2025 World Cup - Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada

UCI just published a video on insta of Bruni coming out of the gondola, he's covered in scuffs and cuts and clearly limping. He also cries and gets some big hugs. I'm leaning less towards him being salty and more towards him being dejected and unable to face the public. I think I get why he didn't withdraw now too, he really really wanted to be able to race.

https://m.facebook.com/reel/777196715181955/?referral_source=external_d…

I'm sure all of us who are fathers can agree, once you have that first kid.... life sure as shit aint the same.

Troy did have a great season however. Maybe him and Bruni can trade stories in the pits about ultimate nap timing, shitnado's and teething.

In the clip above he essentially says his leg is pretty bad. Which, I think, excuses the not dropping in but still weird to miss the podium.

Edit. Speculation on pinkbike that it happened whilst he was coming down in the gondola?  Still you'd have thought they could have waited...

Craziest final race.  Asa with fastest time.  Gracey’s crash was so scary one of the scariest I can remember .  Was so glad to see her be able to make the podium.  Vali in shorts and then partying he’s way down after the flat.  She has changed my opinion over last few weeks.  She always felt super business like but the putting up money for privateer and then rocking the shorts, and how she handled the flat tire and having fun all the way down showed me something I had not seen or expected.  Cam not getting to have a big celebration when she crossed the line or at least not on camera.  Jackson showed up big and tying Gwin for most wins in a season, winning the overall all on home soil.  Loic not starting is maybe the craziest thing ever. I get it after seeing his interview.  

Wow that was disappointing to read just getting home from Mt Hi. Not even the sad bit of Loic getting injured but the baseless speculation and weirdness from this forum lol. It's fcukin MSA not Andorra... If he's hurt to the level where he knows he can't put in a run to beat Jacko, he absolutely shouldn't take a run down any of those rock gardens for 'professionalism'.

If he had to try to B line any rock garden he would be DQ'd for riding out of the poles anyway. It's not even a 'smart' decision from Bruni it's arguably the only one. Nothing wrong with going up top, if Jackson DNFs or even goes 30th, mathematically it still makes sense to suffer down, right? But 1st place? Yeah of course he called it he wasn't gonna go top 5 or 10 or anything. Jacko is the one who needed points, NOT loic...

If you wanna criticize him skipping podium, sure go ahead. He's probably getting scans in the hospital... They said it happened LAST practice run. He had to make a call on how to proceed quickly. That would be a HARD call if Jacko went like 15th... If he went 30th or DNF'd, Loic dies on his shield... But 1st? Nope. Not remotely possible.

If you needed to go get scans so fast and not wait what 30 min you probably should have never been up top to play the dummy in case Jackson had an issue.  If it podium was hours later ok yeah do what you got to do but 30. And what happened if Jackson had an issue you won.  Does anyone think he would have skipped for scans? 

I already prefaced my thoughts as “Barstool”...meaning this is just me shooting the shit, probably wrong, speculative, and full of “my team’s better than your team” energy.

Bruni can do whatever he wants. He’s a great dude, an icon, and a total professional. We’re talking about him for a reason, he’s him. Arguably the greatest of all time.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t hammer the keyboard when something makes me go “hmmm.” In my very tiny and insignificant opinion, If he was well enough to get back on the bike and roll to the pits, he was probably well enough to show up to awards. Just my opinion. I’ll still be a huge fan and of course I hope he's okay. Everyone does. 

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Our opinions mean nothing. Its a wild ending to a year, but he could quit the sport tomorrow and still be in the conversation as the best to ever do it for the rest of my life.

Friendly reminder that pro athletes are psychos. Known for competing with fractures and shit. I'm actually confused why people are so hung up on Loic on skipping podium lol. But I've never been one for professionalism or 'decorum'. In fact, in particular regarding the UCI, I think riders should avoid it as much as they please. Loic has the rest of his life to congratulate Jackson. I think both riders will be fine if it doesn't happen 'at the correct time and place according to authorities and some fans' I dunno

We have different definitions of "sportsmanship". If you don't understand why skipping the biggest podium in the sport matters, we just don't see eye to eye on this one. Which is okay. 

