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The ORDA race will be xc only. Remember ORDA is an agency of the state of New York, and they absolutely have zero interest in mtb downhill, as a sport or a recreational activity.
Hopefully the state will prove me wrong and hire some people to build a nice world cup dh track real quick-like next year, hahaha.
Would be a big surprise to see Lake Placid/Whitefish on the schedule. DH Mike...you lurking?
He was pretty adament that he pushed every day all day for a World Cup there but that the wealthy elite of the mountain were super dismissive.
I remember that 8 minute race weekend, he held a DH race followed by a chainless DH. Gerrit Beytagh won both...only 4 seconds slower chainless. The pics & video of that mountain were amazing looking. Could fire road down to get a start hut of 3 minutes.
But pretty sure that's just not happening because rich people.
And yes, NO Snowshoe next year. All the teams know it. Not a rumor.
New country will be hosting one next year. That's confirmed as well.
Mt Van Hoevenburg accidentally let it slip on their website. September 25-29, 2024. There is no info anywhere else on it but hopefully there is one for us northeast riders to watch. They could do it at Whiteface, Van Ho, or Gore maybe? There aren't any trails that are in though right now.
I've heard Lake Placid as well. I was hoping for Bromont again too but seems not next year.
is lake placid XC only? have heard as much, but also no confirmation about it.
sept 28/29 (which lake placid is saying they aree having a world cup) is on the uci pre calendar as being DHI/EDR. If XCO was added that would be the 12th round on the calendar, The XCM World Champs is also the weekend in Snowshoe, don't know how that would effect XCM teams.
In an after race interview, Loris Vergier was expressing how glad he is that he won't have to return next year to race Snowshoe, as he compared it to a very long and flat Enduro stage, and not a proper steep downhill. I was at Snowshoe for the DH World Cup and overheard some UCI guys say something similar at one of the restaurant bars while I was having a beer. And while the link is apparently dead now, I took this screengrab.
https://mtvanhoevenberg.com/todo/uci-mountain-bike-world-cup/
Rumors are abounding apparently......
Did anyone else notice on the preliminary schedule that there is only 2 DH rounds sharing a weekend with XCO. Every other round it is just a DHI/EDR round, XC being on a different weekend. Wonder if that will have any impact on logistics (e.g., Fox/SRAM trucks).
FWIW Jordi (Fox) said the XC riders almost *never* come by the Fox pits at races (but he wishes they would).
Was also contemplating the TV coverage implications of different venues/weekends. With the EDR coverage being absolute trash this year, does this show a decreased focus on the DH races? The pessimist in me is worried some genius decided to put their perceived "losers" together on the same weekend, have even worse coverage and show that they don't generate the views that an XCO weekend does.
Alternatively, this could mean that we get racing back on Sundays.
EDIT: Also potentially means that DH is no longer held to places that have to have space for an XC race, so no more venues that have a long flat area to traverse to get to a finish arena (I recall a few places like Canberra or PMB had wonky routing to accommodate this).
Odd that such a flat, boring "Enduro stage of a track" a) delivers one of the most exciting and unpredictable races every year, b) takes more of a toll on both riders and bikes than pretty much any other venue, and c) based on comments on WynTV has the best, most knowledgeable fans. Definitely seems like you'd want to avoid that place
or it could be putting the 2 gravity races together so it attracts a like minded crowd. people will stay for both days.
It really is amazing how narcissistic Euro DH racers are. They train all winter long to be the fittest nerds on 2 wheels & on the weekend it comes down to being the fittest, they whine. For crying out loud, I've sprinted that whole mountain on a muddy weekend with a fresh course & passed bike design company owners walking in their race runs.
There are so FEW mountains on this planet that want to host a seething mass of downhill riders. Pits taking up space Tuesday to Monday with massive rigs & specific needs. Hiring a monstrous staff to assist. Feeding them. Shutting down all other operations.
And then we get the fittest athletes our sport has to offer, traveling the world over, complaining that the sprints and the off camber and the rocks are too much stress. How can we be such a hardcore sport & yet have our best racers dump on the tracks, the venues, the travel, the facilities...you name it.
I want the guy who stands in front of the mic, looks at the camera and says "I'll race anybody anywhere in a storm or sand. Bring it on. I've worked my butt off to walk on people and I'll do it next week too."
You are a troll, right ?
You think a niche sport like ours should have our top guys bagging on hard tracks that make them pedal & ride intellugently with finesse & tactics rather than Bruni in his mega aerodynamic unobtainium Dyneema wind tunnel outfit that takes 3 people to pull him into so he can ski race down a Euro slope after 2 pedal strokes?
Butch makes a very good point about how Snowshoe shuts down their entire operation to accommodate all of us, the race teams, the TV crews etc…
I agree that there are probably very few resorts in the US who are willing to commit to hosting a race for 3-4 years let alone one race.
I’m so grateful to Snowshoe for bringing the circus to town these past four years. it’s such a small venue you get such intimate access to the riders, mechanics, support staff and media. I will miss it next year.
I saw Loris’ interview on WynTV as well and one point he made that got lost here is that he was wrecked from having to do two full race runs in a two hour time window because of the semi final format.
it would be interesting to hear his opinion if we went back to a qualies and one race run format. I think he would still dislike the track but Bernie loved it. I think in the end it boils down to personal preference.
As much as I cringe (they scare the shit out of me; case in point Deano’s crash in practice) when I watch the pros fly down the hill at any venue I think there should be variety in the tracks. I can see Loris’ point about the low overall % grade of Snowshoe but it makes the overall title mean something if a rider can score points at a variety of tracks.
Maybe Snowshoe will build a new DH track in the next few years and we’ll all get to go back. In the meantime, I’ll be heading back out there to ride before closing weekend to savor the memories that were made.
