Lenzerheide World Champs
- Thread starter toodles
- Start date
We are agreeing....
Sorry then. 4h of sleep + stress make me stupid.
Cecile Ravanel appeared to do similar to a rider during the womens race. Flatted and then meandered down the middle of the track where a rider had to overtake her before a drop I think.
Shorter than usual gaps between riders to accommodate the 10 million entrants?
As Red Bull broadcasts get more professional, the airtime is longer while somehow showing less and less of each riders run.
As Red Bull broadcasts get more professional, the airtime is longer while somehow showing less and less of each riders run.
I just watched Luca's helmet cam, Redbull did crap of showing that course. The cable cable from space shot was horrible. Where were all the cameras in the woods that should have shown how steep, rocky and rooty that track was.
Possibly unable to be placed because of how steep, rocky, and rooty that track was.
Also, having watched the XC, some of the cable cams probably did double duty covering both events.
The earlier riders were closer together, the top 10 women and maybe top 20 men had 3+ minute gaps according to start schedule.
Right... which if you think about it makes not much sense, as the bottom of the pack riders are much more likely to yard sale their run and end up in a traffic jam.
https://m.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/RACE-DAY-2018-WORLD-CHAMPIONSHIPS-DOWNHILL,12005/Slideshow,0/sspomer,2
Minnaar had a "slight mechanical" during his race run that caused him to lose traction in key places. He's being cagey about it.
Minnaar had a "slight mechanical" during his race run that caused him to lose traction in key places. He's being cagey about it.
That tire had a perfect season.
Dude killed it on DHR2's. Maybe it's time to go back then?
What was Vergier riding when he won?
In the vital audio interview it’s pretty clear that the mechanic screwed something up and Minnaar was quite unhappy about it... shifting indexing or brake lever travel or something basic I think.
poor boo boo
To be fair, Minaar is going a bit faster than walking pace. I imagine bite point issues might be a bit more of a concern at GOAT level than for us mere mortals. Remember when Gwin was running Saints?
i noticed he was adjusting his left lever right up until the point he left the start hut.
I'm pretty sure he does that every race. I recall noticing that everytime he's in teh start hut. maybe a ritual/nervous tick thing?
either way, he said it affected his traction in certain spots. would brake lever travel do that?
Could do, you expect bite at one point and when it is not there...
... a bit too much and too much brake could equal loss of traction.
...a bit too little and not enough brake could also equal loss of traction.
When your balancing on the knife edge and somebody changes the edge geometry bad things can happen.
Some comments from Loic Bruni taken from an interview with mtb-news to pour some oil into the eternal wheel size and Enduro vs. Downhill debates.
About riding a prototype 29er in Les Gets:
If I hadn’t been there, Martin Maes and Danny Hart would have been right behind me on the podium on 27,5” bikes. 27,5” is neither dead nor is it slow or a bad choice. I’m more likely to be riding 29” wheels next season however as Specialized wants to move into that direction more strongly. […] If I have a choice, I’ll use both. Regarding the future, I’ll put my trust into the cooperation with Specialized, at the end of the day it’s down to the rider and not the wheel size.
Asked if he did any timed back-to-back tests between 27,5” and 29”:
In my opinion this is highly subjective. I’m a 27.5” fan, Greg and Aaron are 29” fans. Nevertheless we compared both wheel sizes and I was not quicker on 29”, which is why I didn’t use it in the World Cup. I'll have to ajdust my riding style a bit and will probably need a bit of time to get used to the bigger wheels.
His thoughts on fork offset:
We are currently running 56mm. We tried 52, 56 and Specialized asked us to give 60mm a try, but it was not ideal. 56mm is a lot for a 27,5” bike, but it enables me to gain some length. With carbon frames, you cannot modify frame sizing as easily, so we chose this route as the Large frame is a little too short for me. I tried the XL frame, but it was too much for me. The main triangle is 20mm longer, but the chainstays are the same. So for my height and riding style, the frame wasn’t ideally balanced.
