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Probably should go in the general race thread but I like Chris from DT’s idea about drop order for finals: 1st seed drops last as always. However, the top 3-5 in the overall (assuming they make finals) 2nd-6th to last. This would first, hopefully make it so some of the faster racers are always toward the end instead of having a situation where someone rides the hot seat from in the 20s. More importantly, it would help build the overall story and provide context for how these runs play into the overall points situation rather than having people in the...

charlie coquillard track walk vid

Frenchie track walk chat - Excited to see Oli Clark back!

caught myself thinking those Gamux bikes look so weird without the extra 15cm of stack and reverse stem and am now entering an existential crisis

wyntv la thuile track walk

some insta clips of teams hyping the weekend.

Straight down powder? Bode Burke to the white courtesy phone. Mr. Burke...destiny calling on line 3!!!

screenshot of insta post above

UCI media team confusing the two Italian tracks. www.instagram.com/uci_mtbworldseries/p/DaQQBqzDNB2/

Concise schedule for this week: Thursday July 2: Timed training starts with Elite women and all Juniors as a group from 12:30 to 2:30 (local time). Elite men start their 2-hour timed session immediately afterward. Friday July 3: Elite Q1 women start at 12:30, followed by men at 1:00. Juniors start at 2:00. Q2 begins at 3:00. * All qualifying and finals will be back to the usual order: women first, men after them.* Saturday July 4: Junior finals begin at 11:30 a.m. Elite finals begin at 1:00 p.m. Complete schedule and other race week info available at: https://www.ucimtbworldseries.com/events/la-thuile-2026#schedule

Coming into Rd 5 I've got a blog post here and it's got an interactive tool you can use to justify your predictions. https://gravitylab.live/blog03

Finn for a hat trick.

That’s as safe as betting that the Tech Rumors thread will be derailed in the next half hour.

This will be the second World Cup Downhill at La Thuile. Here's a brief look at last year: Men’s Finals podium: Goldstone / Vergier / Bruni Men’s Q1 top 3: Goldstone / Shaw / O’Callaghan Women’s Finals podium: Hoffmann / Höll / Hemstreet Women’s Q1 top 3: Hemstreet / Seagrave / Balanche [I rarely make predictions, but here I'll go out on a limb and say that the women's podium this year will include at least one woman whose last name begins with H. Harriet Harnden had a DNS for Q1 last year but is doing great this year, so...

This is the midpoint of the Downhill season, race 5 of 9. Here's a look at where things stand: Notes on Current Elite standings: Elite Men standings: Only 12 riders have earned points in each of the first 4 races. Oliver Davis, 25th in the standings, is lowest ranked among riders who have earned points in each race. 3 of the top 10 Men in the standings have earned points in only 3 races. Finn Iles leads 2nd place Amaury Pierron by 41 points. No Elite Man has earned at least 100 points in every race. Elite Women standings: Only...

Know of any carbon XC bikes that use a gearbox? For the downhill and adventure crowd, gearboxes may be a reasonable solution, but the current offerings are not great for those of us that like to pedal a lot. Maybe they'll get there eventually, but at the moment they would add about 3.5 lbs to my 22 lb bike, while costing me a bit on efficiency. I'll stick with the 1860's technology until something observably better comes along.

Yeti Sixfinity enduro bike from la thuile pits here - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/yeti-sixfinity-enduro-bike-spotted-… (in its own thread as to not disturb efficiency discussions : )

Thanks