[UPDATED] Elite Finals Results & Overall Standings from the Lenzerheide DH World Cup 2023
The results are in from the historic opening World Cup round after a wild semi-finals just hours before.
The Elite Women kick off finals with another historic win for Rachel Atherton as she takes home her 40th World Cup win. The top result in Lenzerheide makes it Rachel's first win since Vallnord in 2019 and is one of the most impressive comebacks we have ever seen in mountain biking. Half a second back from Rachel Camille Balanche just missed out on a win at home as she ends the weekend with a 2nd place finish. After not riding in qualifying because of an injured knee Nina Hoffmann has shown her strength coming into the season as she takes 3rd.
Following the race, Rachel Atherton said: "“I just actually can’t believe it. It hasn’t really sunk in. You get so fired up and then it’s three minutes and it’s over.”
“Coming into this I didn’t know if I would qualify, yesterday was mind-blowing. I was like ‘woah’ and this new format is so hard, doing semi-finals, you’ve got to save some energy. It’s mental.”
It was another historic moment in the Elite Men's racing as Jordan Williams piloted his Specialized Demo to the top spot on the podium at his first Elite World Cup. Loris Vergier was the closest rider to the young talent ended his day 0.495 seconds back. Loic Bruni couldn't match the speed of his teammate and crossed the line third with Finn Iles also putting a third Specialized inside the top five.
In his post-race interview, Jordan Williams said: "This is just insane. Lenzerheide isn't one of my favorite tracks and I just rode as good as I could. I don't even know, just incredible.
"I think coming from juniors to elite, having fast riders in juniors to push me has helped me a lot. I didn't focus on trying to win or sending it super hard, just tried to put down the best run I could and see where I ended up."
Check out the results and race updates below.
Results:
Elite Women
1st. Rachel Atherton: 3:07.514
2nd. Camille Balanche: 3:08.048
3rd. Nina Hoffmann: 3:08.301
4th. Vali Höll: 3:09.270
5th. Marine Cabirou: 3:11.118
Elite Men
1st. Jordan Williams: 2:39.222
2nd. Loris Vergier: 2:39.717
3rd. Loic Bruni: 2:39.907
4th. Laurie Greenland: 2:40.058
5th. Finn Iles: 2:40.232
The Elite Women's Race as it Happened
4:00 am PDT: The Elite Women's Race is Now Underway
After this morning's semi-finals it's Mille Johnset who kicks off finals.
4:04 am PDT: Mille Johnset Goes 8 Seconds Back on Top Semi-Finals Run
Mille Johnset sets the first finals time with a 3:18.504
4:08 am PDT: Anna Newkirk Takes the Lead
Anna Newkirk has gone fastest so far as she improves upon Mille Johnset's time by half a second.
4:12 am PDT: Hattie Harden Takes the Top Spot
Hattie Harden continues to show she has talent no matter the bike as she goes fastest so far.
4:16 am PDT: Marine Cabirou Goes Fastest by 5 Seconds
Marine Cabirou has passed the 2nd place semi-finals time of Rachel Atherton to take the top spot with six more riders to come.
4:20 am PDT: Top 5 with 6 Riders Remaining
1st. Marine Cabirou: 3:11.118
2nd. Monika Hrastnik: 3:14.835
3rd. Hattie Harnden: 3:16.533
4th. Anna Newkirk: 3:17.926
5th. Mille Johnset: 3:18.504
4:24 am PDT: Vali Höll Sets the Best Time of the Week
Vali Höll attacks the Lenzerheide course to take the lead by just under two seconds. Vali's time is almost one second faster than Camille Balanche's winning semi-final run.
4:28 am PDT: Tahnee Seagrave Gets Loose on her Way to 3rd
Tahnee Seagrave has a wild ride down the track as she makes her return to World Cup racing with 3rd place ahead of the final four riders.
4:32 am PDT: 3rd for Gracey Hemstreet in her First Elite Finals Run
Gracey Hemstreet crosses the line 2.1 back and slots into 3rd place. Only Nina Hoffmann, Rachel Atherton and Camille Balanche are left at the top.
4:33 am PDT: Top 5 with 3 Riders Remaining
1st. Vali Höll: 3:09.270
2nd. Marine Cabirou: 3:11.118
3rd. Gracey Hemstreet: 3:11.461
4th. Tahnee Seagrave: 3:13.428
5th. Monika Hrastnik: 3:14.835
4:36 am PDT: Nina Hoffmann Goes Nearly 1 Second Up on Vali Höll
Despite her injured knee Nina Hoffmann has gone fastest by just short of a second against Vali Höll.
4:39 am PDT: Rachel Atherton Goes Fastest with 1 Rider Left
What a run from Rachel Atherton! Rachel puts down an incredible run to take the lead in Lenzerheide. Can Rachel make it 40 World Cup wins?
4:43 am PDT: Rachel Atherton Takes her 40th World Cup Win
As Camille Balanche goes across the line 0.534 seconds back Rachel has achieved her 40th World Cup win after not winning since Vallnord in 2019.
The Elite Men's Race as it Happened
5:03 am PDT: The Elite Men's Finals Kicks Off with Baptiste Pierron
Baptiste Pierron sets the first time in finals with a 2:45.201 sitting four seconds back from Loic Bruni's top semi-final run.
