Hear me out: next year before they rush the finish line corral, let's give the crowd real chainsaws with bars and chains and see what happens. INSTANT CLASSIC. One for the history books.
Hear me out: next year before they rush the finish line corral, let's give the crowd real chainsaws with bars and chains and see what happens...
Hear me out: next year before they rush the finish line corral, let's give the crowd real chainsaws with bars and chains and see what happens. INSTANT CLASSIC. One for the history books.
re: rushing the finish, in a chat of videographers at the race, filmer, TJ Smith is going to get x-rays on his leg as he was...
re: rushing the finish, in a chat of videographers at the race, filmer, TJ Smith is going to get x-rays on his leg as he was smushed in the melee near max at the end and it was reported that a girl in the crowd was removed w/ a bone sticking out of her arm (compound fracture). perfect storm of racing, fans, alcohol and narrow spaces. lawlor said he was near a barrier before the end of the race and realized it was a bad idea and got away from it. it was leaning in at 45 degrees once everyone started rushing. the force/pressure down there was significant.
Yeah, well, my kids were in the front line opposite side of the main stampede, just told them, let the crazy guys run first and the you walk down, you can be buried in the grass in a second.. so, I think the crowd rushing to the finish area, in a way is done OK-ish respecting the race and if you want to gamble it rushing down, you know what you are gettin in ...its common sense.. and this does not need to be policed too much... lots of people doing stupid things and getting carried out by paramedics while going down laong the track.. so its "normal" wild with fans and alcohol...imho...I just dont get all the people doing all the mud bathing and shouting, sliding and backflipping for the crowd when the top 10 are going down, completely disconnected from the race.. but Im not 15-20 and drunk, so it's fine.
Riders impeded by crashed riders should get a second run.changing the core dna of the sport and using ‘professionalism’ to cover it will kill the sport...
Riders impeded by crashed riders should get a second run.
changing the core dna of the sport and using ‘professionalism’ to cover it will kill the sport so fast. It is not a televised event people are allowed to attend, it’s a mountainbike race, in the real world, and the environment will reflect that.
some people just did not wanna to again in Q2... it was that bad...
That’s the point, no one is making them, it’s sport. The beauty of that is what produces the finals racing, which was excellent.
I am all for courses being safe, it’s critical, but the rest, even the racing, you have to leave to chance and design. Trying to bake out all of the variability, chance, weather, in order to have predictability just homogenises things.
It’s why it’s so hard to give a shit about tennis.
He had no chafe to make it out of corral. There were people already past barriers in front of him. The only solution I see is a...
He had no chafe to make it out of corral. There were people already past barriers in front of him.
The only solution I see is a legit moat around corral drawbridge at the finish line 😂😂
Wowza! Imagine fans deploying portable bridges and ladders to traverse the moat like something out of the Middle Ages. A Frenchman draped in a flag at the top of the ladder as they swing it across the moat. Les Gets 2027 could really be something some anti-moat nerd doesn't get in the way
If I were a French teen and I went to Les Gets to drink beer and scream for my bike heroes and I joined the finish line tsunami as one of the French teen twins won the race and my arm got compound fractured…I think I’d be okay with it. What a beautiful scene!
Notable:
Bruni rooting for like five riders except Jordan Williams was striking. I’m a BruniManiac but I am 100% all in on Williams for the overall now. Bruni’s always been a class act but his omission of his teammate—his front-running teammate?—in his pre-race prediction talk made me gasp (!) as I watched quietly under the sheets. How dare you.
Is there photo/video/IG evidence of RicMc’s presence in Les Gets? I just erased five paragraphs and it just simply boils down to this: I need to see him there. I will Venmo $5 to anyone who will help me move on with my weekend. Please.
I always found Hattie’s Hat unsightly and malodorous. This is a reference to the bar in Seattle.
Congratulations are in order to all gearbox dudes on the internet. Take a break and know that you’ve just had rent paid for the next what?—five more years? Great work, you did it!
Flat Pedal Maes with the slip right when they were musing about his footwear was fantastic.
Alran Bros are so sick! I grew up around a couple sets of twins, they generally make me uncomfortable. I believe the Alrans are my favorite twins ever. It won’t be long until they complete their first elite win.
Lake Placid crowds after this - World Champs - Whistler? Aw man, if I were Vali I’d catch a flight from Vancouver to Mexico or Hawaii instead of heading back there. I’d consider bailing on Whistler too, but she’s young going and it’ll be a party…
Sammie Maxwell with the 666 plate is orders of magnitude heavier than any freeride dude in the past two decades.
So sick! If I were a French teen and I went to Les Gets to drink beer and scream for my bike heroes and I joined the...
