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Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,649
5,562
UK

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,499
19,499
Canaderp
Didn't the UCI try to force something a few years ago where they'd not let World Cup riders do any other event series? It didn't last long, I think it was either a knee jerk to the EWS or Crankworx series.

A rival series could be awesome though.
I think that originally came from a race at Crankworx in Whistler. I think they threatened with fines or disqualifications. I think it might even still be a rule? But is ignored?
 

iRider

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2008
5,653
3,093
I think that originally came from a race at Crankworx in Whistler. I think they threatened with fines or disqualifications. I think it might even still be a rule? But is ignored?
The prevented riders to participate in events they did not sanction.

Backlash caused a halt: https://inrng.com/2013/04/forbidden-races-uci-rule-confusion/

In Europe it was discussed if this is in alignment with the EU laws on unfair commercial competition. Cannot find the articles or the outcome.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/
Didn't the UCI try to force something a few years ago where they'd not let World Cup riders do any other event series? It didn't last long, I think it was either a knee jerk to the EWS or Crankworx series.

A rival series could be awesome though.
To be honest I don't think UCI would try banning racers just after selling the rights to Disco as I'm sure the new overlords would be relatively unhappy about that idea
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,221
4,470
Didn't the UCI try to force something a few years ago where they'd not let World Cup riders do any other event series? It didn't last long, I think it was either a knee jerk to the EWS or Crankworx series.

A rival series could be awesome though.
Believe it’s written into the UCI rules. In short: If you do compete in our events, you cannot participate in any others without our permission. Which is bullshit imo. Also EWS quickly became accredited by/affiliated with the UCI. Don’t know where this stands today.
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,024
1,154
El Lay
Y’all are on the bad kind of drugs if you think the sponsors and fanbase can support a second top tier race series. Privateers and midpack racers are barely hanging on with the travel and other expenses of the UCI series.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,221
4,470
Y’all are on the bad kind of drugs if you think the sponsors and fanbase can support a second top tier race series. Privateers and midpack racers are barely hanging on with the travel and other expenses of the UCI series.
oh, so all all of a sudden don’t ”grow the sport”? ;)
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,649
5,562
UK
Y’all are on the bad kind of drugs if you think the sponsors and fanbase can support a second top tier race series. Privateers and midpack racers are barely hanging on with the travel and other expenses of the UCI series.
Should a truely "top teir" race series be watered down and made accessible for privateers and midpack racers in the first place though?

Hardline, Rampage, etc. have what? 20-30 invited riders
Wasn't World Cup DH race tracks not having big enough features (jumps) why Nico Vink stopped racing WC and started doing his own thing? (isn't Fest also around 20- 30 riders)
Who knows what will happen. Especially if the rumour that the UCI is planning on reducing the number of racers who qualify for finals comes to fruition.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,512
4,761
Australia
Y’all are on the bad kind of drugs if you think the sponsors and fanbase can support a second top tier race series. Privateers and midpack racers are barely hanging on with the travel and other expenses of the UCI series.
Yeah thats kind of the point tho. It might be good to have some supplementary feeder racing going on to let the privateers etc stand out. I know there are National Series but they're a joke in a lot of countries.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,221
4,470
Yeah thats kind of the point tho. It might be good to have some supplementary feeder racing going on to let the privateers etc stand out. I know there are National Series but they're a joke in a lot of countries.
Imagine if it was a gravity-focused series, that actually paid decent money, and like 10 deep.
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,024
1,154
El Lay
A feeder system for UCI would be great, but that’s not a top tier direct competitor to UCI.


Yeah thats kind of the point tho. It might be good to have some supplementary feeder racing going on to let the privateers etc stand out. I know there are National Series but they're a joke in a lot of countries.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/
A feeder system for UCI would be great, but that’s not a top tier direct competitor to UCI.
The only feeder system I accept is a system that feeds on UCI by taking away all of it's athletes and RB production crews to create a new better series without douchebags ruining our sport
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,649
5,562
UK
National ranking series' are the feeder for young/new talent to cut their teeth in and if good enough make the jump to the UCI DH WC. This has always has been the case. If your nation's series is poor you could always get involved in making it better.

