2026 Race Talk

thegromit
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10/21/2026 8:33am
thegromit wrote:

Also thanks for responding. 

Sugarbrad wrote:
Dynamic sag is just an average. I will often look at a specific part of the track if he's feeling something weird but generally I rely...

Dynamic sag is just an average. I will often look at a specific part of the track if he's feeling something weird but generally I rely more on his feeling and our static measurement. He prefers 27.5 rear, but if all the stages were like 1 and 5 we would have considered 29. Most of us mortals couldn't ride any of these setups, it's hard to describe how fast these guys are and how much support they need.

Nice thanks again for responding. I am still trying to figure out the telemetry stuff. I had stopped measuring my static and just tuning for dynamic.

Do you guys set the downhill bike up with similar sag?

dwhere
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dirty, DE, USA
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10/21/2026 9:07am
Big Dos wrote:
Super tight racing at the top. MS1 pretty insane result in 4th. Some of the stages looked savage. Bring back more big silly one day enduro...

Super tight racing at the top. MS1 pretty insane result in 4th. Some of the stages looked savage. Bring back more big silly one day enduro events 

Sugarbrad wrote:
We gave it a good go! Close encounter with a rock and lost his derailleur battery toward the bottom of the final stage. Hats off to...

We gave it a good go! Close encounter with a rock and lost his derailleur battery toward the bottom of the final stage. Hats off to Gilly, Elliot, and Richie. Great battle!

Why I’ll never go electric /s

1
hogfly
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10/21/2026 9:08am Edited Date/Time 10/21/2026 9:09am

I know this isn't necessarily "racing" but its rad as hell.  
 

I had started a dedicated Green River Classic thread down below calling out Corecross, but it dropped to the bottom of the page. But yeah, GRC gets my vote for the current most "core" and coolest event in mountain biking. As a lot of folks have noted, it's like Swampfest for mountain bikes. This year had some pretty insane pros there with Clemens Kaudela, Matt Begg, DJ Brandt, and others. I posted it in the dedicated thread, but here's my son's carnage clip from Corecross. So gnarly.

4
Sugarbrad
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10/21/2026 9:15am
thegromit wrote:
Nice thanks again for responding. I am still trying to figure out the telemetry stuff. I had stopped measuring my static and just tuning for dynamic.Do...

Nice thanks again for responding. I am still trying to figure out the telemetry stuff. I had stopped measuring my static and just tuning for dynamic.

Do you guys set the downhill bike up with similar sag?

It depends on the track and conditions but sag is similar on his DH bike yes. Too many factors to list and I don't want to derail the thread.

2
bizutch
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10/21/2026 10:53am

CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends in a 1st place finish out the gate or a disintegrated shoulder/wrist/knee from a takeout or wipeout. 
It's not snow. Almost all the wrecks are sudden, uncontrollable & violent. 
Just a reminder again that halfway through a season, a field of 64 is down to 32 if lucky.

 

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4
Eae903
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10/21/2026 11:33am
bizutch wrote:
CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends...

CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends in a 1st place finish out the gate or a disintegrated shoulder/wrist/knee from a takeout or wipeout. 
It's not snow. Almost all the wrecks are sudden, uncontrollable & violent. 
Just a reminder again that halfway through a season, a field of 64 is down to 32 if lucky.

 

I mean, real 4x and core cross are very different things, BMX can do fields of 8 easily, 4x can do fields of 4, even if tracks need to be made a bit wider. 

2
Big Dos
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10/21/2026 7:52pm
bizutch wrote:
CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends...

CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends in a 1st place finish out the gate or a disintegrated shoulder/wrist/knee from a takeout or wipeout. 
It's not snow. Almost all the wrecks are sudden, uncontrollable & violent. 
Just a reminder again that halfway through a season, a field of 64 is down to 32 if lucky.

 

What?

Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much weight on the front wheel.

Outlawed
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10/22/2026 10:04pm

CoreCross is dumb, dangerous and utter chaos.
And I f**king love it.

11
10/23/2026 7:31am
Big Dos wrote:
What?Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much...

What?

Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much weight on the front wheel.

Yes, definitely this, the beverages had nothing to do with it

3
hogfly
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10/23/2026 8:43am Edited Date/Time 10/23/2026 8:43am
bizutch wrote:
CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends...

CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends in a 1st place finish out the gate or a disintegrated shoulder/wrist/knee from a takeout or wipeout. 
It's not snow. Almost all the wrecks are sudden, uncontrollable & violent. 
Just a reminder again that halfway through a season, a field of 64 is down to 32 if lucky.

 

Big Dos wrote:
What?Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much...

What?

Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much weight on the front wheel.

DJ Brandt's video of the CoreX has an angle that shows that it's actually pretty good racing, not just carnage (though there's plenty of carnage as well). 

 

CoreX coverage starts at 9:07, and it shows all the crazy line options.

3
sspomer
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10/24/2026 1:38pm

New live link for hard MTB

1
bizutch
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10/26/2026 9:44am Edited Date/Time 10/26/2026 9:45am
bizutch wrote:
CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends...

CoreCross videos are perfect evidence as to why 4X is an unsustainable racing format for mountain biking. All weight on a front wheel that either ends in a 1st place finish out the gate or a disintegrated shoulder/wrist/knee from a takeout or wipeout. 
It's not snow. Almost all the wrecks are sudden, uncontrollable & violent. 
Just a reminder again that halfway through a season, a field of 64 is down to 32 if lucky.

 

Big Dos wrote:
What?Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much...

What?

Those dudes were crashing because the course was bulldust and their homies were literally jumping into, over and on them. Not because they had too much weight on the front wheel.

hogfly wrote:
DJ Brandt's video of the CoreX has an angle that shows that it's actually pretty good racing, not just carnage (though there's plenty of carnage as...

