Semi-Final Results from the Bielsko-Biala DH World Cup 2024

 Couldn’t agree more . That’s no fun for anyone anymore. it’s still so hard for the women and then this. Sponsors want to see their athletes in the finals.
For example (just assumptions) Athlete : sorry I didn’t make into the finals all year. But I am number 11th in the world.
Sponsor: Who cares I didn’t see you in the live coverage….

 ...it's a shame!

 Fully agree. This system is going to kill women DH.
Furthermore, what's the point winning over just 10 competitors?

 The people who run the event now (as in not the UCI) will read this comment even less. We kinda need an alternative race series.

 It also makes it almost impossible for someone missing the finals for whatever reason to have much chance to finish well in the overall. Someone who isn't protected and has a couple of bad semis at the start of the season has almost zero chance of finishing the season in the top 5 overall no matter how well they do the rest of the season because they missed out on finals points.

 If you just went by how many riders are within 4% of the best time, you'd have 11 women in finals and 45 men in finals.

 Semi finals is pointless

 How many should qualify out of a 19 ? 50% or more than that oh wait let’s do 99% and do 18.

 @descendbymtb: but points are awarded for semi finals.

 @ceegeegee: I understand your thinking path. But you forget these competing women are already on of the bests in the world. when I was racing world cups we were so many women. We had platform to perform. I guess so many women now are not even trying because it doesn’t make any sense for them to go to a World Cup . It needs a change for the women to make it also more attractive for them
To try to become a professional racer and also make the field closer in times. So the top qualifiers have a right to be in the finals . No idea what happened to PomPom but something is wrong in the system that there is no space for one of the best female rider in der world.

 @descendbymtb: semi finals is pointless... should be a chainless race for fun including all entrants, including the privateers where the winners prize fund goes to a charity of their choice.

Chainless chainsaws are mandatory at the finish.

 I disagree. Maybe if the times tighten up you would have a case. 10 seconds off the fastest time should not be in a finale for female or male. Go ride down any trail for 10 seconds and see how far you get, It is a long way.Its Racing at the top level,You need to perform to move on.

 There's a 20 second split between the top 19 women, 14 second split if you ignore Mikayla (possible crash?). There's a 6 second split between the top 40 men. This tells me there simply aren't enough women competing at the highest level compared to men. There could be a number of reasons for this, but the split times do not lie. Until there are more women in the sport; a 10 woman final makes sense to me. Gender has nothing to do with this argument, it's simply down to the number of athletes competing at the highest level.

 Yes, it is a small number. But it also seems proportionate to the number of entries.

 Couldn't agree more - especially when semis aren't even aired. It damages the sport to give so few women the opportunity to push themselves in the most high-stakes stage of the race.

 there's what? 35 total with 2 DNS. 10 is about right.
181 men, 60 through.

1:3 ratio..... Even stevens.

I see equal rights in a 1:3 ratio, nothing but wanting more than the opposite.

 @scottlakesmtb: semi finals are not pointless, as riders can score points......however, the semi finals are stupid

 @jokermtb: From a consumer and fan of the sport, I enjoyed Semi's when they were televised - I got more for my money.... IMO i think semi's are excellent, if shown live.

 @MinTheMerciless:

 I’ve been chewing on an idea and I wonder if the athletes have had the same idea. If they wanted to force ESO’s hand, all protected riders could agree to have a slow quali/semi, and then the unprotected riders do a full pace run in quali/semi taking up those 10 spots, plus the 10(ish) spots with the protected riders, equals a 20-women final… That would get ESO’s attention, all while still providing exciting racing and with no-one striking (ala-Crankworx).
It’s so crazy, it just might work!

 UCI and Discovery need to stop eating hyperbole pills. Qualis - race. Done. No one really gives a shit about the semis, its not DH, and even if it was broadcast, its just Qualis round 2... why not just keep qualis, 60 goto finals and then air just the top 30 (plus highlights of anyone from 31-60 that break into podium or T-10 times. Simple.

The pros have to jump through the hoops - and for what? Doubling the risk of more mechanicals & injurty (Minaar & Cruz at Ft Bill, Hattons crach) - doesn't show well even if televised because who that doesn't already know DH is gonna get it and then think "wow, Im gonna watch this again tomorrow for 3 hours". "Bringing downhill to the world" - hilarious! They are driving the world away from it by pricing it out - most core riders (that I know) are refusing to pay for it and if finals wasn't free on hbo (max) I would just watch the recap. Not paying $140 for 7 races.

 @Mtn-Goat-13: When you think about it the answer is super easy. It's all about money for WarnerDisco, they exist to generate profit. UCI is deeply corrupt and doesn't even try to hide it. Half the riders means way cheaper production. This was on the cards since the hostile take-over and the 'semi finals' are their clever way to make it seem like they are doing us a favor when they remove them next season..

