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fuck yeah dak! privateer vanlife ftw! (at least for this race)

That was Greg Williamson.

I'd bet the delta between what we can go buy and what the top guys are running is a lot tighter than most think. Jackson's V10 is closer to stock than not, and we all know how his season is going. Maybe there are a few special parts hung from his bike, but the difference is likely pretty small between what he is running and what we can buy (IE, Grip-X vs Grip-2). Put differently, if you were to hang totally off the shelf parts from his bike and have him race a weekend, I still wouldn't bet against him...

I spent a few hundred hours riding the VST prototypes. Still, to this day, I have yet to ride a bike that goes so damn fast in a straight line. There was so much drama in that era of Sinister, it’s too bad development stopped on that project, two or three more prototypes and I think we would have ended up with a production-ready bike.

Quick rant, does anyone else think Treks new e-bike naming convention sucks. EX-e was fine, easy to search, minimal, clearly differentiated it from the non-ebike versions. Their new naming convention seems to just be putting + after everything. Fuel+, Rail+, Slash+ etc. It doesn't work at all from an SEO perspective, the + ends up getting lost in google and you end up with a bunch of results for outgoing bikes or non-ebike versions when you search it. And Slash-e is way more fun to say than Slash+.

Probably one of the cooler analysis I've read on this race

I designed this so happy to answer any questions on it. Its actually as stiff as the stock countercycle mount (probably stiffer with the 4 points of contact at the fork) carbon reinforced plastics are pretty stiff with the right infill and wall thickness, also sometimes you have to use the tools at you disposal, if i owned a cnc Id probably do something different

If you listen to the latest Downtime podcast, it was Neko who invited Ken and set up the whole thing. I can't help but feel that people are in the habit now of only seeing everything from a purely negative perspective - maybe we could all get a grip and stop whinging 100% of the time...

well Joe Breeden hadn't had a top 20 result since 2021 and this season so far hasn't been out of the top 20. Tuhoto is looking faster but just needs to keep it between the tape. He has made all the finals except Poland where he was 21st in qualies after not making any last year.

After watching Oli win juniors on a belt drive I would say now is not the point we consider they are slower.

I know Loudenvielle feels like old news with Leogang upon us, but Mike Page ( Between The Tape), put together an awesome analysis article from Loudenvielle that looks at when riders had their fastest splits (between timed training, Q1, Q2, finals), and how their simulated times would have placed had they put it all together for finals. It's a great read, and might help inform some of your fantasy picks for Leogang. https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/simulated-racer-who-put-together-fast…

Maybe next year we crowd source lawlors travel expenses. Just saying, I’m willing to chip in because god damn I missed them as well.

Fully. It doesn't feel like a world cup weekend without them.

They’ve only gone and done it again. Unreal.

https://youtu.be/-oiwsn6G8MQ?si=qZFhHjdUsbd_qANb Sleeper edit

No Vital Raw, no WynTV, having withdrawal symptoms.

I mean theres def a reason for feeling that when you start with Poland and Loudenvielle. And to a lesser extent, Leogang right after that. But it's not like VDS and MSA were taken off schedule. I'm hoping Champery will be a technical track, despite being a similarly steep tight track. And I'm hoping the boys at home cook up something nasty for Placid. Maybe build another whale tail at the bottom and have to dismantle it before the race... Think Reece is just in a tough spot right now. And nobody can blame him for being pissed with the...

Reece Wilson sharing his thoughts on the tracks