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Claudio must be confident on it, he's done the track preview twice, im currently watching it in Swiss (I think) on Redbull TV.
I think Rachel did her damage in the woods? I think the Trek whip accident on the motorway was Kade the men's junior? I think what with Mudd throwing himself of the road gap, Rachel doing in her shoulder and Gee dislocating his hips, I don't think Atherton racing will be in hurry to go back to Ft Wiliam!
The easy way to tell is that Rachel rides in the duck-egg/baby blue kit whilst the Trek men mainly ride red bikes in red kit.
Ohhhhh. Ah well, thanks for the correction, I was going to spend the next year gently taking the piss and looking like an arsehole.
They all love to moan so much, its becoming a bore! Every week its something else! should have moved the race forward cause it rained, boohoo, should have closed the wood section cause it was too difficult, boohoo, this one's now too easy, boohoo! Just get on with it and ride the track in front of you! So its bike parky, its just one out of the year. Whats the thing with Schladming too? Watching the deathgrip section, it looks mostly bike park too with a few wood sections. When's the next EWS?
I liked Greg Williamson saying less moaning please! I'm also surprised by the EWS riders moaning about having to ride in wet conditions and loved Sam Hill's response.
They all love to moan so much, its becoming a bore
To be fair to them, those are the comments that will be reported. Most riders do just "get on with it" The overwhelming response from Lourdes was "Mleh, that's racing" and likewise Ft William as well. It's only one or two riders that are having a mike shoved under their noses for WynTV, and then he's really just taking the piss...
was planning on spectating this weekend, but alas i'm back in the UK.
interesting point... why is DH governed by a primarily road focused body?
EWS is independent... could DH go the same way?
i've ridden there a few times... always on my old DB Alpine. there are sketchier tracks there than the Leogang DH... they could go over the hill to the Adidas track.. that would be fun to watch. quite parky with some tricky jumps, gaps and root sections, but certainly not no long open runs.
why is DH governed by a primarily road focused body?
Because road riding is more popular than DH.
The UCI aren't doing that bad a job with downhill. They don't design the tracks, though they could arguably be more demanding about the content of them.
A case of too much media/sponsor influence on the direction of the type of tracks & direction the sport has headed?
My feeling as an outsider is that it's probably accidental. The sport seems far too disorganised and amateur to have a coherent direction. They just seem to end up with the tracks provided by the locations willing to pay to host a WC round.
Yeah, I'm not sure anyone's in control enough to steer it like that. I can definitely see why people are thinking "this is dumbed down for TV"- high speed and big jumps looks great if you know nothing, but it needs to be proper mad before steep or tech looks good to an outsider.
TBH I'm totally fine with a huge mixed bag of tracks- one flat out bikeparky one, some technical nadge, some maniacal steepness, old man fort william and old lady mont st anne, anyone that can perform on all surfaces deserves an advantage. But I don't feel like they really have their shit together right now.
(EWS is independent but that can still lead to total ****-ups, it's not a panacea)
If they don't like the direction it's heading then they could always form a breakaway group/competition. I doubt any of them would be willing to put their money where there mouths are though. It's expensive and lots of hoops to jump through to put on a world cup. Not sure contestants whining publicly about the standard is going to encourage any other places to come forward or sponsors either. Best to form a group and approach the organisers and sponsers together.
If they don't like the direction it's heading then they could always form a breakaway group/competition.
It's been put forwards more than once in the past IIRC an 'alternative' series nearly got off the ground at one point... But then didn't.
Some interesting pit discussions there, the whole thing of "Tape it wide" has been a recurring theme for at least the last decade...
Interesting too that some riders think course selection and designs is being nudged towards the broadcasters requirements rather than the sport... That said it was mostly the 'kids from Kent' not WC top ten ranked racers...
Aaron Gwinn said Leogang is his favourite race, I think Brendog likes it too.
i know at Leogang they are severely restricted on where they can build, from the peak to the base (WC track starts at mid station) there are around 27 different land owners they have to get agreement from. They nearly lost the whole finishing area last year, had to do some weird deal with the farmer to provide him with free labour.
I think the 'made for tv' must have an element of truth. My other half watches it with me but really she just likes people going really fast and massive jumps. As a predominantly xc rider I like watching the natural and wide taped tracks as you can learn a lot about line choices if you pay attention. Not sure I'll watch leogang.
scc999 - Member
Phil Atwill on his HT:
https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/14816989
Lol, Legend.
Media coverage will definitely be influencing decisions and the direction of the sport, it's been seen before and happens in every sport.
Motocross is a good example of that, it used to be 3 races (or motos as they like to call them these days) on race day, but they changed to two 35-40 min races as it was more TV and advertiser friendly fitting into two 1 hour TV segments combined with advertising nicely.
I think RedBull, isn't as bad as others in this regard, but they really need to improve the coverage to reinforce it as a World level competition, by having more cameras and show more Riders runs. Showing it to be the big event it is.
On the camera front they don't need to all be manned cameras, they could have some basic fixed cameras setup in certain areas showing sections of the track.
Regrading the actual Leogang track, if they riders don't speak up about it nothing will happen or change, but it sounds like the organisers are very limited on what they can do at Leogang. So as one of the riders said what about Schladming instead?
