It is not a super technical course but it is very fast as riders zig-zag across the ski runs, in and out of the forest as they descend down into the town. 

I asked 2012 U23 winner, Michiel van der Heijden, to describe Windham in five words. He said, "dusty, fast, atmospheric, super-cool!".

Windham is so excited for the return of the UCI MTB World Cup in August next year that its website has a countdown: 253 days 07 hours 38 minutes and 12 secs. 11 seconds. 10. 

It makes me excited too! Windham is renowned for its festival atmosphere; it is called the Windham NY 2014 Mountain Bike World Cup Festival. It is also a 'Family Fun Day' with bands and fire throwers, and there is probably a hotdog eating contest too, and other such literally jaw-dropping entertainment. 

 
Essentially, it is American! I have been known to be adverse to the sickly sweet tour-guide Barbie smile of US hospitality, but when it means bringing World Cup MTB to a big, excited and enthusiastic audience, I'm more than willing to grin back and bear it! 

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Cross-country Eliminator racing uses a four-cross ski format: a short, technical course which riders tackle in heats.

After a qualifying round, the top 32 riders are seeded for the 1/8 heats in which the the top two riders of the four go through to the next round, as is the case in each heat thereafter. After the two semi-finals, the top two from each race reach the major final which decides places one to four, and the bottom two go into the minor final to race for places five to eight. 

Cross-country Eliminator (XCE) has been around for a few years, with cross-country race organisers adding the discipline to their races. Now XCE is a fully fledged UCI discipline with a World Cup series and World Championship. 

The personification of enthusiasm that is Alexandra Engen has established herself as the Queen of XCE, being twice World Champion and winning the overall World Cup this year. Alex is also a top XCO rider but other riders have specialised in XCE specifically. For example, this year's men's World Cup winner, Daniel Federspiel, has tuned everything about his training and racing towards the XCE discipline. He will start an XCO World Cup race, but he probably won't finish it!

There are still many critics of the discipline, but the Olympic Committee member who attended the Nove Mesto World Cup XCE race was very impressed by it and saw many positive traits for Olympic inclusion. 

Other fans include XCE's top riders
Belgian Champion and World Cup winner, Fabrice Mels, says, "XCE is just the best off XC, 4x and BMX put in one big funny discipline with some crazy riders."
Britain's own big XCE takent adds, "XCE is basically an adrenaline filled ride. The rush and atmosphere is immense and there are no big climbs!"