Posts
20
Joined
6/10/2011
Location
UT
US
Seeing how often mechanicals and crashes take out riders in World Cup races, what would you guys say about a format that allows the top 8 protected riders and the top 8 fastest riders that day to have a rerun to try and throw down a better run? Here's some pros and cons I've come up with:
Pros
- we get to see the most exciting racers on the track more (let's be honest the last 10 riders is the best part)
- it's less likely that weather or mechanicals determine the winner
- other sports, or even events within mtb, have a multiple run format
Cons
- the stories of tragedy are just as dramatic as triumph
- more racers means a longer event or cutting the field by x number of riders
- It's the way it's always been done so why change
- it would push riders to risk more on their rerun
Pros
- we get to see the most exciting racers on the track more (let's be honest the last 10 riders is the best part)
- it's less likely that weather or mechanicals determine the winner
- other sports, or even events within mtb, have a multiple run format
Cons
- the stories of tragedy are just as dramatic as triumph
- more racers means a longer event or cutting the field by x number of riders
- It's the way it's always been done so why change
- it would push riders to risk more on their rerun
As for potential for weather to determine the outcome of a race, I think the only workable solution would be to cut the number of riders who qualify for finals down. If there had only been 60 riders to qualify for Lourdes instead of 80, then every rider would have finished their race run before the weather really stated to impact visibility and the course. However, if the UCI were to cut down the number of available slots to qualify for finals, there would need to be a boost in UCI sanctioned regional race series that are nearly as challenging as the World Cup. Think of it as a number of "B class" Downhill series across the world to help prepare riders for the World Cup. The European Cup comes to mind as a good regional series to prepare for WC racing. I can't remember if there is a regional series combining Australia and New Zealand. I'm pretty sure that there is no such series for North or South American countries. Heck, maybe the UCI and Crankworks can make nice and turn the Crankworks DH series into a "B Class" series.
As it currently stands, it is hard to watch a sweet race run ruined by a mechanical, or to miss out on what could have been a sweet run due to weather. But the top guys all seem to have a healthy attitude toward it. And even if the UCI were to implement my suggested changes, there would still be no guarantee of a race where the riders all race the same conditions. And if the UCI were to always avoid potentially bad weather, we would never get a chance to see another amazing run like Danny Hart's 2011 World Champs run, and I want to see that kind of amazing riding again someday.
Post a reply to: Changing the race format?