Park Life: Practice - Leogang DH World Cup
From the first rip of tires in turn one and the angry buzz of freewheels in the air, the sound of complaining was already being drowned out here in Austria. Indeed, with the cacophony of marshal's whistles, the noise of fresh sections disintegrating before riders eyes and high winds blasting across the mountain top, it became difficult to hear much of anything by the time we made it to timed training... does that mean riders were wrong to voice their concerns? Does that mean the track is now perfect after all? Most certainly not, but what it means is everybody is out there getting on with it, doing their damned-est to put on the usual hell of the show, like they do every year.
Italian power-house Eleonora Farina set the pace in the women's class today with a 4:03.4, while British under-dog Bernard Kerr got things off to a quick start in the men's; 3:17.6 for the full top to bottom. As predicted, times will be tighter than tight, with just a 7 second margin enough to push the elite male contenders outside the top 20. With such a topsy-turvy start to the season, first with the quite fittingly biblical rain storm at Lourdes, then the Russian roulette woods of Scotland claiming yet more big names, the rankings are still very much all over the place. Favorites for the win are most notably Danny Hart, but also the likes of Luca Shaw, Greg Williamson and Brook MacDonald will be riding unprotected, with huge plate numbers and will start late for the qualies tomorrow. Tracey Hannah will undoubtedly see her chance to run away with the season in the wake of Rachel Atherton's unfortunate shoulder injury, although she will have to contend with the usual mix of dangerous females who also smell the blood in the water. All in all, wide-open is the word. The race is on and it's shaping up a treat.
After all these years, the view that never gets old... doesn't.
Laurie Greenland spring-cleaning his practice shoes before saddling up.
Loic Bruni has an interesting Super Bruni inspired paint job on his Demo this weekend.
Sick Mick with a new custom guard for his grill.
Remi Thirion's mechanic, Damien, bringing the spokes up to tension on another spare wheelset. The fresh sections up on the mountain won't be staying smooth for long...
Brendog's big Scott 29er about to get a workout.
Matt Walker thinking about going frameless for the day.
Eyeing up the small details on Troy Brosnan's bike before training.
A pit backdrop that doesn't get topped all season long...
Warm-up spins inside the MS Mondraker space ark.
Jack Moir's mechanic, Chappy, trimming the tread down to a rapid rolling optimum.
Sure 'stealth' can be nice, but only 'pimp' will do for California baller, Charlie Harrison.
It's easy to moan and be negative about the track but that doesn't change anything and only makes it worse. Remi Thirion and Gaetan Ruffin seemed in good spirits heading up the gondola.
The Leogang lift is super efficient meaning riders can lap to their hearts' desire.
Suited and booted, Danny's at the top.
World Champ dropping into the weekend looking to get a way-ward season back on track.
Manon Carpenter drops into one of the new fish cur sections just above the motorway.
Alex Marin hits tunnel number 3 with venom.
Gaetan Vige delving into one of the more technical sections this weekend.
Tracey Hannah enjoying the view of the #1 plate on the front of her bike more than the epic peaks and valleys of Leogang.
Kaos Seagrave trying to find the quickest line through the mess of stumps mid-track.
Jacob Dickson hitting warp speed and boldly going where many riders have also been before him.
Keegan Wright is one rider who always seems to be getting wilder than the rest; the Kiwi youngster is due a big result.
Tahnee Seagrave found the course fast and fun, a consensus shared by many of the riders on track today.
Seagrave drops in during the first training session.
After being beaten by over five seconds last weekend, Finn Iles is looking for redemption here in Leogang.
Austria's great hope, Markus Pekoll, hammering the loam between the stumps.
The only thing raining from the sky today was style courtesy of Sam Blenkisop.
Brendan rails the outside feet up on his new 29er
Marcelo Gutierrez was smashing out laps with aggression today.
The new loose off-camber became rutted out in a matter of minutes with multiple line to chose from. Here Jack Moir goes right down the middle.
Connor Fearon popping out of the rut that developed throughout the day.
Vaea Verbeek boosted this higher than anyone on the opening training session.
Greenland is looking fiesty as ever on course, but hasn't managed to put down a silver medal kind of run here so far in his young career.
Tracey Hannah has a renewed focus this year with World Champs in her home town at the end of the summer, and now the number one plate of the World Cup leader.
Baxter Maiwald hangs a little leg swag off the back of the first jump.
Vergier tucking for momentum and to avoid the harsh winds that picked up throughout the day.
Jack Moir puts his big wheeled Intense into orbit.
Alex Fayolle could do well on a track where power and precision will be everything.