Loic’s leg was swelling up (heard it mentioned that there could be some internal bleeding going) came down and went straight to the hospital thus missing the podium.

Healing vibes to Loic, time to get home and enjoy the new addition to the fam.

If that is the case I have serious questions about his team.  If it was that bad why did you wait that long.   So you let your athlete potentially risk their health to pull a dummy call.   It seems like they risked his health hoping Jackson made a mistake if was truly bad enough he need to go straight to hospital after sitting up top for how long pretending he might race.  

It’s clear some of you have never truly nuked yourself in crash. It can take hours for the severity and complete picture of what you hurt and how bad to set it. Couple that with adrenaline and elite level racing and you might not know for hours. As stuff progresses, it can become clear very quick that you need to get checked for something that might’ve seemed okay initially.

Loic has never shown anything put respect and professionalism, I’m sure there was a reason for everything that transpired.

Clearly you have zero clue how to care for someone from a team standpoint.  I did sports medicine in college.  So I have quite different way to look at things when it comes to caring for an athlete. When you’re in that spot sometimes you have to make tough decisions that an athlete may not like in the moment.  His team clearly did not want to because they didn’t have his best long term interests or they are afraid to upset him.  If that is the case they are a bad team. If they say he couldn’t even warm up that should have been enough of a red flag to get medical attention right then not keep playing games. 

As for never having never nuked myself absolutely wrong.  You know what I did stupid things like Loic potentially did because you know what I don’t have a team of professionals looking out for me.  If I did I would probably have a lot less medical issues.

As for a reason why everything happened.  Yeah they were playing games and hoping Jackson had an issue and if he did were willing to risk it to send him put the start gate. 

shades of reeces flying scotsman crash angle... it's crazy you can watch riders fly by on the track, but boy howdy you only truly feel the sense of speed when they are coming RIGHT at you. wow

BONUS: Dylan Maples practice crash from Laly's YT... gnarliest section of the series man

Bruni could’ve taken the overall if Goldstone got less than 72 points, right? That’s 9th? 
 

Solid strategy pushing JG to go for it. 


 

From the man himself:

Less than 72 points is 11th place or worse. But any placements with less than 72 points in Jackson's favor would have seen Loic win. So a possible scenario is something like Jackson comes down in 6th place, which is worth 125 points. Loic would then have needed more than 53 points, which is 18th place or better. It's possible at that point that he might have found a way to roll down the track into 18th place, who knows.

Aye, I had this crash once where I came down on my elbow funny and my arm lost feeling for a couple seconds, but I felt fine straight after and decided I could ride back to the car. I drove home fine, but when I got into bed, I was in absolute agony and I couldn't even sleep because my arm refused to bend. Swelling and injuries are so weird, so is the human brain, sometimes you feel really really good before the reality of your injury sets in.

I agree with many of you that it was quite strange that Loïc didn’t make it to the podium. 
“But”, the location of the gondola and podium are not close. He would have had to walk for a bit along the base of the mountain and then head up the hill to the podium through the crowd. It would have been very difficult for him seeing how he was walking in the above video. 

I get team specialized was keeping his injury hushed, but it would've been cool if the announcers or somebody knew he might not drop in. I totally respect not riding if the injury is too bad and it doesn't make sense, if he was up there a wave to the camera from the start hut before walking away might have been nice. I wrongly assumed he had missed the gondola or had a missing parts or a mechanical when we didn't see him at all.

Loic might have had the good grace to to simply congratulation Jackson for being the faster man, recalling that he only won in 2023 because of a blown appendix and he was fortunate to avoid Jackson in 2024 due to injury. When we finally got a full mano-a-mano season, Jackson won 6 or 11 races and was the faster man. I think Loic is a great champion but this was not his finest hour.

