So watching the Specialized vid from World Champs, looks like Gwin is opting out of this one? He talked about hitting his shoulder and going home to have it checked out and only maybe doing the last two world cups. Seems like his potential injuries have flown under the radar and I get the impression he is wanting to throw in the towel for the rest of the season.
Loving Smith or Hill, both have my blessing to win and despite the lack of popularity, I am a fan of Gee and his work ethic and expect him to do well also.
Loving Smith or Hill, both have my blessing to win and despite the lack of popularity, I am a fan of Gee and his work ethic and expect him to do well also.
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A part of me wants Gwin to win this. Thats if hes even 80% come race day.
But my podium would be:
1. The other Sam
2. Smith
3. Minnaar
4. Miami Bryce
5. Gee
But my podium would be:
1. The other Sam
2. Smith
3. Minnaar
4. Miami Bryce
5. Gee
Brook is out for the rest of the season to have shoulder surgery. I wouldn't be surprised to see Blenki on the podium the way he has been riding.
Brook is out for shoulder surgery...the competition is top notch right now!! Exciting time for WC action
1. Smith
2. Graves
3. Minnaar
4. Fairclough
5. Bryceland
Smith
Hill
Gee
World champ
Gwin, and if he's not racing, Blenki
Hill
Gee
World champ
Gwin, and if he's not racing, Blenki
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Pretty sure this IS the last world cup.
There is one more at Leogang dude.
Hafjell and Leogang are the last races of the season.
wtf... is this pinkbike...?
nope, as you can see from the url, its actually www.ridemonky.com
pinkbike is located over at www.pinkbike.com
pinkbike is located over at www.pinkbike.com
Did you read the rest of this thread prior to typing that?
Whoops, that's awesome!
1. blanketslop
2. mignarr
3. smith
4. Gee
5. Brosnan
2. mignarr
3. smith
4. Gee
5. Brosnan
Smith
Hill
Blinky
Hart
Gee
Skills pay the bills on this course.
Hill
Blinky
Hart
Gee
Skills pay the bills on this course.
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Gwin
I have to say, I'm loving the sarcasm regarding Gwincialized on this forum right now.
Did Hill end up getting injured, or did he just get his bell rung? I think he's hungry for a podium but he was off the pace and then crashed last week...
Did Hill end up getting injured, or did he just get his bell rung? I think he's hungry for a podium but he was off the pace and then crashed last week...
I think Gwin's head is done. I suspect that he has little to no confidence at this point and just wants to crawl under a rock for a bit...after all, he is rock Jesus. Regardless of what he is saying, I have to think he regrets the decision he made, and whether it's bike related, the program or everything in between, I wonder if he would do it again if given the chance.
I recall reading as some point, (possibly stated by Stik?) that he had the opportunity to work with a bunch of friends and that influenced his decision. I'm not sure if that is true or not, but if so, I wonder how they are feeling about encouraging him to change a winning formula.
As usual, I am just a clueless speculator but it keeps me entertained..
I recall reading as some point, (possibly stated by Stik?) that he had the opportunity to work with a bunch of friends and that influenced his decision. I'm not sure if that is true or not, but if so, I wonder how they are feeling about encouraging him to change a winning formula.
As usual, I am just a clueless speculator but it keeps me entertained..
It's pretty fascinating to see Gwin crap out so fast and completely immediately after moving to Specialized under the circumstances in which he did. The faith angle is an added twist, and even though it's "just bike racing" you can't help but think about things like karma, etc.
Anyway, given the pressure drop after last weekend, a stoked and relaxed Minnaar is gonna make everyone taste the rainbow in Hafjell.
Anyway, given the pressure drop after last weekend, a stoked and relaxed Minnaar is gonna make everyone taste the rainbow in Hafjell.
unless he was physically beating them off the track and not just on the track, i dont see how that would apply.