Faustin Figaret hoping roots and dodging stumps.
The Commencal boys rolling out for their second practice run.
If you squint it almost looks like Val di Sole...
Loic Bruni breaks in a new set of pants while getting loose coming out of the big off camber.
Are the wheels still 29" if you blur them out?
Luca Shaw trying to sort out where to go in the stump garden.
The winter hangover still clings to certain gullies. The left over snow looked refreshing from the other, hotter side of the valley.
Sylvain Cougoureax prepping for battle, no time to take in the views.
Dean Lucas diving into the bottom woods.
Amaury Pierron loony-tooning with full commitment.
Even in black and white you know it's the bug-eyed bandit, Blenky.
Troy Brosnan on route through the roots to set the second quickest lap of the day.
Italian stallion, Loris Revelli, roosting in the high winds after lunch.
Carina Cappellari on the lookout for the lines that will take her comfortably inside the top 10 on Sunday.
Greg Minnaar went for the super inside line. So inside that it was a meter inside anyone else.
George Brannigan is another top rider who's had it tough so far this year, but definitely hasn't gotten any slower.
Kaos Seagrave's signature style out the start gate.
If you think of riders that the Leogang track's style suits, Danny Hart is perhaps not a rider atop that list.
Scotsman abroad, Kenta Gallagher, sends it out of tunnel number 2.
Loris Vergier swoops through the bermed corners at the top of the track.
Reece Wilson keeping it full gas after a top result in Scotland.
Towards the end of the day Aaron Gwin was knocking out runs at warp speed. After winning here the past two years he is definitely the favorite for Sunday.
Max Hartenstern stretching it out on one of the kickers up top.
Mark Wallace will be doing all he can to keep it full throttle headed towards mid-season with the 4 plate.
Remi Thirion looked calm and collected on track, he's a good bet for the podium come Sunday.
Greg Williamson pumping and scrubbing his way down the motorway section in timed training.
Adam Brayton trying to find grip on the off camber roots to carry max speed onto the motorway section.
Bernard Kerr floating like a butterfly over the Pinzgau mountain meadows.
Fastest TT came from Kerr this afternoon with a 3:17.6 to get the ball rolling nice and rapid.
Some always seem to allude that the grass in greener elsewhere, but the truth is Leogang isn't all that bad.
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That being said I'm not all that surprised by your behavior and reaction considering you were a super vocal online presence and person when it came to dumbing down the Mount Snow yardsale quite a while ago, and you seemed to come off as a prick......
..... Think about what I just said above and try to understand that it was done to make a point to your recent response.....
"There's 10X more guys who like racing here on DH bikes who are many times more relevant and are not just trying to stir the pot..."
dt you are the man - keep up the good work!
#winnersvswhiners
The "anonymous keyboard" seems to be your go to response to anyone who critiques what you have to say. Would you prefer everyone use their name and occupation before posting comments?
The funny thing about the "whiners" is that it better describes the people calling it.
The reasoning being "he's a whiner" is disappointing to say the least.
He has Instagram. He can use that.
The discussion is about the nature of the sport in general, maybe there should be more rules regarding track design. I come from alpine ski racing were the rules are quite clear on how a race course should be so that SL, GS, SG, DH keep there "personality" but inside the rules there is plenty room for quirks.
Leogang is not a fair representation of WC dh, fun track to ride? Looks super fun but besides a few of the jumps almost anyone could get down pretty easy. WC dh should even from pics look like "no way I'd ride that".
Might as well bring back peitermaritzburg and Willengen. They would fit right in.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=dSuISH_qlLw
Worth a watch.
What's your bullshit opinion on all the other riders and fans saying the same?
Whether or not you agree with Phil's message, I think any rider has the right and responsibility to say what he's saying. I think the sport is getting a bit soft in favor of making tracks easier to put on TV. If the UCI is playing the long game, hoping to get more people interested in the sport, then using the extra revenue from that to make it easier to film on the more "technical" tracks these guys are talking about, it would benefit them to at least tell the riders that.
This is getting into TLDR territory, so I'll wrap it up. Go look at older footage of the sport. Nobody can reasonably say things haven't changed a LOT in the last 5-10 years. The riders are at the core of this sport and if they aren't having fun, what do you think is going to happen to WC DH?
But what Phil is doing, is exactly the show I want to see when watching DH!
Apparently, enough riders complained about the tech rock sections on the course to have them removed. Hopefully, if enough riders express their current concerns for more challenging features through the appropriate channels, future races at Leogang will prove more entertaining. However, I'm not so sure complaining to the media is the best possible approach.
So stop crying and / or quite racing, I can't hear it anymore.