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I think you might be overthinking it a little, it is simply cost of rider vs payout. Bruni was 210k for 250 payout, Vali was 205k for 250 payout, hence why she was chosen in the best team.

Big up to Asa for a mature interview and owning up to this. The kid has class

Smoother suspension will make you faster on a 20-minute race run or a 2-minute race run. "Comfort" can serve as a canary in the coal mine for bike setup, because if you're getting beat up and bounced around by your handlebars, that probably isn't a fast or efficient setup. A couple years ago Loic Bruni was doing a video play-by-play of his 3rd place race run at the season opener World Cup race at Lourdes, and he was talking about how he went up in compression a couple clicks between qualifying and finals, and felt like he could barely keep...

Agree, and (at least in my memory) every separation from a brand has been, if not not acrimonious, very sudden-seeming and w/out any of the "thanks for the support, time for new things" acknowledgments that usually accompany them. Might just be a personal style thing (and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong) but people notice stuff that like that.

I'm not sure this is something to be proud about.........

I weigh 175lbs, but I'm 6'2" so I do end up with a lot of leverage on the bike. I run the enduro soft rear at 22-23 psi with a cushcore xc and I run the front enduro soft at about 20-21 (no xc insert). This is on a 32lb giant trance x advanced 29 (hot damn that's a mouthful). That bike is pretty flexy, only has 135mm of travel and is definitely the kind of bike that rides like it has less travel then it does. I treat it like a true trail bike and for the most part...

Inserts and tubes? Seriously?

I'm running enduro soft front/rear on my trail bike (135mm travel). I was previously running a trail casing, endurance compound krr in back with a cc xc insert. I ended up putting a pencil eraser sized hole between the treads on a trail ride in utah, not a surprise, that was an experiment to see how light of a casing I could run (I was warned and found out). I have since switched to enduro/soft krr with an cushcore xc on that bike. The enduro casing is pretty decent in terms of durability and the soft rubber rolls decently well...

Watching the Crankworx Redbull TV live feed with 25% riding with 75% filler BS. Once the race run actually starts most of the track isn't shown on the feed. Making WB/Disco look pretty good now.

Random thoughts- -I find it hard to believe Dan was directly involved in the construction of the canyon gap and that appalling hip monstrosity ( I recognized a few of the builders on the vids) -He is probably the most experienced builder of big trail features (if you've ridden Dyfi you'll know how good he is) in the uk and having been super seriously injured himself and seeing what his brother went through I could'nt see him signing off on something he was'nt 100% with (he hurt himself guinea pigging the lily pad/90ft's before anyone else). -I don't know Dan...

Sensing how fuckin fast Asa's going so they know how much to turn everything down for us mere mortals