commonwealth games mtb

poah

njee20 wrote:

Says the man making 'jokes' about the riders sexuality. Hi-fucking-larious.

its no joke

felix.london

POAH wrote:

felix.london wrote:

POAH wrote:

felix.london wrote:

true dat

A good look you see over here at this time of year is the XC hardtail rider with full lycra plus body armour...classy stuff I tell ya

nothing wrong with people wanting to protect themselves

erm, thanks for that, don't know where we'd be without your insight.

yet you seem to think its funny

If you think there's nothing wrong/funny/weird/sick/twisted/just-plain-wrong with wearing body armour over full XC/Roadie lycra getup in an alpine bike park then you have issues

Ferrals

What, you don't want to look like a teenage mutant ninga turtle?

VWsurfbum

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Only reason to watch the MTB event is Emily Batty.

Dammit i've missed her again back to my stalking of her on Facebook

poah

felix.london wrote:

If you think there's nothing wrong/funny/weird/sick/twisted/just-plain-wrong with wearing body armour over full XC/Roadie lycra getup in an alpine bike park then you have issues

nope, not a thing - I've got nothing against gay 29ers either

rockmonkeysc

njee20 wrote:

But the good ones are also a shoot load quicker than anyone on here down hills as well as up!

Very true. I have followed an xc racer at speeds that wouldn't have been out of place in a DH race except he was on a 29er carbon hardtail with narrow bars and a fully raised saddle and skinny tyres.
I guess racers need to be fast everywhere including the descents although I do know a few roadies who race xc and are crap at anything technical.
The only thing I have never seen from an xc racer is any sort of style over jumps.

cooldad

No points for style, and floating is slower than pedalling.

Lewis A

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The only thing I have never seen from an xc racer is any sort of style over jumps.

Not bad http://m.bikeradar.com/videos/team-gb-olympic-mtb-hopefuls-tear-up-lee-quarry-w7g0oZk7f9oYy

rockmonkeysc

Lewis A wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The only thing I have never seen from an xc racer is any sort of style over jumps.

Not bad http://m.bikeradar.com/videos/team-gb-olympic-mtb-hopefuls-tear-up-lee-quarry-w7g0oZk7f9oYy

Well ridden but zero style.
You can put a bit of style in to jumps without loosing any time otherwise you wouldn't see riders doing it in DH world cup races where every hundredth of a second counts.
My race runs have zero style because I'm paranoid about messing up and crashing :?

njee20

In the World Cup (whilst winning):



Also from WC races:





Kenta Gallagher and Grant Ferguson:

rockmonkeysc

Why are they looking at the floor?

This is style

njee20

Because the cameras aren't really set up for that sort of thing, and you have to be rather more careful where you put a 17lb bike with some 1000g wheels down!

Ferrals

Also having an xc race height saddle makes tweaking things for extra style points a bit harder too!

The Northern Monkey

Should get a dropper post then...

njee20

I'm not convinced that ease of style for jumps is a key priority...

paul.skibum

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Lewis A wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The only thing I have never seen from an xc racer is any sort of style over jumps.

Not bad [url]<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://m.bikeradar.com/videos/team-gb-olympic-mtb-hopefuls-tear-up-lee-quarry-w7g0oZk7f9oYy</span>[/url]

Well ridden but zero style.
You can put a bit of style in to jumps without loosing any time otherwise you wouldn't see riders doing it in DH world cup races where every hundredth of a second counts.
My race runs have zero style because I'm paranoid about messing up and crashing :?

Air time is significantly lower in xc racing to throw around style not to mention you never see the winners styling it up in their race runs in dh (a small whip in a scrubbed is more a factor of the forces and speed than style) - even Hart and Fairclough leave it out when they are in with a chance of a win. Everyone has this same ridiculous argument and its getting almost as bad as pinkbike on here with all the homophobia and ridiculous "your not hardcore because you ride xc".

You can lose a xc race on the downs but in all likelihood you wont win it on a downhill so some racers have a focus on the fitness and cant ride the tech - fair enough, probably still puts them in top 20 and keeps their sponsors happy, in the TdF they talked about a couple of the riders bike handling skills and how they crossed over from mtb to road which gave them an advantage on descents especially in the wet.

rockmonkeysc

paul.skibum wrote:

Air time is significantly lower in xc racing to throw around style not to mention you never see the winners styling it up in their race runs in dh (a small whip in a scrubbed is more a factor of the forces and speed than style) - even Hart and Fairclough leave it out when they are in with a chance of a win.

Have you never seen Hart's world champs winning run with the HUGE moto whip near the end?
When was Fairclough last even close to the vague possibility of getting somewhere close to a win?

njee20

in the TdF they talked about a couple of the riders bike handling skills and how they crossed over from mtb to road which gave them an advantage on descents especially in the wet.

Sadly, like so much of the commentary, that's utter bollocks! Descending on a road bike at speed isn't really the same as an MTB at all, Cadel Evans and Michael Rasmussen were both mountain bikers and shit road descenders. Admittedly Cadel got better, but generally there's little correlation there at all. Sagan being a notable exception.

Generally you won't win an elite XC race (at national/international level) without being a handy descender, that's not to say there aren't a lot of people lower down the ranks whose skills leave something to be desired. Less scope to do well if you can't descend these days though, courses are getting significantly more technical, even at a regional level.

Have you never seen Hart's world champs winning run with the HUGE moto whip near the end?

Comparably an easier move than Schurter's whip whilst leading the WC potentially, but yes, that was the one which jumped to my mind. One rider, several years ago, they're not exactly going big for the cameras as per your requests on every run are they?

