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Well that's the difference between pros and us mere mortals.
If the missus finds out I go riding when I "can't do household work" I'll have more problems than just my shoulder 😅
Fully support hackers unhinging a moped.
The amount of people butthurt about e-bike racing is cringy. I actually like how most enduro formats are adapting it to allow for technical climbs and descents.
I DON'T like that course makers are just punting the regular enduro crowd to the same tracks. Seems like that's part of the rider feedback as well.
"As I said, the timing was a test for 2025. They need to measure the liaison time for e-bikes..."
So I was way too busy this last week and change and missed this bit. What is going on in '25?
Anyone willing / able to hack eeb brains would tell you you’re better served with mechanical sabotage…or going Gilooley on your rivals.
I think it's a reference to the rumors about EDR going ebike-only next year...
Correct. Racers are learning it's to be replaced with e-.
That's why you see Richie and Jack on big bikes, Makes talking about it (probably doing it), etc.
It's no coincidence several teams pulled the cord last year, that yeti now put out a dh bike, etc etc etc.
I even thing Isab Cord is gonna spend that year off to spend time on the DH.
Can anyone present a case for the legitimacy of E-bike racing's existence? e-bikes have their place in the consumer market and as training tools, but I don't see the point in giving every racer the same consistent advantage. It's like if every car in mario kart has the same power-up for the entire race.
The racing remains the same but slightly faster and with more mechanical complexity and higher chances of bike failure. The only cool thing about e-enduro is the uphill stages, and even then not a single soul actually follows these events.
enduro seemed a supply-side endeavor, people racing the bikes we buy. Now we’re buying ebikes. It’s the same (as you said).
That's correct. EDR was on Saturday and E-EDR was on sunday.
I am currently in Finale and it was hot on the weekend, I saw several of the group A girls going up the hill to the start of Stage 2 and they were pedaling at a pace I don't want to do the whole day with the weather.
I can totally understand their complaints and that the race was hard with the conditions.
Well, generally speaking, people like racing things with wheels: bikes, motorbikes, cars in all forms of events (drag, drift, track, road...).
I have done a few ebike races including one E-EWS, basically the only difference with a normal EWS/EDR is the ability to do 2x the climbing and thus way more stages. The round I did was 3k climbing on race day and both training days ahead of time.
I also did some local enduro races which had an ebike class, those are a lot less interesting as you end up doing too little riding.
Isabeau said in the press conference in Finale that she is planning to have a child next year, that's why she won't race 2025
There are some, but they're usually quite unique events.
The epic at Olargues has elimination cut offs, so miss the time and you're out. But it's the equivalent to three enduros back to back in a day.
Cllctv Enduro team (Jesse and Jack) had their bikes stolen outside Vienna. Canyon will definetely get them all set for the race, but this is the second week of high profile bike theft after a race. Maybe we need a bike theft update thread.
Regarding tight liaison times: I think people are lacking context following other racing disciplines, especially road racing. In road racing, what determines the cream of the crop who race the Tour de France (World Tour) vs others (Pro Tour) is endurance and durability. The World Tour racers can hold 85-90% of their FTP for 6+ hours and end a race sprinting near their max, whereas Pro Tour racers see a much higher rate of degradation in power output over the same length of time.
Similarly, the EDR racers who had issues making the Finale times are simply not as fit and their placings show that.
The racers at the top of the sport are extremely aerobically fit. Richie has an FTP of 350; the average MTB rider probably can barely hold 200 watts for 20 minutes. For this race you can check Jessie's Strava and see he spent the majority of his riding at endurance/tempo pace. Jessie probably has a similarly high FTP and when he rides with pro gravel and road cyclists, he can hang with the pack for 5+ hours.
Mountain biking is an aerobic endurance sport, full stop. Anything over 1 minute in length is aerobic, so this includes downhill racing. Heck even Finn Iles has an FTP of 300+. Fact is, your favorite DH racer at the top could strap on lycra and do well in XC as well.
My theory as to why juniors are so fast these days is that the professionalization of the sport and bigger pay packages are attracting aerobically gifted talent that would have been otherwise drawn to other sports that in the past were comparatively more lucrative.
Boggles my mind that people who are so against E-bike enduro racing (which would make aerobic fitness less important) want to make these races easier so that less aerobically fit riders aren't as disadvantaged.
At the end of the day, liaisons like these should not feel like marathon MTB to these racers. I can see an argument for longer liaison times for the women's field though, seeing as their overall FTPs and w/k are probably lower.
In pedal sports where the advantages of fitness & talent are microscopic, I still can't see the motor being an even leveling of the playing field for the elite.
Richie is punished in battery-enduro because he has the same "output": motor as his competitor.
A woman who is slender can be punished equally.
The mopeds have a sweet spot for rider (they should be called jockeys) weight to power ratio. Above or below that threshhold, your competitors quite literally have an easier race.
It is quite literally the most unequal sport I can think of.
Richie’s problem would be the harder he pedals the more frequently the motor shuts off. The lighter you are and your ability to maintain speed while managing effort is the key to e-bike racing.
People downvoting but not saying why.
Losers.
Yeah, I don't understand the down vote to a fact.
So what you are saying is that there is an art to e-bike racing???
I think it is fair to say that it is just as hard to win an e-bike race as it is any other type of racing. Why wouldn't it be? But that's beside the point.
Just hopped on Fantasy (didn't do 1st round). Just gotta say props to the guys who built up the format on here. Much easier to use system than the other site's fantasy selection.
Just as long as your fitness directly correlates to the perfect power to weight ratio and the battery is charged to it's peak perfection
Does anyone else think that the new Dreadnought might be showing itself to be a subpar race bike, especially for Europe? Both Emmy Lan and Rhys Verner have fallen off in the first two rounds compared to last year. My uninformed speculation is that the chainstays might be too long for an all-around enduro race bike, especially on the larger sizes. If I were them I would be back on the Druid yesterday.
Anyone know what going on with Tyler Waite? No posts on his Instagram since Fort Bill and wasn’t on start list (I don’t think).
Word on the street is that he was part of the media crew for Yeti at Finale, crashed and broke his wrist...Bummer for sure.
The bike does not make that much of a difference
Having watched John Kirkcalide win on a 26" Rocky Mtn RM9 w/ a 24" rear wheel & 3.0 Gazzalodi tire, I can confirm that it is ACTUALLY the rider at this point. If you're off the pace on anything branded w/ legit components, it's you, not the bike.
So Gwin has a broken foot now!? I’m not sure he intended for it to be announced by Warner Brothers and Kate Mason. This has got to mean he doesn’t make it back this year at all.
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