5:06 am PDT: Tuhoto-Ariki Pene Just Takes the Lead
Tuhoto-Ariki Pene pulls ahead by 0.093 seconds to go fastest. There are reports of rain falling at the top of the course which could shake things up.
5:16 am PDT: Antoine Vidal Now Takes the Lead
Antoine Vidal finds nearly half a second to go fastest after five riders.
5:21 am PDT: Taylor Vernon Goes Down
Taylor Vernon slides out in the dust as he nears the bottom of the course.
5:32 am PDT: After 10 Riders the Top 5 Are:
1st. Antoine Vidal: 2:44.664
2nd. Tuhoto-Ariki Pene: 2:45.108
3rd. Baptiste Pierron: 2:45.201
4th. Oliver Zwar: 2:45.241
5th. Simon Chapelet: 2:45.500
5:34 am PDT: A Loose Run Puts Phil Atwill in 2nd
Phil Atwill does what he does best to keep it loose and take the 2nd place spot so far.
5:37 am PDT: Dakotah Norton Goes Fastest by 1.8 Seconds
Dakotah Norton takes the Intesne prototype to the top step of the hot seat as he finds 1.857 seconds on Antoine Vidal.
5:43 am PDT: Charlie Hatton Just Misses the Top Time
Charlie Hatton has just fallen short of Dakotah Norton's time as he goes 0.248 seconds back.
5:48 am PDT: Angel Suarez Slides Out
Angle Suarez could keep his bike upright as he pushed hard for a top time. Angel crosses the line back in 14th
5:51 am PDT: Luca Shaw Takes 3rd
Luca Shaw makes it two US riders inside the top three as he goes 0.304 seconds back and into third place after 17 riders.
5:54 am PDT: Troy Brosnan Smashes the Top Times
Troy Brosnan is back on great form as he flies into the lead by 0.713 seconds.
5:57 am PDT: Greg Minnaar Has a Flat Tire Again
Greg Minnaar has flatted again after getting a flat tire during his semi-final run.
6:02 am PDT: After 20 Riders the Top 5 Are:
1st. Troy Brosnan: 2:42.094
2nd. Dakotah Norton: 2:42.807
3rd. Charlie Hatton: 2:43.055
4th. Luca Shaw: 2:43.111
5th. Danny Hart: 2:44.234
6:13 am PDT: Jordan Williams Beats Loic Bruni Winning Semi-Finals Time
Jordan Williams has smashed the semi-final winning time of Loic Bruni by over two seconds and currently leads finals by 2.872 seconds. What a run!
6:19 am PDT: Jackson Goldstone Takes 2nd
This year's fresh Elite riders Jordan Williams and Jackson Goldstone are schooling the rest of the field as they currently hold the top two positions with six riders remaining.
6:23 am PDT: Finn Iles Rides into 2nd Place
Finn Iles makes it two Canadians in the top three as he goes just one second back on Jordan Williams to sit in 2nd place.
6:24 am PDT: Top 5 with 5 Riders Remaining:
1st. Jordan Williams: 2:39.222
2nd. Finn Iles: 2:40.232
3rd. Jackson Goldstone: 2:41.428
4th. Troy Brosnan: 2:42.094
5th. Dakotah Norton: 2:42.807
6:30 am PDT: Laurie Greenland Comes Close But Can't Beat Williams
Laurie Greenland goes green at the first split but Jordan Williams remains unstoppable across the rest of the course as it is a British one-two.
6:33 am PDT: Loris Vergier Takes 2nd, Jordan Williams Still Leads
Jordan Williams is still leading with two riders remaining as Loris Vergier goes 0.495 back.
6:36 am PDT: Andreas Kolb has Crashed in the First Split
It wasn't caught on the live feed but Andreas Kolb is 10 seconds back at the first split. Andreas showed some incredible speed in qualifying and during the semi-finals so he will be one to watch next weekend. Now there is only Loic Bruni left to beat Jordan Williams.
6:40 am PDT: Loic Bruni Goes 3rd Giving Jordan Williams the Win at Lenzerheide
In a battle of Specialized Demos it was first-year Jordan Williams who came out on top winning his first Elite World Cup race.
Elite Women
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Elite Men
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Elite Women
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Elite Men
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The Elite Women kick off finals with another historic win for Rachel Atherton as she takes home her 40th World Cup win. The top result in Lenzerheide makes it Rachel's first win since Vallnord in 2019 and is one of the most impressive comebacks we have ever seen in mountain biking. Half a second back from Rachel Camille Balanche just missed out on a win at home as she ends the weekend with a 2nd place finish. After not riding in qualifying because of an injured knee Nina Hoffmann has shown her strength coming into the season as she takes 3rd.
Following the race, Rachel Atherton said: "“I just actually can’t believe it. It hasn’t really sunk in. You get so fired up and then it’s three minutes and it’s over.”
“Coming into this I didn’t know if I would qualify, yesterday was mind-blowing. I was like ‘woah’ and this new format is so hard, doing semi-finals, you’ve got to save some energy. It’s mental.”
