I suspect it was cancelled as riders tripoding down the track doesn't make for great watching. Wyn made a comment on PB that the juniors out early were on non mud tyres. A set of wet screams and some flats plus ruts developing would surely have been ok. I think 90% of the races I've done here have been absolutely slop fests. Of the three times I've raced the EWS, 2 of them were muddy carnage and everyone survived. SDA races have been absolutely nuts over the years in the mud and rain. At DH world cup level, the standout runs or races have been in the mud. Danny at Champery! I've been down that track a few times in absolute bone dry dust and it was terrifying. Reece at Leogang, etc.
<p>All the clips from yesterday look great fun and funny, but it’s not racing. <br /><br /></p><p>I haven’t watched F1 for years but noticed they stopped when it rained a bit, even the commentators appeared to say it was common practice now.</p><p><br />What are todays timings ? Had a quick look at a forecast and it could possibly be raining out there this morning?</p>
When talking about the UCI and its hold over DH and now Enduro, you have to step back and consider that they are still niche disciplines as far as they are concerned. Significant, but still minority.
I think there are a few ways that rider power might influence things, but what would really shake things up is if one of the big pan-discipline brands like Trek or Specialized threatened to pull out and have some impact on the road side too. A key rider for me is Loic Bruni. If he was still world champ he could have refused to defend his title and dragged Specialized into an embarrassing argument with the UCI. If Charlie Hatton did this with Atherton bikes, it wouldn’t register outside of the gravity bubble. Loic seemed to be a big part of the union at the start, with Fin Iles also speaking up. Maybe Spesh told them to toe the line.
I can see DH fragmenting badly, to be honest. There are a few riders who have less reliance on actual results vs their online presence - they may choose to throw their weight behind Crankworx and Redbull, but it will just niche them more.
The UCI have sold the soul of DH to make money in the short term. The format changes exist solely to make TV coverage easier, but stuck behind a paywall.
Live coverage of the women's semis starts in 15 minutes (09:30).. not sure if that was brought forward again but thought I'd mention it so nobody misses out.
Jackson's quali crash was pretty scary:
Track looking ok today after yesterdays shambles, should be reasonably fast in a few hours 👍
I think the bit that is being overlooked is that for juniors you should replace that word with legally children and duty of care that comes with children racing.
I though Wyn’s comments about the lack of ‘world’ in the UCI formats were bang on. Asia and South America would love some of this.
Completly agree. There is nothing stopping event organisers putting on an event and applying to the uci to make it a worrier cup race. Perhaps wyn could organise one in NZ when he stops racing. It’s the danger in North America. Resorts have to want to out a race on for it to happen
Jackson was unlucky that his slip out left him pointing directly at that rock and drop. 😳
Mens' semi final looking good - the dirt is perfect for controlled drifts it would seem.
That’s not profit though is it? It doesn’t sound like much at all.
really. After all expenses, travel, training costs, and anything else that you can put through the books. I’m not saying it’s too much I’m just pointing out it’s hardly the breadline as he likes to portray. It’s in the top 1% of earners in the U.K.
Stuff I’m missing
knowing who’s coming next or next 10 riders.
When they cross the finish line it’s difficult to know easily if they are quicker/slower and by how much
Worst of all the commentators just appear to be counting them down, no actual interest in where they are gaining/ loosing time. Rob was brilliant on just knowing where and how they lost time.
plus all the current cameras are clearly missing sections where people are loosing time
Looking forward to the finals later
chrismac
Yet he turns up to ride hardline to help a company sell more drinks. He is always moaning about money yet is clearly doing very well from the sport. His company made £111k according to his latest accounts 2022 filings at companies house and £67k in 2021. Not bad for riding a bike
It's bloody terrible for someone at his level... Compare that to a football player.
The average salary for a Premier League player moved to over £3 million per year according to the Global Sports Salary Survey in late 2019. The average weekly pay for a first-team Premier League squad player is up over £60,000 per week, an increase of over £10,000 in just a couple of seasons.
Remember that is salary vs his total earnings if he was only declaring prize money/salary he'd not even reach a tax threshold and after expenses he'd be negative because he's not just "riding a bike".
