[Closed] PSA - World Cup DH at Windham 7.30pm TODAY

I watched last weeks wc race in front of my TV on sat night after a weeks riding in Slovenia. The mrs was out partying and I shouted at the TV when boy rat crossed the line. This sat night my folks and the inlaws and us are going out for dinner. Oh joy

Hoping they show Missy's run, think she qualified 17th without a track walk. Not too shabby.

I'd expect Warner will know how many people are wanting to see that so fingers crossed.

I'll be on a plane. Hope I can catch up tomorrow if the holiday apartment wifi is up to it.
How did Ratboy do in qualifying?

akira
Hoping they show Missy's run, think she qualified 17th without a track walk. Not too shabby.

Whilst i've got to give her a load of respect for getting back on a bike, all that Missys run showed is that the sport of DH has come a long way in 12 years!
Whilst 17th sounds ok, Rach was 37 seconds faster, 37 secs! count em................. Watching Missys qually run, it's quite clear the bike was riding her and not the otherway around.
(ok, she had an off, but that's the thing, you've got to get the bottom on your bike to win.)

So, yeah, great to see Missy backout and having fun, but it would be the same if say Warner came back to do the mens race!

all that Missys run showed is that the sport of DH has come a long way in 12 years!
Whilst 17th sounds ok, Rach was 37 seconds faster, 37 secs! count em

i respectfully disagree, shed only ridden 15 times in the last 10 years or something and shes within 37 secsonds, 3rd place was 10 seconds off!

taking 12 years out from bike riding and still qualifying for a world cup DH race shows that its hardly moved on at all!

She looked like she was pinning it in the fast sections but a bit cautious in the slower technical sections. She also looked knackered. Would love to see what she could do if she went back to riding full time.

Big time gaps are commonplace in the women's races.

I don't think anyone's expecting her to get on the podium but it's a great story.

Perfect...wife away tonight, thanks op

Link to Missy's quali run here. Can't see an embed code sorry...
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-windham-dh-world-cup-missy-giove-qualifyng-run-2015.html

Hands up everyone who reckons they'd have ridden it faster than her.

*keeps hands down*

If missy could get a leg swap before tonight she'd take a hell of a lot out of that time, she just doesn't have the power and no wonder. Proper ride of 2 halves. Remember she doesn't know the track like the regulars either (also read she didn't do trackwalk and only a little practice, don't know how accurate that is though)

That said, if she was going faster she might just end up killing herself, who knows, she looked horrendous through that rhythm section at 1:09 😆

I love a bit of nostalgia, but if that run is worthy of 17th place at the pinnacle of women's DH racing, its not a very good advert for the state of women's DH racing.

Because you could ride it so much better?

Has women's elite DH ever had more than five or six genuine contenders at a given time?

Serious question.

Doesn't help that the teams aren't supporting the women's side of course. Ragot got dropped by Lapierre last year and big teams like SC Syndicate and Trek Factory Racing don't even have any women in DH.

Because you could ride it so much better?

That's kinda missing the point isn't it?

lets be honest , sadly , mtb of nearly all disciplines, more so DH? is >90% blokes

Seems a shame Rachel won the overall series in qualifying, think they need to look at that in the future.

Wife and kids have decided to stay over at MiL's house this eve.

🙂

Seems a shame Rachel won the overall series in qualifying, think they need to look at that in the future.

Yep, I say we make her wear a blindfold for every other race.

After a fortnight of ****ing cricket at work, I've been super excited to watch "my sport" all week. Redbull have proved their worth the past few seasons, Claudio being the best bit of that package. I long for Dirt&Freecaster every time the red bull streamer does its thing though, and particularly think there's a MASSIVE gap for GeeBee media or Cut or anyone to release a proper end of season special.

All that aside, Minaar for the win 'cause it makes my life better when he does.

I love a bit of nostalgia, but if that run is worthy of 17th place at the pinnacle of women's DH racing, its not a very good advert for the state of women's DH racing.

There's a decent number of women showing up to the beer league DH races in Whistler each week, but still dwarfed by the number of blokes turning up. Still, it's a huge improvement over where it used to be and over time these ladies should start to trickle up and we'll have more competition at the top end.

Manon looks fast this week.

Rachel Atherton is just on another level to the rest.

Missy 3rd fastest at the 1min split! Shame she lost it later on.

Blenki is such a classy rider. He must've come off to be that far behind eh?

I hope Brannigan's going to head back up and rebuild all those berms now.

Missy 3rd fastest at the 1min split! Shame she lost it later on.

Where are you seeing that? She had the 3rd highest speed, but was always some way off the pace.

What the F.... 😯

Well I didn't really want him to win, but you can't argue with riding like that.

Mental as usual.

Say what you like about him, but he's brilliant to watch and thoroughly deserved that.

Gutted for Bruni as usual.

That was quite a race, but shit how does he do that?!

It's like he's on a mission from God...

Bloody hell! How does he do that!

amazing racing, gutted for Loic, poor fella looked crushed at the bottom.

The first bit of Gwin. I don't even know. I already saved the gif someone twittered. Brilliant.

Exciting race. Gutted for bruni - though he'd have been 2nd at best.

