WC Fort William Spoilers all the way :)

What a weekend. Was very emotional re. Peaty and Smith. The “ghost” run was eerie. I was up at peaty’s bar getting beers when it happened. The silence was humbling.

Overall an amazing weekend. The track was wild. Much respect to everyone involved

Goddamit, red bull highlights keep skipping to the end, anyone else having this issue?

Haven’t been able to make it work all day. Not happy!

cant even find the highlights or replay .

cchrisetc:
here

Looking back at it now, Greg Minnaar’s run created what, in cricketing parlance, is called scoreboard pressure. He had the time posted early and the rest felt the pressure of trying to beat it. Danny Hart could have done it, but he made a bollocks of the wooded section and a few other “1%” errors lost him too much momentum.

You’ve got to take your hat off to Greg Minnaar, though. On the long and rough tracks he is still number one. Fort William, Val Di Sole and Mont St Anne are all tracks where he is the man to beat. On other tracks, he is still there or thereabouts. If you make a mistake, he will be quicker.

Can’t wait for Leogang next week.

I watched the women through the new woods section and all bar Rache and Tracey looked terrified, they all had big dabs, though even quite a few of the men had trouble in there. I initially stood there looking at it thinking “I’m looking forward to having a go at that” Maybe not so much now I’ve seen the big boys struggle with it.
Stevies ghost run brought a tear to my eye, it was complete silence down in the finish area.

Thanks scaredypants .

Theres a good reason they dont show more of the womens – its dismal.

We bow to your prowess. Good to know you can put those little ladies in their place.

fifeandy – Member
Theres a good reason they dont show more of the womens – its dismal. Getting 3rd place with 20s off the pace and a crash, top 10 place for 40s back.

And then it becomes self fulfilling, less sponsorship, less motivation to take women on your team, less opportunity for them to progress and ride at the top level. This is always a track that can spread a thinner field due to the size and scale. The amount of places you could make a mistake was huge.
The men’s race had 13th 10s back that won’t happen on a lot of tracks this year.

Coyote – Member

Theres a good reason they dont show more of the womens – its dismal.

We bow to your prowess. Good to know you can put those little ladies in their place.

Totally misses the point. Red Bull need to attract audiences – watching someone really struggle haltingly down a track they can’t ride is not good ‘telly’. That’s why they don’t show the slower men as well.

I bet even the likes of Rachel Atherton and Manon Carpenter have a bit of them that wishes there was more competition.

Whether or not the poster could ride it himself/herself really doesn’t come into it when you look at it from a pragmatic point of view.

I bet even the likes of Rachel Atherton and Manon Carpenter have a bit of them that wishes there was more competition.

get missy back.

ten years + off a bike and she still made the top 20…

Totally misses the point. Red Bull need to attract audiences – watching someone really struggle haltingly down a track they can’t ride is not good ‘telly’. That’s why they don’t show the slower men as well.

and misses the other point, red bull do a decent amount for sport, read my post above agree or disagree? Will there be more competition if you don’t show the womens event?

I am the only one who thought this sites coverage of the what is arguably the biggest mtb event in the UK was all a bit amateur and poor. I had to go to PinkBike to get the results and decent report with quality photos.

With the women I do wonder at times if they had a slightly different course in places, that would allow them to race, rather just try and stay on. I’m sure in skiing they have different courses (I could be wrong on this point mind).

It amazes me, with all the TV channels,there are and all the crap that does get shown (who actually watches WWE? its all over Sky bloody Sports! and Fencing, baseball!! lacrosse! darts gold, yes old darts matches!!) that there’s no place for the World Cup on tv.

It amazes me every year that the mainstream press totally ignore the event, what other World spanning event happens every year and where a relatively small nation such as ours has so many top competitors? Yet the coverage of Andy “The Bridesmaid” Murray is huge. Anyway **** em I enjoyed it as did my weans and those belonging to MattOAB.

I find red bull coverage pretty decent, I also wish that they would show more of the women’s, I agree they have to promote it more in order to get the standard of competition a bit closer, if you don’t want to watch an extra 5 women racing tune in 10 mins later.

What really **** me off with redbull is how **** idiotic the site layout is trying to find the live downhill (or xc). How hard can it be for a company that sinks that much money in to make a more user friendly interface. It actually puts me off ever going on the site to look for anything else interesting, there is probably stuff there I would watch, but finding it shouldn’t be a challenge.

dannyh – Member

Coyote – Member
Theres a good reason they dont show more of the womens – its dismal.

We bow to your prowess. Good to know you can put those little ladies in their place.
Totally misses the point. Red Bull need to attract audiences – watching someone really struggle haltingly down a track they can’t ride is not good ‘telly’. That’s why they don’t show the slower men as well.

I bet even the likes of Rachel Atherton and Manon Carpenter have a bit of them that wishes there was more competition.

Whether or not the poster could ride it himself/herself really doesn’t come into it when you look at it from a pragmatic point of view.[/quote]

I’m glad someone got it.
A 40s spread across the top 10 is not in any way close racing or entertaining.