The UK still has a fairly healthy but way smaller nowadays national DH series and still has a few regional DH series and stand alone races. But basically Enduro became huge here and it's popularity caused a pretty massive drop in DH race entries.
Most DH series here rely on a lot of hard work from volunteers and folk working their arse off for very little monetary reward. Very few UK races have UCI points available anymore.
The UCI / BC fleecing organisers of their cut doesn't exactly help.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,512
4,761
Australia
The UK still has a fairly healthy but way smaller nowadays national DH series and still has a few regional DH series and stand alone races. But basically Enduro became huge here and it's popularity caused a pretty massive drop in DH race entries.
Most DH series here rely on a lot of hard work from volunteers and folk working their arse off for very little monetary reward. Very few UK races have UCI points available anymore.
Not sure about you guys, but over here they've gone to a mandatory two-day format for state and local DH racing, with qualis on Saturday like WC events have and racing on Sunday.

Previously, we used to run practise Saturday (sometimes) and then Practise Sunday morning, racing after lunch and then a top 30 shootout for a final.

That move to a mandatory two day event is what murdered the participation - you're now need two free days, plus you have to either drive 1-2 hrs to a race and back twice, or camp where possible/stay in a hotel etc. It's doable for some, but the juniors have to really have parents support to make that happen, and the older racers have to schedule around all the usual life and family commitments.
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,649
5,562
UK
Generally also 2 days here but Day 1 = open practice. Day 2 = couple of hours practice then 2 race runs (fastest time counts)

What murdered participation here was this rumour that you only got only got 30minutes actual riding at a DH race and at an enduro you got 4 or 5 hours worth.
Dumb fucks now pay the same for a one day Enduro as a 2 day uplifted DH race and spend 4.5 hours climbing and queuing and still only get around 30mins actual descending. :rofl:

The other argument for Enduro over DH I keep hearing is you get to spend more time with your mates at an Enduro. which is clearly also wrong.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,512
4,761
Australia
Generally also 2 days here but Day 1 = open practice. Day 2 = couple of hours practice then 2 race runs (fastest time counts)
Yeah that option at least allows people who can't make Saturday, to show up Sunday and do it half assed. I'm down for that.


What murdered participation here was this rumour that you only got only got 30minutes actual riding at a DH race and at an enduro you got 4 or 5 hours worth.
You get 30 minutes of descending at your DH races? Bloody hell. We have truck or ute shuttles, you might get 4 or 5 runs total a day and our DH races are more expensive to enter because of the shuttle cost.

Fuck I miss Whistler Phat Wednesday DH races. $5, free beer and better door prizes than we get in Australian for winning National rounds.
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,649
5,562
UK
If you get your finger out 8 runs in a day wouldn't be too difficult here for a lot of races.
5 runs at Ft william would be roughly half an hours riding for a mid pack rider/older gent. And if you're on the ball twice that number might be possible.
But yeah. Uplift logistics do play a part here too at certain venues.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/
Not sure about you guys, but over here they've gone to a mandatory two-day format for state and local DH racing, with qualis on Saturday like WC events have and racing on Sunday.

Previously, we used to run practise Saturday (sometimes) and then Practise Sunday morning, racing after lunch and then a top 30 shootout for a final.

That move to a mandatory two day event is what murdered the participation - you're now need two free days, plus you have to either drive 1-2 hrs to a race and back twice, or camp where possible/stay in a hotel etc. It's doable for some, but the juniors have to really have parents support to make that happen, and the older racers have to schedule around all the usual life and family commitments.
Here the numbers dropped before it. Hell they started going down even before enduro became really popular when more bikeparky trails became available. True race organizers of one of the biggest series were dicks and frequently made unsafe features which didn't help but generally DH would have lost a lot of racers from it's peak around 2010-2012 anyway (We had one great organizer run out of number plates... people ran carboard plates instead...).

Still if a new race series was created that didn't involve a lot of bad planning maybe we could pump those numbers up. Not to pre enduro numbers but still better than now.
 

