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Lourdes looks like a really nice town but I can't help but think the after party must be really weird.
I just end up picturing Rob Warner and Steve Peat partying with a bunch of nuns.
Someone needs a chainsaw put somewhere uncomfortable. Several people actually.
Here comes Minnaar
Someone needs a chainsaw put somewhere uncomfortable. Several people actually.
Yep, it sounds super loud 🙁
I had to disembark the banter bus due to mass illness in the Sharkattack house. I was lucky to get through the race with the volume down while everyone slept.
What an amazing race though. I love seeing Pierron on a charge, he's an absolute freight train. I never understand how the times keep tumbling throughout the top 10 after someone puts down what looks like a winning run. The top riders are on another level.
I wish I could be at the world champs in August.
Wwll my fantasy team is bobbins
Is this the last season for the likes of Gee, Bernard and Brendan ?
The run by Finn looked insane, Aumery's was obviously better and more planted (that save!) but Finn was like a rocket powered pinball!
I was lucky to get through the race with the volume down while everyone slept.
Lucky indeed. Though I can only assume the chainsaw ****ers ran out of juice for their noise boxes towards the end. Just ruined the atmosphere for me tbh, one I could deal with but it was all the way down the course and sounded like a lumberjack convention.
All sorts of issue with the live feed of the men's race (womens was fine) - kept pausing for me. So much so I just left it paused for a while but then when I unpaused it only played from the current time. Ended up sacking it off and watching the replay.
Did I miss Gwin's run or did he not race?
Was great to see DH again, everyone got the same weather conditions too which made for some tighter racing. Top 10 guys are just incredible. Looking forward to Fort William. 🙂
Don't think Gwin raced, certainly don't remember him running.
Course was dry and you could see its taken a hammering. Bring on Ft Bill!
Gwin qualified 35th so he missed the live feed. There was a clip of him at the start. He finished 33rd.
A few years ago I thought he was guaranteed to go sailing past Minnaar's record for most wins. He's had a couple of rough years, I wonder if he can get back on top.
Gwin finished 33rd, he was way off in qualifying so wasn't shown on the live broadcast. He hasn't really been in contention since his shoulder injury
Thanks all. Let's hope with a bit more time on the bike, development etc he's back at the sharp end of things.
I cannot believe that save from Pom Pom
Not heard her nickname before, had to look it up to see who you were on about. My favourite guess was "Pom Pom Pierron". Bit disappointed, tbh.
It's "Pompon".
It’s Pompon is it not? Named after her horse I think?
just finished the replay, crazy atmosphere! some barnstorming rides and Pierron is a monster. And strong ride from Norton which shows the new intense isn't the soviet tank bag of bolts that has been reported. But might just be the rider...
bit weird to see Gee man as the man on the ground, wasn't expecting that
Wow, what a race as always!
What is it with the top riders that they just seem to go to another level on race day.
Real shame for Lori's as it looked like he was probably about to put down a winning run before he washed out.
It's so hard to predict the winners these days for both men and women's races.
Looking forward to Fort Bill now. Fingers crossed this could be Reece Wilson getting a home win!
Pompon
Oops! It certainly is! My apologies to Myriam. It was still a great save.
I was impressed with Kade's time. He seems to have made a fair bit of progress this season. He spent a decent amount of time in that hot seat.
I was impressed with Kade’s time. He seems to have made a fair bit of progress this season.
Yeah, me too. Amazing time, stood for ages.
So, how many people show up versus how many qualify to race?
It's a lot of work if you don't qualify huh...
Oh, and also, how come the lady counts down thirty seconds, then ten, but they go on 5?
Bit rude no? 😉
Oh, and also, how come the lady counts down thirty seconds, then ten, but they go on 5?
Bit rude no?
You can set off any time in that last 5 seconds of the countdown. The clock starts when you trigger the wobbly stick thing.
Any one of the top five guys could've ended up on top of the podium TBH, I was pleased that Daprela seemed Ok after trying to shoulder barge a tree out of the way, aso Fin Iles not crashing and edging Loic by two hundredths was a statement of intent. Good to see Reece and Laurie getting solid places as well, for all the talk of the Frenchies taking over, that was 4 Brits and 4 Frenchies in the top ten.
Just spotted this thread. George is doing a pair of articles for every round of the WC:
Great watch that. Some great skills on display as always. I didn’t have an issue with the feed but only remembered it was on after the men had started.
Was it just me who thought there was something a bit off with the coverage? There just wasn't any sense of speed or didn't show the technical difficulty for me, can't quite put my finger on it but thought they might not have got the camera placements right, even when the riding was on the edge it just all felt a bit tame.
Maybe it's just because it's the first round, but compared to the last few events their was really no feeling of tension or peril.