People expect too much courtesy from the riders. These are not normal people when you consider how they choose to make a living

Good to see my comment’s super popular, lol.

There’s obviously nuance here. As I tried to say (but I think a lot missed), I’ll always be a fan of Loic, and yeah, health comes before showmanship. If his leg was showing signs of compartment syndrome, heading straight to the hospital was obviously the right call. I’ve had it. It’s gnarly.

My take was based on the assumption Loic was still thinking about racing. He was, after all, at the top putting pressure on Jackson to risk his life down the hill, hoping for a mistake. In the moment it felt to me like if you’re good enough to play that card, you’re probably good enough to be a gentleman, shake his hand, spray some champagne, and hobble off for a few beers (or whatever). Be the regal professional and role model we all know. I realize that kind of stuff matters to me more than it does to most people, maybe a loose reaction to someone else in the zeitgeist who’s broken every social norm so long as it’s legal.

Anyway, it sounds like my base assumption was wrong (he probably shouldn’t have even been at the top), and he definitely wasn’t as okay as I thought. As a result, I sound like the crazy ex-girlfriend yelling into the wind about point “Z” when “A” wasn’t true. JEFF WAS WRONG!

Either way, I’m glad he’s okay. Hematomas are usually easy to heal from, and he himself said the crash wasn’t catastrophic.

PS: If there’s one thing I do know, it’s nuking myself. Done it plenty. Pretty sure there’s even a Vital podcast floating around where I ramble about exactly that.

PPS: Asa had the fastest time of the day. 2026 is going to be nuts. Being a DH racer has to be one of the hardest ways to make a buck on the planet (I’m serious).

Loic is a class act.  Says in that clip how fun it was to battle Jackson and that he is looking forward to the battle next season.  Looked absolutely gutted.  Shows his character he didn’t just roll off into the distance and post a little note on social media.  He’ll have plenty of opportunities to congratulate Jackson on his season.

He also confirmed that world champs was a mechanical.  

All props to Jackson.  He deserves everything he has got.  Just an Insane talent and also a rather humble dude.  But if loic got lucky last year than Jackson did this year.  I’m sure he would have rather won against loic straight up.  Hopefully they both get the chance next year injury and wierd mechanical free.  

Max and Asa could very well shake things up for that top spot.  Plus the other graduates going to be making a top 10 so hard to get.

when’s the first World Cup next year and why is it not sooner.  
 

Honestly it looked like Loic had been crying on the gondola ride down. This has to be so hard for him, and an incredibly difficult decision not to drop in. He waited until the last minute because I am certain he really didn’t know if he would or would not drop in. He saw what Jackson did and said to himself, I cannot match that or get close. I have complete respect for him and he should be able to take all the time he needs to decide, including in the start hut. 

As for not going to the overall podium. As others have said, it’s not close to the gondola exit. He would’ve had to walk, slowly, back to the gondola, ride down, and then make it up to the podium in his state. I don’t blame him for not making it, I don’t think anyone should. 

Best of luck in his recovery. And best of luck trying to train this offseason with a newborn 🤣

ye Loic literally congratulated Jackson in the clip where UCI shoved a camera in his face... how about we just patiently wait, as fans, for more info to come out and time to pass before we start 'judging the character of a man' or whatever the hell is goin on lol

(practically) NONE of us were there... from what i've heard from people actually on site, the way things went down were fairly reasonable. for various reasons, just logistics and health.

I'm sorry. If you're good enough to consider dropping in on MSA in the event that Jackson had a mishap and you're good enough to hobble as pictured in this video, you're good enough to to show up for the overall podium.

If his boo-boo was worsening, there were 4 hours to make a decision between final practice run and his race run. And it's not like he was particularly in a rush to get medical attention in that video. He's just moping around getting hugs.

In my opinion, going to the start to pressure Jackson but not dropping is a weird, chachi, top-dog, racer move. But I can understand it. But no-showing the podium is really poor sportsmanship.