Downhill World Cup: How is it for you?

None of my mates that follow DH have any interest in XC, and it seemed to be that way for the majority at World Cups I’ve been to in person.

I follow both… At WChamps last year in Les Gets i watched both in person…. Sure, i enjoy watching DH more.. but i’ll happily watch an XC race for sure.

I would occasionally watch the XC if I was home when it was on, but the roadies coming in and winning with minimal prep has really devalued the world cups for me

Only devalued if you actually believe those 2 main offenders are just roadies

<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’; background-color: #eeeeee;”>I’ve paid for Discovery to watch it but often can’t watch it live. I could only find highlights yesterday, very annoying. I’ve emailed them to as why, maybe it was just me that was being daft but I tried the search funtion.</span>

I don’t know if it was by mistake, or design, but after an hour or so, they posted a full replay, but it was 6hrs of the semis followed by the race, or wait until today to watch the ES version, which doesn’t seem the full footage to me, they cut out a lot of the cool shit like the chase drones.

To my jaded eye:

Bruni and Iles seemed to be doing a fair bit to front the riders as a collective. They both ride for Specialized. Spesh are heavily involved on the road side. The UCI had a word.

Previous to the last year or so, I thought Minaar and Nicole were involved as a sort of riders representative or something along those lines.

Santa Cruz and Commencal with no skin in the road game so can’t be bullied in the same way.

They’re riders reps which have always existed. The union was to give riders more of a voice but appears to have lost momentum.

In BK’s practice vlog it appeared that Raurih hung up on Minaar when they were appealing them being prevented from practicing. Surprised more wasn’t made of it if that’s the case.

@mashr they’re clearly not ‘just’ roadies, but they aren’t out and out MTBers yet still appear to be well ahead of the purists.

Greg’s going to retire at the end of the season. Watch the Wyn TV episode if you think otherwise.

fourtopsallnight
Free Member
Greg’s going to retire at the end of the season

Fingers crossed he’s got a commentary deal in his pocket for 2024+

they’re clearly not ‘just’ roadies, but they aren’t out and out MTBers yet still appear to be well ahead of the purists.

They both have skilled off road backgrounds which have then been combined with training to be Belgium style road race monsters. We’re lucky that we’re able to watching two of a very rare breed of multi-sport racers in action.

How has it been for you?

As dull to watch as all other types of mountain biking. Makes F1 look exciting.

As dull to watch as all other types of mountain biking

What out of interest DO you find exciting to watch ?

I had a bit of a meltdown with it all yesterday (completely iirational, I am aware) After a weekend of little sleep, navigating a bike to London to ride back to Brighton, then driving back to home I had planned an evening of XC and DH catch up. First issue was I spotted the XC results on social media, my mistake but hey, I still have the DH. Bought a few beers, had a shower, and settled in for 2hrs of riding, or so I thought.

I could not find the replays on the TV App. XC was there plain to see (Once I realised they have changed Les Gets to Haute something or other, why? Don’t know)  And Junior finals but nothing else. After an hour of trying to figure out why I just started scrolling, and scrolling. I found the Mens DH finals after about 40 scrolls of the TV remote, and the womens after about 45 scrolls. To say I was getting irrate in my tired state was an understatement and I sent a strongly worded email to GCN stating that I wanted a refund.

So that is my frustration with the whole change. I am not a fan of the commentary team but that is a personal thing. I can’t be doing with the woman who interviews and does the race set up either. But the failure to have a simple and consistant technology for the paying viewer to seamlessly access what they want to watch, is a deal breaker. Why don’t they bucket it into a folder for Mountain Biking or for the event weekend?

I know there are people it is working for as a mate who was on the reciving end of my irritation last night sent me a video showing me where to find it. My app was showing a completely different layout than his.

Phew! That was qute cathartic! In short, have no issue with paying as long as they give me a good service.

Why don’t they bucket it into a folder for Mountain Biking or for the event weekend?

via the browser there is a mountain bike tab.

admittedly then you do need to scroll down a few lines for full race replay, which is below future races, fairly useless.

via the browser there is a mountain bike tab

It is the Apple TV App I am using but your comment supports my point. If there is a MTB tab on the browser, why isn’t there one in the TV app. Incidently the TV app is the only way I can use it due to a log in issue which they cannot fix. Apparently my email address doesn’t exisit in their system so I can’t log in on the PC. It’s a shambles I tell thee 🙂

Santa Cruz and Commencal with no skin in the road game so can’t be bullied in the same way.
I agree about Commencal but Pon holdings have lots of skin in the road game. I’m quite certain SC will be told to follow the owners lead on such matters.

Another great race and thoroughly enjoyed watching the finals. I thought Pompom was a good addition to the commentary team for the ladies race. Loved the drone footage that showed just how fast and loose it all is.

I agree about Commencal but Pon holdings have lots of skin in the road game.

forgot about this, good point.

Loved the drone footage that showed just how fast and loose it all is.

Yeah, best use of the drone yet. they found an interesting and challenging part of the track that could not easily be shown by a single static or wire camera, and managed to keep the rider in shot while doing some drone flying that was impressive in its own right.

If there is a MTB tab on the browser, why isn’t there one in the TV app

In the Discovery+ app on the Fire I go to the ‘Sports’ main menu on the left, then the ‘All Sports’ tab, then ‘Mountain Biking’. There’s a bit of (sometimes slooow) scrolling, but the full replay has always been there for me – usually two versions, the ES one with ads, and another one that is a bit longer and ad free. It’s a bit frustrating that you don’t seem to be able to bookmark or favourite individual sports though.

Edit: works similar on an iPad.

Feeling like I’m the only one watching Snowshoe live on Eurosport??
Thanks to Eurosport for showing the XC, the men’s DH semis and both of the finals for a change!

