Asa is 96 points in the lead. Elite Men's standings Top 15 going into Lake Placid below. links to PDFs for all classes here - https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/event/20260925_mtb/DHI/CG1
Asa is 96 points in the lead. Elite Men's standings Top 15 going into Lake Placid below. links to PDFs for all classes here - https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/event/20260925_mtb/DHI/CG1
Begs the question, if Jordan wins, where does Asa have to finish to take the overall?
Asa wins if he places 4 or better regardless of Jordan's position. Prob more complicated after that.... Ap4 also still in the fight, but he needs both Asa and Jordan to flop in a major way
Asa is 96 points in the lead. Elite Men's standings Top 15 going into Lake Placid below. links to PDFs for all classes here - https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/event/20260925_mtb/DHI/CG1
Asa wins if he places 4 or better regardless of Jordan's position. Prob more complicated after that.... Ap4 also still in the fight, but he needs...
Asa wins if he places 4 or better regardless of Jordan's position. Prob more complicated after that.... Ap4 also still in the fight, but he needs both Asa and Jordan to flop in a major way
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated in DH to determine if a course exit granted an advantage or not?
It's something moto does where they basically make a gut call on whether or not you accelerated off track. And with the poles thing, so often we see riders hike a bike to get around a pole which is... I mean that run is DONE. It was already screwed by the fall or pole miss but, obviously there's no incentive for the rider to try after a hike a bike.
I guess my question is, is this what we want as DH fans? The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run, and the rider has no real reason to try afterwards?
It was hard to tell from the angle so I guess I could be wrong but it looked like what caused Lachie's pole miss was a G out that put him fully off line and almost caused a crash. It's hard to imagine that could be seen as an unfair advantage in terms of course markings.
(and or does this become another bring back tape narrative)
I think it's safe to say that the first year men's Elite racers lived up to the loftiest expectations: Three 19 year olds in the top 10 in the World Cup standings (Asa 1, Max 4, Til 9), with wins in 3 of the 8 races so far. (And Tyler Waite is 22nd in points despite only racing in 5 finals so far.)
I really believe the 2027 women's Elite newcomers might be similarly impressive. Obviously, Aletha Ostgaard is an exceptional talent, but there are several other young women who could find success as Elites.
Here's a look at their performances as Juniors over the past 2 years in World Cup:
Number of finals raced / Number of wins / Number of podiums:
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated...
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated in DH to determine if a course exit granted an advantage or not?
It's something moto does where they basically make a gut call on whether or not you accelerated off track. And with the poles thing, so often we see riders hike a bike to get around a pole which is... I mean that run is DONE. It was already screwed by the fall or pole miss but, obviously there's no incentive for the rider to try after a hike a bike.
I guess my question is, is this what we want as DH fans? The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run, and the rider has no real reason to try afterwards?
It was hard to tell from the angle so I guess I could be wrong but it looked like what caused Lachie's pole miss was a G out that put him fully off line and almost caused a crash. It's hard to imagine that could be seen as an unfair advantage in terms of course markings.
(and or does this become another bring back tape narrative)
The unfair advantage isn't that the line outside the pole is faster, it's that they failed to pull whatever move or line they were trying to do BEFORE that point and ended up unable to keep it on track. What you're suggesting basically equates to a rider being able to skip a tricky section of track just as long as going around a course marker isn't faster. Which would turn the actual course into nothing more than a suggested route of travel.
"The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run..." - well yeah. If you fail to keep it upright or within the course markers, why should there be rules to protect the rest of your run? The riders that beat you did so because they made less mistakes and rode inside the entire course faster.
In alpine skiing it's a DSQ if you straddle a course marker. If you miss a gate completely you're allowed to hike back up to re-enter the gate you missed (if you chose to just keep going in that scenario, it's a DSQ as well).
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated...
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated in DH to determine if a course exit granted an advantage or not?
It's something moto does where they basically make a gut call on whether or not you accelerated off track. And with the poles thing, so often we see riders hike a bike to get around a pole which is... I mean that run is DONE. It was already screwed by the fall or pole miss but, obviously there's no incentive for the rider to try after a hike a bike.
I guess my question is, is this what we want as DH fans? The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run, and the rider has no real reason to try afterwards?
It was hard to tell from the angle so I guess I could be wrong but it looked like what caused Lachie's pole miss was a G out that put him fully off line and almost caused a crash. It's hard to imagine that could be seen as an unfair advantage in terms of course markings.
(and or does this become another bring back tape narrative)
The unfair advantage isn't that the line outside the pole is faster, it's that they failed to pull whatever move or line they were trying to...
The unfair advantage isn't that the line outside the pole is faster, it's that they failed to pull whatever move or line they were trying to do BEFORE that point and ended up unable to keep it on track. What you're suggesting basically equates to a rider being able to skip a tricky section of track just as long as going around a course marker isn't faster. Which would turn the actual course into nothing more than a suggested route of travel.