It was another historic moment in the Elite Men's racing as Jordan Williams piloted his Specialized Demo to the top spot on the podium at his first Elite World Cup. Loris Vergier was the closest rider to the young talent ended his day 0.495 seconds back. Loic Bruni couldn't match the speed of his teammate and crossed the line third with Finn Iles also putting a third Specialized inside the top five.
In his post-race interview, Jordan Williams said: "This is just insane. Lenzerheide isn't one of my favorite tracks and I just rode as good as I could. I don't even know, just incredible.
"I think coming from juniors to elite, having fast riders in juniors to push me has helped me a lot. I didn't focus on trying to win or sending it super hard, just tried to put down the best run I could and see where I ended up."
Check out the results and race updates below.
Results:
Elite Women
1st. Rachel Atherton: 3:07.514
2nd. Camille Balanche: 3:08.048
3rd. Nina Hoffmann: 3:08.301
4th. Vali Höll: 3:09.270
5th. Marine Cabirou: 3:11.118
Elite Men
1st. Jordan Williams: 2:39.222
2nd. Loris Vergier: 2:39.717
3rd. Loic Bruni: 2:39.907
4th. Laurie Greenland: 2:40.058
5th. Finn Iles: 2:40.232
The Elite Women's Race as it Happened
4:00 am PDT: The Elite Women's Race is Now Underway
After this morning's semi-finals it's Mille Johnset who kicks off finals.
4:04 am PDT: Mille Johnset Goes 8 Seconds Back on Top Semi-Finals Run
Mille Johnset sets the first finals time with a 3:18.504
4:08 am PDT: Anna Newkirk Takes the Lead
Anna Newkirk has gone fastest so far as she improves upon Mille Johnset's time by half a second.
4:12 am PDT: Hattie Harden Takes the Top Spot
Hattie Harden continues to show she has talent no matter the bike as she goes fastest so far.
4:16 am PDT: Marine Cabirou Goes Fastest by 5 Seconds
Marine Cabirou has passed the 2nd place semi-finals time of Rachel Atherton to take the top spot with six more riders to come.
4:20 am PDT: Top 5 with 6 Riders Remaining
1st. Marine Cabirou: 3:11.118
2nd. Monika Hrastnik: 3:14.835
3rd. Hattie Harnden: 3:16.533
4th. Anna Newkirk: 3:17.926
5th. Mille Johnset: 3:18.504
4:24 am PDT: Vali Höll Sets the Best Time of the Week
Vali Höll attacks the Lenzerheide course to take the lead by just under two seconds. Vali's time is almost one second faster than Camille Balanche's winning semi-final run.
4:28 am PDT: Tahnee Seagrave Gets Loose on her Way to 3rd
Tahnee Seagrave has a wild ride down the track as she makes her return to World Cup racing with 3rd place ahead of the final four riders.
4:32 am PDT: 3rd for Gracey Hemstreet in her First Elite Finals Run
Gracey Hemstreet crosses the line 2.1 back and slots into 3rd place. Only Nina Hoffmann, Rachel Atherton and Camille Balanche are left at the top.
4:33 am PDT: Top 5 with 3 Riders Remaining
1st. Vali Höll: 3:09.270
2nd. Marine Cabirou: 3:11.118
3rd. Gracey Hemstreet: 3:11.461
4th. Tahnee Seagrave: 3:13.428
5th. Monika Hrastnik: 3:14.835
4:36 am PDT: Nina Hoffmann Goes Nearly 1 Second Up on Vali Höll
Despite her injured knee Nina Hoffmann has gone fastest by just short of a second against Vali Höll.
4:39 am PDT: Rachel Atherton Goes Fastest with 1 Rider Left
What a run from Rachel Atherton! Rachel puts down an incredible run to take the lead in Lenzerheide. Can Rachel make it 40 World Cup wins?
4:43 am PDT: Rachel Atherton Takes her 40th World Cup Win
As Camille Balanche goes across the line 0.534 seconds back Rachel has achieved her 40th World Cup win after not winning since Vallnord in 2019.
The Elite Men's Race as it Happened
5:03 am PDT: The Elite Men's Finals Kicks Off with Baptiste Pierron
Baptiste Pierron sets the first time in finals with a 2:45.201 sitting four seconds back from Loic Bruni's top semi-final run.
5:06 am PDT: Tuhoto-Ariki Pene Just Takes the Lead
Tuhoto-Ariki Pene pulls ahead by 0.093 seconds to go fastest. There are reports of rain falling at the top of the course which could shake things up.
5:16 am PDT: Antoine Vidal Now Takes the Lead
Antoine Vidal finds nearly half a second to go fastest after five riders.
5:21 am PDT: Taylor Vernon Goes Down
Taylor Vernon slides out in the dust as he nears the bottom of the course.
5:32 am PDT: After 10 Riders the Top 5 Are:
1st. Antoine Vidal: 2:44.664
2nd. Tuhoto-Ariki Pene: 2:45.108
3rd. Baptiste Pierron: 2:45.201
4th. Oliver Zwar: 2:45.241
5th. Simon Chapelet: 2:45.500
5:34 am PDT: A Loose Run Puts Phil Atwill in 2nd
Phil Atwill does what he does best to keep it loose and take the 2nd place spot so far.
