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Eliot is the best commentator in the biz. Full stop. I'll take the slow jank uphill bits over fast, straight motorway, which is boooriiing. Some riders made it look smooth and fast, others stalled out. It was hard, which is the point. Hardline is way cooler than Rampage.

Hot, or maybe lukewarm take - of the commentary duo, Elliot is amazing but Rob is ok at best. I don't need to hear wowowowowow 15 times and the random yelling. Obviously he is still miles ahead of Ric....but that's a really low bar to clear.

This kid is from another planet. These established elites need to get what they can while they can. The level of confidence is frightening. first elite race, first elite win. first elite season, first elite title. won at every hardline stop. 97 foot backflip. what is going on... what is happening

more from the don:

He seems to have lost a lot of respect from the rider community when he went full influencer... and also when he went and filmed a video on Brendog's battleship feature the week after Rampage that one year.

From NSMB's excellent practice-day write-up, re: Asa: "He threw a massive backie off the last hit, and apparently Neko benched him for the day after that (unconfirmed! rumour! hearsay!)" https://nsmb.com/articles/red-bull-hardline-bc-practice-day-1/

They didn't give us any instruction on that in training. I didn't even shout at them, partly because I was farther away than some spectators and it would have been a lot of yelling. Also, everything just happens faster than you think. This happened just below the grass flat right hander after you come out of the skinny woods. A lot of riders were blowing the rut and hitting poles. The marshals were spaced such that they couldn't see which side of the poles the riders were on, so as sector manager, I walked up there and specifically watched that...

Watched practice and qualies right by the most awkward spot on the course, where Jackson threw it away in both Q1 and Q2. He also seemed to crash within +/- 6ft of this corner on every* practice run, though each time in a different way (*not on the course preview run though). One of his practice crashes can be seen at 0:50 in the sleeper shreddit, here: https://youtu.be/-cgVrAie3Vo?t=50 . I was a bit shocked that he seemed to be insisting on trying to win the race in this one awkward turn, and completely refused to slow down enough to make...

Lukelan Smithens-MeNab

I’d return to watch (and ride) at Snowshoe if that’s all they have, to be fair. Variety is definitely cool in a racing series. I feel I’ve made my love and respect for the MarioKart course organizers very clear, they do it right. Ice track dirt track tarmac track…farm track space track dungeon track. Excellent camera work by that cloud guy too, I believe his name is Lakitu. Again again again, I would pay money to watch these people race at the park across the street.

Big bike brands talking to their engineers this morning.

feel bad for LMS maybe not getting the credit he deserves for putting well over a second into 2nd on a track that has many riders apart by only a tenth. like you have to go to... 9th place from 2nd? to get the same time gap LMS put on 2nd. nearly the same gap from 2nd to 10th. as he put from 1st to 2nd. damn

Big congrats to Neko Mullaly for everything he's done. Frameworks up there battling the big dogs and he Seems to be the perfect mentor for Asa. Great listening to him on the Downtime podcast and when he was in the commentary booth last season

The dirt is good but the best thing I’ve seen all day was 2 girls probably 5 and 7 that were so excited to see Tahnee and Marine. They were talking about their favorite places to watch from and which lines the riders were taking. The future is bright.

All 3 commencal women have looked dialed in the weird ruts where most others have looked awkward. Gracey also just came by gloveless, sleeves rolled up, blasting “talk dirty to me” on her phone and ripping the shit out of it.

Every single rider (except Reece) who has hit this rut right at the top has hit either a derailleur or pedal, sometimes both. There is going to be a mechanical at some point if they hit it hard enough.

Right after the first road crossing: The red line is faster but a lot of riders without the speed take the blue line but have to cut sharp right before the shark fin and lose speed.

Surely the time penalty is the time it takes to go back and re-enter the track where you left it? If you don't want to do that, it's a choice to get disqualified. The existing rule is harsh but fair and leaves no wiggle room for creative interpretations.