My Tivo recently recorded the City Parallel in Munich event. This was a ski dual slalom in Munich with huge crowds. As far as ski racing goes, it was an exciting event to watch.
Now as far as our DS goes, one complaint that always arises when the talk of taking DS mainstream is that it is too difficult for the normal person to understand. I never quite understood this lack of understanding..., but I guess the aveage Joe with a six pack of Bud in him may struggle with the time difference and how the loser of the second run can actually be the winner of the race.
Anyhow, the City Parallel used the time difference of the first run, and delayed the losers gate from opening by that time difference for the second run. So the net result is that whoever wins the second run is the winner. Pretty simple stuff, and one less argument against DS. I'm not a ski racing expert but it appeared that this was new to skiing because the announcers had to keep reminding themselves that the winner of run 2 was the winner, regardless of time difference.
I like this approach because it gives the rider who is behind a rabbit to chase and could make for more exciting finishes. It also relieves Joe six-pack from trying to do the math in his head.
Has anyone used this approach in DS before. I thought someone did it years ago but not sure.
On a slightly different note, I would like to see these gates (used in ski-, boardercross) that open around waist level to be tried with 4x instead of a normal gate. It would make the races less predictable I think, and the BMX snap less critical.
Now as far as our DS goes, one complaint that always arises when the talk of taking DS mainstream is that it is too difficult for the normal person to understand. I never quite understood this lack of understanding..., but I guess the aveage Joe with a six pack of Bud in him may struggle with the time difference and how the loser of the second run can actually be the winner of the race.
Anyhow, the City Parallel used the time difference of the first run, and delayed the losers gate from opening by that time difference for the second run. So the net result is that whoever wins the second run is the winner. Pretty simple stuff, and one less argument against DS. I'm not a ski racing expert but it appeared that this was new to skiing because the announcers had to keep reminding themselves that the winner of run 2 was the winner, regardless of time difference.
I like this approach because it gives the rider who is behind a rabbit to chase and could make for more exciting finishes. It also relieves Joe six-pack from trying to do the math in his head.
Has anyone used this approach in DS before. I thought someone did it years ago but not sure.
On a slightly different note, I would like to see these gates (used in ski-, boardercross) that open around waist level to be tried with 4x instead of a normal gate. It would make the races less predictable I think, and the BMX snap less critical.