Great coverage and a great event.

Couple of observations / questions:
How come some seem to wear Full Face helmets and others not so ?

Seems a few favourites flatted on the rocks, why are they not tubeless or Procore ?

Didn’t see any plus sized tyres, are they just a marketing gimmick ?

Is TMo taking the same drugs as Rachel Atherton then ?

How come no one apart from TMo wears a Camelback ?

Too many daft questions, I’m out.

Nobeerinthefridge – Member

Too many daft questions, I’m out.

Some people just have no community spirit

How come some seem to wear Full Face helmets and others not so ?

Faces for radio

Seems a few favourites flatted on the rocks, why are they not tubeless or Procore ?

Sponsored by powdered fish bone suppliers

Didn’t see any plus sized tyres, are they just a marketing gimmick ?

Yes.

Is TMo taking the same drugs as Rachel Atherton then ?

No, different ones

How come no one apart from TMo wears a Camelback ?

Spare batteries for her hearing aid.

HTH.

What’s enduro?

Its mountain biking for those who don’t like Lycra 🙂

How come some seem to wear Full Face helmets and others not so ?
– Personal choice I guess. FF worse on the transitions, especially if its hot.

Seems a few favourites flatted on the rocks, why are they not tubeless or Procore ?
– From what I read the course changed a bit from practice to race day, so possibly line choice meant they just plowed into a rock which wasn’t exposed before in practice. Saw a video with Greg Callaghan and he is tubeless as he has a bar end plug. I guess if the slice is too big its game over.

How come no one apart from TMo wears a Camelback ?
– Many of the riders have said they’ll do anything to avoid wearing a backpack and end up taping everything to the frame or using jersey pockets.

Full face was optional at the Irish EWS, Abigale practiced with a normal but raced with a full face helmet

Most riders were tubeless or Procore, the rocks their were inflicting some right carnage, Abigale flatted the rear on stage three practice but managed to plug it with two Dynaplugs. Some weren’t so lucky. one rider rode a stage just on the rear rim.
About 20% of the riders had back packs, the rest just risk it. One guy did at least two stages with his crank off. Saw another having to borrow a pump as he had used his only gas canister. Abigale rides with a back pack, most of it is full of water but it has all the essentials to do a repair. Finding time to do it on such a tight schedule was another thing, luckily she had an incident free day.

Certainly at Tweedlove there’s enough water stood that you can get away with out a backpack and just wing it with a few tools .

GT were running procore, but Maes still flatted ?

I don’t know if Richie rude was running tubeless or not, but his mechanic put a picture on Instagram of a pinch punctured tyre. A double wall tyre 😯

On race day a previously muddy hole right off the start line of stage 2 had got a lot deeper, with a kerb sized and shaped rock at it’s exit. 50/50 for puncturing on this for the four guys starting in front of me. Then about 30s-1min in there was a long fast section across moorland with rocks embedded in it. There were groups of riders here during my race run fixing punctures.

Sometimes no amount of sidewall and tubeless will allow you to get away with a proper rear end slam.

Trimix – Member

How come some seem to wear Full Face helmets and others not so ?
Seems a few favourites flatted on the rocks, why are they not tubeless or Procore ?
Didn’t see any plus sized tyres, are they just a marketing gimmick ?
How come no one apart from TMo wears a Camelback ?

Some people want to wear full faces and some don’t (in some rounds, full face is mandatory)

Neither is impervious; a bunch of those who’d flatted will have had tubeless or procore. (schwalbe were talking up procore at EWS 2014 and apparently didn’t like people publishing photos of failed procore systems…)

Plus size- not a marketing gimmick but not everything is good for racing.

camelbaks- there’s feed stations so you’re usually not far from food or water. Also as I discovered, many “self sufficient” pros with no packs aren’t at all shy about leeching off other riders who do have adequate water, tools etc. If I ever do another one, I’m going to tell them all to **** off.

Robin Seymour turned up looking like he was heading out for an XC spin.
He went on to win the Masters! And he was on a borrowed bike!

Josh Carlson climbed up to stage 4 with no rear tyre!?! The speed down the stage was just incredible.

All in all a fantastic weekend. Hope it comes back again next year.

Not name dropping but kind of . A brother of one of the guys who raced said many felt that they don’t actually go fast enough on that course for a full face . Could be bullshit but …

He runs tubeless but his tyre was ripped on stage two beyond repair. . Big penalty for fixing and or so much time is lost you don’t carry on.

A brother of one of the guys who raced said many felt that they don’t actually go fast enough on that course for a full face . Could be bullshit but …

It seems to be a fast course but not overly technical, well faster than a lot of other Irish riding which is often tight and tech.