Another weekend, another World Cup Downhill. This time the circus returns to the high alpine, loose conditions of Pal Arinsal, Andorra. Coming off the intensity of the brand new La Thuile venue, Andorra will feel like an old friend to many of the riders competing this weekend.
It is a double-header event with XC and DH, so if history is any indicator, we'll likely not get a replay of Q2 (but we can still dream). Downhill racing takes place on Saturday with Q1 and Q2 on Friday. Juniors won't be live on YouTube, but the World Series has put up the recorded show in their channel following the racing. Will that happen this week? Time will tell. The race schedule is below.
Do we even bother with posting a weather forecast this far out? Sure, why not?
(contest should open Wednesday evening after quali start list is released)
Wildcard teams this weekend are as follows (some of the wildcard teams have been consistently smoking the factory teams!)
1. Gwin Racing
2. Rogue Racing - SR Suntour
3. Goodman Santacruz
4. Team High Country
5. Kenda NS Bike UR Team
6. YT Racing Development
7. The Alliance
8. Future Frameworks
Andorra Race Book (PDF)
Sorry to bum everyone out, but Lawlor will not be at Andorra delivering videos. We'll have photo PIT BITS from Rick Schubert, however.
Feel free to post team videos and social media clips here this week!
Forecast is exciting. I'd like to see a damp race. Not a deluge. But a moist track to bring out the finesse talent.
i rather watch them racing the 2nd track
Hope they do a little refresh on this one. It has some cool spots but also what feels like a lot of filler that just traverses the hill side. Instead of just having those parts be straight it would be great to throw some new sections in. But I think we have been spoiled by the last two rounds.
Dry...for now...
BK's trackwalk vid. Just don't take to much notice of his metric/imperial conversion skills. 😂
wyntv andorra track walk
TB track walk vid -
Option 3: Less exciting because of missing Raw, pit video, The Weekend, and slideshows (yes I'm showing my age..)
Kidding aside, understand the reasoning, but all that content usually really makes you feel more involved with the racing.
Schedule change sports fans. 100% chance for T storms tomorrow...
Timed training https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/event/20250709_mtb…
holy cow, still not finished, but 1st through 8th on the same 2:43 in elite men? and max alran with a 2:39!
jackson POV from andorra
Max, Till and Tyler all faster than elite men at the moment Sub 2:41
As cool as it is that the Junior Boys are riding that fast, should they not be coached to build their speed through the week? Total armchair commentary, but going that fast on the first day doesn't seem wise to me.
🥱 This track looks fun to ride, but after a few years of watching riders race 90% of the same track and same lines, my motivation to tune in this weekend is way lower than other rounds. It doesn't help that the track is so one lined and times are so tight, that the broadcast gets super monotonous IMO as it's hard to distinguish when someone is on a good run.
I haven't seen this track in person and don't know the constraints of the hillside, but why not move the poles over a few feet in more sections? Couldn't you do so and maintain the same camera angles/timing setups for splits? Maybe I'm just being a hater or maybe La Thuile ruined my perspective on things.
Ed Bull media from between the poles this weekend
Agreed 100% - La Thuile set the bar quite high. Hopefully a good example for future venues and tracks!
Hate to bring this up but... For people who know the rules well, what happens to Pivot next year if things continue like this? Is it still possible to grab points from nationals and at least secure wildcard spots consistently? Or... Are they basically cooked...
Listening to Greg talking to Wyn about Danny missing the track walk was pretty telling.
I also don't personally subscribe to the argument that it makes for better viewing, I prefer watching a rider's skill through tech, not a contest to see who's got the biggest balls, but then I guess as a seasoned fan I'm not really their target audience.
An awesome addition to the trackside experience. The track looks to be deteriorating at a pretty alarming rate.
Going to be expensive trying to chase UCI points in Indonesia and Chile in Sept and Oct to try and maintain enough points to keep the team on the WC.
Maybe things will pick up for them in the second half of the season. I'd imagine they'll keep Roger on if they've got the funds. Last weekend he missed qualifying in Q1 by a small margin and both he and Remdog just missed out on Q2. With BK back on the bike (and possibly a reset for Jenna in the rest period) they'll hopefully start amassing more points.
Can’t speak for what’s stopping them from making more changes to the track. Even if only for race weekend. But wierd taping isn’t really a good answer for the same track. Usually the track goes the way it does for a reason. And often wierd taping just kills flow and doesn’t really fix much come race day.
Miss the old Andorra track for sure. But the new track does look like a blast to lap on a bike park day. And is a bit of an outlier compared to the old one and other tracks. So I don’t dislike it.
Any word on who got heli'd out in Wyn's latest vid?
Not that I've seen. I think it was before the men's elite session and I can't see anyone obvious missing from women's timed training, so I'd guess it was a junior.
I wasn't too concerned about what Greg had to say about Danny. Greg said he thought the track is very similar to last year's world champs race and that he thought Danny would be all right. After all, last year Danny qualified 3rd and finished 4th at world champs at Pal Arnisal, only about 0.3 seconds behind the winner. And, of course, today Danny was 6th in timed training, which probably reassured Greg and the Norco team to some extent.
Of greater concern will be how Danny performs this weekend and the remainder of the season. He's had 0 points in 2 of the last 3 races and is only in 30th place in the overall standings.
@sspomer, I’m assuming Lawlor isn’t on the start list for this weekend, correct? Good thing we got Wyn as our fill in rider.
The kids are feeling it, let'em ride!
Will we get q2 recap with the revised schedule or did they make sure to have XCC / DH overlap
Danny's a dad again as of a few days ago I believe, perhaps that's a factor?
Post a reply to: 2025 World Cup Downhill - Pal Arinsal, Andorra