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who made Cedric look like an expert. Neil was sooooo dull.
we've had years of being spoilt with commentary though, why don't they get this? how do some of them stay in a job? Carlton Kirby for instance, jesus christ
Pheebs 5th in women's will only get stronger. Top lass too.
I quite liked Neil commentating, definitely prefer him to Cedric.
Got to say I found the whole thing a bit boring, I think due to the camera angles and a fairly sanitised track. Thought the head on shot into the woods looked fast, then into the techy rock hop but missed the brutal rock smashing on a dh bike up top. Then the tedium of the worlds best bike riders doing some average (to them) sized tabletops. But then that appears to be where the style of tracks are heading
Sat in campsite taking it all in on a massive come down.
The jumps are still massive. The track is anything but sanitised. There was absolutely nothing tedious about it at all.
The work on the track was genius - they made corners that allowed the riders to really push and pressure into them, meaning they hit the brutal straights and rock gardens faster. Atmosphere at in the arena this afternoon was electric.
Camera work left a bit to be desired. I understand the earlier riders are going at 1 minute gaps so you don’t get to see it all, but why just show the motorway? Almost impossible to make up significant time there so it is only exciting when the rider is within a second of the current winning time. Which is probably 10-20% of the time.
loads of riders lost 10-20 seconds between splits one and two, which we never really got to see even on the later riders getting 3 mins of coverage.
also, we got to see Greg and Finn and a few others nursing a broken bike down. If there was ever a time to cut to the next rider and give them more air time, it’s this.
on the plus side, is Andy Kolb the nicest guy in professional sports? I just want to be his friend, he’s awesome.
I quite enjoyed it, looked like a mixed and challenging track too, more enjoyable to watch than some tracks of the past for me, although missing somewhat on the commentary front at the moment!
And for the first time in her life, my 80 year old mum watched a full sporting event and really enjoyed it. She flicked onto it whilst channel hopping, got gripped by it then watched it all. It was quite funny getting her excited WhatsApp commentary throughout the race 🙂
Just watching the replay now we're home from the actual race. Ric McLaughlin commentates with all the excitement of a man commentating on lawn bowls. Warner would simply have been much better covering today's race and all the incidents. I did like his coverage of the EWS in prior years but he's not cut out for the commentary box.
Got to say I found the whole thing a bit boring
it's a long long old track though, the longest on the circuit, and since it was introduced, the game has changed, and you cannot film every second of every run unless you set riders off at 4/5 minutes apart, which isn't logistical, nor would you want to watch 45 or so 5 minute runs and again the logistics of filming every second, doesn't work
but the length makes it attritional, which is what makes it what it is, the difference to nailing everything for 3 minutes compared to half again is massive, so props to the riders,
we had a massive weather event in the middle, historically lots and lots of times we would have had the early guys win, but that didn't happen, we got crashes and time made up/lost who knows where and the front end showed how better they are compared to the backend, even with the weather
I thought it was great, but again, we've been spoilt with the passion Rob brought to the commentating, so they need to take that onboard
Funny, if I have the telly on and the whole thing is a bit boring, I just watch, or do, something else. 🤷🏻
Not long back , I really enjoyed it to be honest . I liked the changes to the course and If you thought it was sanitised look at the times they weren't the fastest ever down Fort William . All in all a great weekend and great result , the whole event wqs really well organised and It was my first time at the wildcamp which was brilliant. The weather was typically highland and I've never felt so cold and soaked watching the final 10 .
Vali Holl looked like the only women who's ever ridden a DH bike before. The rest looked scared, knackered, lost on the way to the xc race etc.
Withdrawn, arguing with idiots and all that.
I saw your reply and it was a perfectly predictable STW hand wringer.
It doesn't change the fact that's there's fewer than 5 competitive female DH riders on the planet and they're never all racing at the same time.
Was there the last two days - great racing and I thought the course was still ok (though I admit I've not watched FW live before so what do I know).
I would say that there were sections where it was only the speed that created a challenge, unlike say, val Di sole where I couldn't imagine riding pretty much any of it. If that's what people "miss" then fair enough.
The shuttle buses, though, were a ****ing shambles. I know there's a lot of folk to shift but the organisation was woeful. We queued for about 90 minutes and I'd not go back, just because of that - moot point if they're really stopping anyway.
We were up today and a cracking day out it was (though Mrs Kenny wasn't too impressed with slipping and sliding through the mud). Brilliant racing throughout and if the bike handling skills looked good on telly, they looked ten times better from a few feet away.
Tough on the latter half of the men as the weather deteriorated but that's sport I guess. Good to see none of them complained about it though, and great to see a home winner.
Oh and a big thank you to all the various organisers, volunteers, marshals, bus drivers etc etc, and not forgetting the folk making the delicious pizza.
Can't wait now for the road race tomorrow.
PS a classic Scottish "summer" day where the thing that chased away the midges was a shower of hail stones!
It doesn’t change the fact that’s there’s fewer than 5 competitive female DH riders on the planet and they’re never all racing at the same time.
Discussed this at the event whilst comparing elite women to junior men. Realised that it's quite a unique sport in some ways - the women don't race on a course 3/5th the length, or ride lighter bikes, or have smaller jumps. Yes, the field is small, but they would absolutely destroy any one of us down those hills.
Late watching the replay. Quite insane that riders 9 to 6 on start list all stacked? I think. Williams, Kerr, Daprella, Isles...
