its the new blackbox air rear shock from rock shox

no, blackbox would never let an airshock be tested on a rough course like mt. saint anne this early in its development.

its actually a cover made of plastic...
it protects from mud and debris weighing down the bike in the rear shock area....

no its not just a cover. I have more Pictures from different angles of it and you can see that there is no spring at all. Look at the stroke whith the red ring arround it. And by the way this was at the canadian open at Crankworx.

my bad... could you supply me with a link to the photos, im very curious now.

syndicate also tested this air shock at a couple rounds last season

that was only at bromont for practice... even then the shock was extremely prototype... it seems now that they are taking it serious... expect more testing over winter, sea otter, and maybe 1 of the world cups

yeah i noticed they ditched the air shock for the coil in race runs

Canyon ran it on their Projekt S5 bike at Eurobike. They have a tiny amount of info and a photo or two about it here. "The damper also delivers a performance hitherto unknown: Weighing in at just 570 grammes the damper works as sensitively as many a steel spring model would. The only bitter pill is that there is as yet no official sales launch date for the two prototype spring elements." Their translation from German to English is spotty but it's pretty easy to deduce.

thanks for the info. im plastering this stuff all over the web now! hahaha