Ferrals

paul.skibum wrote:

"your not hardcore because you ride xc".

which is f-ing ridiculous, which is more hard core - going as fast as you can for about 5 minutes while dressed up in full length clothing, body armour and full face helmet down a course on your own when even the obstacles have been padded up or going as fast as you can for an hour and a half while deliberately wearing as skimpy, non-protective clothes as possible while 40 other people do the same thing and try and cut you up the whole time

nothing wrong with a bit of banter - I can't really believe anyone really dislikes xc as it's where pretty much everyone will have started and as many people don't have racing ambitions its what they are doing, no matter if they dress like skaters and massage their egos by calling it trail riding or 'all mountain'

njee20

while 160 other people do the same thing and try and cut you up the whole time

FTFY, half of a world cup field are just there for the experience, the starts are utter carnage if you're at the back! Not a cat in hell's chance!

Ferrals

for those that didnt watch, I just came across this short 'highlights' vid http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth-games/28546907

primarily crashes which should make you xc haters happy

The Rookie

Put simply, if you don't like it, dont' watch it.

The Olympic XC race was a bit tedious, this was not, certainly better to watch than the downhill where I get massively put off by the frankly childish faux over enthusiasm of the 'commentators', (if it's exiting, you won't need to tell us will you!).

XC racing now is more technical and a fast rider with poor technique on the technical sections won't do well anymore, 'speed is nothing without control' as the advert went, there are enough fast riders with good technique now.

That said I though St Mary's drop was ill thought out, the 'chicken' line was no slower than the 'fast but technical' line due to the braking they had to use for the turn in at the top and the middle line was so rough at the top no-one used it through all the laps in both races.

njee20

The Rookie wrote:

That said I though St Mary's drop was ill thought out, the 'chicken' line was no slower than the 'fast but technical' line due to the braking they had to use for the turn in at the top and the middle line was so rough at the top no-one used it through all the laps in both races.

Yes I thought that, should have had the rough line on the outside.

poah

Ferrals wrote:

paul.skibum wrote:

"your not hardcore because you ride xc".

which is f-ing ridiculous, which is more hard core - going as fast as you can for about 5 minutes while dressed up in full length clothing, body armour and full face helmet down a course on your own when even the obstacles have been padded up or going as fast as you can for an hour and a half while deliberately wearing as skimpy, non-protective clothes as possible while 40 other people do the same thing and try and cut you up the whole time

the physical atributes are totally different. it would be like comparing a sprinter to a distance runner. I personally get bored with watching DH after a while the same as XC - once you've seen one lap/run they are all the same. Same goes for the endless videos on pinkbike, one whip and jump as whistler is the same as the next.

The Rookie

njee20 wrote:

Yes I thought that, should have had the rough line on the outside.

Glad it's not just me! In fact on the last two laps you could see Plaxton lock his rear wheel trying to turn into the technical line, it would have been better with a straight approach to the tech line and the a turn away for the chicken line.

As for endless stuff at Whistler, the crashes is where it's at, especially the 'Look at how good I am......NOT'" videos....

rockmonkeysc

I certainly don't think xc racers aren't technically as good as DH racers. The courses arent as extreme for xc races but the bikes are much less stable, not as strong and the riders aren't as protected so it takes a much smoother style to get through it fast but safe. I'm sure the top riders are holding nothing back on the descents.
Similarly, a lot of people think of dh racers as unfit and overly protected. Most top racers have nothing more than knee pads and helmet, they are hitting 40mp+ on most world cup tracks so the risk of serious injury is pretty high.
Top level DH racers are also extremely fit. The races may be short but it's an all out sprint on a heavy bike that doesn't pedal well, when they aren't pedalling they are fighting through a rock garden. One well known retired racer told me that no matter how short the track, if I have anything left in me at the end of a race run and I don't feel like I'm about to puke as I cross the line then I haven't ridden hard enough and wasted my race run.

WindyG

I think this course was much better than the Hadleigh Farm Olympic course, far more interesting but I think the camera work was a lot better less of the trying to make it look good and more of the actual action going on. I didn't get St Mary's drop either it looked much better to carry the speed around the outside than have to slow up for that inside line, the dual slalom section looked fun but some of the short climbs were testing them.

rockmonkeysc

The Olympic mtb track looked like it was built by Sustrans as a family cycle path.

njee20

It looked a lot less technical than Hadleigh, I didn't race the nat champs there last year, but some friends said it felt like a big BMX course (some saying that in a good way, some in a bad). Not sure if I thought it looked better or worse to be honest! Hadleigh feels very artificial, ride along a crushed gravel path, then over a big rock they've stuck in the way, gravel, rock, gravel, drop, gravel, rock. Finish. Cathkin looks a little more bedded in. There's no flow to Hadleigh at all. I personally didn't enjoy it, but that's partially because I'm one of the ones who can't ride down hills.

Most top racers have nothing more than knee pads and helmet, they are hitting 40mp+ on most world cup tracks so the risk of serious injury is pretty high.

Absolutely, I'd have said the risk of serious injury probably goes DH -> Road -> XC frankly! You're right it's a very different sort of fitness. A friend did a charity type ride thing with Steve Peat a few years ago, and he was making a big play of stuffing his face with cake and general crap, and being really really bad at riding up hills, but he doesn't train to ride up hills, so partially expected! Friend was a little surprised at how bad he was though!

rockmonkeysc

Thats surprising, Steve Peat is a machine on the cranks.
A few DH racers have changed over to #enduro and are doing very well.
There have been xc racers who have moved over to DH and gone straight in to the top level.