Really enjoyed it. Thought Donaghue was brilliant as co commentator. Really enjoyed all of it to be honest, exactly the usual Fort Bill race i'd expect
Vali Holl looked like the only women who’s ever ridden a DH bike before. The rest looked scared, knackered, lost on the way to the xc race etc.
I would suggest it's unlikely to be scared and/or knackered and finish within a handful of seconds of Holl.
It was our first time to watch DH and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The best bit about being here, apart from the atmosphere, was seeing how the riders move about their bikes, and how they work with and react to the terrain. There's a level of detail that you just don't get on the TV and it was thrilling. I would definitely come back.
Just caught up on GCN and read the thread.. some thoughts:
Worked on the crew for the event with Rare Management over 10 years, it's a good team and sad to hear they are letting the event go. Mike, Lesley and everyone work really hard for the sport.
Didn't look like a load of spectators compared to previous years but I guess its still a long way and other events will take people away.
Also IMHO a shame if its true that the TV defines 3 minute runs so the Fort Bill course at 5mins, is out. The venue regularly comes up voted as best on the circuit for the year from riders... quite sad.
Rob, oh Rob and Claudio... where are you.
Bring back Rob
Bring back Robbull.
Boardman seems a bit clueless considering he owns a brand, nobody was expecting Claire balding to know anything other than her notes but Boardman was coming out with some rubbish, nobody is running 20 psi at fort William Chris, those birds eye view shots could be zoomed in a bit or not lingered so long, it was a bit like watching on ant roaming around on a paving stone.
<p>No fort William in 2024?</p><p>to those who haven’t been the footage makes it look a lot flatter. Loads of sections you could barely walk…</p>
I thought the footage from about the wallride down just looked pretty poor overall for this event, the track there looked slow and sticky even if it probably wasn't that slow going by the times, and the motorway as ever just pretty much splits everyone into "makes it look easy" or "kinda looks like an idiot", it's only really the commute to the car park after all.
Course, it's way easier to get a camera crew into those sections as you can drive up from the bottom in a van all the way to the big doon, and the long straight bits are ideal if you want to keep people in shot/do longer shots, and it's much less exposed (though there you swap wind and rain for midges...) Basically you get a lot of ease and a lot of reliability, you don't have to worry about "what if it's really dark in here" or "what if the lines change so much that this camera position sucks" and you probably have to stress less if you have camera operators that are less experienced with dh racing. And some people do love to see the jumps and get the feeling of speed of course so it's not a better/worse thing, I think that we on here probably would rather see tech over that but we're what percentage of the audience?
Skip-watched the highlights to see the best runs. Not sure about the BBC commentary, did Minaar have a bet to get the phrase 'that's all she wrote' in as often as possible?
Great race, was glad to hear Donny was on the commentary at the start and his insight was great but really missed Warner's enthusiasm. Didn't feel like either of them got that exited as the race unfolded, real lack of atmosphere towards the end of the race when it should have been ramping up.
Nice to see a proper finish arch again.
Really didn't miss semi finals.
Also, was there sound effects added to the audio of the bikes on the motorway or were there got new mics or something? There didn't seem to be any freehub noise but every time a bike landed one of the jumps there seemed to be the same quite loud thud/crunch sound - really odd.
TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTRFull Member
Bring back Rob
Easy to say but remember Rob was offered the job by GCN but chose not to take it. That’s fair enough, it’s his decision, but to suggest there is an option for Rob to be back simply doesn’t exist at the moment as he doesn’t want to do it.
Easy to say but remember Rob was offered the job by GCN but chose not to take it. That’s fair enough, it’s his decision, but to suggest there is an option for Rob to be back simply doesn’t exist at the moment as he doesn’t want to do it.
I don't understand how so many people are missing this. It's not like Warner is sitting there saying "it's unfair, i want the other job back".... He's moved on, everyone else needs to.
Also, was there sound effects added to the audio of the bikes on the motorway or were there got new mics or something? There didn’t seem to be any freehub noise but every time a bike landed one of the jumps there seemed to be the same quite loud thud/crunch sound – really odd.
I noticed that as well. I thought they had put some mics near the jumps but it sounded weird.
Then I watched the PinkBike Story of the Race and Ben Cathro said it was a sound effect added by the producers.
Why, I have no idea.
I noticed that as well. I thought they had put some mics near the jumps but it sounded weird.
Then I watched the PinkBike Story of the Race and Ben Cathro said it was a sound effect added by the producers.
Why, I have no idea.
Glad it wasn't just me, I've an idea even Ric commented on the fact one of the bikes sounded like it needed a bolt check at the bottom after the noise it made on the motorway section... but you'd have thought they'd have been informed of the piped in noise if so. Bizarre.
Late watching the replay. Quite insane that riders 9 to 6 on start list all stacked? I think. Williams, Kerr, Daprella, Isles…
Really enjoyed it. Thought Donaghue was brilliant as co commentator. Really enjoyed all of it to be honest, exactly the usual Fort Bill race i’d expect
Not sure it's that insane? the riders in the hot seat had come down in better conditions meaning the better seeded had to take more risks in the unknown and predictably crashed. It's quite insane that Charlie Hatton, Kold and Greenland made it through!
Then I watched the PinkBike Story of the Race and Ben Cathro said it was a sound effect added by the producers.
Why, I have no idea.
Someone must have thought the dubbed on sound effects in the TdF are cool (church bells, cows, horses, helicopters). I think it's naff. Also those drone shots along the motorway seem to have had some "production" added to make them look like a computer game (or maybe that's just my telly).