Regarding the quality – lets just say; Gee face planted and took it easy thereafter and would have won the womens race. Guitierrez had a semi flat rear and coasted down half the course – also would have won.

For the record – i’m a mincer, i’d most likely soil myself trying to ride a WC DH track. If by some miracle I made it to the bottom the batteries in the timing clock would long since have expired.

With the women I do wonder at times if they had a slightly different course in places, that would allow them to race, rather just try and stay on.

Most of the male riders were hanging on for dear life through that wooded section (great addition), still racing though.
I’m def on Mike’s side with all this. The women need to exposure to grow the sport and the format of showing the top 5 works well for me. It also ends up highlighting how Atherton is a step above the rest. Especially now Ragot retired. Carpenter can throw in some great lines and is willing to take risks. Seagrave is raw but could be matching Atherton soon as she gets more experience. Hannah is a solid rider and will be nipping at Athertons heels if she makes a mistake.

I never watch the womens expecting the same speed as the mens, that would be daft as they are just physically smaller, but they can still pull some awesome skills out. Athertons line through the rock garden at Mont-St-Anne last year was right up there with the men

Anyway… That was a stonking WC DH
– Greg’s class
– Gwinn didn’t win
– Some different faces pushing to the top 10
– Peaty’s last run
– The Ghost lap (welled up)
– That crowd
– Gee finishing his run despite how banged up he was

Virtually ignoring the womens event isn’t the way to raise the standard though. I think they should cover more of the womens race, and combine the women’s points with the mens for a manufacturers championship (3 highest finishers with a max of 2 finishers counting from each sex at each race).

Who was it who had the big crash after over rotating on the final jump?

Who was it who had the big crash after over rotating on the final jump?

George Branningan

replays are here: http://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1KR6H1G411W11/uci-mountain-bike-world-cup

My red bull replay worked great last night on the ap.

Great event, weird seeing it so dry.

Atmosphere was electric, had a great feel to it as it usually does at Fort William.

I agree with comments above, when sports such as diving, or fencing make the sports news, Rachel Atherton’s success for Britain/England deserves much more mainstream news/coverage. People riding bikes fast down a hill is something that most people can relate to even if they don’t like bikes.

I can see both sides of the argument about the womens races, but personally I think it is not much of a spectacle as far as racing is concerned. I am not denigrating them in any way. Carpenter and Atherton and a couple of the others are amazing mountain bike riders. Not amazing women mountain bike riders, just amazing riders full stop. But seeing the top three or four having a mini-event all to themselves is not compelling from the competition point of view.

I like the idea of a constructors championship. You might even see some teams with a greater number of women riders if they perceive it to be easier to gain points that way.

Maybe Red Bull need to stick to the current relatively polished programme with a bit of build up, features, preview, top 5 ladies and then the top 30 or so men (however many it was they showed). After all if they showed everything it would be a 3-4hr programme. But then also give the option for those that want it of watching the live coverage of women’s, men’s and maybe even the Jnr’s, maybe without commentary for the early riders – bit like they do for some events on the BBC red button.

Special mention to the random guy that tried to sell me a V10 at the Santa Cruz tent. Half way through his very convincing sales pitch he paused and said

“I’m absolutely off my tits”

😆

Watched this last night so catching up on the comments, Gregs run was amazing, as was Adam Braytons but for a totally different reasons – great contrast of styles.
If you ignore the massive rocks, the huge drops (Did Gregs wheels even touch the ground on the drop before the steps at the end?) the ridiculous jumps and rooty twisty stuff, if you remove all that – I still don’t understand how the hell they get round the corners so fast. Thinks it’s probably the biggest skill that separates the average riders from the good ones.

I still don’t understand how the hell they get round the corners so fast. Thinks it’s probably the biggest skill that separates the average riders from the good ones.

I reckon its the biggest difference in terms of time gaps to be sure.

Whenever you listen to an interview with Steve Peat about his runs, he always nearly mentions ‘carrying speed’ – most of the time more than once. Good cornering is (I think) the single biggest way to hold speed – after all, there are often upwards of 100 corners on a DH track but maybe only two or three rock gardens.

Can’t wait for Leogang next week.

Always have to read it twice, always read Legoland the first time.

Whenever you listen to an interview with Steve Peat about his runs, he always nearly mentions ‘carrying speed’

I know my problem is corners, that and braking for jumps….

As a Brit and always supporting the underdog 🙂 , it really hurt to watch Eddie come off.
Also – after the previous 2 rounds, seeing Greg back at the top was amazing.

Great run by Danny Hart – the commentators seemed to think that only a win was good for him, but seeing him finish consistency this year is really pleasing.

Whether or not the poster could ride it himself/herself really doesn’t come into it when you look at it from a pragmatic point of view.

+1

We watched the 4x, and had the same thought as others have had with the DH. With the exception of a couple of lady riders the rest looked terrified.

One of the most emotional days of my life, was totally exhausted at the end.

Let’s not forget Mr. Martyn Ashton. Hero.