[toodles]

And then the rider on the DH bike inevitably wins.

Well yeah. I think people would prefer if the courses were hard enough that no one would even suggest smaller bikes as an option.

Remember when Graves got 3rd at the World Champs on a SB66? Thats scarily close to having the World Downhill Champs won on an Enduro bike. And as someone who has spent a lot of money a 200mm front and rear DH bike just so I can turn my nose up at Enduro weaklings, I won't stand for a course that lets them have anything resembling a chance. Any time I get beaten by a fitter, better rider on a smaller travel bike I'm hereby declaring that the trail was just too easy and didn't suit someone as gnarly as me.

 

[4130biker]

This seems to come up all the time.

"This course is so easy I could ride it on a hardtail!"

"This course is so easy I could ride it on an enduro bike"

"This course is so easy I bet I would WIN on an enduro bike"

And then the rider on the DH bike inevitably wins.

Because downhill bikes are really fucking good at going downhill.

Just because some dude can schralp whistler on a hardtail doesn't mean I'd rather watch a video of them doing it than a video of Remy hucking his meat on a DH bike.

Most trails can be ridden quickly on a hardtail. For some reason people seem to think that riding on a hardtail automatically tacks on like 12 minutes to your run.

Thing is though, an easy bike park course like Leogang is still a downhill trail, its still built for and ridden fastest with downhill bikes, and everybody was on the same course. It just values bike handling technique and a comfort with high speed rather than making sneaky line choices.

Every trail being about the steepest sneaky line choices possible would be somewhat as boring as watching cairne....nah not that bad, but having a mix is for sure a good thing. Plus, getting to watch them ride for more than a corner or two because of more open space didn't suck either.

this response is too nuanced and not bro-core enough for this thread.

 

[maxyedor]

didnt Gwin win a couple on an Enduro? Sure he had a 40 on it? we're kind of splitting hairs if we're not going to call an Enduro with a short travel 40 on it an Enduro bike.

 

[kidwoo]

didnt Gwin win a couple on an Enduro? Sure he had a 40 on it? we're kind of splitting hairs if we're not going to call an Enduro with a short travel 40 on it an Enduro bike.

Nah that was a freeride™ bike.

 

[Udi]

Remember when Graves got 3rd at the World Champs on a SB66? Thats scarily close to having the World Downhill Champs won on an Enduro bike.

You mean he came 3rd at a cross country race?

If an enduro bike can be competitive in a DH race (assuming a stacked field and equal wheel sizes) then it's not a real DH track. That's literally all there is to it.

I mean we can pretend that Stromlo and Pietermaritzburg are truly WC-standard DH tracks because the host cities won a bid to hold a race there, but come on, really?

 

[toodles]

Well yeah that was kinda the point I was making....

 

[Udi]

I swear I didn't even notice the rest of your post but I see it now haha, my apologies.

You have more enduro bikes than DH bikes now, so I can't take you seriously...

 

[EVIL JN]

What I find odd is the venues on the IXS (european cup) are all the good ones and a fair few of them have hosted WC's but why arent they bidding for WC's anymore? Does UCI really strangle the economy of hosting a wc that much?

 

[KAZHA]

What I find odd is the venues on the IXS (european cup) are all the good ones and a fair few of them have hosted WC's but why arent they bidding for WC's anymore? Does UCI really strangle the economy of hosting a wc that much?

and what do you think?
probably milking it very hard as there is no alternative series

 

[Gary]

If you like old Skool tracks
Crankworks Les Gets LIVE
Right now

On Pinkbike and Youtube Live

sorry. no links as I'm watching BIG screen on PS4 Youtube app

 

[schwaaa31]

If you like old Skool tracks
Crankworks Les Gets LIVE
Right now

On Pinkbike and Youtube Live

sorry. no links as I'm watching BIG screen on PS4 Youtube app

Needs moar cameras.

 

[Gary]

Riders all seemed to love the natural wide open alpine track
Pretty good Pro ridr turnout but I kinda wish the moar of the WC top 20 had raced this
[spoiler warning]



No 29er was 5 seconds faster.

 

[Nick]

I watched Les Gets ... good race, and agree on more cameras.

 

[6thElement]

Wife and I watched the ladies, started to watch the mens but the commentators obsession of flats vs clips was worse than hearing about wheel sizes.

 

[jstuhlman]

flats

 

[4130biker]

Flats

 

[iRider]

Flats

Isn't the Maxxis Exo/Schwalbe/Kenda tire discussion in another thread?

 

[kidwoo]

I learned about wibit

 

[maxyedor]

What I find odd is the venues on the IXS (european cup) are all the good ones and a fair few of them have hosted WC's but why arent they bidding for WC's anymore? Does UCI really strangle the economy of hosting a wc that much?

It's not as though there's a massive throng of people itching to get tickets to a DH race. If you can get 85% of the crowd to show up without a $100000000000000 UCI bribe, why wouldn't you just host an IXS race instead?

Plus those are the resorts we dream of one day riding already, they don't require as much advertising to draw a crowd the rest of the year. That's why we'll never see a Whistler WC, they have the cash, but there's zero to gain for them.

 

[EVIL JN]

It's not as though there's a massive throng of people itching to get tickets to a DH race. If you can get 85% of the crowd to show up without a $100000000000000 UCI bribe, why wouldn't you just host an IXS race instead?