Top half looked steep and technical to me, and judging by the mid-race interview with Kade any faster would've been risky. Excellent first stage to the series.
There just wasn’t any sense of speed or didn’t show the technical difficulty for me
I though the coverage was pretty good (watching it on catch up, perhaps it as different?) i thought it was spectacular stuff frankly, thought all the top 10 were clearly going flat out!
Nice highlight reel here.
The winners are revealed in the clip if you've not watched it yet.
I would post the winning run pov but then that would be a blatant spoiler too.
Seek it out though. It is pure 😳
I think we can do spoilers in the thread aslong as the title of the thread itself isn't a spoiler!
Eight weeks 'till the next race though.
When is Rachel Atherton returning ?
Great result for Tahnee Seagrave - odly not much coverage for her
Little bit of info on a few things mentioned above…
I think Gee was just covering for Lauren who usually does the finish line interviews, not 💯 sure but think she had Covid. Gee’s not fully recovered yet.
Thibaut is fine. Disappointed, but fine.
Benoit’s run was wild. So wild that I messaged him about it as it didn’t look right compared to all the other riders. He said he was struggling as he chose the wrong settings on the rear shock so…
MSP
Full MemberWas it just me who thought there was something a bit off with the coverage? There just wasn’t any sense of speed or didn’t show the technical difficulty for me
Had plenty of both in my opinion. This isn't a Val Di Sole type track though, so if expecting that it would look and feel quite different.
Also, if you want it to look harder make sure to watch the earlier runners. That's where the hard looking crashes and sketchy moments tend to happen
Finn Iles and Camille Balanche both looked proper fast, I agree the speed gate really didn't seem to correlate with the footage though.
The speed gate, the "virtual straight", and the "key section" all seem to have little relation to who actually wins, so I think they are either located in idiotic places, or the technology doesnt work properly.
Something small that tickled me was seeing Pierron drinking water from an unbranded normal bottle whilst on the podium and wearing his monster hat
Didn't see it here so thought I might as well put it up, you know how helmet cams usually make it flatter.
Not Pierron's run it didn't!! Make sure you watch in full screen on YouTube
Was it just me who thought there was something a bit off with the coverage? There just wasn’t any sense of speed or didn’t show the technical difficulty for me, can’t quite put my finger on it but thought they might not have got the camera placements right, even when the riding was on the edge it just all felt a bit tame.
I said the same while watching.
Some of the raw footage from quali/practice captured it much better.
One thing that really irritates me is when they zoom in on the rider and you can't see the track.
Mostly I think it was the camera placement though. The one good camera was on that boulder drop. The long zoom foreshortened the gap between the features so it looked pretty full-on.
The footage for the race is never perfect it's just the nature of having a limited amount of fixed cameras and the complication of running a live broadcast with multiple riders on track at the same time.
I always watch the build up with all the track analysis especially Cathro and Vital Raw. You see all the parts of the track that will be missing from the live feed and get a much better appreciation for the bits you can see that have been flattened by the camera angles.
I think this is the last season of Red Bull coverage, so the new providers might provide a better track view (presumably for a subscription fee).
I'd pay money to keep it as it is and watch it on Redbull if we had that choice. It's really gone from strength to strength and the racing itself gets better every year. I really can't see Discovery coming from nowhere to massively improve it and I can imagine the audience dwindling away.
Perfect time for someone with the means and ability to do a Chris Ball and launch a worldwide DH racing series with no UCI involvement.
Definitely! I've no idea what the viewing figures are now compared to say, 7-8 years ago but Rob Warner in particular has taken it up a gear. Be a shame if Discovery were to change that, I think his deal is with Red Bull exclusively, so I hope they can work something out.
You're right though, a series away from the restrictions of the UCI would be very interesting.
I remember that the owner of Freecaster threatened to start his own DH series when Red Bull stepped in and the UCI took away his baby in exactly the same way they just sold it to Discovery.
I don't think he could have competed at the time but the Discovery paywall might make all the difference. Red Bull have built a global audience for DH racing and a significant portion of those viewers are about to disappear. How many manufacturers will continue to pour money into racing when the whole circus is hidden away from view?
Anyway, this is probably for a whole different thread.
Lourdes was an amazing start to the season. Bring on Fort Bill!
Lourdes was a great start and that Pierron onboard is incredible, looks sped up!
I shall be there at Fort Bill, can't wait.
Yeah, so glad to see Pierron on fire after a couple of years with some pretty horrendous injuries. He could have easily disappeared into the middle of the pack for a while.
To me he looks like one of the fastest riders we've ever seen, certainly from the era of modern bikes with big wheels. He's another Sam Hill or Aaron Gwin. I bet some of the other riders are scratching their heads when he puts down a run like that which has a few mistakes but is still visibly faster than everyone else.