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1. The general exhaustion I felt after finals in the past wasn't there. Something didn't feel as intense and final about this race. 2. 210 guys trying to qualify is nuts. But then in the top 60, we got privateers (I don't know if they were rich kids or poor kids) who I've never heard of. Never seen on a camera either, which was good. 3. But man...watch the 60th-40th "fastest" guys come out of the gate knowing within 1 or 2 splits,they are going home for the next 2-3 minutes of viewing sucked. You're just watching in case they...

I’ll watch five hours of racing on television, when a race covers 200+km of changing roads and landscapes and the visuals show the entire thing in entirety with different perspectives using a mix of television quality cameras shooting from moving motorbikes and helicopters. The same track all day, with limited fixed cameras and jank drones doesn’t cut it for me. Vital Raws give a better perspective of what’s happening on the ground, and 1080p or 4k is fine for how I interact with MTB content, which is to say on my phone in my spare time. I don’t like the...

I feel the new format kind of "dilutes" the racing, kind of dividing one race runs in two. Somehow you could now just watch semis and feel like seeing 80%-ish of the action. This makes the main race feel a bit less important somehow. Also just watching finals it feels like you missed something by not knowing what happened in semis... They could at least give a good recap of semis...

I think the new format only serves towards Chris Ball's vision of making downhill like F1, focused on elite teams and riders only. The polo shirt and chino wearing presenters and the laboured camera shots of team managers are part of this. By introducing a semi final, it now takes about 5.5 hours to watch mens and womens semis and finals, which even as a hardcore racing fan, I felt was too long. Most people, particularly those new to the sport are going to end up watching the finals only, meaning a lot of unprotected riders are going to miss...

Not a fan of the protected rider set up. Copying my post from another forum. (and to be clear, I'm a massive Minnaar fan, but he has benefited hugely here). Greg Minaar has 32 points from Lenzerheide. Flatting in Semis, getting a free pass to finals where he flatted again. Greg is protected due to finishing 10th overall last year, on 623 points. Daprella, who finished 11th last year, on 620 points, would have receieved 0 points had he experienced Greg’s problems this week. Those 3 points from last year have turned into 32 already. In contrast, the loser here...

Not sure how I feel about the addition of semi-finals yet. As a viewer it's hard to judge it in isolation from all of the broadcast changes. I do worry that the tighter schedule with reduced practice forced the riders to push too hard too soon. Gwin, Cathro and Pierron all potentially out for the season is such a bummer.

My take is that this will heavily favour the more factory teams. And make it waaaay harder for the Privateer/wildhorse's to get a successful weekend in. The bigger teams having to have 2 identical bikes per rider incase of a catastrophic equipment failure is just not something a guy living out his van will be able to achieve. Even Cabirou said she didn't eat the whole day because of the tight schedule - so I don't see how a privateer is going to find time to eat, fix bike issues, never mind getting time in on a trainer. Dont get...

Only watched finals. Commentary wasn’t too great. Didn’t miss Claudio. I thought that discovery was going to show more of the track. They didn’t show any of the first 30ish seconds. The drone wasn’t great either. Hopefully the coverage improves.

I think it is ok, I enjoy watching more racing however I think there was a missed opportunity to make a B league out of the 30th to 60th place riders. I recall Martin Whitely throwing that idea out there last year and it made sense to me. Realistically some of these guys will never crack the top 30 this year and I think it makes sense for them to race at a slightly lower level and get to race in the big show if they place top 5 in the “B” league race. Creates more opportunity for them to...

As a race fan, I don't understand the new format. I'm honestly curious why semi-finals was adopted? How is the new format supposed to be an improvement over a top 60 qualifier and then finals? Because to my eyes, it's a confusing extra mid-race race that doesn't exactly drive the narrative but gives another chance for race-ending flat tires and crashes. I'm not going to be melodramatic and say this "ruined" racing, because it was a pretty great final with Rachel Atherton and Jordan Williams blowing everyone away. But I just don't get the new format. I'm guessing it was...

I like the new format purely from a racing perspective. It’s going to make for more winners and more interesting race craft. Will be interesting to see if someone like Troy could 2 and 3rd each race to a championship if no one else is as consistent. And only 30 in the final it felt like every run could be a podium run. I realize guys have podiumed from above 30 before. But was there anyone in the top 30 that hasn’t podiumed at least a jr wc? but they need to step it up big time for semis. Or...

Good video coverage, commentary was questionable, what was Cedric saying?? Nobody knows..

format was considerably better. video coverage was better, audio coverage was terrible - they are so out of touch with what a commentator needs to know

Correct, Intense has been trying to build Aaron something for 3+ years has has came up short. Dak has been doing good on the bike but seems frustrated by Intense being slow on the development of it.

No more race run POVs… riders can’t share the footage for 2 days and then ESO retains all rights to the footage. BK said he’s not down with that.

LOL....yeah, it's Intense's fault, especially on a bike he designed from the ground up (ditching any previous Intense suspension designs). Guessing this crash had nothing to do with the bike and more to do with an unfortunate line choice. Sucks but stuff happens.

Was weird for riders to just disappear and to never be heard from again even much the screen and commentators didn’t know it changed riders. Not impressed with the commentators. At no point have they said what any one qualified until the last rider. Cedric is too French and lil over the top when French riders were on track. Yeah Claudio was like that for Swiss riders but it was fun because they were not a super successful nation in DH. Overall felt like RB level images but in Freecaster package.

Obviously it works for some people, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. Although most that I‘ve heard from people is rather negative. I‘m interested in seeing if Troy actually keeps it, or if some other guys do the same.

gwin confirms the DH bike will go into production - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/gwins-intense-prototype-279-hp6-he-…