 "Because f*ck you." - Warner Bros

 What a S*** show! quali’s not broadcasting anymore while riders taking extra risk for nothing. It’s time for the riders/teams or the Union they made to act now! Also one race outside EU not making it a World Cup… as well as only having 7 races with 2 month break in the summer is a joke.

 2024 - Quietly move it to Saturday with little coverage 2025 - Quietly let it disappear and be forgotten about

 @Mtn-Goat-13: couldn't have put it better myself. What's their goal with a non televised Semi? It's daft! Qualies on saturday, Race runs on Sunday and thats that.

 @Mtn-Goat-13: If I remember correctly, having fewer individuals in finals was meant to ease logistics pressures on finals day. And to be fair, finals day was a 7:00am until at least 4:00pm ordeal when racing juniors and elites with the old numbers of 60 men, 15 women etc. Red flags, weather delays where uplifts had to be closed and other random issues like timing problems had the potential to cause big problems back then.

While this was a real issue, moving juniors finals to the day before elite finals did, in fact, relieve a lot of these pressures, while the creation of semi-finals reintroduced them.

In general, it's always going to be a bit of a compromise. Too many racers and you end up running athletes too close together and faster racers will catch slower racers, affecting their time. Too few racers and, as you can see happening now, potentially race-winning athletes fail to qualify due to mistakes or mechanicals. More importantly when we run too few racers, I think, is we risk the accessibility of our already not-so-accessible sport. We push out privateers and give sponsors too little incentive to sponsor the smaller teams that keep up-and-comer and the racers from less dominant countries.

So I agree fully that it sucks, but just wanted to point out that there are reasons within the sport to debate the number of qualified athletes. But I also want to point out that not too many years ago we qualified 80 elite men and 30 elite women and while it was stressful to organize, it worked.

 So is GMBN Racing no longer doing semi finals at all? At first I thought it was just an issue with the race two weeks ago. Least good old Tiz will have finals..

 @Molly2202: The goal for a non televised semi is one. To cut the field to 30 riders for broadcast on oldschool live TV. It's dumb but that's the reason. I doubt it is to "ease logistics" on the finals when qualis and semis happen on the same day and they can still easily start pretty late and finish in time for 4pm.

 @Rudy2455: Finals day was 7am to 4pm when? Today in Szczyrk Qualis + Semis so longer than just a 60 person final and it was 12-16.30. So how was finals day 7AM to 4pm? I've been to world cups and even with a field of 80 it was never 7am start for the race itself. There were pre race training sessions in Schladming when Blenki won in 2009.

You're giving reasoning for the shift from 80 to 60 not the one now

 @spaced: I think they space the riders further apart for finals.

 Personally I think they need to do away with semis and just take the top 45 men and top 20 women from qualifying with 5-10 protected. That said I'm glad they're not broadcasting semis this year as I think that when they did last year finals was anticlimactic. Downhill should build to a crescendo.

 @heatproofgenie: 150 points available today, I’d like to see it.

 @Muddy-Runs: technically Fort William isn't in the EU....

 @Fill-Freakin: that is true but his argument is still untrue since again I was in Schladming when the field was 80 and the race still didnt' start at 7AM or even at 9AM. I was in the same gondola with Stevie Smith for his pre race run training run. The race might take from 12-5pm but still not 7am-5pm. Especially that even with shorter gaps today we had Semis+Qualies which is 1.5x the runs of a 60 men final day

 @jay-me: Scotts still probably mad they didn't secede in the referendum and stayed in the EU

 @DylanH93: Nope. The moment WBD killed the GCN+ App and subscription service that stopped. GMBN Racing no longer did Junior finals and Semis, and the app/subscription service that meant there was one, simple, easy place to go to watch almost all bike racing wherever you were in the world disappeared too.

WBD have made great progress since then, as we can all see...

 Isn't that whole situation a consequence of the end of the bike boom ?
In 2021 WB sees the boom and buys the rights from RB, thinking there will be millions of viewers, in 2022 the bike boom starts to decrease, even worse in 2023 during 1st year of broadcast for WB, so they realise they invested in something that's not gonna bring much, so they move everything behind subscription.

 @EikSkaloe69: I def spend too much time bitching about the obvious. I could've kept it short and quoted you 1st! (Really). I used to defend UCI - ashamedly. I'm not sure any other sports umbrella groups / agencies are less in touch with their atheletes shy of the Olympics.

 @Molly2202: I'll at least grant credit on finals only on Sunday. Last year semi's were watchable (though anyone with a life can't sit around all day & watch semis & finals) but again - who gives an eff. Qualis. Race. Done - everyone wants it and sure the pros can deal - they are the best in the world, but forcing them to do qualify, then do functinoally 2 races is full tilt tarded.

