I think jay memmelaar is like 10x better than duncan. Jay should take his place and represent the right coast of America on the world cup circuit.
Whos gonna win WC RD1?
- Thread starter yuroshek
- Start date
Oops.
Danny Hart is full of natural talent. The kid has style and skills. His speed will only increase as he get's stronger as he is pretty pinner. I think Bryceland might get his crap together next year and with some good influence and some focus he might be a surprise for some tracks.
I can never understand the hate towards Riffle by some of you guys, for long enough it seemed like he was the only US rider doing WC's. You should back him 100% and be stoked he's out there instead of ****ting on him at every opportunity!
agreed.
I'll weigh in with Greg M, Gee, Sick Mick, Hill, Cam Cole, if the track's as pedally as it was last year, despite the changes
if not, then Hill, GM, Blenki, Gee, Cam Cole as my top five
In the juniors, which i think is going to be very exciting this year:
T-Bos, Neko, Connor Fearon. The latter might not shine off the bat, but boy,given a few races, and those three are gonna be brawling nose to nose for the top spot.
if not, then Hill, GM, Blenki, Gee, Cam Cole as my top five
In the juniors, which i think is going to be very exciting this year:
T-Bos, Neko, Connor Fearon. The latter might not shine off the bat, but boy,given a few races, and those three are gonna be brawling nose to nose for the top spot.
I think smith is going to step it up this year.
Good to see Needles winning the RSA National Champs, although it's not P-burg, should be a good confidence boost for him on his new team.
I still say GM FTW = Home turf + coming so close to winning the overall last year
I still say GM FTW = Home turf + coming so close to winning the overall last year
God damn, took 4 pages for someone to mention the girls! pretty pathetic.
Emmeline Ragot for the womens win.
Emmeline Ragot for the womens win.
I'm betting 3rd for her again. Atherton and jonnier are going to be strong this year.
You need to change your forum settings, only the second page for the grown ups. j/k
Womens? Honestly, i couldn't care less. About the only interesting moment was your old girl racing again, and doing well.
I don't know... T-Mo was coming on pretty strong last year... Being with Trek, might the xc-side of things rub off on her? As for Ragot, I suppose it depends on her off-season training. Wasn't she wrapping up her studies this year? She used to have a blog, but I couldn't find anything recent. Her P-Burg entry from last time said she's not so hot on the pedally courses. So it depends on how pedally this course is going to be. But top five should include her, T-Mo, Rach, Jonnier and Myriam Nicole.. that's my guess.
for the men... top five should logically include Minnaar, Barel, and Hannah. I'll throw in Smith in there too, and round it off with Gwin...
And I agree, the battle for the Junior Men's title is going to be epic this year w Troy, Fearon, and Neko. And should spill over into the senior ranks in a few years time. all good for the future of the sport!
Minnaar = Winnaar
there is a difference between "want" and "should logically." Logically, based on past performance, it is silly to count both sam hill and gee atherton out. Sam Hill just came back after a season ending injury to win worlds for chrissake. Pretty much the only lesson to come away with right now is that Sam Hill, if he is there and healthy, is ALWAYS a win contender, and almost certainly somewhere in the top 5. And he is healthy right now. And its not like Gee is multiple worldcup winner/overall winner/past world champ or anything.
second that!
haha
Thanks for being honest, I know most 'fans' could care less about the chicks and that sucks. Having my mrs' racing again was fun, but sad to see how flicked the chicks coverage/fanbase has gotten since her heyday.
Oh well, I'm still hoping for Emm to win
For the dudes, would be nice to see brendan finally win.
Very true. If only there were more than 5 or so that weren't total scrubs. Ok, maybe 10.
Just personal opinion of course, but I'd be backing Emm on the more technical courses rather that the power ones. But she did take out the champs at the pedalfest that was Stromlo so who knows.Oh well, I'm still hoping for Emm to win
Absolutely. So overdue.
Here's the 2011 track profile.
And I'm sure many of you want info and pics! So here goes.
I havent been involved at all in the 2011 track as i have moved to another city but from what I know. The track starts higher up but finishes in the same place. The flat section has been change a bit to try keep the speed a bit, as you can see from the profile, there isnt a huge flat line in the middle of the track that stretches for 800m like 2009! The top section has undergone a few changes with cloud 9 being a good bit harder from what I have been told. There are a couple changes to the jumps with a few added and the the step-on-step-off from 09 becoming the biggest hip I've ever seen. Minnaar confessed to being scared when he hit it for the first time!!(see pic below) A few other detours and new features have been added and some removed. It follows the same general route but is going to be a completely different track for a few reasons. For one, tracks fall apart quickly here without maintenance as the soil type and climate causes berms to crumble and sections to bake rock hard! Criticisms from the 2009 event were also taken into consideration and improved upon as much as possible. The track builder for 2011 is a past South African downhill champion has travelled to numerous world cups around the world and has tried to add a little international flavour to the track. Alongside him we have numorous other riders who have raced abroad over the years giving their input.
Here are some photo's of new stuff:
This is now a drop, rather than a roll off to the side as in 2009
Cloud 9
The big hip at the bottom- that blurry blue thing between the takeoff and landing is a bike, yes, its huge!
On a random side note for the guys who are also interested in XC, the new track built by world renowned track builder Nick Floros(who build much of the sani2c course) in PMB is ridiculously technical. The first local downhill race used atleast one of the XC rock gardens and I am told the downhillers found it up to standard. I personally cant wait to see 9kg hardtails struggling!
And one of the XC rock gardens I'm talking about
As for the winner, I'm going with Mr Min again for obvious reasons although Gee of Gwin could pose a real threat! Along with Peaty if he's on his game and maybe Sam if he can find the 7 seconds Greg put into him last time.
Edit: Isn't Sea Otter dangerously close to the first world cup this year? I have a feeling that the big dogs are gonna sit Sea Otter out to escape the jetlag from a most likely 24+ hour flight to the other side of the world 5 days before a world cup.
Last edited:
Yes...and so were 17 other guys, almost all of whom were from the "wrong coast" or mountain states.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/us-open-of-mountain-biking-ne/downhill/results
.10 off. lets just say they are fast, excited to see them both race this year.
Joey im guessing your to young to remember or even know who DK is. Guy is a beast! He will run almost anyone down and take the win... at Fontana. Just kiddin DK!
(if there were beer pong WC tournaments I would pick DK for the win)
I actually have no idea who he is. I just thought his last name was ridiculous.
Well. jay is in colorado now. Could there be a geographical technicality?!
haha! agreed. But here's what I was thinking. I seem to recall Sam had surgery this off-season and has only started to get back into training recently (say the past month or so), missing out on Australia's DH season. That's why I didn't place him in the top-five. But... now with a bit more info on the track, he could/should be up there.
Mick Hannah did well there last time, and has been doing pretty well in Australia this winter (summer for them I guess).
Barel will be hungry and has proven to be a good pedaller.
not putting Gee in there was an oversight. :facepalm: he's strong, fit and hungry too.
and who know's, Graves-y might even might even put in a good show now that he's back racing DH.
Doesn't DK need his greenies to keep the pounds off?
moar beer moar faster