So sick!
If I were a French teen and I went to Les Gets to drink beer and scream for my bike heroes and I joined the finish line tsunami as one of the French teen twins won the race and my arm got compound fractured…I think I’d be okay with it. What a beautiful scene!
Notable:
Bruni rooting for like five riders except Jordan Williams was striking. I’m a BruniManiac but I am 100% all in on Williams for the overall now. Bruni’s always been a class act but his omission of his teammate—his front-running teammate?—in his pre-race prediction talk made me gasp (!) as I watched quietly under the sheets. How dare you.
Is there photo/video/IG evidence of RicMc’s presence in Les Gets? I just erased five paragraphs and it just simply boils down to this: I need to see him there. I will Venmo $5 to anyone who will help me move on with my weekend. Please.
I always found Hattie’s Hat unsightly and malodorous. This is a reference to the bar in Seattle.
Congratulations are in order to all gearbox dudes on the internet. Take a break and know that you’ve just had rent paid for the next what?—five more years? Great work, you did it!
Flat Pedal Maes with the slip right when they were musing about his footwear was fantastic.
Alran Bros are so sick! I grew up around a couple sets of twins, they generally make me uncomfortable. I believe the Alrans are my favorite twins ever. It won’t be long until they complete their first elite win.
Lake Placid crowds after this - World Champs - Whistler? Aw man, if I were Vali I’d catch a flight from Vancouver to Mexico or Hawaii instead of heading back there. I’d consider bailing on Whistler too, but she’s young going and it’ll be a party…
Sammie Maxwell with the 666 plate is orders of magnitude heavier than any freeride dude in the past two decades.
You’re set to not accept DMs but I have a fiver for you. Thank you.
Dude’s language was still kind of opaque to where it was kinda like he could be there or not there but if felt like he was in the same room as Beaumont n Beckinsale but his been so cagey with the linguistics in the past that I could absolutely convince myself he was still duping me…Mitch McConnell of MTB…
Damn I’m glad they bought him a ticket to Les Gets hot sous-vide paraglider…he, and his position, deserve it. Boots on the effin ground with my man RicMc!
If they can't control the crowd, they need to redesign the corral. Simple. The scenes have been beyond mildy concerning since the first stampede and coupled with the conditions and terrain, fairly surprising there wasn't anyone lost this year or prior.
A lot to unpack for me after attending the race. I'm glad I went for sure... My wife did not want to go to the race after almost getting very hurt by a crazy person sliding down the hill through a crowd with a chainsaw flailing on a leash. No photos from me, since I was solo I just roamed the track and took the experience in... And what an experience it was.
Part of me loves the unhinged nature of the French fans... But another part of me is grown enough to see that many (easily 30%) towards the bottom of the track are not there to watch. It is not a universally great experience for everyone that is there to watch dh. If you go in knowing that you are at an event that as much (maybe more) about the party and scene as it is the racing then you are in the right spot to embrace it. I will say that I've never once before considered that maybe the chainsaw thing is a detriment to the racing but I had that thought many times. The only other thing experience i have had like this was when I went with some friends to a System of a Down concert as a fan of their music, but not someone in that scene. Being adjacent and accidentally in the moshpit at that concert made me realize that for many, it was not 'just' about the music, for some, not at all.
All that being said, the Les Gets race is everything it's lauded to be. The way that the traveling circus overcomes the town and the only thing you can see, smell, think, hear and consume is bike racing is intoxicating and overwhelming in an excellent way. The racing I got to see was no doubt, the best bike racing I will ever see in my life, the representation of mountain bike racing is the most feverish I could ever imagine and it is something I will never forget.
Whether the actions of the fans is appropriate or not is a tough call. If the goal is to see further adoption and acceptance of our sport as a top tier, AAA type of event that brings in outside sponsors and is inviting to fans, then this sort of thing won't work. I could easily look across the crowd and see people not enjoying themselves.
However, if it's all about the racing and the blue collar roots with unhinged passion... Which let's face it, is a big part of this sport... Then this is exactly the type of no holds barred, rabid consumption, distracting noise making, heckling roots we all know and love.
I saw hecklers rock once, didn't participate... That was a more focused drunken bullying feel then this. This was just unhinged to the point where it easily became the bulk of the experience depending on where you were standing.
At any rate, a few more things:
- the UCI app is actually dope and done very well. It has the maps of the pits and obviously takes a bunch of resources to build. It's good enough that I will look at it even when not at the races out of interest.
- XC racing is dope.
- Les Gets logistics for the fans is better then I thought it would be, still a shit show after the racing is done.