 @Rudy2455: Logic and good points (to may rash, impatient and semi-hyperbolic posting) so I'll grant you true on makings finals easier to deal with - less people. True the double the racers on finals would be more to deal with but also, and I'm not sure how long that's been going on (20, 25 years?) has been the MO so it doesn't seem too tough to keep up with vs. what, 120, 150 riders doing qualis / semi's on Sat'y?

Anyway - having some perspective always helps. I'm 1st to bitch & moan with the best of them (though I have an arsenal of positive useless ideas that will never get used). It's not all about complaints - the gripes are just speaking truth to power (or thinking thats the case) and hoping for change. Classic life lesson.

 @spaced: True - but then hiding this thing behind a bunch of wacky apps & streaming services even core fans are having problems finding / dealing with is actually the very opposite of "bringing downhill to the world". Looks a lot like Redbull had already done that - with problems - but it was free and broadcast around the planet. Now - literally zero downihill lovers I know are watching it - even friends that have Max (hbo) here in the US didn't even know it was gonna be on Max. Crazy. So UCI (obviously) and Discovery (surprisingly) don't even know how to promote their own "oldschool live TV" idea (??) - it just doesn't compute.

 @Will-narayan: I would agrue no since before the bike boom, Redbull had already full brought downhill to the planet with near-global broadcast (and growing) so even w/ the boom tons of riders were still gained as fans for downhills - there are still more riders now, not less (at least here in my region and much of the US as bikepark after bikepark is getting build and riders flood them).

UCI & Discovery are clearly and uniquely inept. Redbull broadcast wasn't perfect, but it was a helluva lot better than what Discover has done - by far, even with the problems.

 @Will-narayan: I think you're assuming WBD had more/any interest in mountain biking. It was part of trying to just make a one-stop-shop for all of cycling, but that included things like the Grand Tours (TdF is one of the most viewed sporting events on TV) and trying to get views off the back of things like the Olympics (hence XC not being messed with to the level DH is).

The problem is that during this time streaming services started to realise that they couldn't all "do a Netflix" and have seemingly perpetual growth, and WBD have $50bn in debt to service/pay off now too.

WBD were losing over $1bn a quarter, so they've gone into a massive cost-cutting phase. Consolidating their streaming services to save money and make them more easily marketable (see how they're also doing a combined sports bundle in the US with a few other media companies) being one of them.

That was all that happened with MTB/WBD/GCN+ and what happened at the end of last year. Why pay for all these different apps and ways for people to view your content when you can just pipe it all through your existing legacy brands like Eurosport, Discovery, and whatever they're calling HBO this week?

They aren't bothered that people from around the world now find it harder to watch niche road race events or we struggle to watch DH - it's so small in comparison to the size of numbers they're operating with that it just doesn't matter to them.

 UCI has NOTHING to do with it.

 Homie, they don't need the PB comments section to tell them how they feel.

 @scott-townes: we all need the PB comments to tell us how we feel.

 That would be a dream scenario for the UCI. Do you really think they give a rats ass if DH went away? It is a money loser. Its hard to get good race footage and even if they do the numbers that watch are small.

 On the b practice podcast he said he wears a size large jersey, but races in medium.

 @AndrewHornor: I think he’s talking about the Tennessee waterfall pouring out the back of his helmet.

 Yeah I think they're doing pretty well with two young riders and most likely a lot less support and resources than originally planned for the season. Onni was 39th in semis in Fort William (Dan unfortunately having some mechanical issue in qualies) and now indeed Dan is in the final (Onni having a big crash in morning practice, messing up his practice and quali runs). I really do feel like these guys deserve some chance to show more of their skills.

 @donimo: great riders, and great bikes. I‘m happy for the team that Dan managed to qualify for finals.

 Raise the roof!!!

 www.gofundme.com/f/seton-tuning-dh-team For anyone interested and with some spare cash.

 @donimo: I sent my £50, so really hoping they do well.

Pole should hopefully survive.
A. As they think outside the box
B. I have two Pole in my quiver, and will need spare parts

 Devastating. Ahead of Amaury too

 @Rudy2455: went otb just before the last 2 jumps. He went the speed of the high risk, over the stump line but took the slow/long line. Not sure what exactly happened but from 50m away he might have gotten bucked or somehow unsettled.

 Just look at the start list under the results

 Or even just give anyone else permission to live stream the semis - I’m sure someone would jump at the opportunity. Imagine coverage like Vital RAW but live-(ish) streamed on YT…

 Cameras are already in place. It doesnt cost much to Discovery to broadcast It. Not showing semis has to be one of the most baffling decisions ever. I cant wrap my mind around it

 @danielteleman: yeah I was wondering what was being shot since the cameraman was pointing at me and I definately should not be here spectating so I got scared then remembered those cameras are as useful as a salad at mcdonalds

 Got to pay the operator, production team, all the technical folks to ensure satellite connection is working, transmitting fees. It’s not just turning on the camera.

