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I'm not persuaded that lockouts make as big a difference as many think. Tire choice is far more influential. Of course the top riders will be on the top technology by their sponsors. But I just think the correlation is the other way around- 4 of the top 5 riders were on electronic suspension because they are the top riders, its not making them meaningfully faster.

I was watching Bruni's Gopro footage from Fort William practice, and something caught my eye. From the footage you can actually see when he switches between damping modes from the LEDs on his stem. It happens at least 3 times: 1) blue mode off the start till at least the wood section (I did not check if he switches anything in the upper section); 2) green mode in the wood section until the second turn/shark fin after the road gap; 3) back to blue mode for the new fast section; 4) red mode from the bridge before the motorway to...

Here's another thought on Amaury's steel oval-shaped chainstay. The obvious conclusion is that they're chasing a particular amount of flex that they couldn't get out of aluminum, but here's another idea: What if they already had the level of flex they wanted out of the old bike, but they were breaking aluminum chainstays left and right? It makes sense that the chainstay would be the weak point in a flexy rear end, because it's the direct line from the bottom bracket (aka where most of the rider's mass is transmitted to the rest of the chassis) to the rear axle...