While on a ride a few weeks ago, a friend asked me who I thought was the best mountain bike racer of all time, and whether I defer to the stats or my gut to make that decision. How you answer the second question probably says a lot about your personality, but the only correct answer to the first question is Anne-Caroline Chausson. ''Sure, you could make an argument for a dozen or so other names when it comes to second place,'' I said to him, ''But this isn't one of those things that's up for debate.'' Good thing we were at the bottom of a long climb.
Anyways, aside from realizing that my friend is completely wrong about who he thinks mountain bike racing's G.O.A.T is (Minnaar ties for second with everyone else), I also came to the conclusion that our sport could use some sort of Race of Champions-style event. What the hell is that? The motorsport world has countless formulas and categories, from rally cars, open-wheeled cars like F1 and Indy, touring and stock cars, and even electrics and motorbikes; the Race of Champions takes some of the best from each and pits them against each other in equal machinery at the end of the season.
It's a given that anyone and everyone competing at the ROC is a current or future legend with otherworldly abilities, and that's why winning the whole thing is such a big deal. Imagine if mountain biking had an event where the sport's finest competed aboard identical bikes and on a specially designed, spectator-friendly course to find who really is the best on that day?
Here's how that might look...
Who, where, and whenThe good folks at the UCI, our sport's worldwide governing body, are probably too busy governing other things to come take all the fun out of our new Race of Champions competition. Besides, I think fans would appreciate a more festival-like atmosphere, something similar to that little-known event called Crankworx Whistler. Oh, you've heard of it? It's essentially a massive celebration of all things mountain biking, home of the most prestigious slope event, and also where you'll find some of the fastest gravity racers for two weeks in the middle of August.
August wouldn't work, though, with the EWS, and both World Cup cross-country and downhill racing calendar going into September, not to mention World Champs. You'd need everyone's seasons to be over if you expect them to attend; remember, they're unlikely to risk injury until the big victories and titles are wrapped up. There's also the not small issue of sponsorship conflicts, but that could matter less in the fall when everyone is more relaxed. So there'd need to be some juggling, maybe move some things forward and Crankweek back, but I couldn't think of a better place or organization to tackle the new ROCMTB event. Thanks
@crankworxSo, who gets invited? All you really need to do is look at the top-ten names at any world-class competition, be it the Enduro World Series, World Cup cross-country and downhill, and especially at Rampage and Darkfest. And why can't some roadies attend if they wanted?
Just imagine hearing the announcer screaming, ''Up next, Mathieu van der Poel goes head-to-head with Cam Zink. The winner faces last year's ROC champion, Martin Maes!'' Wait, what'd that guy just say?
Also, what the hell kind of race would pit Maes against van der Poel without you having a good idea of how it'd end? Don't get me wrong, I know Maes is a monster, but van der Poel would walk away from him if the race put too much emphasis on pure fitness, and vice versa if it was too gravity-oriented. Mathieu has immense skills in his world, sure, but we know who'd win in a rowdy downhill time trial.
Then what kind of racing would it need to be?
The racingI'm not entirely sure what it'd look like, but I do know that its gotta be head-to-head and exciting. It also has to be a single style of racing because we're trying to get away from different disciplines, but while also still being representative of all disciplines. Aaaaand it also has to make for somewhat fair-ish racing where [monster truck announcer voice activated] the world's best cross-country, downhill, enduro, and freeride competitors face each other in a last-person-standing cage match to the death that sees the winner crowned as the Mountain Bike Champion of the Galaxy.
We'll definitely need Tippie on the mic to run this party.
The best I can come up with is some sort of relatively short course, maybe between three and six minutes long, that has its finish line lower than its starting line. How much lower? Someone might need an algorithm to answer that one. Don't get too excited - there'd still need to be some difficult climbing - and the descending would obviously have to reward those with the most skill rather than who has the least to live for. Also, if we're deciding on the ruler of the galaxy, you know we're gonna need some flat grass turns in there, if only because it was starting to sound a bike like cross-country eliminator racing and we don't want that.
Okay, so I don't really have course design locked down yet, but I'm open to ideas. Anyone?
The bikesThe best racers get paid a lot of money to ride a certain company's bikes, so it's easy to see why said racers might be hesitant to be photographed and videoed tearing it up on a competitor's bike, and especially if they were tearing it up so well they end up winning. I'm sure whoever signs those cheques wouldn't be all that stoked, either... But what if the ROCMTB supplied complete bikes, all being identical aside from sizing, from a company that doesn't even exist?