Brit 1.2.3 in the womens is great to see! I still cannot understand why mainstream media aren't really picking up on britains excellent showing in dh.

because there's no ball involved! :/

Gwin on another level again.

I reckon Bruni will win champs (typical french) after no wins in the w'cups.

I still cannot understand why mainstream media aren't really picking up on britains excellent showing in dh.

Well, primarily because it's a tiny, insignificant minority sport, enjoyed by a tiny, insignificant minority of the population.

No wonder Bruni got a flat, the French would ever use Uncle Ben's..

[url= http://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/PIT-BITS-World-Cup-Windham,9259/Rice-Used-in-Santa-Cruz-Syndicate-Tubeless-Sealant,95394/sspomer,2 ]Syndicate Tubeless solution[/url]

Gwin - sur une autre planète 😆

sur une autre planète

Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting....?

🙂

😉

Had a few average results in 2008, then went away for two years and came back and won everything in 2011, and then dominated ever since? Sound familiar? Next you'll be suggesting Gwin didn't initially reach his full potential because of some parasitic illness.

I'm kidding btw.

Another stunning win. Just a pity the coverage didnt show the top half of the course so we could see where the time was made and lost.

Red Bull, more great coverge - thanks from me

The next s step in v coverage will be a automatically panning cameras. Then we'll be able to superimpose different riders' runs over each other and see where the gain and lose time.

To CFH's point, I suspect that's it but you could say the same about track cycling. The difference I reckon is that DH isn't Olympic but also that it looks a bit easy/rubbish on TV

What an awesome race. I'd love to know what Brosnan could have done without a crash. I might even watch that again, which I think I haven't done since that Val d'Isère race in 2012.

CaptainFlashheart - Member

Well, primarily because it's a tiny, insignificant minority sport, enjoyed by a tiny, insignificant minority of the population.

Even so, things like judo get lots of coverage because we have someone decent and aren't exactly majority sports. I think the non Olympic might be a good point.

Re. Superficial jest.
I did wonder after all the furores over doping in the tdf whether any xc/dh World Cup guys were doing it. I'm guessing the minority aspect probably makes it unlikely

Gwinns qualifying run was faster than everyone else's race run so it seems pretty certain he was going to win when he left the start gate.

Incredible to watch though, the man is on another level

ferrals

Even so, things like judo get lots of coverage because we have someone decent and aren't exactly majority sports. I think the non Olympic might be a good point.

Judo is one of the biggest participant sports in the world.

ferrals

Re. Superficial jest.
I did wonder after all the furores over doping in the tdf whether any xc/dh World Cup guys were doing it. I'm guessing the minority aspect probably makes it unlikely

XC and Enduro racers have been caught. It's probably safe to assume that there will be some in DH doing everything they can to get an advantage.

Thanks for this PSA. I think this, and the MsA one, has got me hooked. No problem watching on the slaptop.

XC and Enduro racers have been caught. It's probably safe to assume that there will be some in DH doing everything they can to get an advantage.

Indeed, but unless there's a product that can help with nerves and mental focus then I guess there's less of a payoff for doping in DH.

On a related note, I wonder if we'll see more racers bulking up for next season to try to hold the kind of lines Gwin takes?

Easy to get hooked on the dh, it's good viewing. Maven my other half looks forward to it. Sadly I can't get her interested in the xc which is my main interest. Been great having them in the evenings the last couple of weekends

Edit. In response to shifters comment.

chakaping

Indeed, but unless there's a product that can help with nerves and mental focus then I guess there's less of a payoff for doping in DH.

Yeah, that's the old argument, but these guys are professional athletes and the sums of money at the top are not to be sniffed at. Sam Hill's Monster Sponsorship alone is rumoured to be in the region of £50kpa. If they are cycling 4-5 times a week on top of weights sessions, plyometrics, etc etc the ability to recover more quickly would be a huge advantage.

Same thing with injury. DH riders are pretty much plagued by them, it's the nature of the sport, p.e.d.s can certainly help speed recovery.

Sure, all the steroids in the world won't make me ride like Aaron Gwin, but if you have two riders of equal skill, and one of them has 10-15% more stamina to the sprint on the last section of a DH course after 3 or 4 minutes of a DH run then that's going to be a huge advantage.

Bas Rutten (UFC legend) always says "steroids won't help your chin" ie. in fighting you can still knock a man out regardless of what he's been taking. The flipside is though that the more alert/fitter fighter can see a shot coming, react more quickly, land shots more accurately and take more punishment. In DH if you're tired towards the end of a run, it'll affect your focus and cause mistakes. Maybe going a bit ot, but it's interesting.

Yes I had been thinking along the lines of recovery and/or pre-season training.

I've previously voiced my idle suspicions about certain racers privately, but it would be grossly unfair (and probably libelous) to repeat them here.

😉

edward2000r
so it seems pretty certain he was going to win

I'm not sure anything is certain in DH! The line between Hero and Zero is vanishingly small, especially on a dry dusty track where the levels of grip and roughness literally change between runs. For reference, see Brannigans race run 😛

^ Agreed, all he had to do was hold on. I said to myself if he doesn't crash he'll win

Another pressing question - what was going on with Warner's beard attempting to cover most of his face?

Is growing your beard halfway up your cheeks "a thing" now?