Possible dumb question regarding watching fort bill race?

Am I the only one seeing just half runs ?Is it a visibility up top issue ?

You’ve always seen more in the highlights, than the live rounds because of the gaps between the start times.  Irony.

That said, I’ve never understood when they don’t leave longer starting intervals on the top three or so riders, so you see more of their runs.  It wouldn’t exactly add much to the overall race schedule.

I have Discovery+ as part of my broadband subscription. I just logged in to watch the finals to get a message saying this is not part of my subscription package.

no way am I paying for a subscription I already have to see it.

real shame as I was paying for GCN last year.

Race is hotting up.

Gwin and Tahnee excellent on commentary and Ric thankfully shutting up a bit.

Gwin and Tahnee excellent on commentary

Very much

Men’s elite is stacked this year! Crazy racing and some top names fighting for the win…then they said the top 10 were coming!

Apart from Gwin I can’t think of any big names that are missing…

Goldstone

This might be of interest while trying to navigate what seems to be a clusterpuck of massive proportions concerning the live action – a look at the various bikes and technology in the pits.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/tech-randoms-fort-william-dh-world-cup-2024.html

I have Discovery+ as part of my broadband subscription. I just logged in to watch the finals to get a message saying this is not part of my subscription package.

no way am I paying for a subscription I already have to see it

You’ll have basic discovery plus which doesn’t include any sports

Another one here who’s not bothering to watch our follow the DH due to crap coverage.

I know I’m not the only one taking this approach.

alpin

Free Member

Another one here who’s not bothering to watch our follow the DH due to crap coverage.

I know I’m not the only one taking this approach

I’m not watching it because watching people ride mtbs is a bit dull.

It’s pretty good now

I had no commentary, checked the captions box in the bottom right of the screen and it was set to ambient sound for some reason changed to English and all good.

Goldstone

Doh!

Watching from Germany… It doesn’t look very busy / well attended….

Watching from Germany… It doesn’t look very busy / well attended….

I thought so to.  Was this just the new taping keeping crowds away or was it a bit quiet this year?

I’m not watching it because watching people ride mtbs is a bit dull.

And yet here you are, on page 3 of a thread about watching people ride bikes. What a legend.

That said, I’ve never understood when they don’t leave longer starting intervals on the top three or so riders, so you see more of their runs. It wouldn’t exactly add much to the overall race schedule.

The top 10 in the finals have much larger gaps of 3 minutes so you do see much more of the runs.

I just watched the whole thing on a website I’ve never heard of thanks to a link in the Pinkbike comment section.

So if you are in fort William today only 30 in the mens race come down the hill? It used to be about 60 and a proper day out but it’s now half the action?

Maybe folk who were there wil lbe along to give their impression but the finish area and crowd looked a long way from the podium.

Les Gets for us this year. Just re-watched Benoit Coulange finish and the vibe looked incredible. Packed with folk.

I’m just back from the event – waiting for my fish n chips in Fort Bill.

Definitely quieter than World champs last year, and I think quieter than 2022 too. Hard to judge against previous years. Tend to spend most time on the hillside rather than the bottom area, but seemed busy – and far too loud/stupid combo of loud music and annoying commentary from some Canadian dude, which didn’t add anything to the event.

Taping of track for spectators was VERY wide. Hard to understand why.

Why fix something that wasn’t broken to begin with???

Watched it on a eurosport stream and there was no commentary although that might have been us? we both said the place looked empty and was the big TV over beside the pits? that to me is a silly move as you’ll now have your back to the finish line, for the last few riders I used to make my way down to the bottom and could watch the TV then see them come through the Scotland arch.

was the big TV over beside the pits? that to me is a silly move as you’ll now have your back to the finish line

Yeah it was next to the pits and anyone watching that one would have had their back to the finish

It used to be about 60 and a proper day out but it’s now half the action

And for those that have paid for a TV subscription to watch it. At least last year the Semis were televised. Fans are now having to pay for less than they got for free with Redbull

And yet here you are, on page 3 of a thread about watching people ride bikes. What a legend.

I was waiting for a gig to start 🙂

Watching people play instruments is a bit dull.

The top 10 in the finals have much larger gaps of 3 minutes so you do see much more of the runs.

I just watched the whole thing on a website I’ve never heard of thanks to a link in the Pinkbike comment section.

