Pinkbike Fantasy League

Looking forward to racing getting underway again. Hopefully we’ll see Maes, Dailly and Melamed closer to Rude and Moir for another tight battle in the men’s. Plenty just outside those guys that have the potential to challenge for wins on their day.

Women’s seems more open than ever. Pugin and Charre led the way last year. Harnden and Baroana both proved they’re race winners. Courdurier will no doubt be sharper. Winton and Korem seem happy as a team. Richter has previously has some standout results and now on a factory ride.

needs a STW league.

needs a STW league.

Try checking out the link in OP

It wasn’t earlier lol.

I’ll be there larging it in the VIP lounge. I’m expecting F1 Monaco style hospitality, just without the yachts.

Joined but dont expect to get anywhere, might make watching it on Sunday a bit more intresting

I’ll be down on Thursday with my boy , going to ride glentress in the morning then try and catch some of the e bike race .

My money is on Jesse Melemed and Bex again although it would be great to see Katy winton win .

It wasn’t earlier lol.

Post hasn’t been edited, but if you say so

Looking forward to it. I hope the highlights package is better than last seasons

Outside of the usual suspects, Lukasik on a Strive will be interesting to see performance wise, as well as Rudeau and Larbeyou on the virtual pivot Commencal.

You offered nothing to the thread other than incorrectly stating there wasn’t an STW league, then backed it up saying I’d changed my post. I think I’m entitled to point that out that you’re wrong, Tiger

well when i clicked the link intitially it didn’t go to the STW option, maybe it was updating on PBs end i dunno, i was trying to help, not make it worse, as you’ll have seen i joined the STW league, which was my whole point. But i’m not sure why or how this is now my fault.

BRING IT!

I hope the highlights package is better than last seasons

They are doing more this year across GMBN and EWS Youtube channels. Whether it’s better or more of the same remains to be seen.

They are doing more this year across GMBN and EWS Youtube channels. Whether it’s better or more of the same remains to be seen.

Im not sure if better and using GMBN are words I would associate with each other. I want to watch the racing not product placement ads for their sponsors and to be told how sick everything is.

Im starting to sound like a grumpy old man!! 🙁

If the cringe inducing infomercial for Vittoria last year was anything to go by, you’re not going to like it any more this year.
I’ll put up with five minutes of merch peddling to watch free of charge if they don’t remove racing content to make room for it.

Anyone else trying to follow the live times on the mobile site?

I’m ready to launch my phone. Whoever created this timing app thing needs a kick up the arse. It’s absolutely abysmal

Im not sure if better and using GMBN are words I would associate with each other. I want to watch the racing not product placement ads for their sponsors and to be told how sick everything is.

Im starting to sound like a grumpy old man!! 🙁

Got to agree with you there (your point, not the grumpy old man part!)

I was actually about to start a new post on this topic but it fits here too.

Is it just my perception of the timing of the release of content or is the general coverage this year noticeably worse than recent history.?

I seem to remember being able to watch plenty of course previews and rider interviews, pit tours etc. on both the EWS channel and GMBN along with a fair bit of rider produced content as well, in the actual run up to the race.

I’m thinking specifically of the Ruaridh and Ric pre-riding all the stages, pit walks showing new tech, pretty quick (brief) highlights of the Pro stage and queen stages (i.e a few hours post race).

This year all I can find is some voice over free POV rider footage on the EWS channel, 2 pit walks on GMBN (the 2nd of which only just dropped and was bloomin’ awful, most of the time spent talking about an XC bike and a bike-packing trip!! 12+ minutes video, possibly 2 minutes of relevant content).

Now I realise that an EWS is hard to cover in any kind of real-time fashion, it would take millions of ££ of cameras and manpower to do any kind of worthwhile live coverage and the audience just isn’t there yet.  But, damn, surely it should be getting better, not worse.??

So is this a symptom of the EWS/GMBN deal (god help us next year with the XC and DH if so), or is the money just not in EWS to justify coverage? Or something else.?  Or am I just the grumpy old man..? 🙂

Yup, previous years coverage was way better than this year. It was hyped up on GMBN, but so far its very disappointing.

