Maybe he cares about the Lord Bummer title more than the cares about the World Cup title now
9km outside of La Bresse World Cup Finale
- Thread starter 6thElement
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Well - if there’s a French Revolution, then Lords and church figures are headed to the guillotine, non?
This was the most disappointing race of the season. Maybe it was the length of the course, maybe it was the sections that were filmed, maybe it was the terrain(?) It was also odd to watch all of the top riders lose time in that one section and not seeing a change in the hot seat for the broadcasted portion of the race just made it less exciting.
I like seeing guys grab their first WC win, but I am not a fan of how Maes handled it. To keep splurting out "beat them at their own game!" was classless IMO. Those guys are all well aware that they got beat by a guy who is currently an enduro racer. Previous sh1t talking or not, have some humility. Amaury Pierron's reaction and interview after his first was the best...instant fan of that guy. The only thing that I liked about his win was the fact that he was rumored to have done it on the 27.5(?)
Every bike made will now have a high pivot Idler on it.
I'm sure Gwin was planning on something better. The "scrub" was bad ass...so creative. We'll see what worlds has instore and weather or not the 29er was a good choice.
I like seeing guys grab their first WC win, but I am not a fan of how Maes handled it. To keep splurting out "beat them at their own game!" was classless IMO. Those guys are all well aware that they got beat by a guy who is currently an enduro racer. Previous sh1t talking or not, have some humility. Amaury Pierron's reaction and interview after his first was the best...instant fan of that guy. The only thing that I liked about his win was the fact that he was rumored to have done it on the 27.5(?)
Every bike made will now have a high pivot Idler on it.
I'm sure Gwin was planning on something better. The "scrub" was bad ass...so creative. We'll see what worlds has instore and weather or not the 29er was a good choice.
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A memorandum has been issued to Mr Maes regarding his post race interviews. The UCI Lizards have henceforth instated a requirement that all pre and post raced statements by Mr Maes be provided to UCI officials for review. Additionally, he is required to thank at least one of his sponsors every 5 sentences (at minimum) and be "gutted" when all other competitors "have an off".
In his interview on Vitals finals slideshow, Maes seems pretty humbled by winning. I think he’s pretty tight with the DH guys, and enjoys some harmless shit talking. He was a full time DH guy for a few seasons in the juniors, IIRC.
Fair enough, you're right..I just listened to the Vital interview and he certainly was pretty humble and appreciative of the people around him.
The race still was a bit anticlimactic though!
I disagree - once you got into the top 10, a lot of them were in the green part of the time and then crashed (Shaw, Gwin, Pierron) or got slowed up once they hit the middle sections. It wasn't like if Rachel Atherton started 10th and then almost no one else was ever even close.
I enjoyed the womens race more than the mens. Seeing Rachael surpass ACC with 6 WC overall titles. That shit is insane, I was really hoping Gee would win so they could get one last Atherton Double win. The fact that they are getting closer to the end of their careers makes me feel so fucking old.
As far as Maes winning, I knew he could ride but I was shocked to see him win, to me it was a borderline "Fayolle win" But more power to him. At the end of the day he is another retired downhiller turned enduro racer who is racing downhill again. He walked the walk so he can bust balls if he wants.
Maes winning to me is a sign that the track was a little too close to enduro and not up to par for a WC DH. I don't see Maes winning on a "Legit" Track.
As far as Maes winning, I knew he could ride but I was shocked to see him win, to me it was a borderline "Fayolle win" But more power to him. At the end of the day he is another retired downhiller turned enduro racer who is racing downhill again. He walked the walk so he can bust balls if he wants.
Maes winning to me is a sign that the track was a little too close to enduro and not up to par for a WC DH. I don't see Maes winning on a "Legit" Track.
I was looking at this: http://worldcup.eliotjackson.com/results/2018/La-Bresse Maes crushed Sector 4 & 5 and did really well on on Sector 3. He didn't seem to do particularly well in Sectors 1 & 2.
The kid is 21 years old. I would assume that his choice of discipline is mostly determined by wherever his sponsor decides to put its money.
I honestly think all this retroactive talk about La Bresse not being a proper downhill track comes from a) an Enduro guy winning and b) camera placement.
I’m thinking that sector 4/5 was probably the active rain kinda cleans up the lines and roots vs stickier mud as it dries out, which later riders experienced.
Plus the random factor of rain/mud generally causing a lot of crashes.
Plus the random factor of rain/mud generally causing a lot of crashes.
