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How are short headtubes still a thing on larger bikes?

Dakotah going down the track like...

People who built the middle of the course must ride 29ers, they forgot to add any turns. Joke aside the middle looks terrifying. Gonna be interesting to see who can death grip it there. Hopefully someone is there with a speed gun.

Love the track Nice to see something different on circuit.. Remember the golden era of Big Bear WC

Amaury already going visually faster @ 10:25 jeez

agreed, but it's so incredible to think that with all the different sections and potential issues riders could have, the times are still within milliseconds of each other. can't wait for race day!

at WC, we focus on RAWs, bike abuse (slowmo series - today's just went live), track walk (videos which have good rider insight) and pit bits (video and photos), not to mention results posts. that's a lot for our tiny-ass staff (me on the computer building stuff and lawlor and jack at the venue) to knock out in a weekend. red bull handles the race day and destroys it. once the race is over, attention drops significantly and riders/teams are all over Instagram with what you're asking for. race day shows were always the lowest viewed out of any. what...

check the "bike abuse" vid today - some wizardry going on in that rock slot! - https://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/BIKE-ABUSE-Lenzerheide,40179/s…

Rear mech manufacturers rubbing their hands with glee when they look at that gap between the rocks.

While that off camber will definitely decide the winner, I think points for a number of riders are going to be taken away by flat tires in the middle. The SOUNDS of smashing are everywhere.

sure seems like it's the team thing. #12 jr. men had yellow plate, tristan lemire, and he's on commencal muc-off (which are leading, right?). interesting that they would make that differentiation with plate backgrounds.

can someone explain the YELLOW background number plates? it looks like white=men pink=women green=jr men baby blue=jr women yellow=leading team in the overall? i think it was all commencal riders with yellow plates?

no chance all riders make it out of that start without flatting. someone is detonating a wheel in that first rock garden

all i know for sure, modern mtb brakes are pretty amazing. hard to go wrong, but at the elite level, i can see how you could get very particular. Shimano Zee's for years, now XT 4p on the last couple bikes and i have no complaints at all.

Okay, put on your beer bottle bottom glasses, we're getting nerdy! This is of course my theory and thinking, I've never designed a braking system so I don't know if this is fact or fiction, but it kinda seems to check out. Though if you ask a 'world cup levele mechanic' on Pinkbike, the swing link does nothing. Anywho, hydraulic brakes are essentially a simple hydraulic machine. As per wiki's article, this is the most important picture in the story (stolen and reuploaded due to the size of the original picture and keeping only the relevant part): That force...