5:37 am PDT: Dakotah Norton Goes Fastest by 1.8 Seconds
Dakotah Norton takes the Intesne prototype to the top step of the hot seat as he finds 1.857 seconds on Antoine Vidal.
5:43 am PDT: Charlie Hatton Just Misses the Top Time
Charlie Hatton has just fallen short of Dakotah Norton's time as he goes 0.248 seconds back.
5:48 am PDT: Angel Suarez Slides Out
Angle Suarez could keep his bike upright as he pushed hard for a top time. Angel crosses the line back in 14th
5:51 am PDT: Luca Shaw Takes 3rd
Luca Shaw makes it two US riders inside the top three as he goes 0.304 seconds back and into third place after 17 riders.
5:54 am PDT: Troy Brosnan Smashes the Top Times
Troy Brosnan is back on great form as he flies into the lead by 0.713 seconds.
5:57 am PDT: Greg Minnaar Has a Flat Tire Again
Greg Minnaar has flatted again after getting a flat tire during his semi-final run.
6:02 am PDT: After 20 Riders the Top 5 Are:
1st. Troy Brosnan: 2:42.094
2nd. Dakotah Norton: 2:42.807
3rd. Charlie Hatton: 2:43.055
4th. Luca Shaw: 2:43.111
5th. Danny Hart: 2:44.234
6:13 am PDT: Jordan Williams Beats Loic Bruni Winning Semi-Finals Time
Jordan Williams has smashed the semi-final winning time of Loic Bruni by over two seconds and currently leads finals by 2.872 seconds. What a run!
6:19 am PDT: Jackson Goldstone Takes 2nd
This year's fresh Elite riders Jordan Williams and Jackson Goldstone are schooling the rest of the field as they currently hold the top two positions with six riders remaining.
6:23 am PDT: Finn Iles Rides into 2nd Place
Finn Iles makes it two Canadians in the top three as he goes just one second back on Jordan Williams to sit in 2nd place.
6:24 am PDT: Top 5 with 5 Riders Remaining:
1st. Jordan Williams: 2:39.222
2nd. Finn Iles: 2:40.232
3rd. Jackson Goldstone: 2:41.428
4th. Troy Brosnan: 2:42.094
5th. Dakotah Norton: 2:42.807
6:30 am PDT: Laurie Greenland Comes Close But Can't Beat Williams
Laurie Greenland goes green at the first split but Jordan Williams remains unstoppable across the rest of the course as it is a British one-two.
6:33 am PDT: Loris Vergier Takes 2nd, Jordan Williams Still Leads
Jordan Williams is still leading with two riders remaining as Loris Vergier goes 0.495 back.
6:36 am PDT: Andreas Kolb has Crashed in the First Split
It wasn't caught on the live feed but Andreas Kolb is 10 seconds back at the first split. Andreas showed some incredible speed in qualifying and during the semi-finals so he will be one to watch next weekend. Now there is only Loic Bruni left to beat Jordan Williams.
6:40 am PDT: Loic Bruni Goes 3rd Giving Jordan Williams the Win at Lenzerheide
In a battle of Specialized Demos it was first-year Jordan Williams who came out on top winning his first Elite World Cup race.
Full Results:
Elite Women
Elite Men
Overall Standings:
Elite Women
Elite Men
Author Info:
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Jeez, that’s nuts on a course like that
Winning first elite race ever?? Amazing!
"Such a fascinating sport made even more fascinating by the semi final format."
The announcers they used back in the late 90's were more tolerable to listen to than this crew. Cedric was a great racer but is simply awful in the booth.
Replay of the men's race.
I'm willing to give this new team a chance to establish themselves....
It's a bit different if you're doing it every weekend.
I'd rather have someone that knows the sport than someone that is a perfectly trained live commentator that calls riders by a name nobody knows them by (e.g. Jordan Williams as Robert Williams)
Congrats to Rachel and Jordan. Great start!!!
Red bull puts on some of the best events in multiple sports. If they can't get the shot with their experience there's a reason.
GCN+ lied. False advetised. Imagine that. The sleaziesy mofos in the cycling world , the used car salesmen of cycling YouTube, lied and pulled a fast one.
It was like watching boring TikTok or Insta Reels or YouTube shorts. The same 15 seconds of track over and over again except for the last handful of riders. With no time between the runs for replays of crashes, it was start gate, jumps, bottom section - didn’t matter who the riders were since those were not key sections of the race, they were the easy sections. Where riders lost time in the woods, Discovery wouldn’t or couldn’t show it. Not to mention how shit the drone shot was with riders not being kept in frame. I’ve not seen such shit production quality and poor direction (showing riders from the back going over a technical drop and missing where they land because of a bad cut) since the early freecaster days.
Can’t believe there are suckers paying the UCI for this. Sure Discovery may cover more of the track, but if you’ve got a shit production team that can’t keep riders in frame and a director and producer who don’t understand what makes an interesting mountain biking shot there’s no point.
The UCI, GCN and Discovery have f*cked up.
