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I'm definitely under no illusion that my contusion was the same as Bruni's. I will say that I did experience the feeling of being able to ride without too much pain for 30 minuts or so after the crash and then things completely seizing up (mine wasn't in my leg) and being off the bike for quite a while once the stiffness and pain started.
i put together a podcast with braydon bringhurst and adam pishl about hard mtb league
We've had a lot of deraileurments in a lot of threads. But I never figured we would ever get to Butch's Junk. Well done Team!
I counted one 2025 WC track out of the 3 former WC tracks.
Wish they'd say which races are officially going to be continental series, some people have a season to plan.
UCI have Fort Bill, La Molina and Verbier on the calendar as well as the Les 2 Alpes French cup.
As a 'semi-outsider' to MTB. Hard MTB is my favorite race format I've seen so far. And I hope they expand ever so slightly on the climbing portion and make some pseudo-trials features, very similar to those indoor enduro relay tracks or whatever that Warner commentates on.
There have been great viral athletes in MTB's time... But what is the common denominator of all the most watched MTB-style videos online? Trials.
That said, we all know people don't care to watch actual trials. They want freestyle trials. And that's exactly a format that fits into Hard MTB and it is in some way the ONLY race format we know of that can support any inclusion of trials or freestyle trials at all.
I'm not saying turn it into a circus course with red bull features and loops and nonsense. But that vague idea of what the moto guys do with trials-enduro type obstacles. I think it's very eye-catching, it's representative of what Hard MTB promotes (skill versatility), and there aren't glaring issues on including it (like financial or time/effort wise, etc.)
I listened to a podcast with Gee Atherton recently, he said something about Red Bull Hardline that I thought was really interesting:
"We want it to be in that situation where the riders are turning up, walking the track, they're nervous, they're like, because in my eyes, that's what like glues those riders together. That's what like knits them together in that little unit, you know, that camaraderie that you see at Hardline.
We don't want that to fracture off where like riders are there on their own doing fast laps because they want to try and win. You want the riders to be there in a small team because they're all trying to survive and they're all helping each other down the mountain and someone's hit this gap so they're going to tow them in and and it makes them all work together and it's almost the riders against the the track."
I've been kicking around a speed trials idea for years. Some enduro or downhill sections mixed with a speed trials section would be cooler than just a hard climb for the hard mtb league imo. The speed trials sections could use a hybrid of trials scoring methods (observed trials recently changed formats to a positive point system, replacing the dab and time limit only system.) Or just giving dabs a time penalty. Either way I agree it's what people want, imagine a trials comp where the riders are riding more like Chris Akrigg and less like Jack Carthy(who is also super talented and awesome, just an observed trials rider)
Seems to me that’s exactly how the women have been proceeding at Hardline.
Features and loops and nonsense? That’s exactly what I’d like to see! But keep it rolling, no trials dinky dinks. High speed helltrack. Hardline but more fun (read: no Athertons).
As someone who adores what Helltrack represented... It was, distinctly, not high-speed lol
I think one of the closer iterations to that concept was the recent Crankworx event where they sorta made 4x but worse. For some reason? It was ok but seemed like there was an objective advantage of gate pick without hard corners. All to make it higher speed, more dangerous, and ultimately worse racing.
Yeah I don’t need four people on one track, I’m cool with racing the clock still. Just give me ninja warrior Max X Kasso vibes.
Or DH racing every weekend, that’d be even better.
call me crazy but sounds like you just want DH mate. you'll be more than served when the season starts up again lol
i don't suppose that's likely the direction hardMTB will progress into. I mean they'd likely need a new venue to do so heh
This attitude is fine, but it makes winning kind of meaningless? It’s like the whole event becomes a participation award type ordeal and undermines the idea of it ever really becoming a race series of its own. It puts it more inline with a technical fest series type event.
I don't really understand it.
The implication is more or less. STAY WITH THE GROUP while they are sectioning. And don't start doing T to B's until the people planning to put a proper run in are going T to B.
I think it's a strange thing to understand unless you've been in their shoes. And I'm sure they have no intention of holding racers back when like free riders or any riders not gunning for a win are not going T to B yet.
