olympic mtb course your view?

cooldad

Razor1548 wrote:

cooldad wrote:

So what. It's riding a childrens toy on some bumpy stuff.
Not like it's actually important or anything. Like world peace and cake.

What a silly little self important child fetishist rant.

Apart from your ability with meaningless sentences, you obviously lack any sense of irony.

paul.skibum

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I try to avoid trail centres, queing to start each trail section is not my idea of fun, I would much rather ride the Quantocks.

Eh?
I've only ever seen that happen a few times at Llandegla, and even then it's not so much a wait as a group of riders all stopping in the same area to talk sh*t.

Yeah I wouldnt say I have ever really seen queues at trail centres - you sometimes have to get people to make a hole to let you through and I dont ride n that bigger groups at trail centres either.

YeehaaMcgee

I rarely bump into anybody at most trail centres. Llandegla is a very different story, the place is so small, and has such an enormous amount of people riding that you'll inevitably end up talking nonsense with a few folk along the way.
I have heard that Cannock can be like the M6 - but i've never been there myself.

chez_m356

cooldad wrote:

Razor1548 wrote:

cooldad wrote:

So what. It's riding a childrens toy on some bumpy stuff.
Not like it's actually important or anything. Like world peace and cake.

What a silly little self important child fetishist rant.

Apart from your ability with meaningless sentences, you obviously lack any sense of irony.

maybe it was the phrase "childrens toy" that got his attention, probably disappointed that there were no pictures to help him understand better

bails87

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

I rarely bump into anybody at most trail centres. Llandegla is a very different story, the place is so small, and has such an enormous amount of people riding that you'll inevitably end up talking nonsense with a few folk along the way.
I have heard that Cannock can be like the M6 - but i've never been there myself.

I've only been to Llandegla once on a weekend, but it was busier than Cannock normally is. I went during the week a couple of years ago and it was quiet-ish, certainly not deserted, and there were more people there than I'd expect to see at Cannock at the same time.

Not that it's a problem, people generally make room for you to get through, and there's nothing wrong with stopping for an occasional chat.

edit: We clearly need a BR meetup at Hadleigh Farm when the trails are open. Everyone who's been going on about how they're better riders than the Olympic XC competitors will have to ride the trails on a 80-100mm HT.

njee20

At the same speed of course, repeatedly.

I thought it looked good, camera angles were good, the way the race played out was pretty dull, but that's par for the course. I think the technical bits look far tougher than any red sections I've ridden. But then I'm only an XC racer, not the armchair riding Gods.

cooldad

You can't be a proper one or you'd be in the Olympics.

mcnultycop

I enjoyed watching the Olympics MTB for what it was; a decent spectator event on a course where, to be honest, I'd probably taking the easier option on the rocky sections if I went to have a go.

Nick Dastardly

Here's my two penn'orth:
A few years ago I entered a couple of rounds in the Essex MTB series, purely because it was on my doorstep and I thought it'd be interesting. First thing I noticed about the courses was how much open pedally ground there was, reason being if it was ALL interesting singletrack it wouldn't make for much of a race because as I discovered it doesn't matter how quick you are through the technical sections you just get stuck behind the person in front. As long as you can hang on through the technical stuff and have the fitness to pedal away from everyone on the open bits you'll do well, XC racing is way more about fitness than technical ability (obviously being technically brilliant as well will give you an advantage!).

So yes, the course may look a bit dull in places but that's what XC racing is like. This is why I only entered a couple of rounds then went back to playing in the woods. For the record I finished somewhere in the top 1/4 of the field in my first race which I was happy with and pretty sure I was the highest placed non-lycra wearing inappropriate bike for the course rider. Liam Killeen won it and apparently has a road racing background (which proves my fitness vs technical ability point). Good luck to him today!

Red.Devil.Ghost

How the hell did a question about the Olympic MTB route turn into a bitching about trail centres and what bikes to use?

For what it's worth, I thought it looked decent and tough. It might not have been the most challenging route but I did see at least one fall on the rocky descent. You can't take anything for granted. Probably worth a go at some point though once it has been opened to the public, which I think is a really good idea.

cooldad

Red.Devil.Ghost wrote:

How the hell did a question about the Olympic MTB route turn into a bitching about trail centres and what bikes to use?

Because this is the internet and people post random sh1t. It's what it's for.

supersonic

I think the technical bits look far tougher than any red sections I've ridden.

You should try Wharncliffe Red! Not just 30m stretches of it, whole kilometres of hard rocks!

YeehaaMcgee

cooldad wrote:

Red.Devil.Ghost wrote:

How the hell did a question about the Olympic MTB route turn into a bitching about trail centres and what bikes to use?

Because this is the internet and people post random sh1t. It's what it's for.

That and the fusion of prawns and photography.
Prawnography it's called, I believe.

angry_bird

I was skeptical about the olympic MTB after all the stuff in mags recently, but... FWIW I think the track is alright, so what if it's not the most technical, muddy or natural trail there's ever been, in fact far from it, but it's definitely fit for purpose and seems a reasonable enough spectacle. I'm down on this dairy farm, convinced the farmers and other student here to watch it and they seemed to be really enjoying it, they've flicked through my mags and have seen how different it is to a lot of other types of riding but they've said it's very impressive all the same. At the end of the day it doesn't make a blind bit of difference that it's not super gnarcore or whatever, the riders are racing eachother, not hanging around the carpark or an interweb forum talking about how rad and sick their skillz are.

