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I know this is just like, my opinion man... but holy hell that song was awful.
Filming on point as usual!
Fully. It doesn't feel like a world cup weekend without them.
song is perfect! It’s definitely a horrible song but that was some critical racing…danger everywhere hahah
I’m sure this will hit the homepage shortly but for anyone looking for a Vital Raw fix….
I find it hardly surprising that WBD fabricate shit. They do it all the time in their TV shows.
b practice podcast loudenvielle
Awesome video capturing the grassroots vibes of last weekends Allegheny Gnar DH race in Oil City, PA
Vital Raw is back!! just had dinner feet up watching The RAW perfect.
Monster Pro DH Series Solitude event info - July 24-27
https://www.bikereg.com/monster-energy-pro-downhill-series
I know Loudenvielle feels like old news with Leogang upon us, but Mike Page (Between The Tape), put together an awesome analysis article from Loudenvielle that looks at when riders had their fastest splits (between timed training, Q1, Q2, finals), and how their simulated times would have placed had they put it all together for finals. It's a great read, and might help inform some of your fantasy picks for Leogang.
https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/simulated-racer-who-put-together-fastest-run-loudenvielle-analysis
very rad.
Kickstart Kenny in the commentator box wasn’t on my bingo card this year.
I liked hearing him in there. Now if Gwin can get him on a DH bike.
KK should form a UCI team
At what point do we start considering that belt drive bikes are slower?
After watching Oli win juniors on a belt drive I would say now is not the point we consider they are slower.
That's fair, I did see Oli won.
In the mens elites though none of the belt drive riders are doing particularly well this season, and potentially worse than where they were last season.
At the end of the season ill collect the data and look at average gaps and finishing times from non-belt to belt-drive athletes to see if the data says anything interesting.
well Joe Breeden hadn't had a top 20 result since 2021 and this season so far hasn't been out of the top 20. Tuhoto is looking faster but just needs to keep it between the tape. He has made all the finals except Poland where he was 21st in qualies after not making any last year.
There's DHSE action this weekend too. Here's a slick, rocky course preview from Beech Mtn, NC.
Wins by male racers with names other than Jackson are going to be in short supply for the foreseeable future.
Tuhoto has also shown some of the fastest pace out of everybody in the last 2 races - just not been able to put it all in to a single run. It's still only a small percentage of bikes running belt drive so I don't think its fair to say whether they are faster or slower, but they certainly aren't holding anyone back!
VDS should be a good gearbox course! is it two weeks from now yet?
I don't know... I'll tell you when I see the footage of it. 😉😂
At this point , we desperately need a "simulcast" audio commentary that we can sync to a muted broadcast. There has to be 2 or 3 dudes out there with the knowledge , wit and skill to save us from the WB offering , which seems to be getting worse rather than better and is detracting from the pleasure of watching WCDH racing for a lot of people.
I thought there was a rule this season that teams had to be in established colours for the season and allowed a one of kit for a selected round?
But I’ve seen specialized and a couple other teams sticking to it…. but the Syndicate seem to be in a different coloured kit each round so far
Has anyone got a understanding what the rules are?
I don’t remember hearing anything about this, nor can I find anything about it in the rule book.
Are you maybe confusing established kits with season-long assigned numbers for top riders?
I have not been a fan of the commentating for some time but this weekend marked a new low. I don’t follow moto so Ken Roczen’s presence in the booth did absolutely nothing for me — it only detracted from the viewing experience as Josh just fanned out about moto stuff rather than talking about the actual race runs taking place.
Josh’s poor and regionalized vocabulary is a bad trait for a commentator and he rarely has anything of value to add.
Watch a basketball game if you want to see how much a caller can contribute. Ric and Josh are nowhere close. Neko leaving the booth for the men’s race was a tragedy.
I found it insulting to the racers and the sport. We have a bigger star from a bigger sport than mtb so let's suck up to him and not talk about the action that happening in this minor league sport. Like having Ken Roczen there some how legitimized downhill racing. It certainly doesn't hurt to recognize that legends from other sports are into dh, but a couple of quick discussions between race runs would have sufficed.
Vital RAW - Downhill Southeast, Beech
Kind of also Tire Talk, but having run (and despised) the Tacky Chan as a front tire, I find it so interesting that Amaury Pierron runs them front and rear. Seems like most racers are running something like a Magic Mary, Kryptotal Fr, or Assegai in the front that’s a bit more forgiving of lean angle, but maybe the benefit for Amaury besides out and out rolling speed is the “commit or die” cornering style that the TC forces. Thoughts, anyone?
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