Ben Cathro has qualified for the snowshoe final , chuffed for him . 44th so pretty convincingly too .

Brilliant

Dan Slack qualified 20th!

👊👍🚵‍♂️🦇💩⏬

Get in Ben! I was just about to head to pinkbike to see the results of qually.

Looking forward to tea time mid week racing tomorrow!

Problem is, it’s going to xlash with Liverpool Vs Milan

Brilliant.

He should do a line choice video but big up all the rubbish ones 👌

Quite a lot less folk trying at this round than normal (75 men ish from memory), but I was still well chuffed when I saw he was in!

Quite a lot less folk trying at this round than normal (75 men ish from memory), but I was still well chuffed when I saw he was in!

A few months ago there was talk that any non US citizens needed to be on a pro-team to get the elite athlete (and support staff) exemption from quarantine.

And without that, it was physically impossible to do both lenzerheide and snowshoe

Go on Ben!
Great news – that guy always has a smile, also enjoying his ‘how to bike’ video series too.

Let’s start a petition to get him on the live feed.

Many of the top Frenchies are notable by their absence. I don’t think it’ll make a difference to Ben’s qualifying though!

He beat some fast riders, too many of them for it to have been a fluke.

Looking at the DNFs, I’d guess it might be an easy track to crash on?

Just behind Phil Atwil, who makes it into the streamed coverage quite a lot — so is there hope to see Cathro’s run on the tellybox?

If he’s put in one of the fastest runs they might open the coverage with a recap of him.

If I were him I’d be updating my race CV to say “out performed Greg Minaar in his world championship winning year at the snowshoe WC”

Yeah, whoever is on the hotseat when coverage starts gets a televised recap of their run. Time to pull a stunner out Ben.

Fingers crossed then. It would be nice to see everyone’s favorite line-choice chap in the RB feed, not least to hear what Warner might have to say about him 😀

Women’s Race 1 is on Red Bull TV now. Not sure if the men will follow…

Proper rocky, bumpy course !

Superb racing from the women there. 😀

Yep, Men’s Race 1 coming up on Red Bull

Cathro goes at 18:46 by the looks of it.. won’t be on the live feed but you can watch the live timing on the UCI website.

Looks like he had a bit of a crash earlier today though.

Good effort! Down in one piece and 4 seconds quicker than his quali time.

Cathro in 21st currently. After a major wheel explosion for Daprela.

Well, it wasn’t Cathro! What a great result!

Just caught up with this… i certainly wasn’t expecting that result !

Only just noticed he was racing in the British Cycling HSBC kit, rather than his normal DHARCO shirt.
I’ve never quite understood the reasoning behind the descision to wear the National Jersey or not, Cathro must have enough sponsors from SantaCruz, Pinkbike and so on that they would want to be represented? Or are they only sponsoring Ben the Videographer not Ben the Racer?

I cant imagine British Cycling giving much if any support to a “maybe just about qualifier”

He didn’t have enough points to qualify to race, but that can be circumvented by wearing the national jersey.

Does he get any points for his 40th place finish though?

40th place bagged him 20 points – not sure how that translates to UCI points, but I’m assuming he must have picked some up somewhere to be allowed to enter?

Knew there would be a logical reason.

Does he get any points for his 40th place finish though?

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/overall-standings-after-the-snowshoe-dh-world-cup-2021-race-1.html

Notably hes above Wyn, Kaos, Jack Reading. Should have no problem doing the full season next year.

From what I can see from his national champs, national series and world cup results he should now have enough points to qualify for World Cup races next year.

Although who knows the points allocations are fairly complicated.

Looks like he has done it again , well done Ben .

I knew Cathro was fast but I’ll admit I’m surprised by how well he’s done. He’s qualified faster than a whole load of WC regulars and he’s sitting just in front of Adam Brayton.

Why the hell did he ever quit?

sharkattack
Free Member

Why the hell did he ever quit?

The lack of skinsuits.

Oh ok. At the time he said it was costing too much and taking too much time and he had to choose either racing or the coaching business.

Only a select few make big money out of DH racing,  being good isn’t enough. Social media wasn’t really around in the he same way when he was first racing and it’s really helped his cause now as he’s very marketable.

Qualified in 45th but caught and was held up by the guy in front of him (see his FB for POV) so would have been into the 30s uninterrupted I reckon.

Also noticed Jim Munro qualified 60th for Atherton – good effort considering no one had heard of him until he raced Hard Line.

He’s qualified faster than a whole load of WC regulars and he’s sitting just in front of Adam Brayton.

Why the hell did he ever quit?

Brayton is perhaps a good comparison. He’s obviously a great rider, sponsored, makes the RB live feed here and there.

Watching his vlog though he’s been doing races out the back of a transit van, doing his own spannering, etc.

It’s probably not a great way to get rich.

Probably a good way to lose money.

Im sure Tahnee Seagrave said in Duncan Shaws podcast a win gets you 3k. Obviously most of the top girls and guys are on a monthly wage as well. I’ve heard 50 to 60k mentioned for guys that regularly finish top 10 but obviously Vergier , bruni and co will be on more. Add on to that some of the sponsorship deals and the top guys still make decent money.
Its a real shame how Downhill , XC and BMX seems to be ignored for road riding and even in a way CX.
Still good luck to Ben , who would have thought when he jacked in downhill first time round to concentrate on sickskills how well he would do years later with Cathrovision and pinkbike. Seems a nice guy so well deserved.

Most people will never get rich from racing but to be honest the handful of pros and WC regulars that I’ve known don’t have the same financial concerns as most people.

Being an international dirtbag and slumming it in dirty vans and cheap hotels is all part of the fun. Then it’s back to your parents country mansion to spend the off season racing motocross or something.

Not that I’m jealous.