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see doing those whips on the jumps, is that not slower? watching bronsnan there. Think he could have took the 0.8 if he never done that and went straight through the jumps? Or does it not make a difference?
There was an explainer at the start, basically you are shortening the distance by keeping lower, go straight and your going up in the air then down, hitting the backside of the jump then generates speed for the next one too, however with a hell of a tail wind just opening up might just work out best!!
Come on Frenchie!!
Great riding
Damm!! Thought Luca was going to take that one to the line there, his day will come but this season really does belong to the youngsters here
Excellent event with great riding on a good looking course with good coverage.
Second for Gwin is a big result. Pierron is on a roll now, the old saying of once you win one you will a few is coming true for him.
luca will be frothing for the next round, and with pirreon on a high it's going to be some scrap of a season. gwin still in touch. pure class
good racing this! shame for shaw there!
Loving Greenland's riding this season. If he can hold a run together he might get a win this year.
Just finished watching the replay of both Men's & Women's.
What a cracking race - Gwin's run was superb, but Pierron was on another level.
Agree that Greenland looks capable of putting a good run together and getting a few more podiums.
Gutted for Tahnee that she got disqualified.
If Pompon hadn't had that moment over the roots I think she might have taken it.
Move of the day for me though was Dakotah Norton launching out of the tunnel and landing on the wall ride - mental!
It takes commitment that, I’ve got my front wheel on it a few times, but never landed both wheels on.
You’re doing close to 40MPH there I reckon, the compression into the wall ride is unbelievable.
Move of the day for me though was Dakotah Norton launching out of the tunnel and landing on the wall ride – mental!
Yep - we were judging everyone who came after - nobody managed or wanted to do that.
In fact his whole race run was on the edge and looked super-fast. Great to watch. Might have another look.
but Pierron was on another level.
Wasn't he? I mean Leogang is tight, and everyone is milliseconds apart; but he was on the very very raggedy edge of being out of control at some points. Great stuff. Feels like a generational change
Shaping up to be a great season for both Men & Women.
I'm guessing Tahnee will be out to prove a point at the next race after the disqualification.
Men's is looking like it could go down to the wire if Gwin canount a comeback.
Sorry to dispel you guys "move of the day"
If you watch the re-run you'll see <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Brendan also jumped out of the tunnel onto the wallride. Brendan was just messing about playing with the track by the motorway after a crash early on left him 10secs and out of contention. Brendan jumped onto it with a little micro eurotable/barturn/tweak thing. What this tells me is that jumping onto the wooden feature was not the fastest or smoothest move as far as racing goes.
</span>Watch Dakota's run again carefully and you'll notice he actually hooked up/had a slight bobble in the moguls before the track enters that tunnel meaning his exit speed from the tunnel would have also been slower than optimum. Hence jumping onto the boards when the faster guys weren't. Gwin, Shaw and Pierron all got their wheels down as soon as possible leaving that tunnel for more speed immediately before the wallride.
Dak and Bren did look cooler though.
Move of the day was Blenky’s manual off the 3rd table after Stoekl woods.
Yep, Blenki has it going on this year, same with Brook. Though I'd be more worried about Shaw sticking some runs together to disrupt the Mens more than anyone, he has been on the pace for all 3 rounds so far, remembering the syndicate vids and Cairns where he was a bit worried about not getting it right!!
Jumping onto the wall ride is sooooooo last year! (And yes I saw more than one rider do it this year as well)
Danny Hart did was rocking that move last year.
40 sec in
Phil Atwill is recovering from knee surgery. Not sure he even raced the last two races.
Just seen the timed training results, not sure how many took that one seriously
12 seconds between 1st and 10th...yeah I think there might have been some cruising going on.
Did Gwin walk it?
Rain predicted at 2pm? - I expect he was angling for an early start.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/qualifying-results-val-di-sole-dh-world-cup-2018.html
Massive gaps in the qualifying there and some surprise names up there too, was there some bad weather?
Gwin out, injured his thumb again.
No Pompon either - she doesn't look like starting tomorrow.
Could be a battle between Rach and Tahnee depending on the weather!
Will have to check vital later but Rachel was 24s down in qualifying so not sure how on the pace she is.
Aye, track appears to be eating people. Could be a race of attrition.
For in depth analysis........ http://worldcup.eliotjackson.com/results/2018/Val-di-Sole
oh that has my inner geek happy!!
I think some were playing it safe and just rolling down so that they can at least race tomorrow.
Also looks like bother Rach and Tahnee had small offs on their runs.
They were both around 5 seconds quicker than Monika over 1st & 2nd splits.
looked wet on the rainfall radar
Brutal out there
Yep, seems Myriam Nichol was airlifted off, ‘just’ a badly bruised back after worries she’d broken it. With Vallnord next weekend she’ll probably miss that too.
