Can’t embed for some reason.

Yeah I know…

I’m certain I couldn’t ride that

Should have the nutcracker suite as background to some of those.

Oh dear.

I’ve often wondered about this sort of thing. (XC and gnarr)

You could argue that fitting grippy tyres and a dropper would mean they can all ride the sort of stuff we enjoy when we go out for a mess about on our bikes.

But they probably figure fast rolling light(sketchy) tyres plus carbon post set up for pedalling efficiency means they smash the climbs and flats and mince down the techy bits.

Overall one climb is worth ten techy drops in terms of time gained.

When I watched the XC Olympics I was shocked at the riding. One third were brilliant but one third were pants at the techy stuff. Quite a few were removed by the sweeper and never did more than one or two laps. Some walked the descents on the first lap ! Sure, the winners were brilliant at everything, but they were the exception of course.

I could ride it easily enough on my gnarpoon with a dropper but I dunno about on an XC bike with my saddle up my arse and my heart about to explode. I guess like you say Trimix the climbs/flat bits are far more important overall and the top guys can probably ride pretty much anything.

Surely in that scenario a dropper becomes an advantage, just a carbon ks 80mm one even..

Julien Absalon has a dropper fitted to his XC bike: http://www.mtb-mag.com/en/bike-check-julien-absalons-bmc-fourstroke-with-dropper-post/

Nino Schurter doesn’t need a dropper:

might be a perspective thing but they all look pretty tense, maybe its steeper than it looks, they all seem to pick up a fair bit of speed from a standing start.

Looks like there’s a wheel grabbing divot at the bottom too.

But yeah, I’d SCHRALP it to bits!

“I was an adventurer like that, then I took an arrow in the knee”

First guy came in pretty hot! Might have to look out video of the actual race, looks pretty wet and slippery!

So Racing Ralphs or Thunderburts, 100mm travel, very steep rock steps about 3m high onto soft slippery landing into a slightly off camber tight corner bounded by metal railings while breathing out your arse and among others alongside, breathing down your neck, overtaking etc etc.

Yeah easy

They’re not racing though are they? Looks like they’re just sizing it up, no numbers on.

They are better riders, both up and down, than almost everyone on here. Sorry if that upsets people but they are.

To say XC racers are only good going up hill vastly diminishes their skills and also suggests ours are much better than they are.

1st guy doesn’t do a huge amount wrong IMO, just gets a bit unlucky. It don’t think they are necessarily bad at techy stuff, but head down bum up on a greasy track and on minimalist grip tyres is going to be tricky. Compare the bikes and tyres with Claudio’s Lourdes DH track run on the front page.

When I watched the XC Olympics I was shocked at the riding. One third were brilliant but one third were pants at the techy stuff. Quite a few were removed by the sweeper and never did more than one or two laps. Some walked the descents on the first lap ! Sure, the winners were brilliant at everything, but they were the exception of course.

The Olympics is a bit of a special case, because it’s not actually the best 50 riders in the world. It’s the best 2 riders from 25 different countries. The best 50 in the world would almost entirely be Europeans, which would make a bit of an unfair Olympic race. I.e. Kenya (nothing against Kenya, just an example of a country without a strong mountain biking tradition) will enter 2 riders who would both be well outside the top 20 in a Swiss Cup race. Switzerland also can only enter 2 riders, which instantly bars 5 of the world’s top 20 from entering.
In a world cup, there’ll be much more depth of riding ability, mostly because the field isn’t limited in the same way.

TL;DR: The Olympics are different, watch a world cup.

They are better riders, both up and down, than almost everyone on here.

My guinea pigs are better riders than most on here…

After riding with Robin Seymour a few times – xc riders are nuts technical at warp speeds.

Steeper than it looks judging by the red spectator’s legs half way through. I watched both Olympic XC races. I wouldn’t ride the Leap of Faith and the rock garde looked nasty too.

It’s easy to mock, but these are skilled riders. And I keep my saddle XC-high too – about the only thing we have in common!

Nino > you

How many of the people on here would honestly go into this hot on a steep twitchy 18lb hardtail with 2.1 tyres and their saddle fully up.

Skills, proper skills.

wow that looks properly nuts…..!

looks like great fun, I love riding steep stuff, proper grin inducing when you get to the bottom having cleaned it at a mincing slow speed

Another view of the same section at the start here:
[video]https://vimeo.com/161371934[/video]

suffice to say its steeper than it looks in previous

Bits of trail which would be easy on a “normal” ride can become borderline impossible when you have been averaging 95% max HR since a race start!

Anyone who scoffs at XC racers bouncing down bits badly and/or falling off should try going flat out for an hour then doing a similar section with their seats fully up 🙂

I do think droppers will become more common though especially from the midfield back

People who use droppers are the real mincers! 😀

I rode this back-in-the-day (1.8″ tyres and brakes levers that met in the middle), up and down those Peak District descents that now have fancy names and never even considered dropping the seat*…

(*I did fall off a lot though!)

