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Lad is still on pace even when things not going perfectly. I'm watching that name next round. Tired of missing that fantasy pick.
Which sadly means RiP to all the Lachy fans, once I pick a rider they're in for a hugey
Connor came 22nd in finals at his last race (Fort William) but hasn't raced a DH world cup since (DNF in Finale enduro but who didn't).
Sort of the nature of the beast, they really try to get back to racing as soon as they can because if you have a string of injuries with not much results you are sort of sent to obscurity pretty quickly and left without a ride when you contract is up.
I meant to say...4 or more seconds.
Sven told Amaury that he thought his winning margin was the modern equivalent of Kovarik's 14+ seconds at Ft. Bill in 2002:
Disagree. 14 Seconds. Been on track with Kovarik & old manned it on track with Pierron.
From the second Amaury hit SRAM team camp at WindRock, it was on. Oobviously the most talented & fastest racer since Gwin. No question.
But Kovarik did what no one has or will do again. He was on a 2 season tear that only rear wheels exploding could stop.
Then & now, 2nd is separated from 5th by the EXACT SAME MARGIN. 3 seconds. Gap from 2nd to 8th...7 seconds. Then & Now
Here's the Roots & Rain direct comparison. Note that the timeline for Kovarik has to demonstrate a 5 second gap.
Human beings don't change much over time.
The time gaps in 2002 from 2nd to 8th being the same as 2024 should be proof enough to put that comparison to bed.
Hope that adds context.
Best Wishes,
Karver & Pierronator FanBoi
Still too nuanced. The elite field is way deeper and way more trained now. Just like almost everything else, like supercross. You don't really get to be a semi-muscular party animal who rocks up to the hut and takes first these days.
And a lot of times the tracks are getting short and bike parky to create tighter racing... Although that doesn't describe VDS at all. And then of course modern bikes. Not only are they clearly better BUT they are significantly better for outlier body types.
I'm still DEFINITELY not gonna say those 2 runs are comparable. And I'd still say given the track and conditions there is no run better than Danny's in 2011. But... I could see those being the top 3. It's hard to not be biased on Danny's run given the commentary... But play it on mute and it's still an outrageous ride. It makes no sense. Watch every other rider and they look hungover or something. He made the worlds best look like children.
I think this 2012 Val di Sole run ranks above the others mentioned. Dry conditions and Aaron blew the field out. Aaron shocked the competition with moto level commitment to training for 2011 so the rest of the field seemed to have picked up the dedication in the off season and all moved up in preparedness but he still put a whooping on them this day.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event688/2012-jun-3-uci-world-cup-dh-2-val…
Aaron's wins are crazy. The Windham run. The chainless run. The wet run in MSA. And yes, that one of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEoamTgGhDQ
And of course his 2011 and 2012 record are insane. Has anybody come closer to a perfect season than his 2011? (Ignoring champs we're just gonna ignore champs for now ahem)
I forgot about the shorts!
I realize the Supercross analogy may not be the best right now. btw Happy belated Father's Day to Jett Lawrence for daddying the entire 450 field.
Also Chase Sexton just did that 'once in a lifetime' last to first kinda ride. So wow my MX analogy REALLY not great this year lol. I dunno maybe it still works...
Moto rocks. You're fine.
Would love to see Jett not being wet nursed & frat boy protected by his older brother.
But still...Chase got loose last week. Stuffing the forks steeper this week for moto 2 after sight lap was nuts.
Can't imagine seeing Finn drop his forks in the stanchions at the start of a World Cup final after semis.
Dude needs to get out of his own head and as his buddy said last week, stop bitching & just learn to ride what you got.
It's up there for sure. 2nd through 8th stuffed into a 2 second margin.
But Kovarik on flats having to stomp the motorway adds a whole other amazement to his feat. No other flat pedal racer has beaten the field on a track with that massive of a sprint. AND...it was a muddy, rainy sprint down that motorway. Imagine how fast that son of bisch was going in the other parts of the track and the power he laid down in the mud on that dead flat motorway.
And all this fitness level crap is getting old. STOP trying to say racers now are fitter, more disciplined, better athletes who drink less.
The pits are full of people getting shlt faced every weekend after wins. Then and now. The Alien was the only well publicized uber clean racer back when & Gwin now.
Tomac stomped a mud hole in the cleanest riders on the planet and pounded the beers. The access to fitness and the commitment to it in the 2000's was just as precise as it is now. Polar heart rate monitors were used across the board.
VO2 max studies were well into 2 decades of use. Nathan Rennie stomped the world at Sea Otter on a Yeti DH9 & flats. Mike King did too.
Nobody in this generation of racer is a better animal than back then. Lopes, King, Carter, Bootes in slalom...they might still win today for fokks sake if they weren't granddads.
TB was still a junior that race & his ride was about 4th for the day. As equally epic ride. Danny & TB were the only 2 that hit the rad drop off gap that day.
