I think it was Greg Callaghan who pointed out that they weren't made of sugar... (different arm of the sport fo'shure but the sentiment is the same).
I'm pretty sure Leogang was roughed up and new sections added as a result of riders complaining it was too 'Park' last year
I can see why riders were complaining about the mud, but then I've them moan about the dust at Vallnord about the flat corners and wide lines at Mount St Anne...you're not going to please all the people all the time
I always enjoy the DH race days but I personally thought the track seemed a bit boring overall.
The woods didn't take away from that as watching everyone come to a standstill isn't exciting.
The cameras as ever flatten it out a bit, but it's certainly not boring, it's a long, tough tiring beast of a track, witness the amount of guys that got to the bottom and were hanging.
Agree with coomber, the coverage was pretty poor. It's only ever the top 10 that get a decent level of coverage, but even some of those were poorly covered. Understandable that there are areas that aren't really feasible to cover, but it was better last year.
They even lost a rider completely!.
Anyone else massively disappointed with the Red Bull coverage? Most riders we only saw at the gates and then come into view 3 minutes or so in. Missed the entry into the wood section which was catching everyone out. Found it really frustrating.
They did seem to be off their stroke a bit. Commentators seemed frustrated with it too.
I always enjoy the DH race days but I personally thought the track seemed a bit boring overall.
I think the issue with Fort Bill is that there's not a huge amount of line choice and not much (claggy mud notwithstanding) to stretch the riders like in Lourdes, Andorra or Val di Sole.
But I don't mind that so much, it normally still makes for good viewing.
Valid point, it does flatten it out a tad.
I think it was the fact the bottom section is just incredibly samey unless people are styling it up over the jumps.
Also the amount of riders going hell for leather down that part was reduced because there were so many already well out of it due to the wood section killing the times.
I did find it slightly ironic that after spending the end of last week complaining courses were too easy Bruni couldnt actually complete this course without crashing.
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Then a crash along with the 20-30 others on the UCI’s ‘course maintenance’ (stones in a bog) put him in the dreaded 81st spot!
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[/img]Might be fun to look at but this is not good racing, that spot off the road apparently took out most people with all bar a handful making it through unscahted
Shame really
Did anyone see Eddie Masters again or was he eaten by the bog?
Might be fun to look at but this is not good racing
Agree, I expect lessons have been learned by the organisers - but I can totally understand the riders' frustration.
As Laurie Greenland said, everyone whinging about tracks on Bike Park trails & then they complain about a bit of tech? Whats that all about.
I thought it was great. Some of the ladies 'attempts' were a bit shocking.
As a racer sometimes to go fastest, you don't actually have to be the fastest. They know the state of the track, they have to take a calculated risk of staying on the bike & being slower, or pinning it and risking a crash...
You can bet your life if it was Tahnee who managed to pinball through that section with a couple of little dabs & won by 10 seconds, she wouldn't be complaining...
I was worried that this would be another shambles of a race, but when the top 10 or so riders started to come through it was amazing! I've never seen Gwin look so pissed off 😆
[EDIT] although the reason the top 10 was exciting was probably because Red Bull actually gave them some hard decent coverage
The bog wasnt ideal, but Tahnee said it, its 15m from a 5m track. It probably should of been changed, had better drainage, or a B line put in, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.
Regardless of whether it was fair, or too difficult - it made the racing less enjoyable IMO.
If they'd had a camera at the bit where everyone was binning it, it might have compensated a bit.
Enjoyed the race, 'the bog' especially in the Women's race seems to be a bit of a lottery, I have mixed feelings about it - yes it was the same for everyone, even the rain towards the end of the Men's race didn't seem to make it any better or worse, but it looked so sketchy that was perhaps more luck than judgement if they got through feet up, slid through tripoding or ended up face down, or even try to run through it like Manon.
It might be interesting (to a geek like me anyway) to look at all the splits and see how the result would have changed if you discount the bit with the bog in it.
The only thing about 'the bog' was the lack of gradient, so if people made a mistake they could not get going again - which looks shit in downhill.
However, my criterion would be "can at least one rider get through without a foot down?"
If so, then you just have to accept it as a section that separates the very best from the rest, and surely that is the point. Champery in the wet was like this when only the likes of Sam Hill and Danny Hart could live with it (and yes I do know Sam binned it on his celebrated run in 07).
If the section had been longer (and so more important), the teams might have divided between those running 'normal' tyres and those running spikes - would have made it interesting from that point of view too.
However, my criterion would be "can at least one rider get through without a foot down?"If so, then you just have to accept it as a section that separates the very best from the rest, and surely that is the point.
Well we don't really know as the biggest problem section was above the camera described as flat or almost uphill into the woodwork where they came into shot for the TV. Even minaar was talking about nearly getting thrown out of the track.
It would have to have been much longer to want spikes, they would have been a nightmare on the rest of the track and much slower. Put the mud on an angle and it would have been a test or interesting and it would have actually drained itself to a point.
GMBN have posted a really good video showing the woods section.
Red Bull really should have had another camera (even just a fixed one) further up showing the first part of the wood section.
From what Ive read, they tried to work on the worst bit of the woods section after final practice but didn't tell the riders and the work was throwing some big rocks into the muddiest parts.
Not ideal then if you haven't had a chance to practice the changes and you can't even see the new rocks under the mud.
Fresh cut sections plus Scotland never ends well!
