A Test of Metal: Timed Session and Seeding - Val di Sole DH World Champs 2016
World Champs is a bit of a unique one in comparison to the usual World Cup stops when it comes to scheduling and pre-race training. Today we had our third day of training which is not only taking a toll on the track but on bodies and bikes as well. It makes for a long week and it's a balance to take enough runs each day in the ever changing track but not so many that you become too fatigued before Sunday.
Another quirk unique to Worlds is that there's no timed training during the usual practice session on day one, and riders really never know where they stand in comparison to others. The whole thing seems a bit anticlimactic at the end of each day as no one really knows for sure who's going fast. Today however we finally got our first glimpse.
The Juniors got a proper seeding run that was dominated by a mix of the usual suspects as well as a dark horse from the Italian squad who came out on top in the Men's. For Elites there's no seeding at World Champs as riders will run in a reverse of their UCI ranking on race day, but they did get one full timed run today to mimic the usual qualifier we see at World Cups.
In the end, most of the predictions of who had been looking quick in practice were confirmed and one thing's for sure; we're going to have one epic World Championship finals tomorrow in Val di Sole.
Another beautiful day in the Valley of Sun.
Up with the lark at the top of the hill for first practice this morning.
Emilie Siegenthaler is 12 days out of ACL surgery but still made the trip to cheer on her teammates and rivals.
Time to clean out the dust and get ready for another wheel beating.
Joe and Pete look to shave some weight on Rachel's bike.
Rachel trying to stay on top of stretching and recovery after another brutal day out on track.
Looking down from above shows how rough this track really is.
Expect a strong showing from the Italian women tomorrow. Ali Marcellini is one of the crew set for a top 10 as a minimum on home soil.
Less than a second from gold. Tracy Hannah was right up on Rachel Atherton as second fastest today. Maybe Atherton has more to give. And maybe Hannah does too.
Lord knows she has the speed, but Tahnee Seagrave is also turning up the style.
Italian Junior Women's rider, Beatrice Migliorini sent it into the silver medal position this afternoon.
6th for Marine Cabirou in her timed run as she continues to inch closer and closer to the top women.
Manon Carpenter was about 10 seconds off the pace of Hannah and Atherton and she'll have her work cut out tomorrow if she wants to pressure either of those two for the win.
Rachel Atherton got loose this morning in practice, but she still took the fastest time on the day.
Myriam Nicole was nine seconds back but don't let that fool you. Her low UCI ranking due to injury had her starting way back and she was forced to pass the rider in front. Let's hope the bigger gaps in the final runs keep it from happening again on Sunday.
Italian Alissia Missiaggia is looking to grab a medal on home soil in the Junior Women's race.
Ice bath time in the Trek pits.
Cool calm and collected, Tracey Hannah knows she's on pace to challenge Rachel for the gold tomorrow.
Matt Walker will come down 5th from the end tomorrow in the Junior Men's race.
Eliot Heap looked like one of the fastest Juniors in practice but could only manage 8th in his seeding run.
Contrary to popular belief, Finn Iles didn't suffer a head injury during his massive crash the other day. His neck is a bit sore from some whiplash and his ribs that took the brunt of the impact are making it difficult to breath, but other than than he's all good. He would go fastest at the top two splits before making some big mistakes lower down in seeding, on what would only be his 5th run down the track.
Finn Iles was third fastest despite having only had four total practice runs and carrying some pretty hefty aches and pains.
Italian speedster Andrea Bianciotto was on fire today in the Junior Men's race, taking the top spot.
Magnus Manson is in the hunt for a medal and his best ever finish amongst the Juniors.
Gaetan Vige kicks off the action with some quality early morning airtime.
Nikolas Nestoroff had one wild ride this afternoon. Pole position, no less, for the young American.
Riding well throughout practice, Jack Moir put a more than solid score down this afternoon. 11th for the Aussie.
Florent Payet is on it in a big way. A massive 3rd place for seeding, he's set for a bronze tomorrow.
George Brannigan laid down a top 20 in seeding, but has a good 12 seconds to find for tomorrow if he wants to find a silver medal to match his bike.
Changing of the guard. Sage advice from one World Champ to another.
The defending World Champ isn't going to go down without a fight here in Italy.
Remi Thirion was 6th in timed training and with a slow first split we know he has more to give on Sunday.
Connor was another rider who just took a bit of a chiller to come down in 17th.
Troy wasn't too far off the pace of Danny Hart but by his estimate he left a lot out on track. He has some changes planned for his setup as well that should help pull a few seconds back tomorrow.
Cutting for speed.
Troy has been running cut down mud spikes all week but after timed runs decided to switch to wider dry tires. Notice the cuts being made to the ramped-leading edge to give them a similar profile to spike though.
The Bulldog wasn't hanging about today. He was 12th fastest on the timed run.
Charlie Harrison was 19th fastest despite a bad crash yesterday and a hurt shoulder.
Loris Vergier was 13th fastest on the timed run, but he has what it takes to podium tomorrow.
Aaron Gwin was 6th fastest on his timed run, but Gwin always hides his cards well.
Laurie Greenland put in yet another top-drawer result today, smoking dozens of old-timers into 8th place.
Look at the time! Greenland is surely a huge star of the future and you don't need a flux capacitor to call it.
The 'Team GB sub' Bernard Kerr stepped up and knocked it out of the park today, riding to 4th place.
What a day for Bernard Kerr despite originally being overlooked for the national team.
Danny has been winning practice and he certainly won the fastest timed run today.
Loic is taped together and nursing quite a few injuries right now but that's not enough to hold him back at World Champs.
The devil is in the details. Minnaar does hard time in the pits after seeding with his mechanic to get things perfect. More perfect.