Plus those are the resorts we dream of one day riding already, they don't require as much advertising to draw a crowd the rest of the year. That's why we'll never see a Whistler WC, they have the cash, but there's zero to gain for them.

I guess that is a really good point schladming makes serious cash in the winter and during summer hikers will still out number bikers by a fair margin. So why bother. And Leogang compared to Schladming winter season has to be a joke. So off course they would bother with the UCI.

So any hard figures what a venue needs to fork out for a WC?

 

[Gary]

So any hard figures what a venue needs to fork out for a WC?

Not the actual info you're looking for (Because it's not as simple as you think) but this might enlighten you a little as to how things work and why we have Ft William on the WC circuit year after year after year...

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/fort-william-world-cup-has-earned-30m-for-the-highlands/018758

 

[kidwoo]

Any hard figures on what a wibit setup costs? Who cares about this bike shit man, it's hot.

 

[4130biker]

I'm guessing its worth about 20 angle grinders, give or take.

 

[Westy]

I'm guessing its worth about 20 angle grinders, give or take.

Is that American or Canadian angle grinders?

 

[Gary]

Any hard figures on what a wibit setup costs? Who cares about this bike shit man, it's hot.

Can't you get in the water parks at children's rates anymore?

 

[sethimus]

It's it's own entity as far as I know but the tracks have not been amazing for CWX. The fact they had it in L2A in Yurp for so long speaks a lot about their reasoning since L2A was a shitty venue.

innsbruck: hold my beer

 

[roflbox]

I'm guessing its worth about 20 angle grinders, give or take.

Is that American or Canadian angle grinders?

Which color of angle grinder (there is only 1 answer)

 

[Mo(n)arch]

innsbruck: hold my beer

 

[Westy]

Which color of angle grinder (there is only 1 answer)

Mine looks like sparks. Not sure what color you call that.

 

[Electric_City]

That's why we'll never see a Whistler WC, they have the cash, but there's zero to gain for them.

Then what the point of that other thing they have there?

 

[kidwoo]

Then what the point of that other thing they have there?

Money that actually goes into their pockets and not UCI's.

 

[maxyedor]

^Egg-Zachary

The UCI model sucks. You pay them an assload of money, then you get to pay for all the crap required to host an event, they somehow get riders to pay their own way to show up, then when a rider wins they give them like $7 , the rest of the guys get to pound sand and pray their sponsors will buy them a plane ticket to the next race.

Crankworks is decidedly less expensive to put on, gets more coverage and more attendees who spend more money. From a rider's point of view it makes a hell of a lot more sense too, somebody like Kintner shows up, races 3-4 events instead of just one, and gets almost as much media coverage from that single event as any female athlete not named Rachael gets in a year on the UCI circuit. The Syndicate showing up and racing at Crankworks is a good indicator as to how valuable an event they've become for the teams. The growing series is an indicator as to how valuable they've become to the hosts.

 

[kidwoo]

I'm quietly hoping crankworx takes over as the premier race series in gravity (IE real) mountainbiking.

They're obviously trying on some bigger britches adding venues.

 

[dump]

I'm quietly hoping crankworx takes over as the premier race series in gravity (IE real) mountainbiking.

They're obviously trying on some bigger britches adding venues.

Me too... however as that happens, the UCI will likely start enforcing the clause that prevents riders from doing non-uci races/series.

 

[kidwoo]

Me too... however as that happens, the UCI will likely start enforcing the clause that prevents riders from doing non-uci races/series.

It's not going to happen tomorrow or next year but with maybe more venues, better tracks and greater incentives to attend (which widens the field and coverage) I'm hoping one day it gets to the point that riders and teams don't give a fuck what the uci says/does/means anymore because their own series ends up second tier. I never thought enduro would serve a purpose other than tougher trail bike tires, but there's your model right there with the EWS. It just needs to be done right. Dh is a little more of an uphill battle because they're going against a long standing precedent but everyone in dh already wants to get away from them and have for years.

I thought they rescinded that anyway.

 

[jonKranked]

Me too... however as that happens, the UCI will likely start enforcing the clause that prevents riders from doing non-uci races/series.

if they pony up the prize money i think they'd have a chance. assuming the team's primary bike sponsors (i'm looking at trek/spesh/giant) might have a pissy fit.

 

[dump]

I thought they rescinded that anyway.

Oh? The latest I heard was that they were not going to enforce that rule regarding the EWS. (Don't have a link or any reference handy)

 

[kidwoo]

Maybe that's what it was. I can picture them throwing a tantrum with it if they didn't outright pull the rule.

Even more reason to support an external series.

 

[Mo(n)arch]

Completely unrelated, but the finish of the Giro d'Italia cost a valley in the dolomites 250.000€. Just for the finish!. The next days start would have been another 150k if I remember correctly...
So by this numbers you can imagine, what price is to pay for a MTB race where the actual ROI is much smaller. Remember, the Tour de France or the Giro d' Italia gets major coverage in more then just one TV station.

But hey, we Swiss people need our money...

 

[jackalope]

I'm too lazy to check, but can anyone confirm if the people running the IOC, FIFA, and UCI are in fact the same assholes (ie- lizards)? It certainly seems like they are.