The drone shots yeah cool but I don't think they offer the viewer much. So in this case it is the Director in the truck calling the cuts to camera that probably isn't from the sport. Also the cutaways to the crowd during a run were absolutely unnecessary. DH isn't F1. In F1 they cut into the crowd for a brief moment when nothing is happening on lap 36 or whatever. Cutting out of the action to the crowd mid race run is disorienting and un necessary.
Agree more cameras isn't necessarily better. It's more cameras in the right spots with the right direction.
I understand for some, paying to watch isn’t an option. But for most adult mtbers, come on stop being tight. You pay thousands a year on your sport, the cost of an annual pass to watch top level sport is tiny in comparison
Yeh, it wasn’t actually as bad as I expected. I’m happy enough, there was still excitement.
As much as I loved Warner, every race he’d make the exact same cliche comments about the riders. Was nice to see Luca Shaw do a run without mention of his girlfriend
I'm not saying he can't improve his performance in the next races, but for a debut, I sincerely hoped for a better one. And not just from him, the main guy seemed to lack a general knowledge of the field.
Claudio and Rob knew the racers, the teams, the managers... These guys are just plainly lost.
You can't hate on Mr. Warner and his downhill commentary without serious backlash.
So far I give first race jitters, well for what I was gonna pay for not really any improvements from red bull, no real improvements in coverage , but I will give it time, before I decide to commit.
Rick and Cedric compliment each other well and already have a wider relevant and informative dialogue than Rob and Claudio ever did.
If there would be one thing of criticism, it's that sometimes you made those afraid noises where you might know that the line is hard to get and not crash and the viewer didn't catch that or couldn't see the relevant details on the image. So it might be helpful to explain those details (that might be known from the trackwalk) more. This might also need to film a short segment or two more together with SRF.
But as I said in another comment: you did a great job and this is (in my opinion) already complaining on a high level.
Now i just keep my fingers crossed that they might stream the finals of the remaining races on SRF aswell... ;-)
I didn't listen to @emi008 on Swiss TV (but now I will!) but on the Singletracks World podcast she's easily among the most knowledgeable riders of anyone with excellent commentary - its mostly why I even listen. . Why she (or another experience woman) was not one of the two announcers or combined w/ Ric is our loss - she knows everyone, the industry, the tracks and she's not making BS obvious comments every 10 seconds like "oooo he / she is soooooo fast"...."look at them go, they're really putting on the gas now" and the 100 other Captian Obvious comments Cedric made. Seriously - just listen to Cedric for 15 mins and you'll be trying to Rob Warner the whole thing yourself.
Cheers and hopefully we can hear you commentate on SRF more often ;-)
They didn't closely follow and react to the racing action at each split the way Rob and Co did. They are talking about Gwin while Dakota is almost 2 seconds in the green, etc... Its clear that Cedric is knowledgeable but he struggles with English which is sub-optimal for a commentator. Lots of room to improve.
Haha it’s pretty easy going as I have a lot of other jobs to cover for a race weekend! We meet the day before to do that short segment about a key section of track, meet the morning of the race to discuss riders infos etc and then i’m off filming on track for my team, scope the last line changes etc and i’m basically on track until just before finals start we had a few issues with interviews from main broadcaster behing played without any warnings (usually you get a headsup so we can introduce it)… i’ll commentate world champs in Scotland again so hopefully my swiss german comes back quicker next time
Regarding the languages: i know that feeling. Quite often have it that i need a word in English and remember it in French instead (despite my French being sh*t for 9 years of lessons back in school).
I guess to bring back the topic related Swiss German there is only the option to grab a coffee or so with someone and do some "fachsimple" with someone in the scene. ^^
I really appreciate the free "semi finals" on YouTube, in fact, for me: That's the race I'm going to watch... I had my fill after watching the top 5ish girls and 10 guys during semis. I imagine quite a few people are in a similar situation as mine where a combination of time and money means the free semi finals is all I need. Tough sell to get people to buy the finals on top
Red bull nearly had timer graphics disappear for a bit in every race and had no cameras on early sections too.
Commentary was better than I thought it would be Cedric at least kept the excitement up..Rich needed someone exitable with him he struggles on his own. Safe to say Rob woulda gone batshit today.
They did miss lots of details though like Jordans last two splits were way faster than everyone else and Rachel really faded on the same splits but there was barely a mention. There was a delay in seeing the splits too.
The encyclopedic knowledge compared to Rob is not there ...simply cause Robs been on the circuit his whole life... But the commentary notes could had more in them though.
For a first time they were fine...but 5hours of commentary is way too long to try keep talking. The other thing is all the additional coverage is kinda tiresome for a track that's everyone is so used to seeing and kinda bored of in the first place.
I am not seeing the point of women's semis. The field is short enough as it is.
Is the men's semis worth it for the sake of seeing each racer for 30secs more in the final? I am not sure.
Free always grow sports over Paywalls, I don't think the all the extra live coverage of racing will add to its growth, should be quality over quantity. Or the fact highlights will be all over discovery platforms GCN/Eurosport/Discovery plays etc.
We'll wait an see if they care more about the product or settle on the fact they've a monopoly over all uci competitions now.
The lack of Warner really hurts, though. Hopefully they’ll get better.
