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canadmos

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
22,215
21,814
Canaderp
I'm guessing this "Continental" cup is just the new Euro cup series?

How many races right now in north America give enough uci points to race the world cup?

And new zealand, Australia and South America? I guess Asia too, but they don't seem to have many riders that I know of (unless points is already a huge problem for them).
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
89,240
27,436
media blackout
schwaaa31 said:
If you feel like puking in your mouth a little. Chris Ball interview.
www.vitalmtb.com

UCI grant Discovery WC rights from 2023 to 2030

The UCI have partnered with Discovery Sports to provide footage of WC racing for 8 years from 2023. Is this the end of free viewing of WC races? Will Warner still be commentating? Changes are coming and I struggle to believe they'll be good.
www.vitalmtb.com www.vitalmtb.com
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i hope you didn't miss my response immediately following that post.
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
89,240
27,436
media blackout
SylentK said:
Isn't there a political forum for posts like that?

I won't deny that there is politics in anything trail/recreation/Department of Interior related here in the US. But dude. Just don't go there. Especially if you don't live here. Not funny. Don't make me say go fuck off. Oh whoops....
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see, i thought seth finally made a funny. you know something is bad when even ze germans are dunking on it.
 
norbar

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,505
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slyfink said:
pinkbike did a summary: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/we-want-the-sport-of-mountain-biking-to-be-far-larger-things-we-learned-chris-ball-interview-en-roue-libre.html
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So let me get this straight:
- Fewer racers
- Popularity as the end goal
- No mention of actualy making it better for racers or existing fans.

So this looks like a greedy corporate strategy of growth at all costs. The idea that sports benefit if they get bigger. I don't think this man should have anything to say about the future of the sport.

Let the people who enjoy it enjoy it more instead of making a bigger group of people enjoy it less. Stop trying to copy paste bigger sports. They are corrupt AF and full of problems. Chris Ball was painted as "our guy" in the UCI but he seems hellbent on selling the sport out and actively works to make everything worse. Yay.
 
vivisectxi

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
521
626
yeast van
Bikael Molton said:
How do americans watch the fucking world champs (he asks every damned year)?
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looks like it'll be on TIZ (like all the wcdh races). live stream isn't always the best quality; i just watch the replay, which is typically uploaded within a couple hours of the stream (with the added benefit of being able to FF the boring bits).
 
Gary

Gary

my pronouns are hag/gis
Aug 27, 2002
8,594
6,495
UK
norbar said:
Chris Ball was painted as "our guy" in the UCI
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When was he painted as such? His topless sharpie on chest protest run back when he raced WCs?
After his WC racing career Chris did what a lot of ex racers at the time did and started an mtb coaching company in Scotland but he also took the job working for the UCI. Doing a similar job to what Ruiridh now does. Which. I guess would have given him huge insight into how things work and would have stood him in good stead when setting up the EWS.
He's still a rider. But clearly a businessman. And with partnerships like Disco and UCI it's not hugely surprising how that went.
OG WC DH as we knew it was always an ever changing sport. But looking from the 00s to today it's pretty unrecognisable. Not just in organisation.
 
norbar

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,505
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Gary said:
When was he painted as such? His topless sharpie on chest protest run back when he raced WCs?
After his WC racing career Chris did what a lot of ex racers at the time did and started an mtb coaching company in Scotland but he also took the job working for the UCI. Doing a similar job to what Ruiridh now does. Which. I guess would have given him huge insight into how things work and would have stood him in good stead when setting up the EWS.
He's still a rider. But clearly a businessman. And with partnerships like Disco and UCI it's not hugely surprising how that went.
OG WC DH as we knew it was always an ever changing sport. But looking from the 00s to today it's pretty unrecognisable. Not just in organisation.
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I missed his protest run. Seems like something even I wouldn't do and I'm annoying AF.

I know a large part of the media went "don't worry about warner since Chris Ball is our enduro guy".

Also being a businessman doesn't mean you have to be harmful. I'm have been working for larger corpos than UCI all my life and yet I generally try to steer my part of the ship towards non shit decisions. He seems to be doing the opposite. Hell doing what he does doesn't even lead to promotions. It seems like he's one of those corporate people who thinks outeviling the evil lizards will get you praise and rewards when in reality it just means you stay in one spot forever.
 
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Gary

Gary

my pronouns are hag/gis
Aug 27, 2002
8,594
6,495
UK
I've read your last sentence a few times and still can't quite figure out what you mean. But I'm tired AF after a long day followed by a long evening driving so there's that.
I often wonder if many blinkered/arrogant businessmen even notice a lot of the harm they're doing through their own agenda/master plans.
 
norbar

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,505
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Gary said:
I've read your last sentence a few times and still can't quite figure out what you mean. But I'm tired AF after a long day followed by a long evening driving so there's that.
I often wonder if many blinkered/arrogant businessmen even notice a lot of the harm they're doing through their own agenda/master plans.
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Well most people are bad at their job. It's just more visible in some of them

Gary said:



Incase you're unable to read it... it says "PANTS" in sharpie on his chest. in reference to what he thought was a shit WC track in Calgary (2004?)
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So edgy even emo kids were afraid of him
 
slyfink

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,833
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Ottawa, Canada
sethimus said:

new rules:

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overall seems rather tame compared to the shit storm it ignited over the summer.

