it begins now...SNOWSHOE WC BITCHEZ
- Thread starter jstuhlman
- Start date
Jackalope seems like that towny who hangs out at college bars, but is a little too old, always too drunk, too loud, too creepy with the girls but seems relatively fun and harmless. Then you lose track for a year to find out they are in prison.
I think you're describing @jackalope about 5 years ago. He has now morphed into something entirely more terrible while somehow skipping the prison part (for now).
Fun fact - with girlishly thin ankles and a large dollop of bacon grease (or slick honey in a pinch), you can easily slide your foot out of a house arrest ankle bracelet.
What a race wasn't it? I have been on the road until today so have not posted much. We were all over the track during qualies but ended up camping out on the rock/turn/rock gap section for finals, seemed like a good choice since you could see the riders for a while. So great when peaty came blowing over the ski slope to come bum beers off the crowd. How incredible did the track work out? Dirt was perfect for finals.
Did anyone see the camera dude fall off the stage during the DH podiums? He fell right on my almost knocked me out, still have a big of an egg on my head. We did get a nice campaign shower for our trouble though...
Did anyone see the camera dude fall off the stage during the DH podiums? He fell right on my almost knocked me out, still have a big of an egg on my head. We did get a nice campaign shower for our trouble though...
having been to all but one of the windham WC events, i'm gonna have to make the call.... snowshoe was better.
Did you really think it wouldn't be? I never though there was a chance...
that was my first time to snowshoe so i wasn't exactly certain what to expect.
That's right I forgot you said that was the case.
Did anyone else think the track wasn't really on par with some of the other ones on the circuit? I understand they can only do so much with what they have, but I thought while there were some gaps/ technical sections, Overall I thought it was pretty flat and bike park ish with flat rock gardens. Made for some tight racing, but I want to see them race on stuff that would terrify the average park rat.
Maybe I'm just jaded from the St Anne racecourse?
Maybe I'm just jaded from the St Anne racecourse?
While I haven't seen MSA, Andorra or VDS in person, I don't think SS is in that category (and maybe not even close). But I would guess it to be a "standard" WC track in terms of technical sections, fast wide open sections, steep sections and big jumps (norbar approved or not). There are some seriously steep parts to it, not Andorra steep, but its actually pretty damn hard to walk it (impossible in the rain), and I wouldn't call the numerous rock sections steep by any means, but good riders can still maintain crazy speed through them. When you think of La Bresse or Les Gets, I don't think super tech-gnar, ya gonna die brah tracks, but I think those examples met the magical internet WC criteria. Le Gets for instance was super fast in (most) sections, but as Warner said, there wasn't a rock to be found on the track. Personally I like the variety in tracks, and feel like SS slots nicely into a WC menu.
I did hear Warner talking about there was some pedalling on the SS track and that "younger" racers might not know what to do with that, and I thought of Ft. Bill and how much pedalling is involved there - which to my untrained eye is a fair bit more than whats required at SS.
I think Warner needs to start doing the track previews again, being chased by Gee or even Peaty.
The one he did at VDS years ago was awesome.
Yeah I would say the track was done pretty well, some of those grass flat turns up top were great, especially the one right after the stepdown/road crossing. I think it was pretty hard to tell how tech some of the sections were from TV, I made the mistake of wearing a brand new pair of specialized 2fo shoes to walk the track top to bottom, almost got killed several times. That said if they have a second one a new fresh cut trail would be sick, many of us know what the rocks look like on the hill to the riders left of this years track, lots of good over there.
Oh, why the hell didn't they tape that opening hip up the lip further so you couldn't just cut the corner?
Agree. Cathro said that initially it was taped such that you could not cut the inside but that UCI did their course walk and made them change it. UCI also made them tape one of the rock gardens much less generously which reduced the number of lines. As usual, screw them.
for a feature like that it there needs to be an option line, or so i was told.
That makes sense, in case someone has an issue before it and doesn't have the speed up, or otherwise just aren't willing/able to send it.
The fact that not fully hitting the jump was faster is indicative of not great course design (on that feature anyway, I thought it looked fine overall) but it's totally reasonable to have some sort of go-around.
Fair, but I think you could make a slow ass ride around in a different taped lane that would prevent everyone cutting the jump--think they did this at one of the rock drop features. That said, making it from the inside of the lip to the sweet spot on the lander was ever bit of 30-35 feet. Actually looked at least as difficult as just jumping (although obviously faster)
Yeah I don't think "cutting" that jump was a piece of cake. While we lost some of the spectacle the way the riders were doing it, I think that more reflects on whether it should have been in a WC race track in the first place.
I thought the mix of sections made the track look great.
That track looked pretty legit to me. Just like parts of it did in 1734.
Fuck up in a rocky section it just hurts more.
I'm just glad it didn't rain. That place is so miserable in the wet, and it seems like it's always always, always wet.
Fuck up in a rocky section it just hurts more.
I'm just glad it didn't rain. That place is so miserable in the wet, and it seems like it's always always, always wet.
DUDE. it would have been extra special awesomesauce in the wet. especially for wasted hecklers in the woods. that's the REAL snowshoe!
Were you sitting in the any of the lower rock sections during aumaury pierron's run?
I just watched it on the tevee and it looked stupid. I'm glad I saw that. You would not have seen that in the wet. I've seen enough wet snowshoe. That worked out well last weekend IMO.
We watched the women and the first of the men from the double rock drop / super steep section you see at around 1:07.39 in the redbull broadcast; then hiked down into lower hareball, the rockiest part of the track.
We parked ourselves to the left of the 4'-to-flat rock huck at 1:08.18. It was super interesting to watch how the riders tackled it. Very few carried significant speed through it. I think those that went fastest (like Pierron) hit it to the rider's right (on the left on screen) rather then rolling it more to their left.
(at the speed i'm at by that point of being battered by rocks and worried my crabonz bars will impode, i am just about wheelie dropping the damn thing)
danny's winning run POV. this is the best thing I've seen that gives a good sense of how consistently chunky and rough the course was . . . and also how many fans were there most of the way down the mountain, even all the way until the last run. at the end . . . loic . . . "thank you so much." bwahahaha. and another appearance by matt's/jackalope's sunglasses on eddie masters at 3:52-ish
not many, msa or let gets were "many"
way to take my quote out of context, champ. i just said i was glad that there were still people along the course to cheer for him, as he was the last rider down and people had been flooding past us for 20 minutes to get to the finsh.
remind us again how many WC's you were at this year?
that explains how he made up that time at the bottom, he was absolutely flying. would like to see PIerron's helmet cam side by side.
Agree'd I watched the broadcast for the first time last night I think they were flying through there. Since I was further up on track I didnt' get to see any of that during the race. Track looked more legit from a tv perspective than most IMO.
During course walk, Danny said he found the track flat. But after qualies he said he'd found the flow of the track and that it was legit.
Riders have said about MSA that it is long and flat in sections, which is what makes it a challenge. You have to be very precise in order to carry your speed.
carrying speed through "flat"(ish) rock gardens is especially challenging. The videos and POV of the top guys show how they are riding at a completely 'nother level. It was insane to watch Danny and Amaury fly through the lower rock garden. Kinda makes you wish "rock Jesus" was there in full form to see how he would have mixed it up with them. But when those two went through, they looked like they were on a different track from the rest of the field. Impressive.
cool reflection from local legend max morgan: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/max-morgans-race-diary-racing-on-home-soil-at-the-snowshoe-dh-world-cup.html