But the idea seems to be don't start racing the track until everyone (planning to be competitive) is doing so. Which sounds fairly pragmatic, as that is just how they run the course particularly due to wind. They section it with each other pieces at a time, according to the weather.
But its far from perfect because you're gonna have guys like BK, jacko, asa, ronan, etc. who are legit ready to go T to B on run 1. So... Putting a leash on any of those guys is a bit of a shame. But as BK has stated he's happy to play that role in the group that is taking their time, but he then stretches the extra reach of implying more or less 'everyone should share lines and no secret lines should be brought out in finals'. Which is a tough one to digest. I don't see any reason for that unless there was a group agreement basically, in which case the course should be taped properly (shrug)
imo if the group is that split up for modern Hardline, they should simply have 2 separate practice groups. Racers and 'participants'. All the boys I mentioned will be in racers, and then some on the fence guys can choose what they want. Like Adam and Brook and Rat, they can do either as they feel. I mean Sam Hill put in a solid run, as a racer. And then the other group are the free riders and whoever is not battling for the podium.
Boom. Problem solved. I think it could be better for them anyway. I also miss when free riders were basically showing up to not even try to race and were tricking jumps but there are almost no trickable jumps left. There's the one trick jump before the big drop in Wales... And then there's the epic hip gap in Tazzy. Other than that just fast long n lows :/
I'm not sure what's difficult to understand. If you watch the videos and footage leading up to the race, the vibe is so much different that a WC dh race. Everyone is doing the track walk together and sessioning features together and towing each other into stuff rather than doing things based on "teams". There is much more camaraderie.
Obviously, there are riders whose goal is to win, but there are other riders whose goal is to clear the track. Personally, I don't think having someone like Matt Jones coming in last, but flipping the last jump takes away from the competition at the pointy end of the race. If you're not going to win, make it entertaining. Ha ha
Well I’ll ask you then, is it just a well funded fest series event against the clock smothered in red bull branding ? Or is it the hardest race on the planet? As it is marketed to be.
I think these types of comments from Gee give it a bit of an identity crisis type look, and ultimately i dont know if making statements like this really helps progress the event? It should just be left to naturally evolve. Having people like BK crying because people didn’t share lines, yet in the same breath saying its the most important race of the year.. its confusing, what is it?
Moir's end-of-season update
6 degrees of Kevin Bacon's junk.
Intent of my pic was to hit home with the naysayers about how sickeningly crippling a hematoma can be (worst case scenarion being compartment syndrome/limb death from no circulation).
Would like to see a pic of Bruni's thigh just for the folks out there that don't get it. Yet I don't blame him for not posting it b/c the naysaying wouldn't end there.
As mentioned...I rode it off the mountain thinking I'd cracked my pelvis. The nausea that came on & waves of shock that followed...you don't want to do a World Cup run like that.
He had to get surgery too so… wasnt something small
I was packing up our trainer when he and Jack walked by me on the way to download the gondola. At the time nobody really knew that he had an injury from the last practice session and I thought maybe he had a crash near the start. I use the term "walked"...but he could barely put weight on his leg and couldn't bend it at all.
I think we all want to see a pic of Bruni's thighs but it might be for different reasons. A lot of people think that a hematoma is just like a big bruise but it's really not. Definitely not something to mess around with and Bruni likely made the right choice. Hope he can heal up and adjust to fatherhood to get back racing at top form next season, someone's got to keep Jackson on his toes.
if anyone needs 2 hours to kill while traveling or avoiding political discussions at thanksgiving, ALL THE RAWS from 2025 world cup is below. I'll put together a #USDH specific vid soon too.
This'll kill several hours of avoiding family over the next few days
Lifesaver, thank you sspomer and Vital!
^^^ that’s Sleeper’s year in review , Redbull sponsored it
Last 20 seconds gave me serious chills, all over again. Sleeper should pick up some kind of award for this level of storytelling. Outstanding.
So good
The Bruni Files and Jackson's Beyond Limits were amazing. Very good of them to take the time to do those things. I know it "builds their brand" and all that, but I still feel fortunate that they take the time and are so candid. Can't wait for 2026.
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