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Video: Sam Hill Farewell

BM-peacock

Chimp
Sep 21, 2012
26
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With Sam Hill moving on to CRC Nukeproof for the coming season, the folks at Specialized felt it was a good time to say their farewells. Check out some of Sam's highlights on Specialized inside.
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Video: Sam Hill Farewell
 

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S.K.C.

Turbo Monkey
Feb 28, 2005
4,096
25
Pa. / North Jersey
I think Sam still has something left in the bag or else he wouldn't have opted for the challenge of so many drastic changes. He's there to win and is super competitve so this may be the kick in the a$$ he needs to set off on a new chapter of his race career.

With regard to Spesh, the video release really demonstrates that those guys are a class act through and through. When I was helping out Iron Horse I wish they could have done something like that for him but internally, things were pretty far gone at the compnay when his contract was up.

Kudos to Specialized for giving Sam a warm and respectful send-off and congrats to Sammy on the new CRC contract. Cheers to 2013! :)
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
It's official. CRC is an online juggernaut with a way bigger DH specific marketing budget than Specialized. I have to assume he was offered more money over a longer term and since he has a family, he'd be a fool to pass it up. Can't blame Specialized for letting him go. I'm sure the big wigs in the company have a hard and fast # of what they're willing to pay for a DH race team.

And despite their success over the years, they've always stayed conservative rather than overextend themselves on gravity athletes. They can get the podiums they are looking for out of Brosnan for less money and no big hit to their bike sales, so why not.

Hope Sam's contract is well protected and puts his kid through school. That's more than I could dream of getting out of this crazy sport. :thumb:
 

peecee

Monkey
Apr 27, 2012
232
42
Australia
I personally don't put a whole lot of weight on the world championship, I look more at who was the overall winner. He hasn't even been in contention for that since he won it in 09.
Funny that as he didnt win it in 09 he won it in 2010 after he had a pretty much all season out after doing his shoulder at fort bill.

He had a bad 2011 Kinda started with an 8th, 9th, and a 7th before being injured again and getting a 7th at the world champs.

Then to come back for a full season and get a 5th over all not to bad maybe even better if he didnt get a 27th at Val D'Isere where he was pretty much going to win the race and slide out and it took him more time to get going that he was up on everyone by, but I guess thats racing even Gwins not perfect as we saw him also crash a few times.
 

boylagz

Monkey
Jul 12, 2011
558
61
SF bay area
^ Werd. Pretty much like Graves who couldve gotten 3 rainbow jerseys if not for shltty luck at Worlds. Dude is an animal on the 4x track.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
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Bet everybody that's ever won an overall puts "a whole lot of weight on the world championship"..... especially the guys who haven't won a worlds too.
while true, this doesn't discount the fact that anyone can show up at worlds after a so-so season, put together a banger run, and be crowned "world champ"
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
24,182
media blackout
Are you fuc*ing serious? "Anyone"?
"Anyone" in the sense that riders qualified to race the event. Not "anyone" in the sense of some random muppet. Look at Hart, he'd only been in the podium twice in 2011, then showed up at worlds and blew everyone out of the water.
 

Dogboy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 12, 2004
3,208
581
Durham, NC
"Anyone" in the sense that riders qualified to race the event. Not "anyone" in the sense of some random muppet.
You do realize that's a huge pool of riders. Yet out of the last ten world championships, the same 6 riders have won gold. Out of literally thousands of riders. You're delusional.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
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You do realize that's a huge pool of riders. Yet out of the last ten world championships, the same 6 riders have won gold. Out of literally thousands of riders. You're delusional.
Only two riders have more than one gold, but the field has changed a LOT since 2003. Since 2010 if you look at the top 3 spots the only people that show up more than once are Minaar and Steve Smith.

Since 2009 it's the same two riders showing up more than once.

If we go back to 2008 (5 years) only 4 riders show up more than once, minaar, Smith, peat, and hill.