What the UCI are doing is taking away his other earnings... I'm pretty sure he's not sponsored by Red Bull or Monster either
It’s bloody terrible for someone at his level… Compare that to a football player.
if you normalise it for the number of people who watch and know who he is, it’s probably quite good..
Cedric has calmed down in his commentary, and is much better for it IMO, getting across much more useful information rather than just yelling cliches.
It’s bloody terrible for someone at his level… Compare that to a football player.
one is a global sport watched by millions every day. One is a minority sport watched by virtually no one. Until this season DH was only available on a specialist website. Now it’s on Eurosport
one is a global sport watched by millions every day
To be fair if you've watched the Wrexham Amazon show, even football players at the very bottom professional leagues that aren't even necessarily televised make 40k+
Cracking race.. glad the weather stayed away. Good results for Phoebe Gale and Laurie Greenland. Drone shots were cool and gave a real sense of the speed. Thought the contributions from Aaron and Miriam were good too.
Must be time to squeeze in the junior race now..? 🤔
Must be time to squeeze in the junior race now..?
Don't joke. The way the UCI are doing the admin it is not beyond them to do this and then DQ 99% of the field for not taking the start line.
🤡🤡🤡
If you want to organise an event
https://www.uci.org/cities-documentation-for-organisers/1LTkspfgNiDT6Of3sYbgDm
ASSETS.CTFASSETS.NET give it a go.
Thats cool, the UCI even give you an instruction book.
That, combined with years of direct experience, financial backing from a global media organisation should mean its really easy...
So why are so many stakeholders pissed off?
Its even on P13:
Provide backup solutions, because a course which is impassable if the weather is bad is synonymous with
failure. Do not underestimate the need to prepare alternative routes which must be passable in any weather.
I think the semi final should have been the one removed from the schedule, not junior final.
People will defend ESO, but the main criticism (other than the paywall) was the lack of communication as to the changes they were making. It looks like they still haven't learned from that and made the decision to cancel the race without any engagement with riders or effectively communicated what is happening and why.
does seem a bit mental using courses where the chances of it being cancelled due to rain are so high
Snowshoe in October...
I think the bit that is being overlooked is that for juniors you should replace that word with legally children and duty of care that comes with children racing.
It's u18s, not kids. And they're the best in the world. Should have been a decision made with input from teams and reps.
Provide backup solutions,
I think eventually, when things like "The weather is too bad for the emergency helicopter to fly" you need to take a view on it. Plus from the UCI perspective, the weather in Andorra caused the injury of one of the elite female riders, and they had to make substantial changes to the course. With that only a week ago, you could see why they weren't going to take risks, I think they'd rather have headlines about junior racing being cancelled becasue of safety concerns than headlines of "everyone crashed, some riders were really badly injured, the racing was massively delayed, and it was a shit-show" No offence to Wyn, I think he wants DH to be genuinely good, but he's not having to take responsibility for the Junior racing. Having said all that; I think there's clearly a space for the riders/teams to take part in these decisions, and that needs to be in place sooner rather than later.
It’s u18s, not kids.
In most countries, that's literally the legal definition of children.
Thing is though, safety aside- the UCI, in its own guide for race organisers states that a course which is unrideable in wet weather is a recipe for failure, and thats precisely what happened this weekend.
UCI/ESO didn't have a course which was rideable in the wet weather, nor a wet weather back up. Whether that was down to budget (I fear the likeliest reason) or something else, its simply not acceptable at that level of event management. This isn't a local race being run by volunteers but a professional and experienced company backed by a multinational media company.
Is this though more about access to the hill in an emergency more than 'need a wet weather course'? We *need* steep hills to make it an exciting sport - but that means access could well be challenging.
I agree that this is an outdoor sport - and we take the wet with the dry as it were.
I also agree that it is not really a global sport at present and it would be good to see Asia, Africa and South America visited...
Short of running an event down the road or turning the course into a road there are many great MTB venues where an all weather course is not really possible. Living in Pau I just stay away from the mountains when it's wet: too steep and slippy. The organisers play a statistical game, there aren't many days at the end of August when it's too wet too ride, they happened to get one on race day this year. Having been up and down the local hills for 36 years there's a trend to more unpredictable weather in August with more extremes so more chances of a cancellation.
in its own guide for race organisers states that a course which is unrideable in wet weather is a recipe for failure, and thats precisely what happened this weekend.
