Nissan UCI MTB World Cup 2010 Presented By Shimano-Leogang

PB Forum :: Downhill
Nissan UCI MTB World Cup 2010 Presented By Shimano-Leogang
Author Message
flag jascha100
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:36 Quote
timlake wrote:
jascha100 wrote:
timlake wrote:
He's just boring.

Downhill = Being good at riding steep gnarly rooty rocky savage muddy shit.

Minnaar = Awesome at pedalling (which is what XC is for) and pretty good at techy shit.
Fairclough/Blinky/Hill/Reid = f*cking awesome at technical, all on flats (proper dh pedals) loose as f*ck. Awesome to watch. Proper DH riders.

To say Minnaar isn't a proper dh rider is just bs, in my opinion. Yes, he's good at pedalling but you've got to be damn fast in the more technical terrain as well to be consistently in the top 5.

Not saying he isn't. Just saying there are riders more worthy of being on the top step.

If you go to anyone,outside the sport and say you need to be really fit to ride downhill, they'll say "But you're just going down a hill, you don't need to be fit for that"

Being good at pedalling shouldn't determine who wins. In fact, there shouldn't be long pedally straights at all, that's not what people think of when you say there is a downhill race going on...

I completely agree, but there are still riders out there who are just as fit and as good at pedalling as Minnaar who aren't even in the top ten. Take Dan Atherton for example. Brilliant pedaller which is why he does well in 4x.
flag timlake
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:44 Quote
jascha100 wrote:
timlake wrote:
jascha100 wrote:


To say Minnaar isn't a proper dh rider is just bs, in my opinion. Yes, he's good at pedalling but you've got to be damn fast in the more technical terrain as well to be consistently in the top 5.

Not saying he isn't. Just saying there are riders more worthy of being on the top step.

If you go to anyone,outside the sport and say you need to be really fit to ride downhill, they'll say "But you're just going down a hill, you don't need to be fit for that"

Being good at pedalling shouldn't determine who wins. In fact, there shouldn't be long pedally straights at all, that's not what people think of when you say there is a downhill race going on...

I completely agree, but there are still riders out there who are just as fit and as good at pedalling as Minnaar who aren't even in the top ten. Take Dan Atherton for example. Brilliant pedaller which is why he does well in 4x.

Yeah, totally. I never said Minnaar can't do technical. I just said he wasn't the best or amazing at it, and he makes up for his lack of technical skill in his pedalling ability. He never really does well at Schladming, simply because there's no long pedally straights.
I have to disagree about Dan being a brilliant pedaller. I really don't think he is. There is a difference between being fit, and being a good pedaller. Greg is really strong with his pedal strokes and can get a LOT of power down. Same with Graves, however, Dan doesn't have that, but he's such a skilled handler of a bike he makes up for it. Look at him when he rides 4X. He's usually last out of the gate, but he makes up for it with the crazy lines he takes because of his skill.

I thought of the perfect example of Minnaar. Fort William WC this year. He was something like 3 seconds down at the split, after the more technical parts of the track. He then made up something like 2 seconds on the motorway. Bits of track like the motorway at Ft Bill shouldn't be there. It's not proper downhill, it's more All Mountain.
flag hillman-hunter
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:48 Quote
so by that theory tim steve is not a worthy world champ as it was won on a flat pedally course?
flag rob-k
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:49 Quote
Dan Atherton is not a good pedaller, he has the worst gates out of all of the top 10 4x racers. However he is an awesome jumped and can see quicker lines which others don't which make up for it. I'd say without Dan Gee wouldnt be as good as apparently Dan helps him pick out lines.
flag harriieee
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:50 Quote
Problem is that I don't see any proof that he won that track because of his pedalling.
flag dannydrew
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:50 Quote
in all the new affy projects, dan's training is more focused on gating, thats all that's letting him down
flag harriieee
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:52 Quote
He's doing worse this season than he was last. Halfway through and he has yet to make a final.
flag rob-k
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 9:55 Quote
on the topic of 4x does Graves not do any DH at all anymore? if so why?
flag
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 10:00 Quote
because he absolutely OWNS at 4x maybie?
flag timlake
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 10:02 Quote
hillman-hunter wrote:
so by that theory tim steve is not a worthy world champ as it was won on a flat pedally course?

Most of the course was alright. It wasn't super technical like steep and rooty technical, but it was technical in the fact you had to carry speed good. But the bottom section and the big pedal definitely wasn't world champ worthy.

I'm sure Steve will say he'd much rather have won on a track like Bromont, or Mont St Anne, or Schladming. But it happened and pedalling is a part of the sport, as much as it shouldn't be, it is.
flag rob-k
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 10:03 Quote
brownix wrote:
because he absolutely OWNS at 4x maybie?
yeah but he owned the 4x last season while still doing dh
flag
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 10:04 Quote
ah i suppose, dunno then ?
he won sea otter didnt he?
flag timlake
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 10:04 Quote
harriieee wrote:
Problem is that I don't see any proof that he won that track because of his pedalling.

I know, you can't, because there was no definitive pedally section which the splits show. Split one was at the start of the top section, and split two was after the pedally section, and then a load of technical, whereas at somewhere like Fort William you have a split just before a full on pedal fest which you can see people like Greg make up time on.
flag timlake
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 10:05 Quote
rob-k wrote:
brownix wrote:
because he absolutely OWNS at 4x maybie?
yeah but he owned the 4x last season while still doing dh

I don't think he bothers as it lowers your fitness. It's also a lot to do on the same weekend and be good at both.
flag sagetthegreat
O+
Posted: Jun 20, 2010 at 12:03 Quote
Listen, saying Minaar isn't worthy of winning is stupid....he made it down faster than everyone else....that means he won. He trains hard, and is a good all round rider. Saying that ANYONE doesn't deserve to win is extremely stupid. It really doesn't matter if theres pedalling on the course it just makes the course a little more varied and gives some riders a chance to gain back a small fraction on time they may have lost from a mistake in the tech sections.

 


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