I mean,
if Pinkbike can bumble its way through doing the Grim Donut, someone with some common sense could probably get a few dozen frames made in half the time. Assuming the ROCMTB is being bankrolled by someone who likes to flush money down the toilet for laughs, all that'd need to be done is to reach out to a factory, maybe a place like Genio that manufactures high-end aluminum frames, and pick an already tested design. Or maybe it'd end up being an all-new design; either way, the point is that the bikes would be specific to the Race of Champions and not for sale.
Okay, but what type of bike? Given that we're looking for the best mountain biker in a group of the world's best mountain bikers, I think there's a good case to be made for it not mattering what type of bike it is, how much travel it has, or even its wheel size. These are the most skilled, fittest, strongest riders who can pull things off that you and I wouldn't even think of, so they should have no trouble getting used to a new machine. In fact, maybe the ROCMTB would supply different bikes each year, keeping the exact details secret until a few days before the event when racers show up for whatever minimal practice would be allowed. You might see everyone on hardtails with 27.5" wheels one year, only for the following year's ROC to put them on 180mm-travel 29ers. Maybe there's only a course walk and zero practice? Maybe it ends with a huge wood super-booter of a lake jump?
When it comes to the build kit, some leniency might be required. Fox wouldn't want Gwin using a Boxxer, and I doubt that RockShox would be okay with Hill using a 36 on the front of his unbranded ROC mountain bike, but maybe there's another company with less OE spec who's a relatively minor player sales-wise but still offers top-notch performance? You get the idea: a spec sheet that has minimal branding and the least amount of conflicts. Besides, we're all mountain bikers who just want to have a good time, right?
I'm not saying any of the above is possible or will happen, only that I think it'd be pretty neat if it did. So, if mountain biking had its own Race of Champions, what would you like to see? And what type of bike would they race on?
Roadies beat us to it
Everyone must ride a Huffy. They must all assemble it first and carry tools to repair it along the way.
Luckily, Strider already sells adult balance bikes. We would just need some 20" knobbies!
striderbikes.com/buy/balance-bikes/special-needs/strider-20-sport
Want to see it? Hell yes
Downieville All Mountain Classic is what came to my mind.
No need for neutral bikes or sponsors in ROC with this format, just that you would need to use the SAME bike for the up and the down. Choose wisely...
Even Roadies could hammer up at world class speed on a hardtail, then hang on for dear life on the way down. There'd be plenty of drama.
Even top DH guys balk at going down a Crankworx level slopestyle course.....much less say an XC pro!
Maybe something a little tamer...like pump track?
Cecile Ravanel VS Rachel Atherton VS Kate Courtney VS Casey Brown?
Who would you want to see?
From bmx to MTB xc, dh and roadie at the Tour!!!
(Juli Furtado won XC & DH worlds, but on different bikes a few years apart (yeti c26, gt rts))
Shit race! It rained all week and the final race was the only time they had ridden it dry.
Random bike type every year (balance bikes, offroad penny farthings, tandems, absurd mullet bikes, whatever, as long as it is secret before the race), known qualification criteria (top 3x riders by season points from each series?), and a few spots left for "the stig" type unknown riders (retired, or media personalities/etc) just for good measure.
First person across the line wins, but with a heavy emphasis of fun and ridiculous.
Basically the mountain biking equivalent of "who's line is it anyway", where the rules are made up, and the points don't matter, but its hilarious to watch, and everyone involved has a bunch of laughs.
So the winner could still have bragging rights, but because the discipline is kind of made up, and bikes absurd, sponsors can't be too offended, and no one "really" knows who would have won in a "normal, fair race", which should keep the comment sections/forums going in between each years event.
Or maybe I'm thinking of a Japanese gameshow. Or Mario Cart?
Exactly. Bikes are the best.
And a ridiculous race which puts Sam Hill, Nino, and Loic racing against each other on 29/20 mullet bikes would be amazing. 10/10 would watch that event.
Matthias Fluckiger is probably the best XCO descender I’ve seen though.
I love this, a bunch of quasi roadies see MVDP making downhills without looking like he will die and they just want to smear that in the face of people. Some a*shole even posted a link to MVDP clearing dirt jumps with slight sideways rotation.