Crazy that that is the default setting, watched the whole women's semis thinking there was a problem
I am now expected to pay 8.99 Euro per month for a product that is not better than the previous free iteration, and is in fact demonstrably worse.
I watched today's race on Swiss TV for free, but there is no way at all I'll pay for the rest of the season for this standard of coverage. I have no interest in Road Bikling etc. so there is no value in GCN+ or it's like.
If you are going to take a free product and make it paid, it needs to be better, full stop, or people are going to get disinterested and go elsewhere. 'Not terrible is not a great benchmark if you want people's money.
2. Video is better? Sure you get more cameras but random mid run cuts to managers are idiotic.
3. The presenters simply are less in the know about the scene as Rob and Claudio. They might be better at talking but it wont be enough
I thought it was pretty good considering it’s their first go. The commentary was a bit slow for the semis but they came to life in the final.
The "other guy" in the commentating box is Ric McLaughlin, btw. He's been commentating the EWS for a few years now. Seems like a very nice and knowledgeable person, and long time bike journalist who'sppublished for different bike media. Hope it's ok to commend this guy for a job well done, doing a commentating marathon over a three day race weekend, staying focused and switching from age categories to race disciplines, keeping eveybody entertained.
One clear factor was the drone footage looking super blurry/ patchy compared to other cameras, but besides that even the regular camera shots looked a little off a lot of the time. Even the graphics and the Eurosport/GCN logos looked a bit rough at times, which would speak for it being a stream quality issue. I was watching from a 42" HD TV but since it ain't smart, I had to run the stream through Chromecast. (That also broke the "watch from the start" option on ongoing live streams, switching to live every time it was casted with no possibility to rewind.) I don't know if there's some default quality for their website streams which just isn't enough for larger screens, but it isn't shown or can't be adjusted unlike on some other streaming services.
I'll bet my arse that they're gonna learn & modify, make shit better and riders will adapt to the semi / final format. I've already watched the final twice now and its just awesome to see racing again. First world problems here - first world problems. I have my gripes but mostly, I lost my voice yelling watching Rachel & Jordan win...exciting runs going on there.
To be clear, I think the rollout of this transition was handled horribly in many if not most ways. But the broadcast itself wasn't where most of my issues lie.
My only complaint is the casting feature in the app didn’t work well
Other than that, basically no complaints. Some splits were messed up but it happened with RB too if you were watching closely. I have no clue what people are bitching about re commentators and camera angles. We all love Rob but I thought Ric and Cedric did a great job.
or presenters where the mics are not properly set up so you hear nothing? or presters having nothing to say about the riders of what happened outside of "oh wow he is riding that bike down this hill".
What was better? This only works if you are deaf and watching on mute while also distracted because you spend half of the time playing games on your mobile
Hell, we had Claudio on commentary for years providing virtually no useful insight unless a Scott rider was on track (and even then he was basically just bitching about how Brendan/Neko weren't riding up to their potential). We had Tracy just repeating "yeah she's sooo strong" over and over for like half a season. We had audio glitches, long silent periods, dropped splits, etc too.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Red Bull's coverage and in the grand scheme these are basically nitpicks IMO. But I just don't think there's any significant difference in quality between WBD and RB broadcasts. Especially considering it's their first DH race.
Junior races and seeing the elite 30-60
Really really poor show UCI, I'd never pay for this unprofessional coverage compared to Redbull. As I said in the Semi's thread, the recent golden age is over, the change of coverage will do nothing for the sport.
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I know we can expect some issues early on, but damn, they have a lot to improve.
Especially given it’s a repeat of the same shite they spouted during the junior coverage yesterday.
Agreed. The race was awesome.
Also, with Rob we were getting a lot of insight when it came to the riders, like who crashed during practice, how did the current rider do previously in this venue, has anything interesting happened to the rider during the off-season, and so on. Rob has talked to the riders a lot during the race week, and you really got the feeling that he was IN this. Here the commentators did not offer basically any insight like that, it felt like they were just outside commentators, not having too much to do with the sport. Ric had only something to say about Ronan Dunne, because he's from Ireland, how lame is that. Also, they were both losing their shit when riders from their countries were on, a little too much, they could at least try to be more impartial.
Discovery was supposed to bring a s&itload of money to this and improve on things. So comparing this broadcast to RB just like that does not do it justice! Also, if I have to pay to watch, I expect more.
I‘ve been sooo mad about the cutaways to team managers and kids playing pokemon on their phone during the friggin race run. They even kept these shots in the joke they call „race highlights“. WTF???
It's because both men's and women's updates are on a single page so Rachel blew the barn doors off with her run and monopolised the comments. To be fair it's fantastic that she did, and I'm sure Jordan and Jackson will have plenty of wins for us to shout about over the next decade
With the missing head to head illustrations there is also the close competition missing. Can’t believe i paid for this.
Rob Warner we miss you!
Sure warner is missed but the world keeps turning. When scrolling through this comment section one gets the feeling the people are terrified of change. Get with the times. And it's not that hard to find where you can watch it.
Insight was really on point (unless scripted)
He commentated on hardline year before last (think) and was real good.
Him and Warner worked well together.
The choice was basically from bad to worse, when it comes to the commentary.
