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As someone who is pretty much exactly Gregs's size and who had long struggled to find a bike that fits properly until the whole longer, lower, slacker thing came into play I really understand where he is coming from! It's wonderful thing to get on on a bike and just have it feel right, and when you are 6'3"+ there usually isn't an option to upsize! It's just a matter of searching for the biggest bike available and making it work. To me the bike just looks right and the wheels are totally in proportion with the size of it...

I'm not so sure about the point he makes about speed and safety. Ok the prediction is that 29ers might be a couple of seconds faster over the whole track...how much faster is that in reality in actual speed terms? maybe a couple of mph in certain sections. Hardly going to make a difference if you crash at 25mph or 28mph. But I've said it before...29ers are only an advantage until everyone is using them. Then it's just a larger, weaker wheel with good rollover that is awkward for the short guys to ride.

but if 29ers are faster over the same rough technical tracks, why is that less exciting? the comment field assumption of a relationship between 29ers and tracks flattening out is purely hypothetical.

Faster is always better in race, that is why they call it a race. Whether it's faster thru a tech section/track like Val di Sol or faster on a more bike park type track, faster wins races...zero exceptions. Every single fan boy of Sam Hill for example (I am one as well) wants him to be faster that all the other riders. That is how he wins a race. You get thru the super technical or super flowy sections of a course FASTER than the other riders on the same course. Style points are only great for videos and slope/jump...

So with your logic , we should still be on bikes from the 90's. Why improve? Why go faster at all? Why should a racer get better brakes to have more control so he can go faster? Everyone else will buy them. Why should a racer get a lighter bike? Everyone else will get one. Why should a racer get better suspension for more control to go faster? Eventually everyone else will . FI cars should still look like they did in 1975 or earlier. Why race at all? I mean, if racing is seeing who is faster and faster...

As a french myself, I am so pissed he uses the world "cheating" about the use of 29" wheels. What is the next step? He will go to the UCI guys and cry like he is in the folds of his mother's skirt ? "The guys whith the bigs wheels are bullying me! They're cheating! Mummy! Make them stop!" That's so petty!

Why go faster? Because that's racing! That's literally the point of everything about racing. I'm just at a loss when any pro racer goes "hey, let's not go any faster." I understand the safety concerns, but saying that we should cap a wheel size to prevent people going faster isn't addressing the real issue of how to keep riders safe.

I think the one thing that surprised me (but Spomer isn't drama like me..and it would cause drama) was why he didn't follow up the pay question with: "Well, if you think payscales should be public, let's hear it. What are they paying you these days?" I know that when Palmer showed up at Nat's with a BUS and Lopes was burning laps in a Porsche, kids got so stoked about bikes. The follow up question is if he said "No, I'd rather not say"...then ask "Is it because there are contractual obligations that prevent you from disclosing it?" "Have...