For Top XCers descending skill is not really to gain seconds on competition, even though it may be deceissive when trying to drop people. It is about not crashing, conserving energy and recovery. The better you are the less chance you have to crash, you can ride down efficiently and regenerate before it is time to spin again. This is not the case with racing on Enduro stage or DH race. And Enduro racing requires even more Advanced skill than DH, you can call it skill mileage that you acquire during years of skill practice and riding down the hill with focus on riding down the hill as quickly as possible - that is you need to be good at reading terrain quickly and have all your reactions down to automatic impulse. You need to be able to pull a full sequence of well executed actions using one command so that you can focus on next thing. If you don’t have it and I assure you neither Nino nor MVDP have it - you are occupying your head with too much target identification and choice of certain actions then executing them. Sam Hill or Jesse Melamed (oh oh oooooh I gave you a former XCer gove me your ovatioooon - ooooh it’s meaningless cuz he focuses on descending that’s why he never got good at XC, ooooooh bummer), they will come out of a corner take a milliseconds to see what’s ahead, make a plan what where, draw an imaginary line and instinctively do everything to follow it, then instinctively react if it’s not happening. Where Sam and Jesse see 2-3 actions, MVDP will see 5-10 and he will not be as confident whether he can pull it all off. All this is just on mental level. He will also be worse at executing whatever he planned.
Again, we’re talking a DH race. Not descents within an XC race where everyone is maxed. That said, MvdP does make more mistakes, like at the Euro Champs, than Nino. Hopefully the Olympic course is as technical as people say so it won’t become a MvdP power display.
Now what would change things a lot would be proliferation of droppers and more jumps. But it’s still too little to be won on such short sections.
You had to do every event including trials with the same bike. Some were on points (if trials included), some percentage of winners time, and some were on total time. In some cases you couldn't even make wheel or equipment changes
FWIW I have been to Race of Champions a few times and it was great, but the racing felt too contrived.
Or everyone could just arm wrestle and winner takes the trophy.
What mountain biking needs is MORE RACES.
Theres only 8 WorldCup DH...thats not a season, its a WEEK! Instead of wasting money on a race of champions ( which ill admit would be cool af) they really need to step it up and develop the sport.
Imagine if it was a 15 race series?! Resorts have more than one track, so maybe there's a race on Saturday and a race down a completely different course on Sunday. Riders would have the mornings to practice each one. With so many resorts in Europe and many of them being so close, it'd make sense. But money and politics.
WTF!? Clearly this is now thee most important event of the year!
Long answer: Still no but with copious use of choice words and a profoundly "soap-boxy" feel
And nobody pays any attention to it.
Started watching, when it was still run in Gran Canaria, the Rallye drivers always seemed to have an advantage there.
I’ve also been to the ones in Paris, there always was quite a big crowd.
And the last one in Mexico looked like fun, too.
There would always be a bias towards one type of rider as the disciplines are so different.
We already have the king and queen of crankworks which is the closest thing barring XC. But XC is so far removed from enduro, dh, slope style, 4x, speed and style as they are all gravity based and XC is mainly about the best climber. Mix XC in with CX and Road. An uphill event and a gravity event, let's call the gravity one king and queen of crankworks... wait...
So.. let the uphill boys organize something as the gravity peeps already have an event.
The only difference is the type of bike they can choose, racers can choose whatever bike they want, but certain bikes get a handicap, Choose a hybrid bike (correction, a flat bar gravel bike) get a 1 minute head start, penny farthing, 5 minutes, minder enduro bike is the benchmark. Choose an ebike and you cover to start with enduro bikes bike you have to race wearing only a helmet.
you can make a bike that can be vesatile enough to do all the scenario that different classes of bike can do. a mule. Antisquat , Antirise , progressivity , even leverage shape ,geometry , and even axlepath can ALL be adjustable to 80% of what you can find across all the specktrum of industry. travel can be too.
this freak can perfectly be made by some OEM spécific compagy (i look at you , Giant ) or a small manufacturer with no logo , for the event only. it be the reference for ALL pilot , and let them adjust it to their liking or even every race. what a cool/nerdy thing to look at , each setting for each pilot on each start ??
it will not be the lightest or most beautiful bike of the century , for sure. but it can be made , as a grim donut can be.
im pretty sure someone too have a "OEM" fork and a shock that can be made unbranded too , can made that can be tune/stroke adjusted quickly , and who is not willing to take credit for THAT product. someone who tweak them and is no bonded to contract to a brand can made such thing done if it as the budget and time to do it.
i believe there is a lot of clever and techniqual enough men on this planete to make it really easy.