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I wont agree or disagree about swithich teams but Gwin still seem to have been on pace when bike is holding up or he isnt crashing. I do agree that crashing in race runs shows that a rider is not mentally there as he should. Looking at his riding on movies my interwebz radar says he is far from as confident as before. When he was dominating he barely had to move on his bike he just rode like he meant it, he didnt change lines the lines changed for him. He is still fast but I think he just lost that roll you can get on when moving up through the result sheets.
Now will the time come when we will see if he will be one of the greats that can come back swinging next year.
P.S I bet he wont have the same prep program for next season.....
Does Minnaar have a restraining order against you or does he just voluntarily let you swing from his nuts like that all the time? Maybe he uses it for training to stay focused under pain.It's pretty fascinating to see Gwin crap out so fast and completely immediately after moving to Specialized under the circumstances in which he did. The faith angle is an added twist, and even though it's "just bike racing" you can't help but think about things like karma, etc.
Anyway, given the pressure drop after last weekend, a stoked and relaxed Minnaar is gonna make everyone taste the rainbow in Hafjell.
I don't get the gwin hate...
The dude seems to be a pretty friendly stand up dude who made a team switch when the discussed contract wasn't offered. He dominated a bunch of races. More power to him, and I hope to see him back to form at some point here. He obviously felt natural on the session, and obviously doesn't on the demo. Specialized and Gwin will figure it out, build a new bike for him or whatever, and he'll be back to winning races.
In the mean time, everybody else gets to enjoy some long deserved time in the spotlight winning or podiuming races they wouldn't normally have won now that the top guy is figuring **** out. Its win win - specialized will have to come out with new DH bike so everybody stops complaining about stays, Gwin will be back on form dominating the race circuit, and steve smith and gee atherton, who have been working so hard for some wins finally get to have a few while Gwin is on a break.
The dude seems to be a pretty friendly stand up dude who made a team switch when the discussed contract wasn't offered. He dominated a bunch of races. More power to him, and I hope to see him back to form at some point here. He obviously felt natural on the session, and obviously doesn't on the demo. Specialized and Gwin will figure it out, build a new bike for him or whatever, and he'll be back to winning races.
In the mean time, everybody else gets to enjoy some long deserved time in the spotlight winning or podiuming races they wouldn't normally have won now that the top guy is figuring **** out. Its win win - specialized will have to come out with new DH bike so everybody stops complaining about stays, Gwin will be back on form dominating the race circuit, and steve smith and gee atherton, who have been working so hard for some wins finally get to have a few while Gwin is on a break.
All joking aside, I miss seeing Gwin on the podium. He's a class act and unbeatable when he has it all together. Best of luck getting your mojo back, Gwin! Or whatever it is that's missing....
Well, you could be right there, but like you say, we will never know...at least until Gwin retires and does a candid interview. Will be really interesting to see what he thinks about it all. Even good guys make mistakes and screw stuff up.
The other possibility is that we're all blowing this all out of proportion because we're bored at work and love talking about our sport...
I hope Aaron is good to go for the remainder of the season. Changing bikes/parts or not, itll be nice if he gets to podium, the last 2 races.
As what Pslide said, I wanna see a candid interview. Is he with Spesh for another 2 years?
As what Pslide said, I wanna see a candid interview. Is he with Spesh for another 2 years?
First, I don't interpret any of the previous Gwin related comments on this thread as "hate", mainly just poking fun at whatever we can being the intraweb and all (e.g. Sam Hill's eyebrows, Stevie not wearing socks, Troy looks like he's 12, etc...)
