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pit bits shots of richie's derailleur (assume saint)

Asa vs. Amaury South Korea race runs.

Asa Vermette 100%

Rik's ok as an anchorman, I guess BUT if he's going to be sat in a West London studio he's going to have to take MORE NOTES and be up to date with any course changes, for example. A quick scan of forums and socials on the build up will give him enough factoids to take up plenty of the dead air. But he needs a colourful and knowledgeable co-commentator, at least the XC race, despite being a run&bike mudfest had Oli Beckinsale who is experienced enough to keep Rik on track.

If they're going to have a remote studio in the UK (which sucks) that at least means they could get Brits to commentate for way cheaper than having to fly them out to a race. Rob Warner, Rachel Atherton, Gee Atherton, Brendan Fairclough, Ratboy are all right there. They all either have way more commentating skill, have raced more recently than 1200 BC, or both. Ric wasn't that bad, but was definitely not "good", and whoever the new guy is was atrocious. He just repeated what Ric said, and said "when I was racing when the wheel was first invented"...

Mathieu Dupelle (ex Kona / Forbidden team manager) wrenching for Dak on the Scott Team.

Thanks a ton for all the questions today everyone. That was fun. With that, I'm signing off and jumping in the race van tomorrow morning to head to Mtn. Creek Bike Park for round 2 of the Pro Downhill Series. If you're in the area or around for the race feel free to stop by and say hi! Thank everyone!

Ha, you already know we looked at everything! Avinox is doing some wild stuff and honestly respect what they have pulled off here. But for the Tazer, it wasn't the right fit. Power to range is a real tradeoff with that system, and beyond that, big torque and wattage numbers don't always automatically equal a great ride. We were super intentional about this...the Tazer needed to be an all mountain bike. The Bosch system gets you the right power at the right time, and that's actually what makes a ride feel good. Trail access and Class 1 compliance in the...

I knew it! What a shitty decision. Gotta believe this, as a brand new venue in Asia would’ve been one of the ones to DEFINITELY have boots on the ground. I’m doubly disappointed. Not only on the noticeable drop in quality it brought, but that they were shady with it. Spin it as some sort of pro move, that you’re holding it down in Digital Mountain Bike Studio Four or whatever. Or just say it. I could hear MBeaumont struggling with the location charade but RicMc was saying “here in Korea” …and they only had what?—three people there as mans...

Lawlor comes through with the first episode of The Weekend 2026, following Luca Shaw, Matt Walker and Remi Thirion this round.

This detail is especially bizarre when the announcers are wearing ear pieces with a whole team of people feeding them information on the other side. Now that I think about it, I wonder if they were pretending it was open because ‘the athletes deciding to skip the jump because it’s faster’ is a better narrative than ‘the course builders messed up and the jump took out multiple racers’

The commentators should know if a feature like a big jump is closed of for safety reasons. As the jump was closed of a day earlier. There is a lack of present representation in the commentators boot.

Since Ronan is currently injured why not invite him to commentate using his ratboy impression. Hell invite ratboy too. Nobody would understand much but it would still be an improvement.

Healing vibes to Lou Ferguson who took a nasty fall during the first training session at the South Korea World Cup. She's in hospital with broken ribs and "stable vertebrae fractures". It's extra unfortunate that the jump in question was actually closed for racing later. Message from the team below: ------------------------ "During the opening practice session, Lou suffered a heavy crash on the big jump at the top of the track. After being one of the first riders to attempt the feature, Lou realised she lacked the necessary speed on the approach. She cased the landing and was bucked, resulting...

Asa fastest by just over 2 seconds in Q1? Damn...

and not only are they already really good, but you can’t afford to miss out on the next one. Happens in all the sports for a while…until there’s a few fizzle-outs and they change the rules. But our currents vets are the last actual old dudes. Bruni cracks me up with his tactics sometimes, I can’t believe they ever work on these dudes! He’s a bigger picture guy than most but I don’t know how he kept a straight face even pretending he’s not there to dominate! Worst reverse psychology verbal sandbaggery I’ve seen dude come ON! lol “oh yeah...

Bingo. You gotta pay them to talk about your products.

Is it possible that Countersycle aren't a sponsor and they only talk about sponsors product when they're producing sponsored content for the team?

jackson's v10 from korea

Live timing link now includes 2026 season - https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/mtb?ll=177739406765