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did anyone see the juniors broadcast being called “U23” on MAX before it was canceled? I swear I saw that this morning…stuck in my head as a new thing, seemed ominous given all the talk of eliminating the category altogether. Change the name and say “we don’t even have a category called juniors, what are you weirdos even talking about?”
I watched XCC and RicMc’s “Race Bikes” show looks good enough.
When I got into watching DH it seemed that there were these bike races happening and you could watch them on RedBullTV. I may have been naive but it sure appeared that these races were happening whether the Austrian energy drink cameras were there or not. That vibe is entirely absent now. This all really seems like a teevee show run by a crew of dingdong reality show producers. Take what you can get, and it could all be gone tomorrow.
Anybody have a local/accurate weather update? Is it expected to kinda piss down the entire morning or only start halfway through the race?
I feel as though I may need to change my picks but... I guess it should still be fast and short enough to not matter the same way a wet VDS or La Thuille would.
Dak Attak:
It's all fun n games until STONE GONE
That's when people be findin they religion real quick
@Jason_Schroeder if your taking phone in questions for the next b practice… has Dak had to change up the way he races at all due to the shorter prep time he’s had for this season? Or is it ride like last year and just hold on for dear life? Stoked to see him in the big show tomorrow!
TFW they hit you with the 50/50 rain. Welp. At least it looks like lighter rain starting at 10 so... Everyone can suffer much the same.
By my count, only 8 Elite Men have qualified for the finals in all 6 races this year. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.
I have no idea how this compares to the numbers through the 6th race of the season when they were using the semi-final races to determine the final start list (and not counting the "protected" riders as qualifiers if they only rolled through the start gate to get to the finals). I assume the numbers of riders who made every final through 6 races back when there were 60 riders in the finals were consistently higher than this year's number.
Nevermind the Juniors…
Hope the weather holds off. Getting 2023 vibes when the storm came in for the last 10 riders.
Elite results: https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/news/final-results-andorra-world-cup-elite-dh
Goldstone still 1st in standings with 1406 points, Bruni 2nd with 1269.
Höll in 1st with 1344, Hemstreet 2nd with 1225.
Man... this weekend made me truly realize how stinking invested I am in Dak's comeback. Let's gooooo!
Already looking forward to his b practice recap.
It would really make the season extra-special if Dakotah or Bernard won a race this season.
What happened to Gwin? Doctor visit?
So... Did that weather ever come in? Or were juniors essentially cancelled for nothing? It's a shame they couldn't put it on standby, doing the elites, and then if the weather is still safe run the juniors afterwards. Dunno. It's only what, 30 riders? 20+10? Meh.
His elbow. In Wyn's day two video he mentions it.
https://youtu.be/3Mlck1_94-k?t=202
It started raining not long after the men's finals ended. It was raining while Wyn was interviewing some of the riders. No idea how bad it got higher on the mountain, but it didn't look too heavy down near the finish line.
Mkay. Well played by the org. I know the real threat was lightning and the lift. Especially with how much of an actual race qualifying is nowadays... It feels less offensive to just use qualies as final results. (It's not like anybody can really hold back and play it safe in qualies... Especially on a track that short/fast.)
Yeah, I was watching it on weather radar, and a big, slow moving storm passed over Andorra about an hour after finals were finished.
I was greasing my headset so much I'm not sure if I missed the Vital Raw from this weekend. Was there one (or typical two)?
Lawlor wasn't in Andorra for us this week (we're not covering every round with RAW this year).
World Cup DH highlights from Andorra:
Elite Men
Elite Women
Countdown to orthopaedic diasagnosis in Nashville starts now. Please let it be just a boo boo.
Sleeper shreddit from Andorra!
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