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I know it’s only seeding at a national but I think it’s a very real possibility that Jackson might just wipe the floor with the elite field this year.
https://www.thredbo.com.au/event-results/2023/cannonball-mtb-festival-p…
Edit: same link and general astonishment as the post above.
race is on GCN+ tonight starting around 6pm PST. that said there could be a storm rolling in and it may not go ahead at all.
"The chance of a thunderstorm during the morning and afternoon, possibly severe. Winds northwesterly 35 to 55 km/h tending westerly 20 to 30 km/h in the evening then shifting east to southeasterly 15 to 20 km/h in the late evening."
Great minds and fools as they say.
I dont think he's going to dominate, this is a stacked field but there's no Amaury, Loic, Finn or anybody else who's a consistent threat to win a World Cup DH.
That would suck, thumbs down. Forgive me if this is an intrusion, but I imagine by your user name that you two are related?
Coulanges in 10th begs to differ.
No for sure I hear you on that front but if we can’t jump to wild conclusions on here then where?
Unfortunately but incredibly I do not like what they are doing with EWS.
Shortening the competition - not so long ago they had 6-8 sections each and two days of fighting. True endurance.
Locations becoming more and more bike park-like, more and more hard-paved heavily artificial trails. What follows is less natural.
I bet access to videos and photos, reports, etc. will be severely limited. And if you want it, pay dearly. I'm not saying it will be bad but there will probably be exorbitant payment for something that will be nothing special.
Not to mention this reduction in the number of events in which you can earn qualifying points. Pointless.
But let's hope I'm at least half wrong on these things.
Coulanges finished 2022 in 9th and hasn't won a World Cup DH, sure he's come close but he's also been down the standings, too. But, what do I know, Jackson may just well be the next coming of DH superstar.
He’s my nephew.
Well I certainly hope both you and he are feeling the love; besides being what seems to be a humble and well-adjusted young man, he's clearly got a big fanbase already (*raises hand excitedly) and a crazy bright future. Well done to the fam!
pretty impressive from Goldstone to Quali first. The track isn't hard technically at all (I still eat shit atleast once a year on it though lol) it's just long and physically demanding more than anything.
The wind will play mayhem, more for the chairlift than anything. Get them up there early before it comes howling through.
Wish I went this year in hindsight, always a good time and with such a stacked field would have been some good spectating this year.
Edit - Chairlift on Windhold
might be a case of seeding been final results, therefore Remy Meir Smith taking the Aussie sleeve!
Wind meant they didn't do the first minute of track (including the crazy fast fire road section)
Luke got the Aussie Sleeve, was on the hot seat all afternoon, Pipped by Goldstone on the last run. God damn that kid is fast!
It might only be a national level event but on the other hand, he was up against local pros who know the course inside-out.
Not sure if this counts as a team rumour, but I wonder if the Canyon enduro team will be ditching the Strive this year? All their recent testing posts have shown them on spectrals
That's maybe more of a tech rumor, but Jesse hinted at a new bike that's coming (or at least a smaller front triangle for him) so I'm wondering if the new rig (if it's out there) is more based on the Spectral than Strive.
In other news, Sam Hill placed 18th. Not bad considering it's a stacked field and his first DH race since getting injured in Cairns last October.
i can see canyon adjusting the Sizing on the strive.
Even the Medium is huge(comparing to other brands size large.) - they've been watching far to much paul aston
I can see Jesse on a SM (small medium, a size in between)
Im 6ft and ive ridden a friends 2023 Medium strive... its surprisingly big... 1262 wheel base is quite big - however i did feel quite centerd over the bike. - i would never consider the large at my height
Just finished watching the full Aus DH National Champs on Discovery/Eurosport/GCN+. I sincerely hope that wasnt the "test broadcast" that Chris Ball talked about on the downtime podcast...
If they watched too much Paul Aston they would have given it 500mm chainstays as well instead of the 430ish that it has now.
I used to like the guy but insisting that every single brand (except maybe Banshee?) has wrong bike geometry turned me a bit off from his channel.
sorry for the OT
All suspension is utter hot shit as well apart from Manitou RRT forks and Cane Creek RRT shocks.
Aston is an extremely self-assertive, provocative, insufferable and overall not very intelligent person.
He's seriously claiming that the frame he designed himself is, unequivocally, the single best mountainbike in existence - at every discipline. Better than literally everything else ever, made by any manufacturer.
That should tell you all you need to know about him.
I like reading his stuff. Do I agree with it all? Maybe not, but it makes me think differently about other reviews and my own experience/assumptions. For me those are a couple signs of a good journalist.
I like some aspects of his work like exposing durability problems and trying to optimize bikes for a preferred riding style but his custom bikes are downright stupid. Look like they would suck ass to ride and just suck all the fun out of riding. A good portion of his opinions are dogshit though and I think he’s shooting himself in the foot by being so self righteous, would probably have a bit more success if he went back to his channels original goal (honest long term reviews) instead of trying to create the exact bike he wants to ride to suit his lanky ass and telling everyone it’s the best geometry every.
Wind wasn't the real reason for shortening the track. It was Auscycling saying that they couldn't crown a national champion if an Aussie didn't go under the 5 minute maximum time that is in the UCI DH rules. Remy was fastest Aussie in quali with a 5:02. There had been a lot of changes made to the track in the lead up to speed it up and get times down but it wasn't quite enough.
I had a few beers with one of the commissaires after the race and he wasn't real happy with a lot of the decisions that were made.
They could have run from the bottom of the fire road like most Thredbo DH races, but they chopped it all the way to the top of Snakes and Ladders
Finals got cancelled for everyone but under 17, under 19 and Elite due to the chairlift being on wind hold for most of the day. I'm happy they managed to squeeze in what they did. It was an epic afternoon of racing.
Wyn Masters says goodbye to 100% Percent
https://www.instagram.com/p/Co24p-utJdX/
Didn't have access to any of the broadcasts or streaming options.
What didn't the coverage get right? Were the commentators bad? Were there enough cameras to see the whole course?
Completely unrelated to anything that Discovery are doing. This was the national federation / national broadcaster operating on what I imagine was a very tight budget. As a punter it was good to be able to watch rather than just see things after the fact on social media but it is completely removed from WC coverage
The test event is in Lourdes, end of April.
That's pretty much why I stopped following his content. Ironically, I actually share some of his opinions on geometry. But I just can not stand his insufferably smug attitude.
transition factory racing is here
https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/transition-factory-racing-here
Post a reply to: 2023 TEAM RUMORS