Leogang Course Walk and Pits - UCI World Championships 2012
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 Not a man to be taken lightly... Claudio Calouri, the Scott 11 team manager, runs the team, has a trail building company, and competes in the Redbull Crashed Iced competitions. Oh, and when he's down to only two riders representing his team (and the sponsors) at World Champs, he goes to the Swiss Nationals, races, places high enough to make the Swiss Team selection, and pins on a number. Hell yeah! |
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| Whistler may have a "Top of the World" Trail, but this is the top of the world for Downhill racing this week: the start shack at Leogang. |
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| Motley Crew on the track (L-R): George Brannigan, Steve Smith, Kyle Sangers, Luke Strobel, Brook Macdonald (hiding in front of Strobel), and Mitch Delfs. |
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| Ah, bike park berms. Not sure why Steve Smith looks concerned here - he's got a helluva track record as of late on bike park courses. |
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| The berms in the opening section of the track have been groomed out for the World Champs; but that dirt's moist and has a lot of clay to it. If - no, when - it rains here, the bomb holes that are going to develop in those berms are going to resemble a WWII gunnery range. And then it's onto the sketchy rubber mats lining a right hander and straight away onto the - depending on whom you talk to - 'surprisingly grippy' white astroturf seen above, or the 'white astroturf of death', also seen above. |
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| Manon Carpenter heading down the steep rollover into the first woods. Yeah, it is as steep as it looks, but it's pretty straightforward. |
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| A profile view of the boys walking the roll-over into the woods. |
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| There were a lot of fresh looking stumps alongside the track, opening it up and, as some racers claimed, dumbing it down. Bryn Atkinson noted that the more open terrain allows riders better lines of sight in a few zones, which allows them to push it harder. From there it starts to become even more of a mental game as racers holding down a time that can podium are also holding up a speed that guarantees that a crash will be felt for a long, long time. |
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| More trackside pruning. More than one shooter was bummed out as the corner the crew is clogging up in this shot, shot beautifully last year. |
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| The wooden senders. 45 foot gaps to the table tops, and you can add on another ten to clear to tranny. Nasty... |
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| After the modified tables, it was back onto the "motorway" (the right hand side trail that runs through the frame - the other is a bike park trail). Sure it's a bit of a mental resting zone here, but it's a pure redline otherwise: racers will be spinting faster than a cop for free donuts in this section of the track. The winner will be the rider best able to carry their speed along this and the upper straight. If you are unwilling to literally pedal til you puke in this section, you'll go home with nothing more than a clapped out bike and a dirty jersey. |
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| I kept reading in yesterday's comments that the roots had all been taken out? Yeah... not so much. |
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| The drop into the finishing chicane that snakes through the middle of the 4X track. From here it's a couple corners and a couple tables and then glory. |
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| The re-vamped 4X track... There are multiple lines on the second straight. The chicken line, and the big boy line in the 4X track. My grandmother could roll the chicken line on a K-Mart Special. The big boy line? Not so much... |
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| Extra incentive to take the big boy line (the edge is on the right hand side of the screen); the exit to the chicken line has a few small rocks in the middle. |
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| The big boy line above pales in comparison to the BIG BOY on the track: a 52 foot gap jump before the corner leading into the finish. |
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| "It is better than marching in the mountains or digging latrines" -a comment made by one of the Austrian military personnel aiding track construction. |
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| Only one man on track gets this decal on his Fox 40: Aaron Gwin. |
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| Monkdawg Certified. Only one bike on this track gets this decal. |
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| Len from Devinci putting the first touches to Nick Beer's World Championship Devinci Wilson. No, she's not carbon; only Steve Smith is rocking that kind of bling on the Devinci squad. But she's damn sexy none the less. |
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However, it does say "Beer" on it, which could cancel out the unwanted (by me, probably not a Swiss) Swiss bit.
Hop Schwiiz!
Hop Stevie!!
Gwin does not seem as cool as Steve.
Gwin: I give credit to god for me winning. (forget about all the sponsors, support, and money)
Smith: Have fun, smile, drink, party, practice, race... win
Steve Smith for the win.
(Or maybe Hart)