Look at the overall, much different picture. Only 6 riders have filled out the top 3 since 2008. And only two of them don't show up more than once.
 

Dogboy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 12, 2004
3,208
581
Durham, NC
Only two riders have more than one gold, but the field has changed a LOT since 2003.
Say what? Minnaar has 2, Barel has 2, and Hill has 3. And yeah, the field has changed a ton - even more support that not just "anyone" can win gold.
 
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jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
24,182
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Say what? Minnaar has 2, Barel has 2, and Hill has 3. And yeah, the field has changed a ton - even more support that not just "anyone" can win gold.
oops, you're right on the golds. however... we've now had 3 consecutive years that no single rider has been on the podium (top 3) in back to back years at worlds. The last time this happened people were still racing world cups on 4" travel elastomer sprung forks. And only once has there been another instance of two consecutive years where no rider had back to back podium (top 3) finishes [edit] at worlds [/edit]- '02/'03.

But in the last 3 years its been the same 4 riders in the top 3 for the overall. The last two years its been the same riders in the same positions.

Point is - it's making the difference between the winner of the overall and world champion much more distinct. Gwin has absolutely domianted the overall the last 2 years, but he has yet to finish in the top 3 at worlds. Overall is exactly what it says - who has been overall the fastest and most consistent racer in a given season. World champion is just who's fastest on a single given day, and these days there's a lot more contenders for it. The field has gotten more competitive and deeper, so there's more candidates for who's gonna fill out the top 3 spots on the podium at a given race. The days of races (and worlds) being dominated by the same 5 or 6 riders are basically over. But that's a good thing.

Back on topic, re: Sam, could he pull off another world championship? Sure. Another overall? Doubtful.
 
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Dogboy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 12, 2004
3,208
581
Durham, NC
Back on topic, re: Sam, could he pull off another world championship? Sure. Another overall? Doubtful.
Could Gee, Smith, Hart, or Minnaar win an overall? Not any more likely than Sam. And if Gwin was the be all, end all dominant rider some think he is he would have won a World Championship by now. And I'm not hating on Gwin, I like all of the riders but that's the way I see it.
 

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,647
1,116
NORCAL is the hizzle
I personally like the fact that we have an overall winner and a separate World Champ. To me the overall winner probably gets more credit, since it means the rider was able to perform consistently at the top level on a variety of courses. But winning World Champs requires an elusive combination of skill, confidence, and luck, and there is no denying that it's the most dramatic day on the calendar.
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
One other thing and this is not a slight to the racers. World Championships is literally about 1 single rider. No one ever gets credit again in the rest of their racing career for showing up on that podium. It's solely about the rainbow stripes and no one else really even gets a hug.

I equate it to the time Minnar won the overall against Neko at the last World Cup of the year. Kovarik stomped a mud hole in EVERYBODY that day. He freaking won the race itself. Nobody even cuddled with the guy. They blew past and hugged GM and the moment is infamous.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
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media blackout
Could Gee, Smith, Hart, or Minnaar win an overall? Not any more likely than Sam. And if Gwin was the be all, end all dominant rider some think he is he would have won a World Championship by now. And I'm not hating on Gwin, I like all of the riders but that's the way I see it.
That's exactly my point. There's fewer riders that have what it takes to win the overall when compared to the number of riders who have what it takes to win a single race (including worlds).

I personally like the fact that we have an overall winner and a separate World Champ. To me the overall winner probably gets more credit, since it means the rider was able to perform consistently at the top level on a variety of courses. But winning World Champs requires an elusive combination of skill, confidence, and luck, and there is no denying that it's the most dramatic day on the calendar.
agree on all points here.

Can you point to the time that has happened in the Men's division please? I can't seem to find a World Champ without multiple podiums on my sheet.

I said so-so, not some random muppet without a single podium. Besides, your sheet is null and void; it was written in crayon. ;)