SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

Dammit where’s my fantasy league….

I always think a fully fit Rude is the man to beat, and with significant changes in his nearest rivals, he’s my favourite for 2023… I wouldn’t be surprised to see some people in damage limitation mode for the first two rounds before targeting the latter rounds… I think Courdurier will lead the way again, but I’m excited to see how the Brits go… I think Luke Meier Smith moves up from u21, if so I think he’ll be straight into the mix for top 5s…Dan Booker will be one to watch this weekend.

Looks like a great race though, multiple stage winners and some outsiders putting in top results.

Good race, pretty tight at the top end of all fields.
Great to see local riders Sascha Kim & Dan Booker on the podium.

I’m interested in seeing what Katy Winton can do this season. Had a tough couple of seasons but now on a team ride and looking like she has her head back in the game if you believe her socials, really like her riding and hope she can get back to where she was. I guess the challenge is if the others have stepped it up while she has been off her game.

Now I need to find out how to watch it, not feeling confident after reading the previous page of comments.

If I was trying to avoid the results I’d be very pissed off that every official feed ad I’ve seen contains the results spoiler.
Doesn’t bode well for the DH which I really do try to avoid spoiling before watching. It’s a minor thing but I do like it when broadcasters try to avoid the big spoiler.

Short and full highlights will be on new GMBN racing channel, free to watch according yo this:

If I was trying to avoid the results I’d be very pissed off that every official feed ad I’ve seen contains the results spoiler.

Not much you can do about that – it’s a story worth putting up.

It used to drive me mad when I would open Red Bull to watch a replay and you had to click past Winning Runs to find the replay.

Moi Moi TV setting the standard. I’m a big Moir fan and watch all of his videos, but this is well worth a watch even if vlogs aren’t your usual thing. Good mix of onboard and trackside footage and gives a real good feel for the event.

Same. That’s my lunch time sorted. Staggsy’s videograhy has lifted the bar a bit too I think.

Love the length of his vids too… I’d watch more of BK, but they go on for too long.

So is there going to be anything on Discovery+ ?
Keep looking, but can’t find anything – last thing on there is the Australian Champs from Feb……

EDIT

Highlights vid just dropped on UCI youtube channel…

GCN+ has a placeholder for Derby highlights (next weekend) but nothing for Maydena as yet. There are also now placeholders for the XCO/XCC/DH events for the rest of the season along with some historical race replays.

Pretty good highlights. Get a good feel for the speed.

How about interviews without helmets on?!

I’d also like stats for more than the top ten, but other than that it wasn’t bad.

Would happily have had a hour to watch as opposed to 25minutes.

I predict less of a local domination this week. Derby is less of an unknown for the overseas riders and conditions look slightly less Australian.

A quick look a previous results shows approx average 4 mins stages, and various different stage winners so could really reward consistency.

Luke Meir Smith had a poor showing in 2019 here but was class last week so I think he’ll be in contention again.
Maes won here in 21019 but was later banned, and has had good results in the wet.
Melamed has had poor (by his standard) results at Derby but some good stages. He’s a much more consistent rider now so could go well.
Fearon, Dailly, Callaghan and Gauvin have all had stand out results here before.

I’m going for Maes, Rude, Fearon.

In the women’s, Courdurier has won both EWS here, including her only victory over Ravanel in 2017.
Korem has been fourth here twice, but was off the pace last week.

I’m predicting similar to last week with Courdurier and Charre, followed by the Battle of Britain with Harnden edging Baroana.

This gave a good view of the longest stage at Maydena (~11mins for this rider) – trails look amazing:

The Squids on Tour videos are always good for a feel of the trails too.

I think Vali will be challenging for the podium places again. She was right up there in Maydena before she crashed.

If it’s wet then I reckon Jack Moir will be nearer the top spots in the mens as he’s pretty good in the wet and the overall pace will be a little slower so he should have less trouble holding on with that hand injury.

Looks wild. Having watched these, I’m changing my prediction. Harnden to win, think it’ll be a physical beast of a day which will suit her.

Classic Scottish conditions. Could put Ella in with a shout.

If only there was a fantasy league we could take advantage of!

God I really want to ride some of these trails (much much slower maybe). How good does Maydena look!

Maydena is intense. I rode it wet and it was frightening but still fun.

Weather forecast for Derby over the next few days is 3-16 and overcast but no rain so probably a mix of tacky with bog holes.

Round two preview is good:

Ĝreat result for our women. Though it was going to come at some point in the season with the quality we have in the field 👍

Great result for the British Women

In tricky conditions we see a British 1-2-3 in the women’s event. Pretty cool I’d say…..Yet we all know it will go ignored by the road biased cycling media.

I bet it will go mostly ignored by the off road cycling media too.
Whether it’s because enduro or because women; remains to be seen.

Two races down and the coverage has, thankfully, been pretty good – better than last year’s low bar at least!

Great result for the trio of British women.. leaves Bex Baraona leading the overall. Just a shame it’s now a 2 month wait until the next event (or any UCI MTB event!).

Vital RAW delivering the goods as usual:

Some creative crowd participation – loving the polite applause and silent treatment 🤣

Classic Scottish conditions. Could put Ella in with a shout.

I tipped Bex when I saw the conditions in practice.

Looks like being a really interesting season in the women’s elite. Shame everyone’s gonna lose their momentum with the long break now.

Katy Winton is on the Downtime podcast discussing the first two rounds, and Pinkbike have done some race analysis. Amazing to see how close the top few are to the ‘perfect race’.

Richie is in a strong position over his rivals, whereas only 110 points covering top 5 women.

I think Richie will take the win this year because the 2 main challengers are still learning their new bikes and teams

How crazy is it to have two rounds then leave the racers kicking their heels for two months? Add to that no DH before June and it is a weird old season and one I hope can be sorted in future.

Obvs May hasn’t been a busy month historically in the gravity calendar but surely they could manage one or two rounds? On the DH side both Losinj and Lousa suggest themselves. 🤷‍♂️

True. Interesting to see Rude getting a DH race in at the Oceania Champs (and getting the fastest time, beating Sam Hill).