"Still too nuanced. The elite field is way deeper and way more trained now. Just like almost everything else, like supercross. You don't really get to be a semi-muscular party animal who rocks up to the hut and takes first these days"
Bullshit. Mik Hannah & GM did the same shit back then they've done in recent years. World Cup racers in the 2000's were as elite as they come. Don't buy the hype of the drunken sailor stuff.
Napalm at his peak was training more, eating clean & working his butt off to be the best. Please stop acting like training is some art form now versus then.
Elite then is just as elite as now. "...way more trained" is recency bias & complete fiction.
All sports have gotten more professional, especially the non traditional "stick and ball" sports, and because of that the entire field is significantly better than it used to be. Margins are tighter and there's just more "capital from investors" looking for a return on said investment.
And even if these guys were training just as hard "back then" as they do now, their training wasn't nearly as effective as the sport specific training top level athletes have access to now. A lot of this has to do with advances in sports science and performance, but also the equipment meant to track output and exercise load. Between power meters, improvements in strength training weight formulas, and improvements in understanding of nutrition, athletes now can be much more focused and efficient with their time in the gym and on the bike. Athletes in all disciplines across all sports are just better than they were 10-20 years ago.
Grand tour times are faster, XC races are closer with more gnarly courses, WC DH winning margins are closer, EDR is still.... Richie Rude.
No one is diminishing the previous generations contribution to the sport, but times have changed and that's just a fact.
Meh... This is gonna go off the rails again, isn't it? Dang it.
Gonna have to rip down my days since calendar:
Beyond that in mtbing that first generation only had to compete against themselves. The second generation only really had to compete against themselves (other than Greg and peaty) and most of them only started riding and racing mtbs as teens in pretty small fields. Now you have kids who grew up riding and racing modern bikes in large fields of riders and or developed mtb communities. And it shows in the results. It’s going to continue to get way more competitive from here on out.
Pretty much every pro/team manager/industry insider constantly talks about how much more competitive it is now. That doesn’t take away from the accomplishments of the first generation. We wouldn’t be where we are without them. And the second generation changed the sport into how professional it is today. But the third generation is staring to push the sport now. And it’s going to be as competitive as ever. Especially in the women’s.
Courses are straighter, bikes are longer & wheels are bigger.
The people on them are the same working the same.
The margins are the same. The gains have been miniscule.
The bikes are the only thing "way more".
The men's 100 & 200 meter dash have stood for FIFTEEN YEARS.
400m 8 years & before that 16 years.
Elite athleticism hasn't been a revolution in 20+ years. On a curve, it's damn near flat.
Where's @TEAMROBOT stand on this?
bizutch sometimes I wonder how you manage to eat with how full you are of yourself already
also can we keep this to racing and not derail it into people showing their asses on the race course thank you very much
XC race talk - crans montana track this weekend with some serious man-made tech
Was hoping for the year of Blevins
Koretzky in trouble if Nino's decided 'i should just win instead of losing' from here on out.
Very curious to hear what the riders think; all that wood is gonna be lethal if it rains and those vertical rock lane dividers look stupid-dangerous if someone crashes there...
I realize that most rock gardens and features are man-made, but when they look like that...it just feels weird, and more-than-manufactured. The 2-lane rack garden just seems problematic as mentioned above, but also that section of wood rounds - it looks cool on camera, but has anyone ridden something like that? It just seems different for the sake of different.
On another note, that video was painful to watch. I haven't watched many (if any) XC "course walk' videos, but that gave me no feel for the track. They just kept showing different angles of the few interesting-looking features on track over and over again.
Man, I try not to write fully negative comments, but that video didn't really get me excited to ride. The DH course walk, where they go top to bottom, and it paint s a story of the lap, those get me back on my bike.
the stegasaurus fins definitely seem unnecessarily dangerous.
I'm all for gnarly XC trails. I see some cool steep sections but the man-made stuff is lame. It's not mountain biking to me. It's more interesting to have sections with different natural lines, part of the sport is to be creative and interpret the terrain not to be channeled into man-made features that are actually not that difficult. it's probably ridable by mot riders. I'd rather see a big line that only a few very best could ride and that might save 5 seconds every lap.. Here I'm not sure the tech differentiates the very best ( but it would just slow down the weakest rider)
The Thagomizer is the most dangerous part.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer
Keep the mountain in mountain biking! This aint a slopestyle contest. Wait are we talking about XC or Rampage?!
I am with ya, the super manmade stuff is XC is just weird.
I love it! The strange preview vid is perfect too.
The sanctity of XC isn’t important to me at all so fuck it up all you want! That wood-to-wood river gap looks like the Athertons designed it, and the flat drops to Dwell flooring are madness. Got that thigh-high vert right hand berm? XCMTB Kasso let’s do it!
if anything, it makes me feel better about WB Disco—they’re trying to end XC too. It’s The Producers!
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