REPLAY: UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Hafjell

 Well that doesn't seem fair to say of the other riders... going fast down anything that greasy requires you to feel like you want to do well and you want to go as fast as possible within your confidence. Hell all of those guys put in a lot of time/effort and money into being there.

 no doubt, scott-townes, but i agree with jarvyoliva, he just put that extra effort and focus into every bit of that course. is it just accepted to put a tail whip into such an important race where mere seconds are so crucial. seems like a lack of focus when they try to style the hits and not focus more on putting the petal's down.

 How many riders would you have considered to blown their runs because they threw a whip down? Do you have any idea of how little that affects a run compared to the basics of hitting every line clean in such absurd conditions?

I think you guys have little to no clue as to what it takes to be even qualified for the finals at these events. Imagine the fastest guy at your local DH races and now imagine that he has no chance to qualify for finals at a WC DH race... yeah, it's that insane.

They're the fastest IN THE WORLD. The top 50 guys have these runs memorized and studied, more studying than what you could ever contemplate for anything you've raced before, with the best gear and training that again, you could never imagine. Underestimate it if you will because at the end of the day, ignorance is bliss because even a "slow" run that you perceive would probably dominate your local race by 5-10+ seconds.

My point being that there's a lot to this that you obviously don't understand if you cite people throwing whips down as not taking a run seriously in ridiculously wet conditions.

 First off tail whip is a slopestyle trick in which the frame of the bike performs a complete rotation around the front end (bars and forks), which remains stationary throughout the movement. A tailwhip is not physically possibly to perform on a dual crown type fork which every single rider would have been using for this course, you must be thinking of Moto Whips. Secondly you might be confusing whips with scrubs. A scrub is a manouver where you go off the take off at an angle to minimize airtime and increase speed, very different from a whip where you try to get as sideways as possible and look streeze. Since you are going off the take off at an angle the back end naturally swings out in a scrub.

 Racers win because they want it! They give all they have so they can be number 1. I am sure we all have a story of when we gave it all we have inside and won. Look at how Stevie is riding compared to the others. Look at Gee. These guys want it and you can see it when they ride. Its up to the person on the machine. Criticism is good for all. I respect every rider on the circuit for what they do, but I will respect them more for what they have accomplished because it shows how much they love it and how bad they want it. .