Pinkbike Poll: Do You Want a Doubleheader or One Main Event?
During the Covid-affected 2020 season the UCI Downhill World Cup had merely two race locations - but four events. That trend has now come across to the EWS, with last week's race in Val di Fassa, Italy, having two races. The first was a midweek affair and the second a two day event that was held over the weekend.
Seeing the best riders is the world is always exciting, irrespective of how well they know the stages.
I love watching racing so I'm glad to see more of it. In downhill we sometimes only get half a dozen elite World Cup races a year to watch. I'd gladly take double the racing, even if it meant a slight readjustment to what I'm expecting. I think it's a good way to make an event organizer's money go further.
After all, other sports have transitioned from weekend events to midweek showdowns so why shouldn't downhill? With the recent cancellation of the Fort William World Cup, another DH doubleheader has been added to the calendar in Snowshoe, West Virginia, with a mid-week race followed by the usual weekend racing.
The doubleheader format gave us very exciting racing in Portugal in 2020.
On the other hand, following mountain biking, downhill in particular, can be very time consuming. If you feel like you can't watch the first half of races due to other commitments, will that mean you're less likely to tune in for Sunday's race? It can seem a little anti-climatic with the midweek race almost becoming a warm up for the real thing. I think the format could be in jeopardy of diluting the excitement.
I believe the downhill races work well with course alterations and, although it's a long way before the EWS racers know their race stages anywhere near as intimately, any chance of stage overlap doesn't feel in keeping with what a lot of us consider enduro to be. I don't know how much difference an extra run will make but I think part of the draw of the EWS is the need of riders to expect the unexpected. Then again, maybe it could help balance out the hometown advantage a little bit. But what do you think? Do you want the doubleheader to become a regular occurrence?
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then the next time when he came back to defend his title he'd get his butt kicked in 5 seconds...
Even if the the park was technically open in between the races, half the parking is taken, it’s crowded and other tracks will lose on maintenance.
I love DH racing, but my preferred method is watching online and actually riding my bike.
I'd be curious to know how the racers would answer these questions.
* limited appropriate terrain
* few are venues capable of hosting (e.g., terrain and facilities)
* even fewer capable venues are willing to host
* travel costs associated with going "all over the globe"
* only so many weeks in the year to plan and the organizers are humans who can only do so much within that time
Saying that, I thought last season the double headers worked, both in XC & DH. Surely 2-4 venues could do this?
But I sure do enjoy watching a lot of races. There was a couple years where I think there was over a month between some races. That was pretty lame.
Would I like more racing? Sure, but not double, I would say more tracks/more race.
Regarding doubleheaders, look into the race format of WSB championship.(en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbike_World_Championship).
Just a side note, maybe with more racing (races or doubleheaders), riders could ride more safetly? Meaning, more races, more points, more slack for mistakes/falls/injuries.
In all seriousness, it’s my first time attending a WC race and I’m even more pumped I get to attend 2