Another view of the same section at the start here:
[video]https://vimeo.com/161371934[/video]

suffice to say its steeper than it looks in previous

That definitely puts it the right perspective – i’d be scared going over that even on a full downhill bike…but then i live in the Chilterns.

dlr – Member

Bits of trail which would be easy on a “normal” ride can become borderline impossible when you have been averaging 95% max HR since a race start!

I was watching something on the BC website with Liam Killeen saying its important to specifically train for that. I don’t need to because I’m a god of gnar always going to be mincing down the b-lines 😆

I do think droppers will become more common though especially from the midfield back

Not sure, not because of the weight but the same 95%Max HR that makes descending hard makes even simple things hard like remembering fork lock-out or activating a dropper!

In that particular shot, it isn’t quite as nuts as it looks, it’s still a steep set of steps, just not as corkscrew steep as it looks.

Pietermaritzburg XC world cup, pics here:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pietermaritzburg+xco+world+cup&espv=2&biw=698&bih=276&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwirsYL4kP_LAhUHkCwKHRRADMIQ_AUICCgD

Personally I think that kind of riding is great, DH is all well and good, but it creates an impression that you can’t win without a £5k bike, which will put parents off investing in their kids. Nino et. al. could probably win on a £300 hardtail from halfords, and unlike DH you won’t come away from the weekend with a huge bill of bike repairs (unless it the winter races, then budget for a new drive chain or go singlespeed!). And ultimately it’s getting kids on cheaper XC/trail bikes that will grow the sport.

Thirded or fourthed that, even with fast rolling tyres on and a compromised bike setup (for riding down hills), top XC racers will beat all of us down a hill no matter what rubber or bike we’re on.

Of course this is different from that guy you ride with that always says “nah mate I’m more into XC” every time you get to a slightly techy downhill bit.

Interesting to see Nino being mildly hesitant on the drop in the OP. Definitely one of the best bike handlers around. That tree at the bottom would make it far worse IMO – target fixation likely to have you straight into it!

An STW race would be interesting, I reckon. Just to see. If I were rich I’d organise it, free entry and beer for people with more than a certain post count, to ensure attendance.

from the video it’s not just arocky drop, but a rocky drop onto slippy mud, with a tree & a barrier at the bottom, straight into a corner.

If they could come down the drop and straight out it’d be a whole world easier.

In that vid you can see everything’s greasy as ****. I get the impression most of them aren’t so much fussed about the rock as the exit and corner. Especially since they’ll be wanting to preserve speed.

When I do XC racing, I have a dropper post, because I just don’t have the skills needed to do it otherwise. Not that I’m a bad rider, it’s just a different way of riding- I don’t need to know how to stuff and mount a dead dog to ride the way I ride either. But I’ve got a lot of respect for Nino and the like and their amateur canine taxidermy exploits

An STW race would be interesting,

Wasn’t this essentially Sleepless in the Saddle, it was always response by STW and seemed to have a lot of forum folk at it. Never very demanding courses mind.

Surprise surprise that it was a Stans Crest rim that bent on a slight bump in the OPs video. 😐

I once followed Rune Hoydale round Sandwell Park. **** that bloke could ride a bike. Even on that easy singletrack I was bouncing off the trees trying to stay with him, he wasnt even trying.

There’s loads of stuff on my local ride which, when i’m just messing around i can properly “send” and mke it look easy.

But, on a hard fast rainign ride, with your HR in the 200’s and “jelly legs” after smashing up the previous climb, well, lets just say those same fratures become a whole different thing!

adsh – Member
So Racing Ralphs or Thunderburts, 100mm travel, very steep rock steps about 3m high onto soft slippery landing into a slightly off camber tight corner bounded by metal railings while breathing out your arse and among others alongside, breathing down your neck, overtaking etc etc.

Yeah easy

Which is all fine, but by the looks of that they ain’t racing, looks like a wee practice lap.

There’s no amount of skill will make up for a climbing height seatpost when you’re riding something that needs some room to move around or absorb some compression. Watch those guys bounce down the hill and they’ve just got nowhere to go. They’ve got virtually rigid legs and are getting bucked around at the slightest bump.

While World Cup downhillers tend to ride higher saddles than you’d expect, it won’t be sat at much more than knee height with level pedals something easily achievable with a 5″ drop.

What does a dropper add to an xc setup anyway? 300g? What would that cost on a lap? If the options are crash or carry an extra 300g what would you do? It’s crazy not more are using them.

If xc would only ditch the Lycra and loosen up a bit, then it could become attractive again. That looked like a lot of fun !