Rusty, In an earlier interview, annie said the start grid is according to world ranking and she was 4th in the grid, yet she is world ranked 5th, so I don’t quite get that.

maybe one of the top 5 isn’t racing today

I’m enjoying it, but Chris Boardman does talk quite a lot of pish. Who is the other commentator?

I don’t quite get that.

Someone crashed a few days ago in training and broke their collarbone so that might explain it

Ed Leigh, snowboarder and presenter of ski sunday and red bull x-fighter with Rob Warner

Just be glad we don’t have to suffer Porter or Liggot’s dulcet tones

Looks great but how they can claim its technical when they are riding hard tail hybrids is beyond me

Technical for a cross country race.

doppleganger

He is correct, a lot of riders are riding tubs

Yes, I’d trust Boardman’s info/knowledge over a bunch of numptys on here. 🙂

We need more slo-mo shots!

Also glad that for the last 42 minutes I haven’t heard the words “Legacy” or “Addlington” mentioned once

Not enough focus on Miss Batty for my liking!

so will the course be available to ride afterward the Olympics?

Got to say… Boardman is bigin the mountain biking up quite well… I’m surprised a bit!

Should have had Rory Hitchens though… old school but no fool!

Still can’t believe I’m sat here watching CX mountain biking ..at home .. in HD… good times 8)

will they be keeping the course after the olympics? ah didn’t see the above post 😳

will they be keeping the course after the olympics?

Yep. Some changes, apparently, but the technical sections being left intact.

Neither Spitz or Swallows can ride that rock garden

Got to say… Boardman is bigin the mountain biking up quite well… I’m surprised a bit!

He’s quite into it, He does after all sponsor Annie, Kenta Galhager and Grant Furgason.

Urban myth is that the course will be open but without the really rocky bits, so I guess it’ll be the mother of all family cycle parks.

Would be nice to keep the technical sections but I can’t see it, unfortunately

“Neither Spitz or Swallows can ride that rock garden”

😯

It does look quite tricky to be fair.

Spitz has nicked my signature ‘over the bars on rocky descent’ move……

It might be technical for an xc race but it’s supposed to be mountain biking and this whilst looki g great on the t. Isn’t mountain biking

Spitz or Swallows

😀

Annie seems to have blown up a bit. 🙁

Rumours about the course are just that – rumours. There’s no way it’ll stay in it’s current form, it’s way too technical for most people and it’s got a high penalty for failure.

Ed Leigh… Snow Boarder!!! Present Sky on
Sunday too!! 😐

Is it just an optical illusion, or does the french girl have see-through shorts on?

It might be technical for an xc race but it’s supposed to be mountain biking and this whilst looki g great on the t. Isn’t mountain biking

Don’t be a bell-end.

It might be technical for an xc race but it’s supposed to be mountain biking and this whilst looki g great on the t. Isn’t mountain biking

He’s right.
I haven’t see one podgy IT manager wobbling round a car park yet.

and they didn’t have a cake stop half way up the first climb

It might be technical for an xc race but it’s supposed to be mountain biking and this whilst looki g great on the t. Isn’t mountain biking

And what pray tell is mountain biking?

of course it’s mountain biking – you don;t have a clue

Incredibly impressed by thew quality of the coverage -slo mo tracking shots down the descents etc. I think its easy to forget how much effort has gone into making this both a challenging course – and look good on TV

Chrismac: you’re right, it’s not MTBing in the STW sense cos they haven’t stopped at the top of every descent to extend forks, drop seatposts, talk bollocks and eat cake. Neither have they wasted hours on an internet forum talking about how radcore they are or asking what tyres for Hadleigh Farm.

😉

But other than that, this is what World Cup and Olympic XC MTB racing looks like.

He’s right.
I haven’t see one podgy IT manager wobbling round a car park yet.

I knew there was something missing.

Boardman just said they are running tubular tyres that are glued on to the rims, wrong bikes fatboy.
He is correct, a lot of riders are riding tubs

Tubeless not tubs, and I need to pump my forks up to stop me going over the bars lol

LOL @Ian Munro

No wheelying fives either…

Course looks like a giggle too, not super gnarr, but enough to entertain.

I eat my words, you can get tubular MTB tyres!!!!

Tubular tyres for MTB rock. Fullstop.

Really enjoying this, no idea what the course is like to ride but seems good for spectating at any rate.

Whoever halfway up the thread said ‘this isn’t mtbing’- well done, possibly the most idiotic comment I’ve seen on here and that’s some going.

I’ve always been the first to defend this course. I’ve also always said mtbing on tv is boring

This is great!!