DH World Cup thread

RustyMTB said:
That I think is partly human nature, why should we pay for what was free? & partly people seeing that the product did not improve to justify the price when it changed hands. In fact the opposite happened as the format was tinkered with, reducing the experience. And we lost Warner in the process who was synonymous with it to fans.
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BEcause it was never really 'free' ... it was sponsored covering the cost... which to the end user of course WAS free... but also, not quite.
I think the theory was that the WBD money from subsciptions would trickle and come into the riders pockets etc... but that didn't/hasn't panned out i think.
The Warner vs Ric thing, well for me Warner was great, but when you listen back, he wasn't that much more clued up at times than Ric is. Ric seems to have good knowledge of historicial results etc, but maybe not the close knowledge of riders, which is where someone like Wyn jumping in with Ric would be golden... Although i rekon Wyn would kill Ric within 10 mins.
A lot gets made of the commentary thing, but me and the boy actually laugh a lot with it. This weekend was great when Luca Shaw came down
"coming from California he'll be used to the dry dusty conditions"
We're thinking "so in Australia, Morzine, Spain, Mexico it's never dry and dusty ? Not to mention the fact he's spent the last 15 years racing in Europe :) but the fact it's dry in California means he'll go well :D
 
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I always find it funny people who watch on Tiz or other free sites or those that refuse to pay for the sport are often the ones who wonder why the athletes don’t get paid more.

Kinda goes hand in hand IMO. Keeping in mind as has been mentioned we follow a VERY niche sport.
 
Free to air in return for Red Bull plastered everywhere was ok by me. Warner I sorely miss, I couldn't give a shiny shite about a given rider's national results going back ten years, I want to be entertained, to have someone ratchet up the tension as the race unfolds. No one beats Warner for that.

RM is like listening to someone reading the phone book to me with an irritating habit of adding the region every time the venue is mentioned.
 
I think there is some synergy there with a potential sponsored rider.

Imagine having Finn Iles on the Lidl team. He could bring the weekly specials to the pit set up. Welder anyone, or an automated golf ball cleaner, or how about an unbranded hedge trimmer. He’d be known as Finn Middle-Aisles.
 
RustyMTB said:
Yep & we loop back to the question on why it can't gain a foothold with the public.
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The racing itself is good sport, but WCDH deserves better television production. I've talked about the piss poor coverage of the runs, but they also need to provide more backstory and context on the athletes and teams themselves. Otherwise to the uninitiated, the sport can just look like some random person riding a bike down a hill.
 
Wakey wakey, hands off your snakey. As Leogang hoves into view, time to dust off your teams & after Loudenvielle, there's plenty of dust about.

Remember, Loic, Tahnee & Lou Ferguson are out & the race is more open than ever, it's all to play for, one decent set of picks will easily catapult anyone up the league.
 
Well I cant get any worse?
Fail Hold On GIF by Robert E Blackmon
 
Weeksy said:
it's so so tough at the moment to pick riders... You can easily argue a case for about 10 males and any of them could not even get down
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ozzybmx said:
Here now at the first round, it could be anyone's but I'm saying that the pricing for round 1 is very generous and most people can pick 5-6 riders they think have a chance, rather than last years pricing where it was 3 good chances and 3 outsiders.
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As I said on round one, it was a smorgasbord of cheap riders, its getting harder and will get even harder.

Even the good chances are hard to pick.

The first 2 rounds were difficult tracks, it will taper off to the good riders now.
 
Obvious choice at Leogang is to plump for the park rats I.e. bet the farm on Jackson & Gracie. And yes I do remember the final corner in 2024.:eek:
 
Yeah, I think it looks more careless than it actually was. Rough crash though, about as fast as it gets on that track.
You can see the other guy on the left, looks like he binned it, went off the side of the track & his bike cartwheeled down the trail.

Untitled.webp
 
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BTW Warner is livestreaming a commentary on Youtube during the races. Just like the old days. And by old days I mean Freecaster, since there's no bosses to tell him to wind his neck in.
 
Trek-Rail-eBike said:
The first crash happened 5 seconds before Troy arrived and hit the bike 💡
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Seems delinquent on the part of the organizers to me. Even the smallest (automotive) track day event employs corner workers to flag people when there's an issue. How is the pinnacle of mountain bike competition so lacking safety?

HPDE in my old F30 on Thunderbolt track at NJ Motorsport Park
IMG_3979.webp
 
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