DJ Brandt's video of the CoreX has an angle that shows that it's actually pretty good racing, not just carnage (though there's plenty of carnage as well). 

 

CoreX coverage starts at 9:07, and it shows all the crazy line options.

I realize that about crashes & good racing. But yeah...DH & 4X, yeah...your weight is on your front wheel & when you go down in 4X, it's into the face of a jump, berm or just chaos. 
#1 reason it's unsustainable is that injuries in 4X are far more common than in DH b/c when you hit the ground, MANY of the crashes are caused by your competitor. Typically,  you're not prepped to stop/drop/roll in 4X when your front wheel vanishes, a brake is clipped or bars tangled or rear wheel stops from a tire rub or...or...or.   

Didn't say it isn't fun or good viewing. But it's unsustainable.  I'll say it again...it's all fun until a Wade Bootes level threat wants your wheel.

Out the front door on a brick hard, dirt bermed & kickered out 4X unwillingly is bad. 

And...there aren't 64 dudes gonna bother to pay to lose 1st or 2nd round to a Jared Graves/Shaun Palmer/Brian Lopes level starter.  It SUCKS to be in that gate if you don't have elite level snap.  You will ONLY follow the leader to the bottom.

1
sspomer
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10/26/2026 11:50am

Hard MTB Finals Highlights

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Fox
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10/26/2026 12:09pm

Hard mtb highlights is a good watch. 20k, 10k, 5k 1st, 2nd, 3rd for both men and women! Thats a big purse!! 

The tracks did indeed look really hard to ride fast and really hard to just ride at all. 

2
10/26/2026 2:44pm
sspomer wrote:

Hard MTB Finals Highlights

Did they even review the video before posting it? Seriously, the last minute is in the dark, and the interview with Anna is creepy. 

1
1
10/26/2026 7:27pm

I liked the Hard MTB thing. The (kinda) unpolished vibe seemed to fit in with me and my friends. 

I liked that I could see that a competitors time would be fast, just because of the nature of the course and the camera angle. 

As a subscriber to MBUK it was cool to see Fi Pidstock.

I missed the whip-off. Id like to go back and watch that. 

The ebike vs musclebike was interesting. 

Max Clark is worth watching.
 

1
MJT420
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1 day ago
Tim Horton wrote:
I liked the Hard MTB thing. The (kinda) unpolished vibe seemed to fit in with me and my friends. I liked that I could see that a...

I liked the Hard MTB thing. The (kinda) unpolished vibe seemed to fit in with me and my friends. 

I liked that I could see that a competitors time would be fast, just because of the nature of the course and the camera angle. 

As a subscriber to MBUK it was cool to see Fi Pidstock.

I missed the whip-off. Id like to go back and watch that. 

The ebike vs musclebike was interesting. 

Max Clark is worth watching.
 

I also liked it,I've been looking forward to the format for a while. Some changes I would consider though would be to separate ebike and bike competitors, I don't find them competing against each other that interesting and it's certainly unfair. Other than that differentiate the courses more and make them longer. 

I think a cool concept could be taking a page from NORBA and having a technical xc stage that would include both climbing and descending, but keep it less than a mile and have some sendy options. A DH stage, which is pretty self explanatory, and a "trials" stage which would be a lot of steep up and downs and technical terrain, more manifesto than uci trials style, but use the new uci trials scoring method for the stage. I think all of that on the same bike would be compelling racing and really show off how capable the bikes are, in a perfect world maybe some xc racers or enduro riders would be more inclined to take part. 

1
Clownshoe
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Whistler, BC, CA
1 day ago

I've been watching as this format has developed, and I like what I see. I hope they keep tweaking the format and improving the product.

I want to see an uphill stage manditory, and included in the scoring.  If this is supposed to mirror the biking "we" all do, then certainly uphill needs to part of it.

I want to see riders compete on one bike for the whole competition, and I want to see a seperate e-bike and amish bike category

3
sspomer
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1 day ago

if it wasn't clear in the broadcast, only one bike could be used on race day, riders could not switch bikes. some riders (asa, jake, mitch and others i think), trained on ebikes to get laps but used regular bikes for the race. i heard asa say "i can corner better on my frameworks," so there were definite trade offs depending on bike choice.

at the test/qualifying races climbing was supposed to be scored, not sure why they decided against it for finals. the climb has to be attempted by all competitors if they want to get an overall score at least (kyle strait didn't attempt it, so he didn't get an actual result in the end). the climb was supposed to happen before the DH stage, but a delayed race day start required the switch of climbing to the end b/c setting-sun-in-the-eyes would have made the DH track too sketchy.

in person, the length of courses felt just right. any longer and you couldn't see top to bottom (which is part of the "arena" concept they're going for). it also kept the day/show moving along at a good pace.

the fact that a scrapper like max clark could be pressuring someone like asa vermette is pretty darn cool. max figured out the really tech on-off fairly quickly, while asa made quite a few run-ups before yanking for it (on a levo in practice). asa didn't hit it in his race runs (maybe b/c it wasn't as possible w/o the squirt of an ebike motor?)

we talk about it a bit more in our bikes unaffiliated pod that went up yesterday, too

10
10 hours ago

Rad Trek vid recapping Riley Amos and Gwendalyn Gibson's season!

8 hours ago

Regarding Misspent Summers: 

I bought the first little Zoe Cuthbert book from 2024. 
Then I bought the Zoe Cuthbert book "Ninety" about 2025. 
Unbelievably good. The photos, the stories, the reviews of "best espresso" at each venue. The insider stories. Poetry from Chris Blevins, painting from Bjorn Riley. 

Worth every penny. 

I also bough the "Sram Transmission" book, even though I will never buy one. It is also REALLY good.

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