- next time I will pay for VIP access so my wife can chill and I'll hike the track.
Amazing racing. Feel like they could add more of a barrier on the inside of the last corner that would slow the rush the down enough to allow riders to celebrate and exit carefully.
Amazing racing. Feel like they could add more of a barrier on the inside of the last corner that would slow the rush the down enough...
Amazing racing. Feel like they could add more of a barrier on the inside of the last corner that would slow the rush the down enough to allow riders to celebrate and exit carefully.
They will almost certainly have cops in the finish area next year. They have in the past (one year they strung out across the finish line) and the lack of cops was definitely a part of why this years’s was so extra nutty and out of control. Maybe there were a couple on site but not remotely as many as they have had in the past.
Im gonna need to see HH posing with a comically large prize check…could be a Flossmann in the mix
TM Ollie on Downtime said he was joking about Vali calling from the start hut offering to split the pot but I thought the same thing without joking. Get to the finish line four seconds up and skid to a stop. Point up at Harnden on the hotseat, nod, and walk her bike over the line.
They stiffed Kelly Clarkson what you think they’re gonna do to you!
He had no chafe to make it out of corral. There were people already past barriers in front of him.
The only solution I see is a legit moat around corral drawbridge at the finish line 😂😂
Hear me out: next year before they rush the finish line corral, let's give the crowd real chainsaws with bars and chains and see what happens. INSTANT CLASSIC. One for the history books.
battle of waterloo, part two (electric boogaloo)
well, more so premix rather than electric...
Yeah, well, my kids were in the front line opposite side of the main stampede, just told them, let the crazy guys run first and the you walk down, you can be buried in the grass in a second.. so, I think the crowd rushing to the finish area, in a way is done OK-ish respecting the race and if you want to gamble it rushing down, you know what you are gettin in ...its common sense.. and this does not need to be policed too much... lots of people doing stupid things and getting carried out by paramedics while going down laong the track.. so its "normal" wild with fans and alcohol...imho...I just dont get all the people doing all the mud bathing and shouting, sliding and backflipping for the crowd when the top 10 are going down, completely disconnected from the race.. but Im not 15-20 and drunk, so it's fine.
Nothing beats this race.
some people just did not wanna to again in Q2... it was that bad...
That’s the point, no one is making them, it’s sport. The beauty of that is what produces the finals racing, which was excellent.
I am all for courses being safe, it’s critical, but the rest, even the racing, you have to leave to chance and design. Trying to bake out all of the variability, chance, weather, in order to have predictability just homogenises things.
It’s why it’s so hard to give a shit about tennis.
Shes been one of my favorites on the mic for a while now.
Here's the full replay of the junior men's race, just to complete my earlier posts:
POV - you win Les Gets as the last man to drop:
Wowza! Imagine fans deploying portable bridges and ladders to traverse the moat like something out of the Middle Ages. A Frenchman draped in a flag at the top of the ladder as they swing it across the moat. Les Gets 2027 could really be something some anti-moat nerd doesn't get in the way
Just watched the fastAF debrief:
Max said he was in fact very out of breadth at the line and pretty scared when they started to push him into the barrier...
Also some teasing that the SC Goodman team might become a much bigger team next year
downhill bike winner = astronaut
Contemporary gladiator
So sick!
If I were a French teen and I went to Les Gets to drink beer and scream for my bike heroes and I joined the finish line tsunami as one of the French teen twins won the race and my arm got compound fractured…I think I’d be okay with it. What a beautiful scene!
Notable:
Bruni rooting for like five riders except Jordan Williams was striking. I’m a BruniManiac but I am 100% all in on Williams for the overall now. Bruni’s always been a class act but his omission of his teammate—his front-running teammate?—in his pre-race prediction talk made me gasp (!) as I watched quietly under the sheets. How dare you.
Is there photo/video/IG evidence of RicMc’s presence in Les Gets? I just erased five paragraphs and it just simply boils down to this: I need to see him there. I will Venmo $5 to anyone who will help me move on with my weekend. Please.
I always found Hattie’s Hat unsightly and malodorous. This is a reference to the bar in Seattle.
Congratulations are in order to all gearbox dudes on the internet. Take a break and know that you’ve just had rent paid for the next what?—five more years? Great work, you did it!
Flat Pedal Maes with the slip right when they were musing about his footwear was fantastic.
Alran Bros are so sick! I grew up around a couple sets of twins, they generally make me uncomfortable. I believe the Alrans are my favorite twins ever. It won’t be long until they complete their first elite win.