Hart has taken quite a grip on the latter half of this season. After five years, will we see him back in the Rainbow Jersey?
Hopefully the rain holds off or we could see a repeat of last week.
MENTIONS: @davetrump / @natedh9 / @mdelorme
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It's kind of sad that right in the midst of the discussions about the long term effects of undetected or ignored concussions, we have a perfect example when a young star athlete has a collision that has all sorts of evidence pointing to a potential concussion (broken helmet/ whiplash), but because he's not showing any clear symptoms, he's being given the decision to compete. It's like everyone is saying "we are going to start taking concussions very seriously, and put measures in place to protect our athletes... but not this weekend... because it's world champs and he's got a really good shot to win... but in the future definitely!"
As I said, I'm not there, or a doctor, and am not pointing blame at any teams or individuals. I just think it's an important thing to think about in the midst of seeing a handful of our old heroes suffering and/or choosing to end their own lives.
He makes a good point. You dont just smash a full face helmet like that and leave the same. Sure, its smashed because it absorbed the impact a great deal but it's not safe to say he suffered no concussion at all. I'm very grateful that hes able to race, yet ride, right after a crash like that but we are in a time where we're learning more and more about head injuries.
This is a textbook case where mandatory rest periods after head impacts/whiplash incidents would be the only way to properly protect the rider. At the moment there are no overt symptoms,so there is really no way anyone can say for certain that he has or hasn't received a concussion, so the athlete will continue to compete, just like any of us would if we had a shot at the rainbow stripes, and didn't think anything was wrong with us. We don't know if he's at elevated risk to do further damage, and the scary thing is, we may not find out for another 20 to 30 years.
Point taken though, I know you're trying to get the subject talked about and that's good.
Once again, the discussion isn't specific to this one instance with Finn, and my point wasn't to speculate on whether he does or doesn't have a concussion, as that's completely futile and silly. I just saw this as an interesting time to reignite the discussion about potential future mandatory post-concussion protocols, as this would be the exact situation where we'd see them come up.
Do you think it would be fair if there was a rule that stated that he wasn't allowed to compete this weekend due to the fact that he had a crash that compromised a helmet, even though he's been cleared by doctors? It's the type of thing that has to be discussed in order for actual rules to ever become more than just a 'good idea for the future'.
and @bishopsmike The hockey bit was just a personal experience that seemed relevant to include as an example of a concussion resulting from absolutely no head impact. I didn't mean it as "this happened to me and since all humans are clones of one another then it happened to Finn too," haha.
Plenty of blame to go around here whether it is Specialized, RedBull, his team, UCI or his parents. He has already proven himself as a star so there is no upside to letting him race, but plenty of downside. Someone has to step in and be the adult.
I suffered a concussion this summer, as a result of a crash, and spent two days in the "dark room". This means no reading, no tv, no computers, no exercise, no bright light. After that it was slow progression back to activity and there had to be 24hours with no symptoms before I could progress on to the next step in the protocol. It was 2 weeks before I could ride my bike on a sidewalk. It would be ridiculous to think Finn or I are anything alike but my helmet sustained a fraction of the damage that his did, and it's the same brand and model.
I will never call myself an expert in this field but all I can say is "shame on Specialized, Red Bull, UCI, and his parents". He's not even a legal adult, and is in no position to self assess a brain injury using the injured brain....
I have a new found disrespect for the event organizers. Grow some balls people, and put the athlete first, not your precious marketing opportunity. Shame on you....
"Where's my bike?"
"There's no bike here. You were brought in by ambulance."
Indeed one of my riding buddies was bringing my bike home. I didn't have a cellphone at the time. So I walked out of the hospital. Then I saw my other riding buddy who'd raced his bike back home to fetch his car to pick me up from the hospital.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, home."
"You're in a different town. You're walking home?"
"Well, there surely must be a bus stop near so I thought I'd just walk around the hospital."
"You've got money for the bus?"
"No, I don't."
Really, basic functions might work but the whole advanced judgement side of the brain is pretty much dysfunct. I used to look back on it thinking it was pretty funny. But after reading that article I realized it really is stupid and sad.
Finn did a massive face plant. His chest and Ribs took the full impact and the side of his face (as in jaw not head) hit a rock, essentially trying to pry the lower face protector off. Incidentally it's that has piece that broke. As Finn did a summersault his neck got a but tweaked from the weight of his body.
He was evaluated by doctors, his team, his own feeling (god forbid that's allowed). His parents are here as well and were very cautious about the whole process and in the end it was agreed that he was indeed fine.
As someone stated before you can crack the jaw piece of a helmet and get whiplash without hitting your head or getting a conclusion.
Let's give the kid and the professionals around him that they are smart and more qualified than anyone commenting here.
GO FINN !!!!
www.descent-world.co.uk/2016/09/07/helmet-impact-telemetry-a-step-in-the-right-direction
Finn, enjoy the stripes
-figured out the issue
-admitted to fault
-took a 180 on the design, and fully fixed the issue
-gave the guy a new bike
Anything less and I wouldnt ever consider a solid brand bike
I suppose there are quite a few aluminium frames out there? Solid, Commencal, GT... I can only tell it has Shimano Saint cranks. Obviously I don't know what happened but if it breaks just next to the weld I expect a design and/or production error.
Solid just released the Strike evo, the same chassis but in a lighter package frame, I wonder if thats why....
Hopefully the new one is more... solid (ba dum tss). Because I just ordered one.
Live your life fully but decide what level of risk is best before dropping in.
That said, in the case of prior injury (Loics shoulder) it makes absolute sense to have the extra support to be on the safe side.
Rain sucks when it only affects half the field.