Aaron Gwin and Dom Platt are the only two guys who started after Bruni to pull a top-30 so far, pretty stoked Aaron managed to weave through the carnage. I wonder if they’ll award normal qualifying points for this session, that could make a huge difference for Dakotah minimizing damage from a not as great run.
Since no one asked me: Top 60 get in. Televise the top 30. Have the camera crew shoot the whole race and give us the race runs of the hot seat when the broadcast starts. Wyn's content is amazing. Hell I watched his XC recap from last week.
I'm with the comments, if only a photographer or two could go around the pits doing 30s interviews, then they could play them over their photos in some kind of slideshow. If they have nice photos but no audio, then just play the same muzak track for about 15 years. I can't believe no one has tried this before.
Ranked 53rd (which I also believe includes Junior men) is really cool, there must be a lot of points paying rounds in Asia as I had not seen his name in previous World Cup races.
How did they determine protected status? It seems to be based off current MTB World Series standings but that seems odd considering everything else is based on UCI ranking and this race is technically separate from the series. Pretty silly anyone is protected and even sillier they have qualifying, let alone qualifying that doesn’t even determine start order.
Define elite. If a privateer qualifies to race in the elite category doesn't that make them an elite rider? If they get down the track faster than someone with a factory ride haven't they earned the right to race? There are numerous team riders that rarely qualify for finals.