Without good coverage you wont get an audience. If you expect people to pay to watch it in the future you need to generate a good following before forcing them to pay. At this rate there will be no audience left to force to pay to watch it.

Shame as its a great mix of XC and DH, basically what mountain bikes are good at and its the sort of riding we can relate to.

Glad it’s not just me then..

I would have hoped that with the increased funds that we could have expected things like rider interviews and insight at the start/end of each stage.. maybe some drone footage (obviously not much chance of that in Tweed Valley!!), some proper, in depth pit coverage of bikes and prototype gear. Was hoping they might expand on the course preview stuff as the Ric and Ruaridh stuff last year was a highlight (IMO) and they both seemed to be getting comfortable in those roles.

I’m glad it’s no just me. I too preferred the old coverage with the pre race stage previews and proper content about the race.

Ella Connoly backed herself and matched her maiden EWS win with Pinkbike fantasy team of the weekend which is cool!

My team did ok apart from Flo Esparina who I had high hopes for this season but looks like she is only doing the e bikes. Sam Dale was a great value pick. i’m not sure if Innes Graham was available, but well done if anyone included him in your fantasy team!

From what I heard over the weekend, official coverage this year will be a shorter initial highlights video followed by a more in depth race review will follow during the week. Pinkbike presenters and film crew seemed to be around all weekend too so not sure if they are also doing their own thing.

or is the general coverage this year noticeably worse than recent history.?

Really bad. was looking forward to it, but the live timing was down more times than it worked. No info about why stage 2 was cancelled for the men, still in the dark about it.

No pre race stage coverage, no build-up hype. Really disappointing overall.

Stage 2 was cancelled because of an injured racer.

Really bad. was looking forward to it, but the live timing was down more times than it worked. No info about why stage 2 was cancelled for the men, still in the dark about it.

Live timing was terrible, new format is a big step backwards. Didn’t notice the usual live text feed either.

Stage 2 was red flagged after Kasper Wooley had a big crash. Riders on course at the time wouldn’t have had time to fit in a re-run so they scrapped the stage. I only knew that because I was stood near one of the Pinkbike presenters. Perfectly acceptable decision but makes no sense when you’re following the race and there’s no information.

The Pinkbike fellas were doing really well getting as much out of the timing as it was possible.. but it was still a bit vague for sure.

Perfectly acceptable decision but makes no sense when you’re following the race and there’s no information.

Indeed. No information about it at all on the EWS pages. which is pretty bad as well! had a look and it was a pretty bad crash as well. Hope he recovers!

I placed higher in the actual EWS(100) than I did in the fantasy league

Race week again and it looks like more riders have been added to the fantasy selection.

Last time they raced Petzen Jamnica the fastest time was 53 minutes (compared to 17.35 at round one) with two 13+ minute stages. Elliot Heap and Ella Connoly won juniors, Sam Hill and Cecile Ravanel won elite. Reading those results made it feel like a long time ago!

Sam Hill appears to be back after covid prevented him travelling for the first round. Innes Graham and Dan Booker both suggested they will be riding following standout results in Scotland.

Kasper Whooley and Adrian Dailly are the only high profile injury absentees from what I can recall so hopefully we’ve got a full roster and a fast open race.

Another race day. More annoyance surrounding the live timing.

Pro stage looked like an absolute beast. I don’t see the appeal of 10+ minute stages from rider or spectator point of view. Must be horrible to race!

My fantasy team under performed again with my big money picks 13th and 15th – Martin Meas puncture left himself a lot of time to try and make up, and I’d banked on a big home performance from Vid Persak.

The live timing is a joke. It worked great in previous seasons. The live race commentary also seems to be tweets this season versus the on-site stuff which again worked great in prior years.

I’m smashing the fantasy stuff though! Up to 4th in the STW league and in the top 80 worldwide!

Pro stage looked like an absolute beast. I don’t see the appeal of 10+ minute stages from rider … point of view. Must be horrible to race!