"The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run..." - well yeah. If you fail to keep it upright or within the course markers, why should there be rules to protect the rest of your run? The riders that beat you did so because they made less mistakes and rode inside the entire course faster.
In alpine skiing it's a DSQ if you straddle a course marker. If you miss a gate completely you're allowed to hike back up to re-enter the gate you missed (if you chose to just keep going in that scenario, it's a DSQ as well).
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
Seems like a lot of riders are using the airbag vests, and they seem to be working really well. There were like 4 or 5 that I saw deploy in the replay, and the riders all got up quickly after those slams. Seems like promising tech, hopefully some other brands get into it also so that riders across different sponsors can use them. And maybe we'll see coverage improve over a few more MTB injury prone areas (like hips, or neck like a brace). If they can make it work as a neck brace, that would eliminate the excuse I see a lot of "neck braces limit ability to look down track", since it would only be in effect during deployment.
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between...
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
If a person was going up to watch Jackson alone and left or decided not to attend because he didn’t qualify, I’m not sure that’s a person we want in the community anyway.
The bike industry is in the predicament it’s in because it continually tries to appeal to fairest weather participants and fans at the detriment to the truly dedicated.
A person could be disappointed Jacko wasn’t racing but if they can’t appreciate the other 30 riders who did qualify and chose not to come watch, good riddance.
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between...
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
If a person was going up to watch Jackson alone and left or decided not to attend because he didn’t qualify, I’m not sure that’s a...
If a person was going up to watch Jackson alone and left or decided not to attend because he didn’t qualify, I’m not sure that’s a person we want in the community anyway.
The bike industry is in the predicament it’s in because it continually tries to appeal to fairest weather participants and fans at the detriment to the truly dedicated.
A person could be disappointed Jacko wasn’t racing but if they can’t appreciate the other 30 riders who did qualify and chose not to come watch, good riddance.
Good point. I'm just stating it doesn't help when literally every weekend, 3 or 4 stars of the sport don't make it through quali. Imagine if that happened in Supercross for example. Attendance would definitely be lower.
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated...
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated in DH to determine if a course exit granted an advantage or not?
It's something moto does where they basically make a gut call on whether or not you accelerated off track. And with the poles thing, so often we see riders hike a bike to get around a pole which is... I mean that run is DONE. It was already screwed by the fall or pole miss but, obviously there's no incentive for the rider to try after a hike a bike.
I guess my question is, is this what we want as DH fans? The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run, and the rider has no real reason to try afterwards?
It was hard to tell from the angle so I guess I could be wrong but it looked like what caused Lachie's pole miss was a G out that put him fully off line and almost caused a crash. It's hard to imagine that could be seen as an unfair advantage in terms of course markings.
(and or does this become another bring back tape narrative)
The unfair advantage isn't that the line outside the pole is faster, it's that they failed to pull whatever move or line they were trying to...
The unfair advantage isn't that the line outside the pole is faster, it's that they failed to pull whatever move or line they were trying to do BEFORE that point and ended up unable to keep it on track. What you're suggesting basically equates to a rider being able to skip a tricky section of track just as long as going around a course marker isn't faster. Which would turn the actual course into nothing more than a suggested route of travel.
"The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run..." - well yeah. If you fail to keep it upright or within the course markers, why should there be rules to protect the rest of your run? The riders that beat you did so because they made less mistakes and rode inside the entire course faster.
In alpine skiing it's a DSQ if you straddle a course marker. If you miss a gate completely you're allowed to hike back up to re-enter the gate you missed (if you chose to just keep going in that scenario, it's a DSQ as well).
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between...
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
The poll was definitely inside a bit more than the previous ones, but a close up shot shows it was off the main line and marking a rock.
Good point. I'm just stating it doesn't help when literally every weekend, 3 or 4 stars of the sport don't make it through quali. Imagine if...
Good point. I'm just stating it doesn't help when literally every weekend, 3 or 4 stars of the sport don't make it through quali. Imagine if that happened in Supercross for example. Attendance would definitely be lower.
If that's the concern, bringing back protected status is the better way
The poll was definitely inside a bit more than the previous ones, but a close up shot shows it was off the main line and marking...
The poll was definitely inside a bit more than the previous ones, but a close up shot shows it was off the main line and marking a rock.
Almost looks like it was put there because they couldn't move it further out due to the rock, but the course markings likely didn't change the whole weekend and everyone has to ride the same track. It's a fair rule even if it seems harsh.
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between...
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
If a person was going up to watch Jackson alone and left or decided not to attend because he didn’t qualify, I’m not sure that’s a...
