Mont-Sainte-Frenchie 2022
- Thread starter Redwood Mulch Chucker
- Start date
I've been following cycling too long to not be suspicious of some recent performances (and absences) in XC racing.
Funny how no one ever suspects the same for a dominant DH rider. Just a skill sport I guess, like hitting a baseball.
Westy,are you talking about Amery,like I think you are? I have seen many a post about his Build from you,I would agree with these thought’s. He is very serious with his training from what little I gather from him speaking. A Trainer is Everything as we know,no matter the sport. I would hope that these evil thoughts I have are wrong.
Avy
Oh, I have similar thoughts about DH. Stimulants ("natural"), and probably plenty of funny business in the off-season. Some of these guys wised up after Rude/Graves got popped, and it may even correlate to lower results for some. The whole SoCal RynoPower/CrossFit crew was probably riding the line pretty closely.
There's probably not much UCI random OOC testing for DH.
It also makes nice cover when you get popped for a legit PED. I honestly don't think many dodgy supplement companies are inserting expensive substances/drugs into their concoctions.
Then again, I follow road racing, where excuses like cocaine in grandma's Columbian candies and "Oops, I took my wife's/mother's/dog's cancer medication" are so often heard that some actually believe them.
yup. i think racing is "cleaner" than it used to be, but by no means is it "clean".
I also think DH doesn't have the same impact that PED's have on other sports, I mean there is so many things out with your control in DH.
Something that increases your focus and sharpen your reflexes wouldn't be out of place in DH, whatever that would be.
About the booze, I remember reading that a famous rally driver had half a glas of wine before every race, just enough to be relaxed. I don't remember his name as I have very little interest in that "sport"
kerr got pulled in for testing after...either snowshoe or andorra; they do conduct random tests in dh. but yeah, if you live on the edge and do stuff you're not supposed to you're rolling the dice. a beer or two before a run i can see...just don't do what i did a few years ago and have 3 10+% ipas at lunch....slid out on the first corner on the next run and cracked a rib. 
They test the whole podium plus a few random contenders every race.
They used to actually check for blood alcohol too - not sure if they still do. Same reasoning as pot, apparently it encourages risk taking haha. I remember at the Nationals here in Oz, one of the riders in our crew copped a 6 month suspension for excessive alcohol. Big career killer for a middle-aged C grade rider....
Sucks the doping rumours still proliferate - nothing would suck more for a clean athlete having the best run of their life only for some armchair hero to fling doping accusations at them. FWIW, anything thats actually really gonna help an athlete is super detectable. Most "doping" fails these days are for some lame stimulant or masking agent not the good old stuff from the 80s and 90s that made an incredible difference and made you drop dead at 30.
Its worth checking the banned substance list sometime and comparing it to what most of us eat, drink or take (particularly if you're a gym goer or training even half seriously). Hell some anti-dandruff shampoo will make you fail a PED test these days.
They used to actually check for blood alcohol too - not sure if they still do. Same reasoning as pot, apparently it encourages risk taking haha. I remember at the Nationals here in Oz, one of the riders in our crew copped a 6 month suspension for excessive alcohol. Big career killer for a middle-aged C grade rider....
Sucks the doping rumours still proliferate - nothing would suck more for a clean athlete having the best run of their life only for some armchair hero to fling doping accusations at them. FWIW, anything thats actually really gonna help an athlete is super detectable. Most "doping" fails these days are for some lame stimulant or masking agent not the good old stuff from the 80s and 90s that made an incredible difference and made you drop dead at 30.
Its worth checking the banned substance list sometime and comparing it to what most of us eat, drink or take (particularly if you're a gym goer or training even half seriously). Hell some anti-dandruff shampoo will make you fail a PED test these days.
I stopped at Dustys @ Creekside halfway through the EWS Challenger for a pint before the final stage into the village. I don't think its gonna make much of a difference to 30th position....kerr got pulled in for testing after...either snowshoe or andorra; they do conduct random tests in dh. but yeah, if you live on the edge and do stuff you're not supposed to you're rolling the dice. a beer or two before a run i can see...just don't do what i did a few years ago and have 3 10+% ipas at lunch....slid out on the first corner on the next run and cracked a rib.