Gwin crashed and landed on his just fixed thumb, he’s going to try to ride tomorrow, but doesn’t seem to be expecting to do much.
I will admit, whilst that’s bad for them, it massively improves my chances of a good weekend for the PB fantasy league 😉
What's happened to Miranda Miller this year? She seems to have dropped right off. Good to see Phil Atwill up there again though.
Curse of the rainbow stripes?
TBH I’d never heard of her until she won worlds last year, and whilst ‘lucky’ is very unfair in a sport where ‘to finish first, first you must finish’ is more important that most others, she won because most of her competitors crashed and she didn’t.
I may be wrong, but she considered ‘podium material’ until then was she?
She was at the edge of the top 5 really but not consistently up there, Fitness played a huge part at Cairns and it's been less technical than any of these tracks really
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/2018-vald-di-sole-world-cup-qualifying-photo-epic.html
Love Dave's pics
when's the Redbull feed on?
Girls on now
Yeah track looks good and not the usual dust bowl, Rachel smashing it once she got her clean run and see how the top 3 women get on, Don't think Rachel is nailed on for this one just yet
That was great.
That was good racing, great to watch.
Awesome and great to see some new faces mixing it up there
Dammit, missed it.
So who is going to take this one? Lots of mixing it up there, quali in the wet has given us a funny starting order but some solid runs so far
Not sure I'd bet against Pierron. It's good that there are so many of them who could feasibly take a win at the moment.
AHHHH Super Bruni man that was a blinder
What a run that was, nothing left up there by Greenland!!
That was a fun run to watch!
Greenland was class
That was exciting too. This is a quality race weekend.
Shame for Greenland, thought he had it there.
I think we have out overall winner there!! Hard luck for Shaw & Greenland there, they are just waiting to win one there!!
Pireeon has found his mojo, future world champ and overall title holder there.
good to see that Reece Wilson's 4th at Ft William wasn't a fluke, gutted for Greenland, but got to say Pieirron is on Fire at the minute, but overall is still wide open Greenland only a win behind
Watched this last night, best race of the season so far. Bruni was putting down a stormer until his front wheel washed out. Greenland looked so balls out on his run it looks amazing, on the edge all the way down. Hart on the other hand looked a lot more composed and I thought he was going to do it but he launched the drop and maybe overcooked it into the last couple of turns to take third just behind Laurie. Then Pierron nailed it all the way down with creative line choices and amazing composure for the last man down to take the win in a great run. Looks like the steeper and more technical it gets the better us Brits do though.
Can't wait for Andorra.
Greenland looked great this weekend. Unless I've failed with the google, current standings have him in 2nd overall?
Memory like a sieve here but I don't recall seeing him being on the live feed from the last 3 rounds - is this the protected rider rules screwing him out of TV time?
https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/news/FINAL-RESULTS-Val-di-Sole-World-Cup-Downhill,1173
Consistency rather than wins rewarded obviously, as Brosnan is 3rd only a few points behind him.
I know it's hard when you're out on track with the adrenaline pumping but I think Bruni needs to back off a few % and get to the bottom without crashing a bit more, he'd be right up there then.
It's good having a bit of a shake up with lots of younger guys coming through, Greenland has to win soon. Pierron reminds me of Ratboy a couple years ago when he got his mojo going with a few wins then was unstoppable.
Hopefully Gwinn will get back to 100% soon and with Minaar and Moir possibly back for the next one it should be interesting.
Hopefully Gwinn will get back to 100% soon and with Minaar and Moir possibly back for the next one it should be interesting.
I think Gwinn might have pushed too hard to try and get back, sounded like he was going to miss Mt St Anne too if he doesn't recover which would have him trying to come back for Worlds, Greg having the warm up of 2 races before that could work for him
Memory like a sieve here but I don’t recall seeing him being on the live feed from the last 3 rounds
He was on the Red bull feed, he's one of the riders I make a point of looking out for as he's in my fantasy DH team.
Dude needs a better PR manager. He must be the top guy at Mondy (obviously he is currently based on results) but there's little press coverage about him. Last year Danny had loads, PB bike checks, interviews, lots of chat about him from Rob and Claudio.
Watched Bens preview this morning - that track looks brutal and steep!
Should make for some great racing this weekend.
Hopefully laurie and Danny can carry the momentum forward from last weekend.