Bike078

Monkey
Jan 11, 2018
566
412
Per the downtime podcast episode 2 with Martin Whiteley, Disco will be covering the juniors and qualifying.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/
Per the downtime podcast episode 2 with Martin Whiteley, Disco will be covering the juniors and qualifying.
Wasn't he wrong on some stuff before? Also I'd rather a full finals field than coverage of quals. Kerr had very good points regarding smaller finals
 

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,331
5,087
Ottawa, Canada
Well roadies are free to start their own series if they feel bad about their tours but I dont know enough about what roadie pros think to speak about it. We do us.
do you remember the days when ASO and the UCI were in open war? I think it had something to do with establishing the "pro tour" and who got to control the calendar and who could qualify for the races?! As I recall, ASO owns Le Tour, La Vuelta, El Giro and some major spring classics. There was a battle of the wills, but in the end a mutually beneficial agreement was arrived at. I'm hoping that will also happen in DH...

National ranking series' are the feeder for young/new talent to cut their teeth in and if good enough make the jump to the UCI DH WC. This has always has been the case. If your nation's series is poor you could always get involved in making it better.

The UK still has a fairly healthy but way smaller nowadays national DH series and still has a few regional DH series and stand alone races. But basically Enduro became huge here and it's popularity caused a pretty massive drop in DH race entries.
Most DH series here rely on a lot of hard work from volunteers and folk working their arse off for very little monetary reward. Very few UK races have UCI points available anymore.
The UCI / BC fleecing organisers of their cut doesn't exactly help.
what about the iXs Cup model? I wonder if that's what RedBull is cooking up... or something similar?
 

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,649
5,562
UK
Except (correct me if I'm wrong here) IXS is a European series and governed by UCI ruling.

I don't see why Redbull would even want its own world series to rival UCI DH.
UCI WC is what it is. But don't forget it's been the premier mtb series and championship for over 30 years and the prestige of competing and collecting titles and silverware (now milk cartons) cannot really be rivalled.
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,024
1,154
El Lay
I find it funny that Chris called his company ESO, given the long and storied history of ASO.

ASO also owns Dakar.

And the A in ASO stands for “Amaury”… :tinfoil:
 
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norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/
do you remember the days when ASO and the UCI were in open war? I think it had something to do with establishing the "pro tour" and who got to control the calendar and who could qualify for the races?! As I recall, ASO owns Le Tour, La Vuelta, El Giro and some major spring classics. There was a battle of the wills, but in the end a mutually beneficial agreement was arrived at. I'm hoping that will also happen in DH...


what about the iXs Cup model? I wonder if that's what RedBull is cooking up... or something similar?
Naaah I'm not hoping a mutually beneficial agreement happens. I hope DH and Enduro break free from UCI. This is better for the sport. Sports should not be run by organizations pretending to be non profit while really being busineses where old dudes get huge wages and DGAF about the sport they screw over.
 

Bike078

Monkey
Jan 11, 2018
566
412
Wasn't he wrong on some stuff before? Also I'd rather a full finals field than coverage of quals. Kerr had very good points regarding smaller finals
I don't know on what stuff, but being human and given that things change he could certainly be wrong again. On another note he also said he represents around 18 XCO teams and is some sort of liaison for them to the ESO.

What did Bernard say re: small finals?
I don't know if I'd have time to watch the full finals like in the Freecaster days but at the same time I would love to cheer for Asian riders trying to make it on the circuit. When finals used to be top 80 men some would occasionally get through like Kazuki Shimizu.
 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,369
1,605
Warsaw :/
I don't know on what stuff, but being human and given that things change he could certainly be wrong again. On another note he also said he represents around 18 XCO teams and is some sort of liaison for them to the ESO.

What did Bernard say re: small finals?
I don't know if I'd have time to watch the full finals like in the Freecaster days but at the same time I would love to cheer for Asian riders trying to make it on the circuit. When finals used to be top 80 men some would occasionally get through like Kazuki Shimizu.
His comment was basically that you need results to build confidence and many great riders started with qualifying 40-60 not to mention many great results came from low qualifiers.