I think he's stopping mid-stage for a beer these days.Ah... so that's what Sam Hill's been doing the last few seasons?
Now that was an experience. Spent most of the race camped out in rhe woods beside the Stevie drop, then the lower rock garden. Was in the middle of the last gap screaming for Finn to pedal cause I brain farted as to why the fuck he would be in a tuck... 
All I got to say is...
No. Pants. On the rock!
No. Pants. On the rock!
No Pants - On the rock!
All I got to say is...
No. Pants. On the rock!
No. Pants. On the rock!
No Pants - On the rock!
So you were one of them?Now that was an experience. Spent most of the race camped out in rhe woods beside the Stevie drop, then the lower rock garden. Was in the middle of the last gap screaming for Finn to pedal cause I brain farted as to why the fuck he would be in a tuck...
All I got to say is...
No. Pants. On the rock!
No. Pants. On the rock!
No Pants - On the rock!
Walked right by you.
From what I saw, most passing were closer to a stagger than a walk. Me included.So you were one of them?
Did you get to do any riding?Now that was an experience. Spent most of the race camped out in rhe woods beside the Stevie drop, then the lower rock garden. Was in the middle of the last gap screaming for Finn to pedal cause I brain farted as to why the fuck he would be in a tuck...
All I got to say is...
No. Pants. On the rock!
No. Pants. On the rock!
No Pants - On the rock!
didn't Peaty do that on his last WC run ever?
Sounds a very fitting way to bow out.
26 years back I witnessed peaty pull over half way down the track and sit in a camp chair drinking a beer before finishing his run at a British national.
thinking back it may have been a track preview video.
Rode Le Massif on Friday on the trail bikes.
That place is new, but seriously legit.
After Friday rides and Saturday's race and beers I was nuked.
Sunday was a write off for me, my head was NOT happy, but the guys I went with rode MSA including the WC course in the wet. Was told it was savage and would cause nightmares for years. Kinda bummed I missed it.
Need to get out to Le Massif. They have been sending me email since forever. The new bike stuff looks cool.
Did some back of napkin trailforks calculations, and our last run down was over 7.6 km with a drop of over 650 meters.
Would bang again.
and again.
and again....
Just don't park at the top and time getting to the lift wrong. Its a LONG way back up.
Its definitely a nice spot and they have a ton of terrain to work with, will be interesting how they expand in the future.
@dump it also feels a bit more family oriented or at least less hectic than MSA, when I went there was a lot of families rolling down the hill.
We did and were worried about that on the last run. We got to the last chair with just under 10 minutes to spare. Kinda lost track of time and just happened to randomly check at a trail junction.Just don't park at the top and time getting to the lift wrong. Its a LONG way back up.
Its definitely a nice spot and they have a ton of terrain to work with, will be interesting how they expand in the future.
@dump it also feels a bit more family oriented or at least less hectic than MSA, when I went there was a lot of families rolling down the hill.
Daryl Strawberry among others have been honest about the widespread usage of "Greenies" in baseball, which are apparently Amphetimines. He said they sharpened his focus/reaction time to the point where the ball looked so big he could hit anything.
I would have to assume that if amphetimines can slow down the perception of time to the point of making a 100+ mph fastball look large and easy to judge, they would have to be a game changer for a DH racer?
I like to think of DH as the cleanest form of MTB racing but there is no getting around the fact that in some cases a handful of seconds is the difference between The guy with multiple houses supercars and likely millions in the bank, and the privateer living in his van, wrenching on his own bike on race weekend.
Can't say the financial incentive isn't there?
Amphetamines are super obvious in a test though. There's no way you could race with them in your system and not get done for it.
If anyone was dirty, I'd imagine it'd be a training/off-season course of something they'd do to get dem gainzzzz and then they'd clean up prior to coming into the season. Racing on gear is daft with the UCI testing regime in place.
If anyone was dirty, I'd imagine it'd be a training/off-season course of something they'd do to get dem gainzzzz and then they'd clean up prior to coming into the season. Racing on gear is daft with the UCI testing regime in place.
the length of run and drop looked particularly appealing. They have a sled run in the winter time that is similarly long.