Jordan Williams - what a guy and what a story!!!
CG and Rick were even harder to understand when they were screaming (at nothing). CG seemed to get overly excited about so many nothings, that it almost felt like he had never raced DH, it was weird.
This is insane !
On the other hand, I think on the whole Ric is actually okay; he's doing a decent job on the XC.
Overall, happy none of my money is going to this crap and the shills at GMBN. IPTV FTW
The camera are OK but the display of the current standing and time are not on pair with what Redbull did.
(I'm watching it through GCN+).
I‘m sure hanging around dify bikepark and riding there every day made her more prepared than she thought she was.
Would love to see more of her racing but unfortunately she only wants to do Worlds at home at Fort Bill.
Yesterday i drank 10 Beer 5 Euro each
So These 7 Euro should hot hurt that much Just 1 and 1/2 Beer
I thought the coverage was fine for a first go. The only thing that puzzled me was not showing the full runs. I thought that was THE big plus proposed by the new broadcasters, and also thought that was the trade-off for having to also ride a semi-final. Did I just misunderstand the plan? Or was there a more recent announcement that they weren't showing full runs after all? I didn't see anything other than finals, so I can't compare to what was shown for semi-finals.
So I guess it'll be totally doable. Somebody needs to sort out the legal part though.
Perhaps they lacked competition , and Rachel comeback will bring it anyway
A true GOAT does GOAT things. the rest of the field has gotten better. And so has Rachel
Just add the best split times of all riders to see what a „perfect“ run would have looked like today, and then check how close anybody came. That was just a lot of inconsistent riding with a lot of mistakes today.
And while there‘s no contest that Rachel is the greatest female rider of all time, her taking two seconds out of everybody else by split two is not a good sign for the level of the competition. It‘s almost if someone came up from the Juniors category and would directly dominate his first ever race in elite - oh, wait.
However, comparing actual times to that hypothetical ideal can still give some orientation on consistency achieved, and mistakes made.
Typically one would also do that for a single rider, checking their race run against training and quali sector times.
Whichever way you look at it, time differences were rather big this weekend.
It often makes for good entertainment if different riders are fastest in different sectors, and, for example, in the women‘s field it might at least leave the other riders some hope for upcoming events, that Rachel seemed to be struggling in the second half of her run - would have been quite discouraging for everybody else if she had kept gaining time at the rate of the first sectors.
However, personally I’m convinced that at lot of riders left Lenzerheide with mixed feelings, as in many final runs there seemed room for improvement.
And in the mens I‘m sure that, just for one example, Bruni will really want to know, how he could lose seven tenths (and the race) on Williams in only one sector.
First time doing something new va Redbull 10 years of work is unfair
Sure no woman commentator, weird moments of silence in the man, some weird camera angles, some too close footage where u can just see the bike brand on the front triangle, drone sometimes off. The track overall looks flatter, easier even though it isn’t
Actually my biggest problem was with Eurosport not working at times or the 2sec audio lag
The format is also definitely better. It puts more emphasis on how hard it is to be a top 30 rider and I think that’s good for bike sponsors
The format is definitely better? Also disagree. The semis added other nothing imo.
It's on par with Netflix and prime as far as cost. And there's no way it delivers that level of content.
Also: 46K have viewed the Men's Junior Finals since yesterday.
I’d love to see some Redbull numbers from last season to compare, but I’m guessing they’re laughing their asses off. No company is going to pay TV advertising prices for 50,000 viewers (also because highlights and replays don’t show the live-air adverts).
So some napkin math… let’s say 50,0000 people pay10$ a month for the subscription. That’s about 30 cents per day of programming. The race is on one day, so the broadcaster can only honestly say that they made $15,000 on race day spectators. That doesn’t even pay for the buildout, cameramen and support staff…
For the record, I didn’t watch for the first time in about 8 years. I love bike racing, but this new format sucks. I already “pay” for GCN through the Sky cable package (EU), but I’m done jumping through hoops to connect accounts to use apps which belong to companies who could care less about the sport. Redbull was at least passionately invested in the events, and I never once got spammed or bullied onto a mailing list. I guess it was enough for them that I saw their brand and product, even if I don’t drink it. How many people did I tell to download the Redbull app? Hundreds at least. That’s the benefit of “free programming”, done right.
Sucks for the riders, sucks for the teams, sucks for the fans. Good luck to them all, but the writing is on the wall… as they say, if you want to earn money, learn to code.
Final thought: I was pleased to read VitalMTBs race report. That almost felt like real journalism! If anything, maybe this new format will motivate a new generation of “mtb journalists” to actually write about the race using full sentences, facts, opinions, and colorful language so that people can appreciate what happened and relive the drama.
It's not worth that. It was free and it's worse now. I don't pay for things like that.
On top of that DH racing has been viable for years from the brand's investing money it in. That investment is not gone. It's being compounded by our money. The product? It's shit. It hasn't gotten better.
Stop giving people money for making things worse. You damned kids don't seem to understand voting with your wallet.
This is typical corporate greed. Won't support it. It's f*cking garbage when NCAA does it and it's Garbage when UCI/GCN do it. You monetize something you pay the athletes who are risking their butts.