Sorry, I wasn’t clear, I meant even longer: whatever the time for the full track is plus a bit so you they could find time with for the whole run plus a couple of replays of anything interesting or for side by side comparisons of whoever in the hot seat during the run.

I just think it would make the thing a bit more watchable for people who are on the edge of wanting to watch it but find the coverage a bit vanilla or bitty…

Just back from the race too and agree with a11y’s comments.

Definitely quieter than previous years, the finish area is now a real mess with a vip area, additional grandstand (where you can’t see anything other than the finish area). That means the actual finish area is a stupidly small spectator zone with an Oakley DJ lorry taking over where the podium and presentations used to be.

Music was so loud and the commentary you could hear was terrible.

Buses back to town seemed slicker than previous years though.

Saturday was dead, semi finals suck and a lot of the pits that didn’t qualify were packing or packed up today.

So although yesterday was a mess with lack of information I actually enjoyed watching today (Discovery+).  I think Myriam, Aaron and Tahnee made the commentary so much more interesting.  Someone on PB said that there wouldn’t be semis at future rounds…is that right?

I just watched the whole thing on a website I’ve never heard of thanks to a link in the Pinkbike comment section.

Care to share?

https://streamed.su/watch/downhill-fort-william-uci-mountain-bike-world-series-2024/1

Cheers…. Although it’s a bit late now. Will check the site out next race.

Someone on PB said that there wouldn’t be semis at future rounds…is that right?

You can always rely on PB for bad information. Somebody misinterpreted a pre race conversation during the broadcast about finals being the only run on Sunday.

Watched it on a eurosport stream and there was no commentary although that might have been us?

If it’s the same as last year, you have to select commentary. It defaulted to “ambient” and you have to choose the language you want.

Thanks, It’s my mates account so I’ll let him know that you can indeed have commentary.

I believe the ‘ambient’ noise was not the actual ambient noise of the event but instead recorded ambient noise.  Or maybe everything was just a bit out of sync.

I found putting an NWD Soundtrack playlist on Spotify and then playing that in the background was the best way to watch.

Downtime podcast were bigging up the crowd atmosphere which is in direct contrast to what has been said here.

Do they have mics on the bikes? The cameras are miles away from the bikes and you can hear the tyres and the drivetrain flapping around and stuff.

Or is that the “fake noises” everyone on PB is complaining about?

It’ll be fake noise. The bikes are silent in person. We were marvelling at how quiet they were during friday practice. I’d love to know how their SRAM mechs are rock solid yet mine are like flaccid noodles

I mean the most obvious noises were the tyres pitter pattering over the rocks and gravel not so much shonky derailleurs. It didn’t sound fake but there’s no way it was recorded from where the cameras were mounted.

Putting a microphone on a bike wouldn’t be totally novel. It’s quite common now when filming with drones so you can mute the whining of the motors and rotors and sub in the natural stuff from the bike.

We go for the weekend every year but I’m not sure I’ll go back. It’s a fun weekend with mates still but it isn’t what it was (even fairly recently).

i thought it was quite a bit quieter than the last two years, feel like they’ve shrunk the main arena to compensate for that. The gaps between the big hitters are too big – it might work for tv but sucks the life out of the climax for fans there in person. Bruni’s run was amazing (and maybe the fact that was so obviously going to win contributed) but the noise that greeted it was nowhere near it was for Pierron a couple of years ago.

The format is pish IMO – zero chance of a surprise random privateer impressing the Sunday crowd with the run of their life, tiny female elite field, just way too much dead time.

Unless they’re injured I’m not sure it’s ever a good look to not have the current Elite world champ in the final (Hatton may have been injured but I had the impression it was mechanical on the Saturday?)

Start and finish changes – not using the hut so effectively closing the balcony at the cafe to the public, moving the finish line up the hill so riders were done by the time they entered the arena, new grandstand and screen position obscuring the view for those standing – didn’t help either. Course taping was overly cautious, keeping fans well back in lots of places (although I suspect plenty of riders don’t mind that), constant sponsor namechecking by the (quite poor) arena commentators, none of it added up to a feeling of improving the experience for punters who are now paying quite a lot more for what feels like less.

i know it’s hard times in the industry (absence of freebies for kids at stalls, pits etc tells that story) but it feels like it’s moving in the wrong direction and people have started to vote with their feet.

Didn’t rain though!