But I do think a lot people believe his recent struggles cannot conveniently be chalked up to "figuring sh!t out" with his new bike. It's likely that is certainly part of it, and perhaps a big part of it, but I think it's safe to say there are other significant factors involved as well. I also think it's laughably presumptious to assume he would still be winning a lot of races if he was still with Trek, and/or he is going to dominate or win with the same frequency as he has in the past. As with Sam and others in the past who have dominated for a year or 2, it forces the other top riders (and up and coming juniors) to step up their training and skill development, which usually results in closing the gap. Hell, Gwin got straight up beat last year at the French course, injury free (as far as I know anyway) and on the Session. Personally, I don't think we're likely to ever see the lengthy domination which Nico laid down on the sport again, only relatively brief periods of ass kicking. I have absolutely nothing against Gwin, as basically all these guys have my respect and admiration given what they do for a living, and I do think he will win again at some point, but I have my doubts he will ever dominate like he did the previous 2 years.
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I think there may be a Canadian with two big reasons to lay it down in Norway.
canadmos: The track is basically the same. The middle kickers on the first straight have been moved back a bit and the step down/huck has been groomed a bit for moar pleasure.
The biggest changes are most probably to be seen at the bottom.
If the conditions from last weekend hold up she will be running fast too.
The biggest changes are most probably to be seen at the bottom.
If the conditions from last weekend hold up she will be running fast too.
To be fair, Sam Hill's reign of domination started ending when he switched bikes too (to specialized no less). I'd be really curious to see one of these riders stay on the same brand and see what happens.
Also, not injury free, he crashed hard in practice and busted his hand, hence deciding not to race at hafjelly. He got 5th that day, and was so fycked up that he looped out and almost ate **** coming through the finish line.
I get what you're saying about him not dominating as other riders catch up, and we'll obviously never know would could have been. But to go from 9/12 wins, in two years and podiums for every WC he raced in (excluding worlds), suggesting its presumptuous that he'd be winning some if not many races is a bit of a stretch. Sam Hills reign of domination petered out (a world cup overall, but not in such dominating fashion, followed by a major injury and a world champs win), but Gwins just evaporated. Whether or not he'll ever return to dominating form I don't know, but I am willing to bet that next year he'll be back and strong.
Also, sh1tting on him because he switched teams? He gave a pretty candid interview of what happened. "We discussed a new contract based on the past 2 years of results, I signed a letter of intent based on that contract. Several months later, I received what was essentially the same contract I had signed on to the team originally. I decided to cut my losses and move on, because I didn't want to haggle over my contract after I'd preformed at peak professionalism from giving it 100% to repping the bikes. I signed with a team that was more willing to negotiate and put together the package that I wanted" Was the gist of the interview he gave.
To recap: Whitely ****ed up the contract, Trek got screwed, and the package Gwin wanted apparently didn't focus enough on the equipment. I don't think its a suggestion of some great personal or moral failing of Gwins, and that karma is coming back to bite him on the ass after such an underhand blow...
Also, I'm pulling for stevie to get a couple more wins before Gwin or Hill comes back and takes the reins back.
<-full retard.
Because getting excited and enthusiastic about something that your opinions have no relevance to outcomes is totally dumb and should never be done. In fact, fvck having fun while your at it, it just shows you care.
didn't sam hill continue his dominance on the unwinable bike for another year, before succumbing to injury and not coming back at the same level as his peers?
kind of? he won the overall, but it was pretty close. it came down to the final race, I think he only won two races that season and the points race was pretty tight. That was also the year peaty took champs. Not nearly the same dominance that he had on the sunday.
Also he smoked everyone in qualis in andorra without a chain and again at MSA in both qualis and finals. He kind of smoked them at schladders to. He did however almost die hucking of the ski slope in andorra in finals.
Most importantly that year he was on the previous gen Demo....the new gen seems to induce more crashing. troy, brendan, sam and gwin all have been crashing a lot more on the current demo than they ever did on their previous bikes (incl the previous gen demo). Maybe the new Demo is plainly just too fast, even for the best of the best.
this is my best e-spec I can come up with
I think you're onto something there, the Demo is just too ****ing damn fast for anyone, even the messiah. That's why they've asked Ohlins to step in and make a shock capable of dealing with these uber speeds, I can't wait. Order is back in for an extra medium/large Demo with adjustable stays.