Lake Placid crowds after this - World Champs - Whistler? Aw man, if I were Vali I’d catch a flight from Vancouver to Mexico or Hawaii instead of heading back there. I’d consider bailing on Whistler too, but she’s young going and it’ll be a party…
Sammie Maxwell with the 666 plate is orders of magnitude heavier than any freeride dude in the past two decades.
DH so rad.
I’m just imagining a drawbridge that goes up when the last rider crosses the line. Would be more fun than a line of cops.
Show me the 💰
Dude. Thank you!
You’re set to not accept DMs but I have a fiver for you. Thank you.
Dude’s language was still kind of opaque to where it was kinda like he could be there or not there but if felt like he was in the same room as Beaumont n Beckinsale but his been so cagey with the linguistics in the past that I could absolutely convince myself he was still duping me…Mitch McConnell of MTB…
Damn I’m glad they bought him a ticket to Les Gets hot sous-vide paraglider…he, and his position, deserve it. Boots on the effin ground with my man RicMc!
Credit to Cathro and Pinkbike for calling out the finish line carnage on the Story of the race video.
Here's another Sleeper song choice to complain about :-)
If they can't control the crowd, they need to redesign the corral. Simple. The scenes have been beyond mildy concerning since the first stampede and coupled with the conditions and terrain, fairly surprising there wasn't anyone lost this year or prior.
lawlor's slowmo epicness from the mud day.
Trent Reznor-Supernaut didn’t make it again. I is sad!
The first song kind of made sense since event had some Woodstock 99 vibes 😂
A lot to unpack for me after attending the race. I'm glad I went for sure... My wife did not want to go to the race after almost getting very hurt by a crazy person sliding down the hill through a crowd with a chainsaw flailing on a leash. No photos from me, since I was solo I just roamed the track and took the experience in... And what an experience it was.
Part of me loves the unhinged nature of the French fans... But another part of me is grown enough to see that many (easily 30%) towards the bottom of the track are not there to watch. It is not a universally great experience for everyone that is there to watch dh. If you go in knowing that you are at an event that as much (maybe more) about the party and scene as it is the racing then you are in the right spot to embrace it. I will say that I've never once before considered that maybe the chainsaw thing is a detriment to the racing but I had that thought many times. The only other thing experience i have had like this was when I went with some friends to a System of a Down concert as a fan of their music, but not someone in that scene. Being adjacent and accidentally in the moshpit at that concert made me realize that for many, it was not 'just' about the music, for some, not at all.
All that being said, the Les Gets race is everything it's lauded to be. The way that the traveling circus overcomes the town and the only thing you can see, smell, think, hear and consume is bike racing is intoxicating and overwhelming in an excellent way. The racing I got to see was no doubt, the best bike racing I will ever see in my life, the representation of mountain bike racing is the most feverish I could ever imagine and it is something I will never forget.
Whether the actions of the fans is appropriate or not is a tough call. If the goal is to see further adoption and acceptance of our sport as a top tier, AAA type of event that brings in outside sponsors and is inviting to fans, then this sort of thing won't work. I could easily look across the crowd and see people not enjoying themselves.
However, if it's all about the racing and the blue collar roots with unhinged passion... Which let's face it, is a big part of this sport... Then this is exactly the type of no holds barred, rabid consumption, distracting noise making, heckling roots we all know and love.
I saw hecklers rock once, didn't participate... That was a more focused drunken bullying feel then this. This was just unhinged to the point where it easily became the bulk of the experience depending on where you were standing.
At any rate, a few more things:
- the UCI app is actually dope and done very well. It has the maps of the pits and obviously takes a bunch of resources to build. It's good enough that I will look at it even when not at the races out of interest.
- XC racing is dope.
- Les Gets logistics for the fans is better then I thought it would be, still a shit show after the racing is done.
- next time I will pay for VIP access so my wife can chill and I'll hike the track.
Amazing racing. Feel like they could add more of a barrier on the inside of the last corner that would slow the rush the down enough to allow riders to celebrate and exit carefully.
They will almost certainly have cops in the finish area next year. They have in the past (one year they strung out across the finish line) and the lack of cops was definitely a part of why this years’s was so extra nutty and out of control. Maybe there were a couple on site but not remotely as many as they have had in the past.
Im gonna need to see HH posing with a comically large prize check…could be a Flossmann in the mix
TM Ollie on Downtime said he was joking about Vali calling from the start hut offering to split the pot but I thought the same thing without joking. Get to the finish line four seconds up and skid to a stop. Point up at Harnden on the hotseat, nod, and walk her bike over the line.
They stiffed Kelly Clarkson what you think they’re gonna do to you!
started World Champs thread here - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/2026-world-champs-val-di-sole
Post a reply to: 2026 Les Gets World Cup Downhill