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first off let’s get one thing straight: it’s DQ. It is not, and never shall be DSQ. Cmon now.
There were a ton of DQs in the qualifying because of the format: you have to go psycho fast and be within a half second of the fastest to make it through…slogging back uphill is a worthless waste of energy. Finals it makes sense to salvage points but there are no points in qualifying if you don’t qualify. Vermette was dealing with a partial decapitation so his vision was blurry.
I’m going to kidnap RicMc and smuggle him to Leogang. Let the man travel!!!
Maybe they got sued by the real DQ and has to change to DSQ😂
Race day highlights:
Junior Women (no commentary)
Junior Men (no commentary)
Elite Women
Elite Men
Scathing comments on youtube...
It seems it didn't matter how many time they mentioned, "Flight attendant" it served not help in keeping up. To have a delay as bad as they had is truly embarrassing. Amateur production standards from Chris Ball and his cronies.
Of course we were spoilt with the hype master Warner. However he also did his research and had good stuff to talk about. Flight Attendant being this rounds key word. Was it O chain-chain damper or mass damper last year? Warner wont be replaced but a good middle ground between snoozing Slugger and adhd Carson can't be hard to find, can it?
I'm sure no one in charge is reading the Youtube comments (or the comments on Pinkbike or Vital), so they probably have no idea that people are saying things like, "The co-commentator didn't have his coffee this morning," or "Holy, co-commentator was dreadful. He doesn’t even sound like he wants to be there. Honestly disrespectful to the athletes," or "sounds like we were watching golf." Even if they did read the comments it's unlikely they would change things for future races. Just like with the pathetic prize money they'd probably think everything with the broadcast is A-OK.
50 gallon neon traffic jugs vs regular traffic cones. Way fewer people hit those jugs. Just a fact.
And poles versus nubs…clip a course pole with a pedal & have it almost rip you off your bike at speed. You change your intentions QUICKLY after that. Clip a neon nub & zero ramifications.
Fewer racers go off track with poles & tape because consequences are far more “definitive “.
It sets your mind firmly upon your precise line at ALL times. Blowing a pole & tape is a concrete mistake & physical feedback.
As a racer, you 100% of the time FOCUS more on staying “Inside the Tape”.
My 1st Luca memory: He & Walker as little kids doing full sprint laps on the Hendersonville BMX track chasing Christopher Herndon. Walker was older & bigger but Luca was ferocious pedaling every single lap latched onto them & relentless.
I was putting on races with buddies just to have races & we were so excited to have kids committed to DH suddenly. I’ve enjoyed watching the Shaw Brothers progress from little BMX groms to National Champs & now a World Cup winning family.
They tired to slow a very fast track down this year by making lines tighter and adding in some extra turns/chicanes. I believe this is what lead to far more DQ's, nothing to do with tape/poles. The guys know where their going, they are just trying to do it as fast as possible. With how fast the track was and some of those intentional new turns, it made it very easy to get off line with little room for correction.
The overwhelming strategy that everyone was saying coming into this race was to "maintain position up top and turn it on in the steep". The thought was that you can't win or lose in the pumpy section, and all the differentiation would be done in the steep corners. Everyone was wrong. Luca went 1-1-1-2 in the first sectors before falling back to midpack. Benny Cool had a similar trajectory. Finn's splits were even more stark. Out of the top 5, only Jordan Williams and Tyler Waite's performances could be claimed to be a back half strategy. This outcome may have been a possibility all along, but the destruction of the dusty corners in the steeps definitely emphasized it. The blown out corners led to many riders with the back half strategy not making it to the bottom unscathed.
This race really highlighted teams' capability to pivot as well. Out of the top 6, 4 are on teams that are known for their on track support and ability to shift lines and strategy at the advice of support staff (Williams and Iles on Specialized), (Brosnan and Shaw on Canyon). Fabien Barel was even on the live feed saying how they changed Troy's strategy after seeing the carnage before him, and how he was going to radio even more info up to Luca. I'm not sure of the ethos of Scott or Yeti, but Benoit is known for his ability at Loudenville in low traction conditions, and Tyler Waite probably had 35 practice laps beforehand with Jonty instead of sleeping or something.
From Chris Kilmurray's IG:
I think Finn lost the race on the first left hander in the last section. Anecdotally, he looked to visibly brake far earlier than everyone else in that turn.
Is there anywhere to see Asa's splits? He was up by a couple seconds when he crashed, but of course that was compared against whoever was the current leader when he dropped. Because he was disqualified, his splits aren't listed on the results sheet.
Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that "Flight attendant" was constantly talked about. And I don't know... it seems like to me the other commentator has almost given up on the job. He would, occasionally, have something insightful to start offering, only to have Ric interrupt him to say something pointless. Maybe that's just robbed him of any enthusiasm.
Here you go @torw
Asas split 4 was after he was off track, might have had a better time if not.
[Edit: Whoops. I was writing this and posted it just after someone else posted the info.]
When Asa was on course, Martin Maes was in the Hot Seat. Below are Martin's times at each split, followed by how much Asa was "into the Green" at each split. [Asa's 4th split differential is open to question, because he had already run out of bounds just before reaching the 4th split timer. [The big Whoop sign he almost got choked by marks the spot where the 4th split timer is.]
Martin ended up 9th, 2.050 seconds behind Luca Shaw. No one can know whether Asa would have kept or increased his time advantage over Martin all the way to the finish line, but if he had his time might have been about 1/10 of a second faster than Luca. Feel free to do the math to come up with Asa's running time at each split (I'm too lazy).
Martin's split times:
Asa's split differentials:
-0.275
-0.789
-2.277
-2.147
Thanks for that! Cool to see that he was definitely in touch for a podium or even a win. The next race can't come soon enough!
This is the same energy as replacing steering wheel airbags with big metal spikes
The “if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball” school of DH course design
After YT crapped on their contracted riders I hope Vali wins everything. And the other 2 lady speeders that Max is helping sponsor. Good on you Max. My next bike will be a Commencal Supreme.
Yeah, I'm a Vali fan, but boy am I becoming a fan of that whole team. Lots of good energy.
Nobody’s throwing a pole at you. My analogy is perfection. Yours is just you trying to be relevant & failing.
What the the details on Loic's airbag body armor that reportedly saved him from serious injury?
I would assume it’s alpine stars tech air system. Which one exactly I have no idea
Apparently its this thing
https://www.alpinestars.com/products/tech-air-mx-system
and @mfoga
https://www.alpinestars.com/products/tech-air-mx-system?srsltid=AfmBOoq…
When I was watching supercross I saw a few of these go off. Its impressive how much they puff up. Also I assume quite a few dudes were running them all season and no one had it go off while just riding.
Its a bummer because we all could probably benefit from one of these when riding park, but I imagine its a 1 and done thing when it goes off. And 600$+ is just too much.
counterpoint - $600 is easily the cost of an ER visit for many people 🤷♂️
There are replacement canisters like avalanche backpacks have. Incidentally, pulling the ripcord on your friend’s avy bag (at the end of the day, natch) is something you should do at least once.
I think they've gotten them pretty dialed in with the Algo and Gyro in them to ensure only used when needed.
They have replacement cans for inflation. Can be inflated like 6-8 times I believe before they recommend sending them back to Alpinestar to be checked and then good to go again. Im sure if no tears, they'd still be good.
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