Brits are going really well so far anyway – 4 in the top 6! Bruni gonna ruin the party …?

What a race 😀

Is electronic shifting allowed in DH? Just wondering if SRAM transmission has all these features that would suit DH like supposed be good at shifting underload/mech moves on impact etc. It seem weird that on the flagship MTB category there isn’t a 7 speed DH version…when its used in EWS.?

Am I missing something?

Feeling like I’m the only one watching Snowshoe live on Eurosport

No – some nice person on Pinkbike shared a ‘link’. Cracking racing.

Another great race. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Well worth the subscription

That was fantastic. History made for Irish biking and the closest podium in women’s racing AFAIK.
Moimoi could’ve done better, he’s quite camera shy when he’s not in control of the narrative.

Say what you like about the coverage this year.. the racing has shone through all season – another cracker!

Absolutely brilliant race.

Actual coverage not so much and the delay between riders going through timing struts and times being shown is abysmal.

Racing is great though.

The French guy who didn’t win seemed like a very sore loser at the end, seemingly having a sulk. Could be the rum convincing me of that though, felt he could have been a bit more happy for the top 2 at least as they have had a fantastic result.

Last race is going to be good. Points up for grabs in final only, potential for quite a few to win the overall. Not to be missed.

I’m currently watching the semis on the UCI’s YT channel – coverage and commentary improved massively since I had the chance to watch a race in more detail (near the start of the season TBH).

So, what’s my best option for a subscription/paid for to watch the final runs?

(yes, Mrs a11y’s away for a few days and I’ve got evenings free…)

If you like all sorts of bike racing get a GCN pass, if you’re not bothered but like other sports get a Eurosport pass.
If it’s just to binge watch races for 48hrs, either will do because you can pay up for one month on either offer as far as I know

The French guy who didn’t win seemed like a very sore loser at the end, seemingly having a sulk. Could be the rum convincing me of that though, felt he could have been a bit more happy for the top 2 at least as they have had a fantastic result.

Assuming this is Bruni you’re talking about, then yeah you should refrain from commenting until sober

Thanks @ocrider, I’ll get a month pass for one of those sorted. Dropping out this discussion yet to avoid any spoilers for the final results.

The French guy who didn’t win seemed like a very sore loser at the end, seemingly having a sulk

Loic? He had a big slam and threw away a load of points for the overall (which he was leading) – personally I’d cut him some slack.

Should make the last race at MSA interesting though.. Loris and Loic must be pretty much neck and neck now..?

The racing this year has been brilliant , lots of drama and new winners , and the men’s overall is still up for grabs at the last round .

No matter how good / bad the coverage is the actual racing still delivers . Having said that I find the cutting to team managers incredibly jarring and really takes the attention off the rider for what could be a crucial few seconds, especially when ESO have made a selling point of showing more of the runs than red bull did . At the end of the women’s race they showed the team managers reaction before marine cabirou .

I was avoiding naming said French rider’s name for the sake of spoilers 🙄

Still in the lead overall, therefore I maintain my stance on him being a spoilt brat, like he was in Andorra after putting an insane run down on a greasy track and proceeding to sulk because rain. I hope he isn’t injured from his crash, it was pretty spectacular. I’m also glad he didn’t win or take too many points as from a spectators point of view (which I will forever be) it makes it so much more interesting and exciting heading into the final race.

Either way, he should stop sulking and be happy for the other rider who not only got his first podium, but his first win in a world cup.

To the 2 young Irishmen leading today’s racing, had me on the edge of my seat the whole way down the hill.

Still not naming names to avoid spoilers. I’m not new to this game, no matter how much rum I’ve consumed 😁

Also, women’s race was great. Winner well deserved again and the young lady that also did well used her brain to treat effect, putting a safe run in to secure what she needed. Good effort, she’s going to be challenging records in years to come.

Am I the only one who found it almost impossible to watch on Disco Plus this time ? Ended up watching semi’s on YT then later watching rerun on Disco Plus .Great racing though 👍👍👍👍

Am I the only one who found it almost impossible to watch on Disco Plus this time ?

Do you mean just using the awful app, or the awful commentary?

They need to change the sound mix so the background noise is less so you can actually hear the commentary

It least the French commentator was pretty much silenced yesterday by the other 2. I actually turned the sound off towards the end as I was getting a headache, was a much nicer experience

Still in the lead overall, therefore I maintain my stance on him being a spoilt brat

Go have a crash like that and see if you feel like celebrating (someone else’s victory) immediately afterwards.

You are the Frenchman?

Asking as you seem to be taking my light-hearted internet comments very personally.

He’s a big strong lad, I’m sure he’ll recover.

Now it’s clear that they just light hearted comments, it’s fine that you called him a loser loser, brat and sulking

I also agree it’s ok for someone to not go and immediately give congratulations when they’re still reeling from a crash like that. I also saw on wyn tv that it’s a lot harder to go over for a end of run chat now due to how they’ve got the hot seat setup. Based on interviews I’ve seen he also seems like a nice guy so I’m sure he probably had a chat later on.

I think the race was pretty great, coverage was decent and i actually enjoyed the commentary. Gwinn is bringing a lot of valuable insight to both the racers and the track.

Gwinn is bringing a lot of valuable insight to both the racers and the track.

Agreed – when he’s not being talked over by Ric and Cedric!

I don’t think I would be in the best of moods having crashed like bruni did. I’d be off to hospital to be checked out and hoping I can still race next weekend. He clearly gave his head a good thump given his visor was gone. I hope he hasn’t got a concussion

In fairness Gwinn just needs to sharpen up a little and know when to stop talking. That’ll come down to broadcasting experience, but he’s still the closest we’ve ever had to being the perfect pundit.