As someone who is decidedly mid (to lower) pack fodder in the south of England, I would love the opportunity for a 10+ minute stage.

That particular pro stage would likely take me about 45 minutes.

I don’t see the appeal of 10+ minute stages from rider or spectator point of view. Must be horrible to race!

I like that they have those mega stages, I think it creates a bit more separation from DH – and energy management and the ability to ride-on-sight become more important.

Would I enjoy racing them myself? Dunno, but I used to love having a go at long mountain descents on Strava. The pros aren’t supposed to be enjoying it though.

😀

I love looking for the super long runs when in the alps. It’s what enduro is about otherwise it’s glorified dh

I like that they have those mega stages, I think it creates a bit more separation from DH – and energy management and the ability to ride-on-sight become more important.

Would I enjoy racing them myself? Dunno, but I used to love having a go at long mountain descents on Strava. The pros aren’t supposed to be enjoying it though.

I get that, and I love the ride on sight aspect of enduro, but I just feel like the super long ones are just hard for the sake of being hard. The footage I’ve seen suggests the top pros aren’t a fan either.

Top to bottom of Golfie took the pros 4 minutes and I am a passenger by the end of that – I can’t fathom how hard a stage on steeper terrain that takes them 13 minutes must be.

Interesting to see what they do this weekend as val di fassa had that horrible mid stage climb last year that ended up being neutralised for the second race. My opinion is that enduro should contain some pedalling and even little climbs, but 1+ minute climbs are too much. Should just be little digs to make sure it’s not just all DH

Last time they went to south america werent there 20+ minute stages? I think Whistler also did a full descent of the bike park as a single stage.

Well my fantasy team is bombing quite badly….
Time for a new team I think!

Watched the highlights and some of the stages look amazing.

Other than youtube are they shown anywhere else? Aren’t they something to do with Discovery channel?

Last time they went to south america werent there 20+ minute stages? I think Whistler also did a full descent of the bike park as a single stage.

Yeah Whistler top of the world is 20 minutes, including lots of fire roads and Chile had that crazy long dusty one.

Other than youtube are they shown anywhere else? Aren’t they something to do with Discovery channel?

I think Eurosport youtube posts the same highlights but I’m not aware of anything making it’s way to TV yet. GMBN have done some of their own youtube bits as well.

EWS Show on GMBN is a step in the right direction. Think something similar pre race would be better though.

Time for these incredible Canazai views. Worth running a race here just for the Pinkbike photo epic. I’m hopeful for some multi rider battles in both classes.

In 2019 Rude and Courdurier won by convincing margins.

Two races here in 2021 showed the field is now much more competitive; the first won by Rude by less than half a second, with Moir taking the second race having entered the final stage with no gap between him and Rude. Melamed had 3rd and 4th here, and Maes missed the race.
In the women’s the 3 fast Frenchies were top four in both rounds. Harriet Harnden had an eye catching ride with a stage win at the first, and her first Elite podium in the second.

A lower scoring week in the fantasy league as lots of the big guns asserted dominance on the high scoring spots. Filks3 led the way with myself in second.
CW6459 third place moves them up to fourth in the overall. Thingswelike holds onto top spot from Yak-muhahahaha and Mattywba.

I haven’t had chance to watch the highlights yet, but some talking points from looking at the results:

Good to see Harriet Harnden back on the podium. She was the only woman to take a stage from Courdurier, who looks like she’s back to her dominant best

Ella Conolly suffered a broken elbow after a strong start to the season.

Katie Winton looks like she’s going to take some time out having struggled to find the pace so far this year.

Innes Graham had another solid finish in 21st. Very impressive for a guy who wasn’t even planning on racing less than a month ago.

After racing as a privateer last year, Slawomir Lukasik is looking comfortable being on a team with back to back top fives

Ella being out ballsed up my fantasy team. Not sure if I could have swapped her out though even if I did know.

Would love to see Eddie go on a run and put pressure on Rude and Melamed. Was gutted when he injured himself a few years back when he was right in contention for the overall.