The UCI announced that the XCE discipline for the World Cup opener in South Africa was removed from the program due to time discrepancies. The sun went down too early, that's the reason why the XCE World Cup didn't take place in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. There would not be enough time to align the individual runs of the XC Eliminator, which should be a bitter disappointment, especially for pure XCE specialists. "He just didn't fit into the schedule," commented Simon Burney on the decision.