DH World Cup thread

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Hoping for a Reece Asa 1-2!!

Screenshot 2026-07-11 at 13.45.27.webp
 
Luke MS put up a video yesterday of a major save on that cursed corner if you want to see it pov. The screen goes vertical!
 
Moving on up! I took Jordan as a lark because I watched a bunch of wyn and Moi Moi and fast AF, and he just seemed super confident at the moment, and he delivered, I really didn't expect it. Had Asa and Maples to round it out. I dropped vali at the last minute as I really thought Lisa B and Sanchez were going to tear it up but not be. Reece and Pinky were very unexpected in my mind. I can't get over how much Jackson has fallen off.
 
Thinking about this last night, DH has usually had periods of dominance by one or two riders & that has gone this year. While Vali still bosses it in women's, no clear leader has emerged in men's racing & I don't see that anything much has changed to make it this way other than Bruni, who you would expect to be up there, missing half the season.

Otherwise, all I can think of is various enforced team changes that went on but other than the teams that folded in 2025, riders moving is not unusual & still doesn't account for riders we all thought would continue to excel like Jackson & Asa.
 
RustyMTB said:
Couple of observations, Mille Johnset doesn't appear to be settling in well at Nukeproof by comparison to her time at Canyon & I can't really see why that should be & the Kiwis are coming. I make it about 150 of them in finals today, the pool of talent coming out of NZ is really something to see.
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Agree on the NZ thing, 1 reason for sure is 10 years ago Christchurch got its permanent chairlift bike park opened. The amount of descent that the kids can do in a day (easily 5,000-8,000m of descent in runs per day) really helps their growth.

Not to mention riders from all over NZ can use a park that operates 365 days a year too. MTB in general is huge in NZ and will only get stronger.
 
I thought the number in parentheses was where you ranked through the segment, but I don’t know how you could be leading after the first segment if you’re 8th fastest through the first segment.

What does the number in parentheses represent?

IMG_3846.webp
 
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RustyMTB said:
Thinking about this last night, DH has usually had periods of dominance by one or two riders & that has gone this year. While Vali still bosses it in women's, no clear leader has emerged in men's racing & I don't see that anything much has changed to make it this way other than Bruni, who you would expect to be up there, missing half the season.

Otherwise, all I can think of is various enforced team changes that went on but other than the teams that folded in 2025, riders moving is not unusual & still doesn't account for riders we all thought would continue to excel like Jackson & Asa.
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I think Asa is still working on dialing back from full attack mode, something Nico has touched on interviews (and Asa), eg, he's not yet capable of just dialing back a little, so he is either backed off considerably (for him) or full tilt boogie. I also saw in an interview where Jackson talked a lot about off-season difficulties with family and life, and so it seems like his head was not right, heading into the season (I mean he said that in the interview) so I think for him we are seeing the results of whatever those difficulties were. This Andorra track was tough, too fast in horrible dirt conditions, really. It took out 5 of the 30 Elite men. There was discussion afterwards by Needles and team managers for maybe dialing it back somehow, they were worried that the track was too fast and the conditions made it too easy to have a hugie.
 
Yeah, I can see how Neko would get in Asa's ear. Junior's are nothing if not all out, balls out & that needs reigning in when they transition to elite. I've joked in here before about how you can spot juniors by looking for the number of stoppies at the finish.

Bruni for example is the master of playing the percentages game over a season. Notable that Asa was more or less dead last in sector one at La Thuile & finished second, he said after it was deliberate to nurse himself through the flat turns that were his weak point, so maybe he's listening.

Needles though is prone to exploiting any controversy going, I suspect to drive engagement but maybe that's just how he is. Either way I'm not convinced that TM's in an intensely competitive environment are instructing riders to be careful to the point of losing seconds. It's not news that he whole thing is dangerous, but what is said publicly may well differ from private conversations.
 
Powerslider said:
I thought the number in parentheses was where you ranked through the segment, but I don’t know how you could be leading after the first segment if you’re 8th fastest through the first segment.

What does the number in parentheses represent?

View attachment 188567
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That you're 8th fastest out of everyone who's on and been on the hill, but faster than the person who has the fastest completed run. It's a slightly weird system i'll agree, but the green is in relation to the guy who's at the bottom with fastest time. So lets say if 10 people have gone but rider 1 is fastest as they all crashed on sector 2-3, even if guy 1 was slow as heck in sector 1, he's still your benchmark as his completed time is quickest over the line.
 
sjturner2112 said:
This Andorra track was tough, too fast in horrible dirt conditions, really. It took out 5 of the 30 Elite men. There was discussion afterwards by Needles and team managers for maybe dialing it back somehow.
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I personally love the track as it’s just full on. Kiwis obviously love it rowdy too. NZ had 9/40 top ten places in junior woman/elite woman and junior men/elite men.

Similar happened last year. The NZ riders just love balls to the wall speed haha.
 
Weeksy said:
That you're 8th fastest out of everyone who's on and been on the hill, but faster than the person who has the fastest completed run. It's a slightly weird system i'll agree, but the green is in relation to the guy who's at the bottom with fastest time. So lets say if 10 people have gone but rider 1 is fastest as they all crashed on sector 2-3, even if guy 1 was slow as heck in sector 1, he's still your benchmark as his completed time is quickest over the line.
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I don’t understand what you’re saying.

When a rider has the quickest time through the first segment; they have to be the fastest of everyone to that point. Right? The rest of the course doesn’t matter because the rider hasn’t gotten there yet.

What metric was this rider 8th in?
 
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Powerslider said:
What metric was this rider 8th in?
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He has the fastest time of any rider to complete the course.

It's THAT riders time, not the time of the riders for segment 1. So if say
Goldstone comes down and sets the fastest time of the qualifiers, but he had a mistake on sector 1 losing 1s.... (compared to the rest) then his sector 1 time is still the time to beat... even though it's 1s off the rest.... So you can have a rider come down 0.5s up on his split, but still be 5th... as 4 others went 1s quicker in sector one than Goldstone did.

NExt race, watch the live timing and it'll honestly make sense.
 
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