If a person was going up to watch Jackson alone and left or decided not to attend because he didn’t qualify, I’m not sure that’s a person we want in the community anyway.
The bike industry is in the predicament it’s in because it continually tries to appeal to fairest weather participants and fans at the detriment to the truly dedicated.
A person could be disappointed Jacko wasn’t racing but if they can’t appreciate the other 30 riders who did qualify and chose not to come watch, good riddance.
Good point. I'm just stating it doesn't help when literally every weekend, 3 or 4 stars of the sport don't make it through quali. Imagine if...
Good point. I'm just stating it doesn't help when literally every weekend, 3 or 4 stars of the sport don't make it through quali. Imagine if that happened in Supercross for example. Attendance would definitely be lower.
Completely disagree. I was absolutely gutted that Finn and Jackson didn't make it through, but it's just a testament that the level of riding and competition is absolutely crazy these days (particularly on the men's side). Like, on any given weekend, anyone in the top 20 could be on the podium. This has been one of the most exciting seasons in memory, BECAUSE there aren't any guarantees or sure bets.
I hope they don’t bring protected riders back in. Make every rider work for every race qualifying and finals. It was disappointing to not see Finn and Jackson race yesterday, but having the three Canadians get in q2 and the other riders that did put it together is great for the sport. Big props to Body Burke making it through q2 after that q1 crash.
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between...
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
didn't help attendance or vibe?! Place was rammed and the vibe was AWESOME regardless! Did we all want Finn and Jackson in, sure, but we still came out and screamed ourselves hoarse.
I would like to see it be some form of time penalty, still a hard line in the sand but not something that completely fks the riders result and potentially season overall. Make it + 5-10 seconds per pole missed or something to that effect. That way the rider is still heavily penalised for missing a pole, but still gets a result in an instance like what happened with LSM.
I hope they don’t bring protected riders back in. Make every rider work for every race qualifying and finals. It was disappointing to not see Finn...
I hope they don’t bring protected riders back in. Make every rider work for every race qualifying and finals. It was disappointing to not see Finn and Jackson race yesterday, but having the three Canadians get in q2 and the other riders that did put it together is great for the sport. Big props to Body Burke making it through q2 after that q1 crash.
having the three Canadians get in q2 and the other riders that did put it together is great for the sport.
If I'm not mistaken, all 3 - the Jewetts and Helly - each had their best day ever as an Elite World Cup rider. Add in Proulx-Royds, Wilson and De Vall with their top 5 finishes in Juniors and there was so much to celebrate. I'd love it if UCI would work MSA back into the schedule and have 3 North American races each season. (Probably never happen, I suppose, but still... )
Of course what he meant to say was "I'm pretty much the ALT F4 of mountain biking"
So if my math is right and the UCI does it right too, Asa is now leading the overall and it's going to be a very exciting weekend at lake placid.
Drivers seat
Asa is 96 points in the lead. Elite Men's standings Top 15 going into Lake Placid below. links to PDFs for all classes here - https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/event/20260925_mtb…
Begs the question, if Jordan wins, where does Asa have to finish to take the overall?
Asa wins if he places 4 or better regardless of Jordan's position. Prob more complicated after that.... Ap4 also still in the fight, but he needs both Asa and Jordan to flop in a major way
As someone who follows SX / MX very closely, it still blows me away how much more up and down the top 10 overall riders results are in the world cups
I made these spreadsheets to compare. It's only 2D not 3D so we can't compare all the permutations depending on Amaury's performance, but there are 3 basic sheets: AV vs JW, AV vs AP, and AP vs JW. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17BtOlT4lYjbgaYc-gpQUiFYZWUtZ10fAnDhqKdVsDAc/edit?usp=sharing
As someone who watches moto, I've been thinking about how Lachie missed a pole, and it's got me wondering... Would it just be far too complicated in DH to determine if a course exit granted an advantage or not?
It's something moto does where they basically make a gut call on whether or not you accelerated off track. And with the poles thing, so often we see riders hike a bike to get around a pole which is... I mean that run is DONE. It was already screwed by the fall or pole miss but, obviously there's no incentive for the rider to try after a hike a bike.
I guess my question is, is this what we want as DH fans? The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run, and the rider has no real reason to try afterwards?
It was hard to tell from the angle so I guess I could be wrong but it looked like what caused Lachie's pole miss was a G out that put him fully off line and almost caused a crash. It's hard to imagine that could be seen as an unfair advantage in terms of course markings.
(and or does this become another bring back tape narrative)
I think it's safe to say that the first year men's Elite racers lived up to the loftiest expectations: Three 19 year olds in the top 10 in the World Cup standings (Asa 1, Max 4, Til 9), with wins in 3 of the 8 races so far. (And Tyler Waite is 22nd in points despite only racing in 5 finals so far.)
