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jeycore;
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Agressive Power XC!
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Christ!
ahh cheers for the big pic. Pretty good eh!
Did they just send them down the DH but make them ride back up again?
any other pictureso f that? I dont quite get where the course goes/is meant to go 😐 ?
I can't quite work out where the course goes - has he jumped off from the level at the top of the Scott advertising banner (but to the right of the pic, out of shot)?
Shame there are others in the gallery to appease the 'XC racers can't ride bikes' crowd.
Still, there's no way I'd be riding that on a race bike (or probably anything else!), so fair play to them!
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more here;
[url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/mtb-world-cup-cross-country-4-and-downhill-4-cdm/elite-men-cross-country/photos ]http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/mtb-world-cup-cross-country-4-and-downhill-4-cdm/elite-men-cross-country/photos[/url]
That looks far more sensible/jey 🙂
One of the captions is "It was actually quicker to jump down the dropoff than take the alternate route."
Which suggests the chicken run is way out of shot, this shows the line in a bit better:
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this one shows the course;
edit - njee beat me to it.
thats certainlly bigger than id jump on a far beefier XC bike with a striaght run up let alone that mad dopdgy looking section there!
^^^ hes missing ab it of his bike i tihnk. 😛
ah this shows it better - not quite so impressive (though I'd still think twice..)
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and the gnarly rooty section...
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Kev
WC level XC needs more options like this in the course design to bring skill back into it. It's a 2ft man made drop to a nice smooth downslope IMO if they can't ride that WTF are they doing competing in the biggest mtb races in the world?
as for chakaping's comment, er.. ha ha.. not quite..
http://video.mpora.com/watch/ulFtByzDM/
17 posts until the keyboard warriors appeared, I'm stunned!
They were busy puffing and panting pushing their rigs up the hill 😉
njee, how did you cope waiting? 🙄
[i]it's a 2ft man made drop[/i]
well, lookign at the bloke jumping down it's probably 3ft and then if you land down the slope it's 4ft.
So we're expecting blokes on 'arse in the air', sub 20lb, rockets to jump down 4ft. I think they're doing well to acheive that, not performing risibly.
Impressive stuff. I'd go watch an XC race with obstacles like that. I wonder if the Olympic track in Essex will have features like that?
Touch sensitive there GW 😉
He's just bitter because he's a riding God and yet there's not photos of him on CyclingNews!
Manufacturers who sponsor races getting the organisers to make them more gnarly, to make more people think they need to buy full sus bikes?
even with the MBUK angle used for this pic it looks about 2ft
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I'd DQ this lot on the grounds of impersonating mountainbike racers.
one thing that i would bet my house on GW is that you would not be able to lap at the pace they do and still ride the drop.
Wheel = 26" plus tyre. That's more than 2ft.
I reckon the drop is bigger than the rear wheel which is in line.
ergo the drop is bigger than 2ft
You're wrong, I'm right, ner 😉
even with the MBUK angle used for this pic it looks about 2ft
Huh? The diameter of the wheel is more than 2ft, and it's clearly bigger than that.
The trouble with that video is that once one person's off the rest of them have no choice, the traffic at a world cup is mental!
one thing that i would bet my house on GW is that you would not be able to lap at the pace they do and still ride the drop.
+1
what's your point nonk?
WC XC racing courses need to evolve was mine!
I'd say that that was quite enough evolution for an XC course - it's not meant to be DH. Riding a hardtail/short travel XC bike down a 3ft drop while knackered, potentially with other riders around is quite challenging for most unless of course you're a riding god...
ergo the drop is bigger than 2ft
STW nit-picking pedantry at its best.
Regardless, GW's sentiment is still appropriate - if you're going to be a top-class racer you need to be VERY good.
Well not really when it's being held up as not very tricky because it's [i]only 2ft[/i]. FWIW, I reckon it's more like 3ft
And by the looks of it, the top guys are very good - eg clearing it in the middle of an XC race when tired.
my point is you have never raced at that level so how would you know?
tape measures at the ready..
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regardless of the exact measurement of the drop, it's no bigger than anything you'd find middle aged trail centre riders riding on the average red route.
That's a different drop...
(and that one is more like 2ft)
GW - that's not the same drop...
regardless - XC racing is more about fitness and finesse than being able to do drops (of whatever size) - imo - they'll end up with beefier bikes which will slow them down.
@wwaswas well why don't they ride cyclocross or on the road if you just want fitness? (assuming that was a genuine comment and not a troll)
I have to say that my thoughts on drops are that they polarise people, you can either ride it, or you can't.
You could survive that with a bit of balls and not much skill, conversely plenty of riders/races with plenty of skill will decide that the 5 seconds they may gain are not worth the risk of it ending the race/season. I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who'd ride that on their 5" travel bikes and think it easy, but are not even close to having the skill set the top XC racers have.
Techy descents are a better addition IMO, there's a real reward for being able to hit things fast, and ride them smoothly.
Edit:
it's no bigger than anything you'd find middle aged trail centre riders riding on the average red route.
Bollocks, complete and utter! And the 'average middle aged' rider will have paused for breath at the top so be relaxed, not have 150 riders right infront of him, not ridden it 7 times previously, not be at 95% their max HR, not to mention the fact they'll have stopped to drop their seatpost on their long travel bike with relaxed angles, 2.3" tyres and wide bars.
same drop, different race, no?
it's a different ( or modified) drop, look at the number of vertical supports.
xc-steve - err, 'cos it wouldn't be mountain biking if they did?
I'm not saying they shouldn't have obstacles and they certainly shouldn't be riding roudn the edge of a lawn with some artificial humps on it like what cross racers do but cross country racing is really about speed over all else and my personal view is that if it gets to the point where drops are being inlcuded that would force the riders to 'bulk up' their bikes to cope then it's probably gone too far. The stuff in these pics isn't too bad (although I woudln't ride it) if it gets bigger then that's too far.
I agree njee, IMO technical courses are what's needed to set XC racing apart from "CX in the woods", whether it's rocks, roots, steep chutes, jumps or drops or a combination of all of the above, something to challenge their riding skills rather than just fitness levels. by all means put in chicken lines to penalise those who choose not to ride these sections but I'd like to see them bring in time penalties for running a section when others can ride it, it's obstruction in my eyes. plus seeing XC racers pansying down stuff carrying/pushing/running after their bikes, just looks lame !
IMO it should be 50% horsepower and 50% bike handling skills... or something like that...