I pay for Netflix super channel britbox prime discovery + and paramount+ Disney+ lol.
You're paying Netflix money for 8 races. For a few hours of content... And trying to justify it to yourself more than me.
Also, the new format with semi-finals makes it a lot harder for lesser-known riders to get recognition, as only 30 elite men get to the finals.
Comparing DH to Top level soccer is disingenuous. The audience for soccer is 1000x what it is for bike racing. People that have never touched a soccer ball in their lives watch that. DH is watched by people that mountain bike almost exclusively. The audience just isn't comparable.
And what are they paying to watch it? $14 a month? for 8 soccer matches? Maybe if they bundle some low effort ads into the mix people will jump at the opportunity.
GCN is an advertising/marketing company the fact someone thought this was a good way for them to pivot to be a content provider/production company comparable to redbull is crazy to me. This is so heavy handed... They have watched their reputation tank due to their BS Ad-read-reviews they do. Now they want to be seen as the voice of the sport and have taken over it for the foreseeable future.
I watched a bit of the Junior race yesterday, the camera work and commentary is awful. If people pay for this level of content they show these clowns that it's "Good enough", is it? Because I don't think so. I think it's demonstrably worse now that it's paid coverage.
It's almost like live sports isn't the same as jacking off on a road bike for 12 hours trying to get the perfect shot while riding 2 wide being a dickhead to traffic while they shoot their stupid scenes.
Please show me a single example of a paywall increasing viewership when there's no content to justify it.
The last free live stream I watched, last weekend, of the Juniors had 1200 viewers. If everyone of them paid for the GCN+ Feed (they aren't) that's like 12k give or take? I hope you are seeing the potential for harming the sport with shit #'s like these. Especially when you take into account the company behind it is driven 100% by greed. Ethics doesn't even enter the conversation with these people. They are marketing majors, the only people worse than lawyers.
If I cared enough I could dig around and find Redbulls live youtube #'s for events but there's no way they aren't 50x what GCN is pulling.
Personally I hope that the days of Professional athletes doing things for "Exposure" risking their health and safety for a company that's worth $31.18 Billion Dollars, and not getting paid, are limited. I would hope that the fans of the sport would see how damaging this is to the sport and not support it. But hey, here we are, arguing over how it's "Good value" when people are being exploited.
A British 1-2 Atherton & Williams
Been quite a while since we last saw that happen!
Crowdfunder to get Rob reinstated?!
I wake up, check youtube, UCI spoils the winner of the female race in the title of their youtube video. Cool.
I watch semifinals and...
Cedric is hard to understand at times and needs more practice.
Rick is Scottish af, so also hard to understand at times.
New timing graphics when riders pass the finish line are overdone, too much info with flashy looks, not communicating the crucial info clearly. (Lack of red/green color on time difference to leader).
Semi finals is boring with limited angles repeating over and over.
Skipped the rest of semi finals...
GCN+ now asks for money to watch finals.
GTFO dude!
I come to pinkbike to check results for free.
Sad.
plus.globalcyclingnetwork.com/races
It was good to get junior coverage, but the production team seemed to get very confused as to who they were following - one minute you were watching a riider start, then it would go to someone completely different at the bottom.
One big moan - where the hell is it on Eurosport? XC was fully covered live a few weeks ago, but looking at the planner there’s no mention of this race until Monday. Absolute joke!
It's bad because Discovery+
We should all appreciate/learn/listen more from him, he has a direct correlation with four of those top 5 men elite riders, insane !!!
Williams 322
Vergier 320
Bruni 305
Greenland 239
Iles 216
Goldstone 196
[Great day for Specialized Gravity: 1st, 3rd and 5th in Men's Elite.]
RA is FA
And a brit mens elite win. Been a while.
Shame i cant watch it as I refuse to pay for the privilege.
Atherton 370
Balanche 360
Hoffman 250
Holl 192
Cabirou 176
That was what she said. Good to know it was a bike race.
Gcn is trying to make north America pay for bike racing while the euros get it on tv/discovery+. Kinda dumb when the races take place at shit hours for us.
I firmly believe that gcn pos' are attempting a UFC model.
The majority of DH viewership in North America is going to come from the west coast where there is actual mountain biking. Charging to view shit that's live at 3 am is crazy. UFC recognized that and made tv deals. UCI/GCN see North Americans as a market to milk this is going to go badly for them.
No one is going to pay to watch replays either. It will be put on discovery+ here by the end of this season. I fully expect them to put the world champs on discovery plus. There's absolutely no way they havent cratered their viewership here.
I watched every race for years and years. I won't watch this sy
shit out of spite.
If gcn delivered on their marketing bs regarding covering Full race runs with no gaps in the coverage I'd be tempted.
Why would I pay for cheaper worse hosts and an interior product. People are giving them a lot of slack for coverage. They clearly haven't watched xc. Cause that coverage has been on for months and it's horrendously bad. Like I said in another comment their camera people are riding loud ass motorcycles behind crowds and trees trying to film a race in the bush. Bud... I've never seen cycling coverage so poorly executed.
Who is the 2022 junior world champion??
www.pinkbike.com/news/jackson-goldstone-ruptures-his-appendix.html