Maybe they should be approached, to see if they would be willing to provide a World Cup level technical track.
I'm sure I read / watched an article that talked about the venues in WC DH and how much it ost them to put on an event. My memory of it is that there aren't a large number of places all vying to host a round of the WC, it didn't sound as simple as saying "we want a race at XYZ track, you can put one on for us". The preferred vnues may not actually want the cost and hassle of a WC event.
Of course that could all be nonsense, hopefully someone with some experience or knowledge of how these events are paid for will confirm or deny all that!
Si
gaz552 - Memberit sounds like the organisers are very limited on what they can do at Leogang. So as one of the riders said what about Schladming instead?
Yeah, people are talking about the landowner issues excusing it but if they're so bad, it's a reason not to hold a wc there at all.
But these things can be so trivial- like, la thuile suffered in their first EWS because of bad weather but that somehow became people not wanting to go back, it was like they turned the bad day into a bad review. Peebles dodged a bullet on that too. Moans have momentum.
(I'm not so against the track but if you think it's bad, then the landowner thing doesn't change that)
So how did Atwill lose 11 seconds in qualifying when its such an easy track with no line choice or difficulty?
I'm sure I read / watched an article that talked about the venues in WC DH and how much it ost them to put on an event. My memory of it is that there aren't a large number of places all vying to host a round of the WC, it didn't sound as simple as saying "we want a race at XYZ track, you can put one on for us". The preferred vnues may not actually want the cost and hassle of a WC event.Of course that could all be nonsense,
I think you're probably spot-on. This is my guess why the number of WC DH rounds fluctuates as low as six some years.
For the record, I don't mind Leogang being bike parky, I don't have to ride it and it makes decent viewing. The current "regular" venues create a nice mix of tracks IMO.
Looks like Gwin's going to smash it tomorrow, unless it suddenly gets really wet maybe.
Women's race will be an interesting one. Fingers crossed Tahnee's got a bit more up her sleeve.
rs - Member
So how did Atwill lose 11 seconds in qualifying when its such an easy track with no line choice or difficulty?
One of his main gripes is that these "easy" tracks make the racing too tight. Obviously he wants harder tracks where he can be 20 or 30 seconds off the pace.
rs - MemberSo how did Atwill lose 11 seconds in qualifying when its such an easy track with no line choice or difficulty?
Same reason he was 20 seconds off the pace at fort william, 30 at vallnord?
One of his main gripes is that these "easy" tracks make the racing too tight. Obviously he wants harder tracks where he can be 20 or 30 seconds off the pace.
😆
Pity Jared Graves isn't there with his SB6c, he's pretty good at downhill on am enduro bike.
Gwin has his capra there though. 160-170mm travel that would pedal better, he could win on that.
Well STW DH Warriors the bar is set, simply beat his HT time down that track and you can claim 1,000 internet UCI points 😉
Loved the humour with the riders this weekend, at this point you have to realise that the internet warriors are the joke here 🙂 Well played all, the vital slideshow tells you how much the riders are enjoying the track and the weekend in the sun. Reckon this will be a good watch today, really looking forward to some racing where the riding dictates the finish order
I can't wait I always like the track and should avoid the weather of round 1 and the terrible camera issues of Fort William
Gwin won there on a dh bike with no chain.
He doesn't need an enduro bike.
Remi thirion had a horrific high speed crash coming over the massive finish line jump in quali.
Broken collarbone, three broken ribs and two fractured vertebrae.
🙁
So did Lachlan Blair, young FW lad that finished 21st last week.
Broken femur. 🙁
The Thirion crash was savage:
Thirion's team posted that everything is moving and he may be back this season thankfully. That was a monster crash
Hope him and Blair recover well and quickly.
The fort bill camera positions were set well before the event and the tricky drop into the woods wasn't anywhere near as tricky for the riders in the dry. Where they did put the two cameras in the woods captured a lot of the carnage that happened and covered that wooden sender that caused carnage a few years back including Ragot faceplanting off it.
The pinkbike comments section has been frothing itself up into a frenzy this round. I generally assume it's 14 year olds, keyboard DH warriors (pfft I could win on a unicycle!) or guys who've landed on their heads a few too many times posting
Healing vibes to Thirion, wow that must have hurt! Looks like how i usually ride jumps! (although on jumps about, ooh, 30 times smaller... 😉
Nicole looking good on the 29er
I don't see why people think they will use anything other than a dh bike for the race, still by far the quickest way down.
Looking forward to this one and definitely don't think it's too bike parky, just makes it different to the other races. Surprised to see Danny Hart way down the top 10 but it'll make it interesting and it's good to see Mick Hannah and Laurie Greenland doing well.
Will have to try and stay away from here and the internet as I'm off out on the bike this afternoon so I'll have to watch it later on tonight.
Really pleased for tahnee.
Amused to learn that her dad is called Tony as well.
Yay! Go Tahnee
They've mellowed out the kicker on the big table
live stream?
men's on red bull tv at 2pm
the women have been down already?
Anybody else having Redbull tv drop out every three minutes all of a sudden?
it's on Bike TV live.... channel 251 on my box thingy
Cheers Alpin.
Jack Moir's recovery!
Incredible recovery!