😳
It’s just Loris’ opinion. My guess is that every racer has a least favorite track.
It is a flat track, and you are allowed to think that this is not what is good for the sport you are at the top of, no ? If you go extreme, why not add the sea otter to a world cup, it is still downhill in the end. Yet it is not what I or Loris think downhill should be. Some guys might even like Sea otter track, it doesn't make it a good downhill track.
And this season Bruni is the fastest on all the flat sectors, so he doesn't need straight ski slopes, he needs flat tracks...
The main problem with Snowshoe is that it is really dangerous, 17 DNS in quali in the mens ! That's way too much in my opinion. You can have a bit of pedalling, but making slippery rock gardens before flat sections is sending the athletes to the hospital, and puting big berms in the middle of flat sections when you could go straight and avoid big pedalling sections in the middle is also a few things that could be done to improve this snowshoe track. It is not that bad, it is just not the best, and not safe to ride at full speed.
Anyway we will not get there next year, so Loris is safe now :-)
Im with loris, flat tracks suck
All types of racing on enclosed courses need to have variety and it can’t be the same venues year after year. New venue first year means less advantage for those who have raced it 100 times. Then when they come back, most people have some experience but it’s still different. You also need a few of the classics right? Tracks with history, racer favorites, experienced hosts. Different riders, organizers, hosts, mechanics all will have a different opinion
We still have MSA, in OCTOBER. Pretty sure the forecast has rain. Wonder what racer consensus will be like over there.
the experts on this thread would say that this was planned to give advantage to the euro-narcissistic racers that ride under rain and cold, conspiracy from organizers to also make the UK riders feel at home ; )
The old Whiteface courses would be in no way World Cup caliber. They would need to start from scratch. They traversed the mountain back and forth a ton anyway. If they need to meet the time requirements they could have an amazing course that just came down the fall line of the mountain. Very possible. The top half would be STEEP. Then the bottom 1/3 would flatten out a bunch but they could do some open grass turns with some big jumps or something to get to the bottom a little faster. I’ve always thought that they could have an amazing World Cup track there. But I am a little biased.
From the looks of what people are saying it doesn’t sound like it will be a DH event anyway. The State of NY just invested a ton of money into updating the facilities at Mt VanHovenberg. It’s where they hosted XC skiing, Biathalon, Luge and Bobsled Olympic events in 1980 and still regularly host World Cup events for the sliding sports. It would be a great venue for XCO and XCC. I don’t think they have much for bike trails at the moment but it wouldn’t be too much of a challenge to build something out for those races.
I haven’t lived there in 20 years but I still have a lot of connections to the area. I’ll see if I can find anything out.
Surely the DHI would have to be on the Whiteface Mountain location. The Van Hoevenberg hill has got only 250m elevation? which would make for another flat DH course...
As you know WHITEFACE was my old stomping ground. And that 5K DH run was the sh*t for sure. That would be the hardest track ever for a UCI DH race hands down. If it is Mount Van Hoevenberg that is near the ski jumps and would only be an XC race for sure. I do not think there will be any DH for the US next year according to the schedule.
Mt. Van Hoevenberg is for sure XC only. Whiteface used to do DH and it was for sure legit. Was my old stomping ground 20ish years ago. I did a jersey with my last business for the bike park before they shut down with Mike.
I remember Whiteface would also do a Chainless DH race after the regular DH race, some of the pro's one year actually had faster times on the Chainless run. I think the top times were around 7:40 - 8mins.
Listen guy. I can tell you've never been to Snowshoe. It's not flat in the slightest.
It's 1430 feet of elevation drop in a mile and a half.
It's freaking HARD to race. There is room to have a better World Cup track there.
But it's not mandatory. DH World Cup racers putting in a 5-8 second sprint just above the Wild Zone is NOTHING.
The sprint isn't even on flat ground. Vouilloz would laugh at it.
SnowShoe is HARD.
Benoit falling on flat ground breaking his scaphoid had nothing to do with the track. He put his hand out.
Deano hitting a tree wasn't a problem with the course.
Hauser hitting a tree wasn't a problem with the course.
People falling on open ski slope in their race runs on dry ground wasn't the course
GM flatting for the 4th time was not the course
Goldstone flatting wasn't the course.
Junior men casing the V rock wasn't the course.
We are ONE race away from the overall. The money ends next week.
The contracts end.
The bonuses are RIGHT THERE.
The Semi-Finals are STUPID.
The wrecks. The frustration. The injuries. ALL b/c it's year end and it's all on the line. Future. Money. Bonus. Championship. Protected status in 2024. Contracts.
You're so far off.
Been to Snowshoe for the last two WC DHs, and my legs know from hiking up and down there that it certainly isn't flat, but all the racers there rank it as one of the 'flatter' courses, as there's lots of pedally sections (makes Loris ever so tired!). Certainly not the smoothest (Andorra), but it could possibly tie Les Gets as the roughest for rocks (well, maybe not this year's dirt inilled Les Gets).
Rode Whiteface back in the 90's and it definitely has the elevation, rocks, roots, etc. to set the stage for a great DH WC, but we'll just have to see. Sad about Snowshoe off the menu for '24 as it is only a 5 1/2 hour drive from Michigan (Whiteface is 10 hours thru Canada!), but I'll prolly make the trek anyway next year. The vibe is too much fun to miss out on, and hopefully the new venue will work out.
And yes, semis suxx!!!! (fock GCN+ too)
I think you should know something : Samwell is the team manager of dorval. So I think he knows a thing or two about downhill racing.
And Patrice afflalet (Scott team manager) says pretty much the same thing on a french forum.
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