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It’s listed in the original post
Vital DH Fantasy will open tomorrow morning. Game will close BEFORE Elite Qualifiers (closes Friday at 11:50pm PST, Elite's qualify on Saturday). Juniors will have qualified before the game closes, however. Should be fun.
PSA: in person is a ticketed event.
Just moved to Switzerland for school and I have the opportunity to go see world champs in person, so excited to watch the action. After looking up schedule details I realized it is ticketed. 30 CHF per person for a ticket. World cups are free as far as I can tell, guess this is different because it is world champs. The below map shows the ticketed area. It seems like it'd be hard to enforce the ticket checking the entire way along the track.
Has anyone encountered this before on previous world champs?
https://www.valais2025.ch/venues/champery
It’s usually upto the local organizer whether they want to ticket or not for world cups and world champs.
Fort William was always ticketed & quite expensive (especially with gondola access).
that’s WITH lift access, that’s quite cheap (for switzerland)
Yeah it’s cheap by Swiss standards and I didnt take particular issue with the cost. Was just letting people know as a PSA
All sort of transports (Shuttles / Train / Chairlift) are included in the Entry ticket beacuse reaching the track location by car will be a mess. You will most probably have to park your car in Monthey or Morgins and take the train up to Champéry village, then bus shutle to Grand Paradis and finally chairlift to the top of the track.
https://www.valais2025.ch/access/champery
Video PIT BITS from Lawlor
Words from Canyon with some drool-worthy pics of the bikes they have lined up for their team riders this year:
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This year’s Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais, Switzerland, will once again be the ultimate proving ground as athletes from across the globe compete for their national teams for the right to wear the rainbow stripes during the season ahead.
With a roster of world-beating athletes racing podium-topping bikes, this year Canyon is giving its riders an extra layer of motivation: each athlete will receive a custom-edition of their race bike, designed to match the colours of their national flag as a visual echo of the chaos, speed, and precision that define World Championship racing.
Across Junior, Under-23 and Elite categories, Canyon will be hoping to celebrate the achievements of its athletes as they aim for medal success on their customised Lux World Cup CFR, Strive CFR and Sender CFR bikes.
The paint concept was created by Canyon’s in-house product design team. Canyon Graphic Designer Ralph Zähringer said: “For every athlete it’s a great honour to take part at World Championships. For us the main question was, how can we design the bikes to represent their nationality on one hand and on the other how can we express their individuality. The answer came in artworks in our athletes’ national colours, together with a special watercolour paint effect. It comes in multiple colour nuances and adds a kind of movement and dynamism to the design. How the effect turns out at the end is pure chance and therefore unique for each rider.”
RIDER OVERVIEW
ENDURO: Finishing on Monday 1st September, our Canadian ripper Jessie Melamed was racing aboard his Strive CFR, bedecked in the red and white of the Canadian national flag. Melamed already has two World Cups to his name this season – Saalfelden Leogang, Austria and Finale, Italy – and finished in a commendable 6th place.
DOWNHILL: Later in the week comes qualifying for Downhill followed by men’s and women’s finals over the weekend of 6th and 7th September. Canyon riders Troy Brosnan (AUS), Marine Cabirou (FR), Luca Shaw (USA), Aletha Østgaard (USA) and Henri Kiefer (DE) will be on the starting grid, fresh from Les Gets World Cup where they won the DH team title. With junior World Champion titles for Cabirou, Kiefer and Brosnan in the past, plus podium threats Østgaard and Shaw on the start grid, all riders are hot prospects for a medal on the Sender CFR.
I still don’t get how countries can force riders to wear national jerseys when the sponsors don’t match up. Countries will be getting money from companies , ie Britain and Shell, but does that pass along to riders who are forced to wear the jerseys? Do countries do anything for the top riders, or just ride their coattails?
World Champs Vital DH Fantasy is live - https://www.vitalmtb.com/fantasy/2025/world-championships-champery
GAME CLOSES BEFORE ELITE QUALIFYING on Friday Sept. 5, 11:50pm PST
Even though World Champs has no points, we'll be awarding the same points structure for race finishes as a World Cup to determine Fantasy results.
Gonna be fun to pick from the gut instead of the sheet for Elites!
I just wish the national jerseys didnt look like poo. The painted bike and custom kit always looks so good in practice and then come race day you are left with stuff that looks like it was designed in MS Paint circa '99.
Marine's bike looks so good. Wonder why the other senders didn't get as much smoke and spray around the head tube. Troy's feels like they ran out of paint or something.
Loving all the splatter paint jobs this year. Much better then just slapping the flag on the bike.
Yo! Has practice started yet and do we have a helmet cam of the full DH track? Sounds like some changes and reroutes and I'm curious to see what it looks like.
This has to be a spoof of OC Choppers and the constant paul sr v paul jr fights. What a throw back.
wyntv from track walk (@TEAMROBOT riding starts tomorrow)
The anticipation is killing me
danny's 2011 run just because.
forgot how nuts that was. also how is that so long ago
Ah, the good old FreeCaster days… After Danny’s run I was pretty shocked, as was everyone. With four or five people left I couldn’t see anyone topping it considering the carnage that had happening up to that point. I was rooting for Gwin pretty hard, then he slid out in a straight away.
And that’s how crazy Danny’s run was. Nobody remembers that Atherton, Minnaar and Gwin were still left at the top!
Probably one of the most exciting live TV events I’ve ever experienced. Nigel and Rob‘s commentary was the cherry on the cake.
Greatest timed downhill run of all time, no question.
Im so excited for the first practice vids. It was hard not having Lawlor at the last one, and it would have been double sweet with Ronan winning, but I'm so glad that you guys chose this race over the last for him to be present.
lawlor mentioned that filming is going to be difficult. "hardly any b zones and so steep to all sections" - it'll still be rad, but watching trackwalk, hiking that hill to film sounds so painful LOL
Now do it several times a day for a couple of days!
Seriously we should set up a gofundme for John. I’d throw in for some good hiking boots etc for him.
Another view of Danny's 2011 run, with inset of Nigel and Rob. I have a hard time imagining the current announcing crew drinking beer while calling races.
Curse the YouTube algorithm for not showing me this until 14 years later. One of the best performances in mountain biking, and Danny’s run was pretty awesome too. 🤣
@Stiksandstones with a cameo in the corner
Is Bodhi Kuhn actually on track?
Saw vid where he had a fluke wreck on his thumb at Les Gets.
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