Agreed. I didn't like the WC course (or at least what was there at Chile Challenge) at all compared to the course from the year before. Not nearly as much technical stuff.Jimmy_Pop said:Same thing at the World Cup in Angel Fire NM. Watered down golf cart path.
COmtbiker12 said:Agreed. I didn't like the WC course (or at least what was there at Chile Challenge) at all compared to the course from the year before. Not nearly as much technical stuff.
General Lee said:guys like Vouilloz, Hill, Minnaar, Peat, Rennie, etc. also have a way of smoothing out the roughest courses
bigdrop05 said:I always noticed this- but especially watching EARTHED2 .....
biker3 said:What are you talking about? If you think Schladming and Ft Bill are smooth then I have no idea what you're calling rough. Just because they ride them incredibly fast doesn't make them smooth. Ft Bill is pretty much a rockgarden all the way down and Austria has the biggest roots ive ever seen.
Transcend said:Errr, no. Ft bill is pretty damn smooth, almost all of the way down. It's a man made gravel path, with rocks in it. Only the rocks aren't exactly huge, imposing or really noticeable in most areas.
Livigno was even smoother for worlds. Ste Anne on the other hand, is the complete opposite. The WC usually has a good mix of courses.
i might be reading you wrong but Mt-Saint-Anne is in Quebec Canadablack noise said:Whereas in Europe there's that nasty course in Austria and Mont Saint-Anne.
zedro said:i might be reading you wrong but Mt-Saint-Anne is in Quebec Canada
Definitely - like Snowmass for instance. Not rough at the beginning of the weekend, but by Sunday the braking bumps were wheel-deep down the whole top of the course, making for a pretty rough ride.Zutroy said:...which leads to braking bumps...
This is true.zedro said:i might be reading you wrong but Mt-Saint-Anne is in Quebec Canada
I need to remember that next time I get to the bottom feeling I have done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. Yes it does lack in the way of really slow tech features but at any sort of speed the upper section is brutal, by the time you hit the tree line you are hammered, it is pretty far from the fast and smooth description that is in the topic title!Transcend said:Errr, no. Ft bill is pretty damn smooth, almost all of the way down. It's a man made gravel path, with rocks in it. Only the rocks aren't exactly huge, imposing or really noticeable in most areas.
-Zutroy said:The other thing to remember is NORBA courses get a lot of use with all the different classes racing, which leads to braking bumps in weird places, especially when you have one course that has alt lines for the beg, sports. Plus i think the euros like to build smoother, flower courses. Nevagal was a prefect example...from what i've been told not a hard course to ride at all, but a hard course to ride fast. I think you need a mixure to that, and places like Idaho that are just plan hard to ride, leads to a good mix, plus it gives a wider range of riders a chance to shine.
this is the reason for the most part, so many riders on the course just blows it up...coupled with all the different braking spots for the different skill levels and you have bumps everywhere.Zutroy said:The other thing to remember is NORBA courses get a lot of use with all the different classes racing, which leads to braking bumps in weird places, especially when you have one course that has alt lines for the beg, sports. Plus i think the euros like to build smoother, flower courses. Nevagal was a prefect example...from what i've been told not a hard course to ride at all, but a hard course to ride fast. I think you need a mixure to that, and places like Idaho that are just plan hard to ride, leads to a good mix, plus it gives a wider range of riders a chance to shine.
The MSA course was pretty damn nuts I thought. Like BCVAN is saying, alot of high speed off camber sections. Alot of the woods were off camber too. To the ride that stuff at a world cup pace is simply mind blowing to me. The videos are certainly VERY deceptive. In no way do they really portray the size of the terrain and how fast they are really going over it.BC VAN said:the video footage you see is very,very deceptive it's so hard to go as fast as the top world cup guys go and hit all the lines that enable you to keep speed because a lot of the braking is off camber, so it takes so tons of skill to slow the bike down with it being super steep and off camber.
pterodactyl said:I race at Plattekill, considered by many to be one of the most tech/ difficult places to ride, and the "wide open" NORBA Mt Snow course beats my ass.
It's wide open for most of it and down the ski slope but the ski slope is sketchy because of the grass and it's littered with boulders. It feels like a jackhammer at speed, but you watch Hannah and the Yeti guys and they just fly over the stuff like it was never there.
Hannah is a psychopath. No BS, the guy is just a total lunatic (except he's actually in control). At Mt Buller earlier this year he was hammering this fireroad run in to this huge stepdown (that nobody ended up hitting due to wind/light issues) - the track was covered in loose shale, and had large rocks embedded in it. He was absolutely flogging the bike down there like you would not believe, suspension looked like it was set up so he only used about 3" of it at most, and he still looked smooth (although I bet his rims hate him).pterodactyl said:I race at Plattekill, considered by many to be one of the most tech/ difficult places to ride, and the "wide open" NORBA Mt Snow course beats my ass.
It's wide open for most of it and down the ski slope but the ski slope is sketchy because of the grass and it's littered with boulders. It feels like a jackhammer at speed, but you watch Hannah and the Yeti guys and they just fly over the stuff like it was never there.