Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Dear GCN+/Discovery/WB please stop the drone footage. It is not good. Use it once for a reference of the track. Stop please. It is terrible.
That makes me even more annoyed by his comments.
Makes him sound even more bitter to say nonsense things about Sea Otter.
If he wants to have a Euro only team that only races with no chain in the Alps and only the Alps, do it.
Don't get pissy about a bicycle with pedals having to pedal a few seconds on a downhill or that turns are slow.
Sprint. Balance. Race.
It's called the "World" Cup...not the French Cup or Port de Soleil Cup.
I get that being a team manager where your 2 best riders are done & you're footing the bill is a sucky place to be.
But nonsense to complain about SnowShoe.
Those people that showed up or logged on to watch are who pays the bills of the sport in the end.
Gonna unsubscribe from the forums for a while. Let the rest of you have a civilized chat.
Drone also has evil mojo for Dak.
Snowshoe has a fine track. But i personally look forward to a new venue as it incentivizes me to spectate. Especially if it’s somewhere that can both hold a race and have a good number of trails open to public for riding.
would definitely not mind snowshoe returning at some point either. I really enjoyed both years I went.
-They really need to step it up to at least 1080 resolution. Looks like it's 480 or lower.
-They also need to get horizon-lock going on the gimbal or via software. This will keep the frame level so it's not as much of a 'star fighter'/'insect' feeling.
@Biz man I think you need to chill Winston... don't let the forum work you up so much, you'll get a hernia.
Having done the first six rounds and world champs, unfortunately not these last two. (my rider is there) I would say the flattest track I walked is Fort William. If the riders are not saying the Fort is flat, but Snowshoe is... means Snowshoe is flatter, or perhaps poorly designed for the terrain used, as @samwell mentioned.
Best we take out your view that riders think it is not hard, no one said that. It is hard, even dangerous at WC speeds, as the injury outcome details. These riders like Loris dream for hard, just not hard and flat.
440m elevation is not great, but added to the length, lessens the downhill feel. So it is in effect much flatter that all other tracks in the series. Yes riders should be able to adapt (and they do) to different tracks and Snowshoe is different, but riders can have factual opinions that Snowshoe is flat in comparison, without being trashed for that view. Many of you keyboard warriors have never been to Europe, so can't compare. Perhaps lessen the bitterness and broaden your views.
Oh and Whiteface looks cool
I think we can all agree that everyone raced the same course under the same conditions and the best rider for that run stood on the top step at the end of the day.
I enjoy the variations and nuance of each world cup track and quite frankly wish there was a broader spectrum in the course design. Snowshoe asked some questions of riders that haven't been asked yet this season, and some riders had better answers than others. From the interviews I watched it seemed unanimous that Snowshoe provided the hard test of rider and machine thus far on the World Cup.
This course, more so than any other resembled the riding that I do on a weekly basis. Surely my local trails are not nearly as severe or handled at the type of speeds that were on display in West Virginia, but janky rocks, roots, tight trees, and hard pedals are much more common to me than the high alpine pastures featured earlier in the season. This is why Snowshoe has been my favorite race this season from a spectators point of view.
On a positive note I just watched the Sleeper shredit from Snowshow and oh boy am I hyped for downhill racing! If you're not into paying Chris Ball 20 quid a year that's fine. Between Sleeper, Lawlor, Cathro, Wyn, Moimoi and Eddie you won't miss a beat. The racing this year has been the best of all time and all the best coverage is free. What a cool sport to watch and what a cool industry that supports these amazing video guys to be at the races.
I'm off to watch it again.
Keep in mind that the euros are often jetlagged for snowshoe. And, unlike US/Austrialia/NZ racers, the euros are far less accustomed to this. Hence the higher injury rate and perhaps some of the dislike too. I mean, everyone is grumpy when tired, right? I hadn't heard of snowshoe prior to races there, now it's bucketlist. And have just heard of whiteface, hopefully it puts another travel worthy resort on the map for bikers.
A World Cup at Whiteface would be awesome, but pretty sure this is just a rumor. They have no DH trails left and as Heikki Hall said, they would have to start from scratch. Currently, they still run the lift in the summer but do not allow MTBs on their mountain. The XC scene is growing there but they also do not allow E-Bikes on any trails in the town of Wilmington and pretty sure E-Bikes are in some of the WC races.
They never liked having DH MTB or even downhillers there in the summer because they do not need the money to stay in business. They actually lose millions each year already as they are fully subsidized by NY State. And regarding Mount Van Hoevenburg, they have some super easy XC trails there that the XC skiers use in the winter. A great place to learn if you do not want any challenges, but certainly is not WC-worthy.
I did see in a comment someone mentioned Whitefish which is in Montana. Maybe they are hosing a DH WC.
Wow first I heard of Whitefish, but makes perfect sense. It feels like Whistler, Angel Fire, Trestle, Mammoth would have marginal gains vs the cost of putting on a World Cup. Where as a place that isn't quite on everyone's shortlist of destination mountain biking could quickly become a top tier destination with a good showing.
Thanks
Should the 2024 season racing talk be in a new "2024 Racing Talk" thread?
Haha go pedal off some of your energy, get your wiggles out, calm your body and use your words champ…or actually, don’t use your words…
Gotta love the ol “I’m leaving forever!” Haven’t seen that in a while, nice to see: it’s the mark of a good message board! So good.
Bizutch with the self-block! Taking his mangled keyboard to the Dak Web.
Loris is an all-time great and Snowshoe is flat. Byeeeeeeee
self-block
Technicolor.
Peep the finish corral in the background
In this day and age sponsors sure seem to stay away from this type of behavior from a team manager....interesting how it seems to have just dropped away from the mtb discussion pages.
I agree. He’s her boss.
The arch is back!
That's the cross country finish line
Agree, more people still have issues with Richy Rude and Jared Graves failing a drug test in 2018 than BK who is currently hooking up with a 19 year old staff member who was under age when he first became her boss.
Who cares ?! If they are happy that’s the more important.
You are not better than the keyboard warriors / armchair riders from the PINK site that you are complaining about.
Watched track walk vids, you're right. Ah well.
A man can dream...
Can you people PLEASE take the Pivot stuff somewhere else. It's NOT racing talk.
Yes that is indeed the finish line. It can also be known as a corral.
Start Line.
FInish Line.
Corral.
Arch.
Breezeway.
Rubics Rectum
Kade apparently banned from quali due to contractual obligations - mentioned in the other sites YT analysis video but no further detail, anyone know any more?
Is this implying he snuck his GoPro onto a run he wasn't supposed to so they DSQ'ed him or something?
I guess this goes here: just heard that the UCI is only broadcasting the men's World Gravel Champs race, women get nada...
You can use a GoPro in training so that wouldn’t DQ him for the quail’s. He DNS’d the quali so it would be something else.
Yeah, it's complete BS IMHO.
Post a reply to: 2023 Racing Talk