About Maes winning La Bresse and racing Enduro:
La Bresse was a bit more like an Enduro track. Lots of pedaling and tight corners – it would make a really interesting Enduro stage. Still, Martin delivered a perfect run. If there was an Enduro race tomorrow with uplifts and downhill style tracks I’d definitely race and think I could do well. But Finale Ligure is too exhausting for me. Last year, I raced there without prior knowledge of the tracks because I’m convinced that Enduro should be raced without practice runs. It doesn’t make much sense to show up for a race where other competitors already know the tracks by heart, which gives them a huge advantage. So I rode the tracks blind and got smoked.
About riding a prototype 29er in Les Gets:
If I hadn’t been there, Martin Maes and Danny Hart would have been right behind me on the podium on 27,5” bikes. 27,5” is neither dead nor is it slow or a bad choice. I’m more likely to be riding 29” wheels next season however as Specialized wants to move into that direction more strongly. […] If I have a choice, I’ll use both. Regarding the future, I’ll put my trust into the cooperation with Specialized, at the end of the day it’s down to the rider and not the wheel size.
Asked if he did any timed back-to-back tests between 27,5” and 29”:
In my opinion this is highly subjective. I’m a 27.5” fan, Greg and Aaron are 29” fans. Nevertheless we compared both wheel sizes and I was not quicker on 29”, which is why I didn’t use it in the World Cup. I'll have to ajdust my riding style a bit and will probably need a bit of time to get used to the bigger wheels.
His thoughts on fork offset:
We are currently running 56mm. We tried 52, 56 and Specialized asked us to give 60mm a try, but it was not ideal. 56mm is a lot for a 27,5” bike, but it enables me to gain some length. With carbon frames, you cannot modify frame sizing as easily, so we chose this route as the Large frame is a little too short for me. I tried the XL frame, but it was too much for me. The main triangle is 20mm longer, but the chainstays are the same. So for my height and riding style, the frame wasn’t ideally balanced.
About Maes winning La Bresse and racing Enduro:
La Bresse was a bit more like an Enduro track. Lots of pedaling and tight corners – it would make a really interesting Enduro stage. Still, Martin delivered a perfect run. If there was an Enduro race tomorrow with uplifts and downhill style tracks I’d definitely race and think I could do well. But Finale Ligure is too exhausting for me. Last year, I raced there without prior knowledge of the tracks because I’m convinced that Enduro should be raced without practice runs. It doesn’t make much sense to show up for a race where other competitors already know the tracks by heart, which gives them a huge advantage. So I rode the tracks blind and got smoked.
That makes Spec sound SO bad. Not only are they pushing him to ride a wheel size he doesn’t want to, they won’t even custom make a front triangle that fits. Sorta unbelievable given his talent, and their $$$.
not just any lizurds, but turbo lizurds
This.
Specialized doesn't really seem to care all that much about their racing. Brosnan didn't ever do much testing with the Spec-boys. He was in fact shocked about how much work Fabien Barel together with Canyon put into the offseason training with the riders.
Bruni said in the interview that he likes the short rear end though, which forces him to ride the large to have still a balanced ride. He could have gone to a reach adjusting headset to run less offset imo.
All in all it sounds to me that he might be faster on another bike like we have seen Brosnan do. He was immediately more consistent and more in control on the longer rig.
I mean, to be fair specialized is a marketing company more than anything. I happen to like some of their products, but at the end of the day, quite a few of their bikes are produced on dirt floor factories and then sold as premium bikes because specialized is really fucking good at what they do (marketing, obviously).
They're sponsoring a WC rider for the publicity, not because they actually give a shit about racing
EDIT: actually, I'm not being entirely fair. I think the people in charge of their race teams care about racing. I think Brad Benedict and co. really do care about the racing, just their overlords/people *actually* in charge don't give two fucks.
They're sponsoring a WC rider for the publicity, not because they actually give a shit about racing
EDIT: actually, I'm not being entirely fair. I think the people in charge of their race teams care about racing. I think Brad Benedict and co. really do care about the racing, just their overlords/people *actually* in charge don't give two fucks.
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