Sure, up until it pissed with rain, everybody was completely stoked about riding a new course. Every single 'gram, and TikTok and team video on Friday was full of how it was great to go to new venues and ride a new hill and big smiles all round, and risk with doing that was that no one really knows what it's going to be like in the wet, and I'll bet money that if it stays in the calendar the very first thing they'll do is change the course so all those off camber sections and steep chutes will go, and the course will neutered just like all the other courses that we have now. Sometimes, when you roll the dice like this, you just get a 1.
its simply not acceptable at that level of event management.
I think that's a wee bit melodramatic, it's an outdoor mountain sport and weather happens, this is the very first time that a race cancellation has ever happened. In 30 or so years of events, that's a pretty good run. At the end of the day just the juniors didn't get to race, and we didn't get to watch what would've been a crash reel.
Last week Camille Balanche was badly injured becasue of the weather and luckily she's on the mend. I'd rather the UCI did this, than have "x numbers of children were injured because they felt they had to race in conditions that were probably with hindsight, not really suitable".
Is this though more about access to the hill in an emergency more than ‘need a wet weather course’?
That would be a fundamental part of a wet weather contingency surely?
I'm not trying to argue for sanitised courses, more that the organisers could/should have planned for wet weather and for whatever reason, failed to do so. Weather does happen, and should be taken into account in the planning stage.
Weather does happen, and should be taken into account in the planning stage.
How do you know that there wasn't 2-3 options and they worked through them until they arrived at option 4 - cancellation?
I mean, they tried to have practice for the juniors in the morning and the course was literally un ridable, at one point at the course riders were finding it hard to just stand, other than; "Here's this other course that we built just in case it rains, that no one's ridden and practiced on" what options would you suggest?
what options would you suggest?
"Provide backup solutions, because a course which is impassable if the weather is bad is synonymous with
failure. Do not underestimate the need to prepare alternative routes which must be passable in any weather."
From the UCI handbook linked above. Their own words, not mine.
Their own words, not mine.
Sure, you know that's a guide though right? I mean, again, it's worth bearing in mind it's an outdoor mountain sport, and it's never been cancelled before and the Elite riders still got to race. There comes a point that if you want to attract more venues to host these races (becasue everyone and their dog complains about Bike-Park motorway-a-like courses) then the downside is going to be this. If you then say to them, oh and by the way, you have to pay to make it completely weather proof, what then?
what are you arguing for? That racing should go ahead regardless? That racing should only happen on totally weather proof courses? The the Juniors should've sucked it up and crashed their way down? We shouldn't' hold it at new untested venues? That the UCI should have a crystal ball?
And again, the UCI let racing go ahead last week and the weather caused Camille to get pretty severe injuries including a concussion, you OK with that? Because that's going to be the outcome to "The race must proceed regardless"
I’m just saying that the UCI/ESO need to be doing a much better job than they are.
If they are telling organisers to plan for wet weather and prepare contingency then they must follow that advice themselves.
Likewise they are responsible for making the right decisions- Andorra was an organisational error in keeping the road gap open in that wind. Loudenvielle was a flawed track which couldn't cope with entirely foreseeable weather, and that should have been anticipated.
Yes, its the first year of ESO, but the people behind ESO have been around for a long time in EWS and UCI event management and these things simply should not happen at that level of professional event management.
Ah right, just unspecified general criticism because; Reasons.
Cool, cool.
Edited...
It also struck me that the teams didn't have suitable bikes. Riders were giving up because the wheels weren't turning. In the conditions a pair of 27.5 wheels with Michelin mud tyres would have given more clearance, and removing the front mudguard would have helped too.
Bit of thought on the Jnr cancellation on the latest Downtime podcast.
Bit of thought on the Jnr cancellation on the latest Downtime podcast.
Well balanced discussion.
I'm pretty certain it's a mix of track preservation for the big show with a smaller helping of junior rider safety.