I really believe the 2027 women's Elite newcomers might be similarly impressive. Obviously, Aletha Ostgaard is an exceptional talent, but there are several other young women who could find success as Elites.
Here's a look at their performances as Juniors over the past 2 years in World Cup:
Number of finals raced / Number of wins / Number of podiums:
Man that was an exciting race.
I hope its consolation to Goldstone and Finn that no one on that day was going to beat Asa. It was his day, his race.
The unfair advantage isn't that the line outside the pole is faster, it's that they failed to pull whatever move or line they were trying to do BEFORE that point and ended up unable to keep it on track. What you're suggesting basically equates to a rider being able to skip a tricky section of track just as long as going around a course marker isn't faster. Which would turn the actual course into nothing more than a suggested route of travel.
"The idea that minor mistakes or falls completely erase a race run..." - well yeah. If you fail to keep it upright or within the course markers, why should there be rules to protect the rest of your run? The riders that beat you did so because they made less mistakes and rode inside the entire course faster.
In alpine skiing it's a DSQ if you straddle a course marker. If you miss a gate completely you're allowed to hike back up to re-enter the gate you missed (if you chose to just keep going in that scenario, it's a DSQ as well).
sure, but the course markers could be placed better. Maybe it was just the camera angle on the stream, but that section seemed unnecessarily narrow. Between this sort of thing and qualifying being super tight, it's easy to miss out on a top rider making it to finals. Unrelated, but maybe race winners within the last 1 or so years should get grandfathered a qualifying spot? I'm sure Jackson not qualifying to duke it out with Asa didn't help attendance or the vibe overall.
Seems like a lot of riders are using the airbag vests, and they seem to be working really well. There were like 4 or 5 that I saw deploy in the replay, and the riders all got up quickly after those slams. Seems like promising tech, hopefully some other brands get into it also so that riders across different sponsors can use them. And maybe we'll see coverage improve over a few more MTB injury prone areas (like hips, or neck like a brace). If they can make it work as a neck brace, that would eliminate the excuse I see a lot of "neck braces limit ability to look down track", since it would only be in effect during deployment.
If a person was going up to watch Jackson alone and left or decided not to attend because he didn’t qualify, I’m not sure that’s a person we want in the community anyway.
The bike industry is in the predicament it’s in because it continually tries to appeal to fairest weather participants and fans at the detriment to the truly dedicated.
A person could be disappointed Jacko wasn’t racing but if they can’t appreciate the other 30 riders who did qualify and chose not to come watch, good riddance.
Good point. I'm just stating it doesn't help when literally every weekend, 3 or 4 stars of the sport don't make it through quali. Imagine if that happened in Supercross for example. Attendance would definitely be lower.
The poll was definitely inside a bit more than the previous ones, but a close up shot shows it was off the main line and marking a rock.
If that's the concern, bringing back protected status is the better way
Almost looks like it was put there because they couldn't move it further out due to the rock, but the course markings likely didn't change the whole weekend and everyone has to ride the same track. It's a fair rule even if it seems harsh.
Completely disagree. I was absolutely gutted that Finn and Jackson didn't make it through, but it's just a testament that the level of riding and competition is absolutely crazy these days (particularly on the men's side). Like, on any given weekend, anyone in the top 20 could be on the podium. This has been one of the most exciting seasons in memory, BECAUSE there aren't any guarantees or sure bets.
I hope they don’t bring protected riders back in. Make every rider work for every race qualifying and finals. It was disappointing to not see Finn and Jackson race yesterday, but having the three Canadians get in q2 and the other riders that did put it together is great for the sport.
Big props to Body Burke making it through q2 after that q1 crash.
didn't help attendance or vibe?! Place was rammed and the vibe was AWESOME regardless! Did we all want Finn and Jackson in, sure, but we still came out and screamed ourselves hoarse.
"Stay on course" isn't harsh and isn't some unfair disadvantage
another +1 for never ever bringing back protected status.
everyone has the same poles to ride in between.
stay on course, go fast, make a result. keep human judgement out of it.
(still absolutely gutted for lachie)
Yep, exactly this.
I would like to see it be some form of time penalty, still a hard line in the sand but not something that completely fks the riders result and potentially season overall. Make it + 5-10 seconds per pole missed or something to that effect. That way the rider is still heavily penalised for missing a pole, but still gets a result in an instance like what happened with LSM.
Whistler rules so hard my friends didn’t even make it to the track until Finals day.
If I'm not mistaken, all 3 - the Jewetts and Helly - each had their best day ever as an Elite World Cup rider. Add in Proulx-Royds, Wilson and De Vall with their top 5 finishes in Juniors and there was so much to celebrate. I'd love it if UCI would work MSA back into the schedule and have 3 North American races each season. (Probably never happen, I suppose, but still... )
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