Here's the current standings:
ELITE MEN
1st /// Amaury PIERRON // FRA // 753 // No change
2nd // Laurie GREENLAND // GBR // 491 // -262 // Moves up from 5th
3rd // Troy BROSNAN // AUS // 488 // -265 // No change
4th // Aaron GWIN // USA // 481 // -272 // Moves down from 2nd
5th // Danny HART // GBR // 451 // -302 // Moves up from 8th
6th // Luca SHAW // USA // 448 // -305 // Moves up from 7th
7th // Loris VERGIER // FRA // 439 // -314 // Moves down from 4th
8th // Samuel BLENKINSOP // NZL // 357 // -396 // Moves down from 6th
9th // Brook MACDONALD // NZL // 327 // -426 // Moves up from 9th
10th // Mark WALLACE // CAN // 277 // -476 // New to top 10
ELITE WOMEN
1st // Rachel ATHERTON // GBR // 776 // Moves up from 2nd
2nd // Tahnée SEAGRAVE // GBR // 676 // -100 // Moves up from 3rd
3rd // Myriam NICOLE // FRA // 610 // -166 // Moves down from 1st
4th // Tracey HANNAH // AUS // 560 // -216 // No change
5th // Monika HRASTNIK // SLO // 496 // -280 // Moves up from 7th
6th // Emilie SIEGENTHALER // SUI // 426 // -350 // No change
7th // Marine CABIROU // FRA // 401 // -375 // Moves down from 5th
8th // Katy CURD // GBR // 289 // -487 // No change
9th // Veronika WILDMANN // ITA // 274 // -502 // New to top 10
10th // Mariana SALAZAR // 252 // -524 // No change
Two of the best dh courses on the circuit back to back within a week of each other. Can't beat it. Amaury is on a flyer atm , respect to him.
The track IS brutal and steep - I rode it back in 2013 after some heavy rain and spent a lot of time sliding down it on my arse. I consider myself reasonably handy on a bike but the lower section was not in my skill set.
I'm hoping that Shaw can break his duck this weekend, the kid deserves it for the way his season has gone so far. Greenland too goes about his thing really well and seems to be a genuinely nice bloke
Due another winner in the womens this week too
Brendog and an unedited timed training.....man, does that course look brutal or what....
Best rider course preview I've seen. The random yelps of Claudio are amusing but a thoughtful analysis of the track from Gee is much more interesting to me. Amazed he could talk coherently the entire way down, and barely be out of breath.
Is it just me or does that look by far the most brutal course?
I think the riders all have Val Di Sole as the most brutal, this is steep though
Aye it's the steepness in particular I'm talking about. Guess that's just yer perspective, I don't mind rocky, steepness i shit myself at though! And that looks nuts to me!
The second part in the woods after the house sized jumps is crazy steep. I "rode" it in 2015, and honestly it's the most ridiculous thing I've tried to ride on a bike. I had my brakes on for most of it and it was still a case of slowing the rate of acceleration rather than actually slowing down at all. When I wanted to stop (often to have a good cry) it was a case of slowing down enough to lay the bike on the ground and have a sort of controlled crash...
mad mad mad.
I thought that Gee's commentary was good too. That track looks somewhat difficult...
Quali results:
Elite Men
1st. SHAW Luca 4:09.363
2nd. HART Danny 4:11.926 +2.563
3rd. GREENLAND Laurie 4:11.932 +2.569
4th. MACDONALD Brook 4:13.122 +3.759
5th. ESTAQUE Thomas 4:13.626 +4.263
Elite Women
1st. ATHERTON Rachel 04:52.932
2nd. HANNAH Tracey 05:05.645 +12.713
3rd. SEAGRAVE Tahnee 05:06.526 +13.594
4th. SIEGENTHALER Emilie 05:10.556 +17.624
5th. RAVANEL Cécile 05:14.927 +21.995
Junior Men
1st. KERR Henry 4:25.320
2nd. DAPRELA Thibaut 4:27.584 +2.264
3rd. EDWARDS Kade 4:30.377 +5.057
4th. SAURER Elia 4:33.104 +7.784
5th. EDMONDSON Jamie 4:33.683 +8.363
Junior Women
1st. HOLL Valentina 5:17.449
2nd. NEWKIRK Anna 5:40.879 +23.430
3rd. JOHNSET Mille 5:50.973 +33.524
4th. ZIBASA Paula 5:56.425 +38.976
5th. SORIANO Samantha 6:20.809 +1:03.360
Vali Holl 23.4 seconds faster!! that's mental, surely she'll be stepping up to Elite soon? That would have put here 7th!!
Vali Holl 23.4 seconds faster!! that’s mental, surely she’ll be stepping up to Elite soon? That would have put here 7th!!
I think she's better off in juniors winning titles, building her reputation and sponsorships and then making the move up. She will get more coverage doing that than coming in 7th place in elite.