There's also the fact that Maes has done a tonne of racing in rain / mud / misery over the last 2 seasons whereas aside from the Fayolle win, which was rain-affected by a storm half way through finals, there hasn't been a legit wet world cup round in years.
Didn't it piss down MSA last year?
Same as Lourdes, only the last 20 or so men got rained on
Naah it comes mostly from the flat part of a track plus mud traps on the flat. Wyn compared it to Winterberg, a track that could easily be ridden on a hardtail.
What WC DH track can't?
Not a one, IF your trials skills are on point.
the UCI should arbitrarily pick one race a season and all riders should have to race hardtails.
Gary why are you posting that comment. You know exactly what I meant. Winterberg is easy. You can ride it FAST on a hardtail. You can't ride quite a few WC tracks on a hardtail really fast as in hardtails slow people down by a different amounts on different tracks. Why do I need to explain it? I rode Winterberg on a HT, it's just a relatively easy track. La Bresse looked better and harder but the comparison made sense to me - short track, that is relatively flat and has only a few sections that are hard.
Coz using a hardtail as a measure of if a track is worthy is dumb as fuck.
WC tracks will never be as Gnar as you seem to want. Not while they're still letting junior women race .
Plenty pretty awesome DH tracks are actually still fun on hardtails. They're just tiring as fuck. And you're obviously not going to win a WC riding one.
Everyone here lost their shit because a fit ex-DHer derp rider schooled the field and started blaming the track. The riders however seemed to quite like it.
WC tracks will never be as Gnar as you seem to want. Not while they're still letting junior women race .
Plenty pretty awesome DH tracks are actually still fun on hardtails. They're just tiring as fuck. And you're obviously not going to win a WC riding one.
Everyone here lost their shit because a fit ex-DHer derp rider schooled the field and started blaming the track. The riders however seemed to quite like it.
not unless EVERYONE is racing a hardtail
Finially watched....
Hoooooly shit. Maes crushed everyone on the most technical portion of the track. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Cathro. Everyone got tired from the sticky muddy flat pedal and couldn't open the throttle in that next section. Impressive win for the EndurBros!!
Hoooooly shit. Maes crushed everyone on the most technical portion of the track. I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Cathro. Everyone got tired from the sticky muddy flat pedal and couldn't open the throttle in that next section. Impressive win for the EndurBros!!
The enderpocolypse will consume us all.
On the one hand - Maes is fast as shit, he's placed top 10 in gnarly WC DH races before in even conditions, and he had a great run in really fucking difficult conditions.
But pretending they were the same because it was wet for both of them is crazy. There was a half an hour time gap between when he rode and when the rest of the top qualifiers did. You could see pouring rain for his run, and likewise, by the time the rest of the top qualifiers came down, you could see sunlight on the trail - in the exact spot he started gaining a ton of time.
He had a crazy fast qualifier. And I wouldn't have been terribly surprised if he'd won even with the same conditions - he did beat the #1 qualifier after all, and he and Gee had pretty much identical conditions. But thanks to the dumb as fuck new qualifying/seeding rules (that make for super frustrating racing and backfire on showing the riders they're supposed to) we'll never know. Hope the UCI pulls the plug on that one by next year.
But pretending they were the same because it was wet for both of them is crazy. There was a half an hour time gap between when he rode and when the rest of the top qualifiers did. You could see pouring rain for his run, and likewise, by the time the rest of the top qualifiers came down, you could see sunlight on the trail - in the exact spot he started gaining a ton of time.
He had a crazy fast qualifier. And I wouldn't have been terribly surprised if he'd won even with the same conditions - he did beat the #1 qualifier after all, and he and Gee had pretty much identical conditions. But thanks to the dumb as fuck new qualifying/seeding rules (that make for super frustrating racing and backfire on showing the riders they're supposed to) we'll never know. Hope the UCI pulls the plug on that one by next year.
Gary you are nitpicking again. "You can ride it on a hardtail" has long been shorthand for easy trails. Also yeah some trails are more fun than others on a hardtail mostly because most hardtails have meh geo and when it gets steep or very fast they tend to generate a bit more stress than a dh bike would.
Also all I am saying is what Wyn said. The track reminded him of Winterberg. I took part in a minor race on that track and the difference between HT and FS riders was really small compared to what it be on a track like Schladming. Also I don't blame the track. Maes won because he is a great rider and he does great on physical tracks as evidenced by Ft. William result. My comments about the track are unrelated to his win. Watching the track before the race it seemed like a decent track to ride but a bad track to race. As in I would not personally want to race on it.