Also on the skills note I think it was Tracey Moseley who recently wrote about some XC stuff she'd been trying and commented on the technical skill of the XC racers being right up there, especially considering the speeds they were tackling stuff on short travel XC bikes with their saddle right up there. Doubt many people on this forum, myself included obviously, would be able to match any of these XC riders for skills or keep up with them.

Anyway, I blame Wiggle.

mcnultycop

After all that it was won on a full susser.

supersonic

And a 29er at that ;-)

But the womens on a 26er hardtail. So can't conclude anything really - well, apart from ride what suits you. But we all knew that already. Was really hoping Absalon was going to win, but DNF.

lawman

My biggest complaint of the course was that, rock sections aside, it was just too easy and manicured to perfection, I saw one section of climbing with a few roots on it that looked relatively tough. These guys and girls are the best xc riders in the world and I think it didn't really let them show off, as seen on the BMX track, which looked amazing, christ they had to modify it to make it easier for the pro's!

Imo they should have opened it up to the public and let us mortals rip the hell out of it, braking bumps, looser turns, just wear the place in and give it some character rather than trying to make it look perfect. Take the rock garden main line at hadleigh...



Compared to Houffalize in belgium of all places for the World cup round earlier this year...



Not a great picture but just look up some video footage to see how steep that track was...

I understand the argument for it being "london 2012" and keeping it close to the capital, but I think it was a poor show given what we have done for the rest of the games.

cooldad

mcnultycop wrote:

After all that it was won on a full susser.

And a Specialized at that. Thousands of Audi owners are burning their Santaibisetc5's.

lawman

cooldad wrote:

mcnultycop wrote:

After all that it was won on a full susser.

And a Specialized at that. Thousands of Audi owners are burning their Santaibisetc5's.

No, no, no, Audi drivers are far too boring to riding proper bikes... hence why they all ride specialized

cooldad

lawman wrote:

Blah blah blah whinge moan.

cooldad

lawman wrote:

cooldad wrote:

mcnultycop wrote:

After all that it was won on a full susser.

And a Specialized at that. Thousands of Audi owners are burning their Santaibisetc5's.

No, no, no, Audi drivers are far too boring to riding proper bikes... hence why they all ride specialized

Keep up. You obviously missed the memo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feQyJeJgIw8

supersonic

lawman wrote:

My biggest complaint of the course was that, rock sections aside, it was just too easy and manicured to perfection, I saw one section of climbing with a few roots on it that looked relatively tough. These guys and girls are the best xc riders in the world and I think it didn't really let them show off, as seen on the BMX track, which looked amazing, christ they had to modify it to make it easier for the pro's!

Imo they should have opened it up to the public and let us mortals rip the hell out of it, braking bumps, looser turns, just wear the place in and give it some character rather than trying to make it look perfect. Take the rock garden main line at hadleigh...



Compared to Houffalize in belgium of all places for the World cup round earlier this year...



Not a great picture but just look up some video footage to see how steep that track was...

I understand the argument for it being "london 2012" and keeping it close to the capital, but I think it was a poor show given what we have done for the rest of the games.

It needed more of the tech sections for sure. You could see how unnatural it all was - a few days of rain before hand would have been good just to cut it up a bit! More rooty bits too.

ddraver

I think the fact that its so open makes it looks easier than most courses. Usually those "wide open trails" are I'm the trees. They added more of those bits for overtaking after the test event.

Houfillaze is well known for its super gnarlcore...it is an exception on the circuit I think...

mea00csf

and from the look of that picture of the WC race, it would have been a walking race! i count 7 riders walking their bikes down there, presumably because if one person messes up/can't ride it, everyone else is stuck. The rock garden on the olympics course did have multiple lines through it, presumable to stop that happening (although other parts of the course did suffer from that.) The men were out practicing the course before the ladies race, and i saw at least a couple walking their bikes back up to try different lines through it

Thewaylander

supersonic wrote:

lawman wrote:

My biggest complaint of the course was that, rock sections aside, it was just too easy and manicured to perfection, I saw one section of climbing with a few roots on it that looked relatively tough. These guys and girls are the best xc riders in the world and I think it didn't really let them show off, as seen on the BMX track, which looked amazing, christ they had to modify it to make it easier for the pro's!

Imo they should have opened it up to the public and let us mortals rip the hell out of it, braking bumps, looser turns, just wear the place in and give it some character rather than trying to make it look perfect. Take the rock garden main line at hadleigh...



Compared to Houffalize in belgium of all places for the World cup round earlier this year...



Not a great picture but just look up some video footage to see how steep that track was...

I understand the argument for it being "london 2012" and keeping it close to the capital, but I think it was a poor show given what we have done for the rest of the games.

It needed more of the tech sections for sure. You could see how unnatural it all was - a few days of rain before hand would have been good just to cut it up a bit! More rooty bits too.

I agree on both these. but still made for some good camera work to be honest even though XC races send me to sleep

YeehaaMcgee

I enjoyed it, like any endurance race, there's a boring bit (for spectators) in the middle, but the close finish was ace.

rockmonkeysc

Why no downhill in the Olympics? I read something about it being more about the bike than the rider but that's just bollocks.
They might have to censor Rob Warners commentary for tv.

Shackster

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Why no downhill in the Olympics? I read something about it being more about the bike than the rider but that's just bollocks.
They might have to censor Rob Warners commentary for tv.

If that is the reason then what about bloody dressage ??

cooldad

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Why no downhill in the Olympics?

Because it's not an Olympic sport.

ddraver

Think the main problem with it is that there are so few places that host the games that also have a mountain near by