SO , a higly adjustable bike , with adjustable component , all unbranded , unique to this race and no sold out of it , can be made.
it's doable without a doubt, other than industry , there is genuinely passionnates lady and lads . and they do not have the industrys limitations like sponsorship/reputation.
so , we have a bike. and im pretty sure we can have a track , or multiple ones , to make this fair. we can even do multiplie line on the same montain and let pilot choose ! (remind you something ?)
and for sponsorship of such a unconventionnal race event ... Redbull , where are you ?
Imagine a 10 race title battle with: DH, Enduro, XCO, XCE, Cyclocross, 4x, tech climbing race (maybe on e bikes?), Speed&Style, pump track, and some odd ball such as a flat turn grass slalom course, 100mt dash, sand/snow fatbike, game of footdown, on road downhill race etc.
I think that this could also be a test of the all around best bike brand if each athlete can represent their sponsor!
Lets see some Roadie action down A-line.
Enduros hitting Slopestyle.
DH bikes on an XC course!
Maybe the riding gear could be drawn out of a hat prior to each race...
Question would be to limit competitors to one bike that’s predetermined and supplied, would be fun to see everyone race a clunker, or if the racers can use their own bikes. I think for the best competition letting everyone use their sponsors bikes, that gets the sponsors behind the race. Since not every sponsor has all 3 bikes in each event, maybe limiting racers to two wheel sets, two frames (shocks included), one fork, one group set, one of everything else, would create some really interesting racing. Imagine seeing a Fox 36 lowered to 100mm for the xc race, but still have Saints!
I’d love to watch it
Any other suggestions?
The bikes: a boutique steel lugged frame builder will design an all around full rigid frameset and make one for each rider. Each rider can spec it with their sponsors. At the end, the bikes are actioned off for charity.
Speaking of which, where's that grim donut video???
1. Downhill
2. XC
3. Track racing (fixed gear oval)
4. Alley cat (messenger race)
Points awarded for top 20 finishers, most points overall at the end takes it.
Let everyone ride their sponsors stuff, but have strict specifications on the bikes... travel, wheel size, brake rotor sizes, etc.
And despite I one time started with xc, I feel that it does not require much skills to be successful - its a matter of marathon endurance. I´we actually have a few friends that came directly from marathon, did road cycling with great success and then the same with xc. Having ridden with them I can tell that most trail/enduro amateurs I know is eons ahead skill wise. Watched Jenny Rissveds (both live and before that video) and she is probably the most competitive and determined athlete I´we seen. But her riding skills is far from good compared to the average trail/enduro rider. That said, there are xc guys that train at demanding and technical terrain and becomes amazing at general bike riding. Jesse Mellowed have a background in xc and have since then learned bike skills most of us dh and enduro riders could dream of.
So my point is, if it is biking, the most relevant attribute should be skills on a bike. If its not a race, its hard to judge. The bmx , trial, dual slalom, slopestyle and free ride all have superb skill levels. So to determine the broadest range of skills if its not a race, I guess it should be multiple competitions in all disciplines that require a lot of skills.
sorry but I couldnt disagree more, you need to check further back in mtb history. Anne-Caro was the greatest female downhill mountain bike racer. John Tomac won 91 worlds XC AND 2nd place downhill 91 worlds (on the same Raleigh Signature bike). Juli Furtado won worlds downhill AND cross country. Sure it was an earlier time, but any mountain bike racer who excelled across disciplines deserves "the best mountain bike racer of all time" accolade more than any rider who dominated in solely in one.
You can’t make a competition between Aaron Gwynn and Brendan Semanauk, it’s a waste of time.
What we do need is a more unified UCI that listens to its athletes & maybe a riders union with a clause for long term care for injured athletes, more thought put towards where races are held with a emphasis on youth racing and a eye always on the future it is bright there is incredible talent coming up. To the top level pros please consider more mentoring give your time to the young.
One Dh race
Enduro (3 stages) race
XC race.
Points earned based on position. Most points wins.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri7x1JZJhqg
No chance of getting it together to be fair for everyone.
Can't wait to see the Double Double boarder cross tho
Individual? Might be a task to attract the creme de la creme
Will Gwin always have to race chainless or tireless?
No