I'm not fussed about dropping semifinals. I wish it was more than 30 in the final though. even if I only ever watched the last 20 or so riders, it's good to have the others filmed. seems like 40 would be a good number?

not sure what to think about loss of protected rider status. seems like a good way to protect the superstars of the sport. they always show up and put on an amazing show in finals without having to risk it all in qualis and semis. seems like a fair way to protect the best riders? they don't get to be in the top 10 (or 5 or whatever the cutoff was) without being consistently fast. now, one small mistake can take them out for the race or even the season. maybe that levels the playing field? maybe that introduces an element of chance to the series? I dunno. I guess we'll find out next year. I hope there's a way for me to legally watch it.
 
schwaaa31

schwaaa31

Turbo Monkey
Jul 30, 2002
1,542
1,147
Clinton Massachusetts
It'll be interesting to see what teams like Gwins and Nekos do to be able to race next year. Top 15 teams then 5 wildcard teams. How they pick those hasn't been laid out. Bribes? Pick out of a hat?
 
OGRipper

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,744
1,255
NORCAL is the hizzle
slyfink said:
not sure what to think about loss of protected rider status. seems like a good way to protect the superstars of the sport.
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Also mixed feelings on this. It's arguably not fair to artificially preserve coveted spots for riders who don't perform. Shit happens but "that's racing" and opening it up will probably create opportunities for less-known riders and make for some exciting underdog performances, particularly for riders local to certain tracks. However, the loss of protected rider status may also make it harder for teams to commit to big salaries for the best riders, to land co-sponsors, etc., so it could have longer-term impacts not so easy to see.

That said, offering a "last chance" run for some instead of making everyone ride semis seems like a good call, and should help formerly-protected riders get into the big show if they have an issue in their quali run. So these two issues are related and could make for some exciting racing.
 
Gary

Gary

my pronouns are hag/gis
Aug 27, 2002
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Not crashing and your bike holding up for 3 minutes is what these guys and their team/mechanics train for all off season and all through the year.
So back to quali then finals still makes sense to me way more than adding a LCQ.
Dropping rider protection status doesn't really bother me either. Infact it might spice things up a little and add a little drama to the year.
 
canadmos

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
22,215
21,814
Canaderp
schwaaa31 said:
It'll be interesting to see what teams like Gwins and Nekos do to be able to race next year. Top 15 teams then 5 wildcard teams. How they pick those hasn't been laid out. Bribes? Pick out of a hat?
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Could teams start to combine under one name, while still being independent individually?

Isn't this kind of how one group of riders did it this year? It sounded like a few of them bought into a "team", which was then registered with the uci and got some perks like better pits, status etc?
 
DaveW

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,675
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The bunker at parliament
I can fully see Commencal playing that alliance team game.
Once I'd have said Satan Cruizer as well, but not these days.
Max has the industry mussel now, and traditionally a plethora of teams under the Commencal banner.
 
6thElement

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
17,418
14,906
DaveW said:
I can fully see Commencal playing that alliance team game.
Once I'd have said Satan Cruizer as well, but not these days.
Max has the industry mussel now, and traditionally a plethora of teams under the Commencal banner.
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I thought at least one them folded at the end of this season?
 
Oz_Goose

Oz_Goose

Chimp
Jun 15, 2022
19
38
vivisectxi said:
looks like it'll be on TIZ (like all the wcdh races). live stream isn't always the best quality; i just watch the replay, which is typically uploaded within a couple hours of the stream (with the added benefit of being able to FF the boring bits).
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The other one I've used successfully is streamed.su. Stream has sometimes been under F1, but it has been on there all season. Good quality as well. The great thing for me is it's usually a bootleg Stan stream, which is the streaming service is Australia if you want to pay for WC DH. I just don't want to pay them AUD $31/mth for the privilege.
 
norbar

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,505
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Warsaw :/
sethimus said:
@norbar

www.theverge.com

Warner Bros. Discovery restructures to split up streaming and cable businesses

The move could help silo Max from linear TV’s struggles.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

what does that mean for downhill?
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Tbh it's a fake move to make wall street happy. The TV division reports its revenues separately anyway (outside of HBO because HBO means money).


Industry experts are split if this means they will try to sell off their TV division or to keep it. If they sell it off we don't know who retains DH rights - the TV division (eurosport) or streaming division. Technically it would be better if the streamer kept the rights because the only reason WBD is pushing DH to be a 30 person finale is Linear TV schedules. Too long show and they can't fit it nicely into TV programming where streaming doesn't have that issue.

The problem is the industry is in a time period of "aaaaaaa we need to cut costs and be profitable after spending like morons" so they might do something dumb. So we might end up with a nice stream, we might end up with a linear only offer (or some shitty streaming platform that doesn't work) or no way to view DH.

Still those things take time. 2025 is safe. 2026 probably too. I don't remember for how many years did WBD buy rights for but maybe they lose them before they make any stupid moves.
 
slyfink

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,833
5,666
Ottawa, Canada
canadmos said:
I'm guessing this "Continental" cup is just the new Euro cup series?

How many races right now in north America give enough uci points to race the world cup?

And new zealand, Australia and South America? I guess Asia too, but they don't seem to have many riders that I know of (unless points is already a huge problem for them).
Click to expand...
moar details:
"Currently, the plan is for the top five riders at each Continental Series race will be given a single round entry to a World Cup event, with the top five in the overall standings at the end of the year given the right to attend all of the following year's World Cup rounds."

seems like a decent development? Also, I wonder if riders from outside the continents can race there and get the points needed to compete?

e.g. : "After its initial announcement of the 2025 Continental Race Series plans, the UCI shared a breakdown of the events happening across the Americas, Europe and Oceania regions.

Oceania:

January 11: Dunedin (NZ) XCO
Janaury 19: Coronet Peak (NZ) DH
February 14-16: Christchurch (NZ) DH
March 1: Canberra (AUS) XCO
March 2: Canberra (AUS) XCO & DH
March 5-9: Rotorua (NZ) DH
May 21-25: Cairns (AUS) DH"

Could an American or European racer go to Oceania, finish top-5 then get the chance to compete at the World Cup?
 
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