 @pisgahgnar: it appears all those folks are working today. Flip the switch! Even a phone pointing at the big screen at the finish line would be enough at this point…

 @pisgahgnar: yeah true. I guess a small company like WB it might be a bit much to ask hey. I mean people stream live videos on insta can't be too difficult these days.

 @domo-kun: lol I am annoyed as you are. Just pointing out it’s not as simple as turning on the cameras. The bean counters at WB Discovery probably aren’t letting it happen.

 You know what's funny? They were there filming even during qualis! Operators were there shooting. I guess they will compress it to a 30 min highlights

 @pisgahgnar: Im watching some of the rider´s instas and they are showing the semis live on the big screens at the race venue. All production team are already working, it really doesnt make any sense to no broadcast semis on saturday and get more exposure, etc. Im trying to understand the reasons at WBD and i can´t make sense of it all.

 @danielteleman: They were saying the same about Fort William, that the cameras were (and there was even commentary?) on but instead of broadcasting the semis the runs were only shown on the screens at the finish area. This really is making so little sense.

 @danielteleman: That's bad. Just stream it via YouTube without the commentators if you can't afford to pay them for the Saturday. What a f*cking clown car of a broadcaster. Or they don't GAF, as we all suspect.

 Does anyone know about Goodman Santa Cruz? Its managed by Tibault Laly and has at least three sponsors from Pinkbike Racing. I did not realize Pontvainne was on Pinkbike but the connection seems to be make more sense now.

 @Sscottt: He and Mylann Falquet were both listed as members of Pinkbike's team last year but I got the impression they didn't get full sponsorships. Cathro rarely mentioned them in any of his videos. They both had solid years in Juniors last year: Nathan finished 2nd in overall points and Mylann finished 4th.

 @Bibico: Goodman is sponsored by a shop in Annecy, and they didn’t have an elite team member last year so, Ben being the legend he is, let them sign up as part of Pinkbike.

 @Rudy2455: split 1 is also after a pretty straightforward part of the track. Not taking anything away from the riders but that's the part everyone was complaining about by calling it bikeparky

 @spaced: For sure, but still amazing that riders are that close.

 With seven World Cup wins, Vergier is 9th in DH history! He’s criminally underrated, and certainly knows how to “finally commit and secure the win.”
I’m hyped to see L.Shaw’s performances this season…
DH racing is the best!

 @owl-X: totally agree, great racing ahead! Always fun to watch Loris' flow! Definitely underrated yet always up there ready to win!

 Protected riders is such a dumb idea, as is the semis. Replace them both with an LCQ and broadcast it, 2 problems solved and more racing that someone might actually watch.

 @nilswalk: not a fan of protecting riders at all. You don't make the cut? Tough shit.

 @nilswalk: I agree. I have no problem with protecting a few riders based on prior year's final standings for the first race of the season, but for a whole season? No. From the second race on everyone should stand on their current year's performance, and giving someone a pass into the semis or finals as long as they start (and don't even finish) the quali or semi just feels really wrong.

 @Bibico: That’s the whole point of the LCQ: It isn’t a “free pass” into the final, you still have to run it and do well, but it helps prevent undesirable outcomes like having a big race (or even championship) decided because someone got a flat in qualifying. And it gives the folks who are just knocking on the door of making into the final show a chance to actually have something to fight for. The LCQs in Supercross are often really great races.

 The things is, is that a problem, or a strategy? Nina went hard out of the gate and the rest was poor. Tahnee went hard out of the gate and held it together, but Vali and Dak took it easy and then just accelerated throughout. Would have been fun to watch it, maybe Moir or Cathro can show us something later.

 Semi's aren't streamed, only finals

 only finals are broadcasted. juniors on youtube. elite on tiz cycling.

 UCI lists only Flosports as the broadcaster for Canadian viewers.

Full list of countries and broadcasters is at: ucimtbworldseries.com/watch

 I'm in Canada, I use Torguard VPN and set it to New Zealand to make my ip address look like I'm a kiwi, and subscribed to staylive, think its 6 USD per month, worked with Canadian credit card, viewing the Fort William race was great, and way cheaper than Flosports offering for Canadians

 I agree. what are all the babies going to do? Our sport has the least loyal fans of any sport. Strange because most of us actually do the sport too. Maybe that is the problem? Stoked for the race tomorrow. Dh is alive and well. Just look at the level right now! Just going through growing pains. Finals coverage for ft William was great and I expect the same tomorrow.

 Sure. That moment of glory will be worth it

 Maybe that P next to their name in the results sheet. Or maybe it stand for Pierogi

 @pisgahgnar: It means PINNER!!!!

 how can you tell? What on the results sheet indicates if they are a privateer?

 @Sscottt: No team name listed under the rider's name.

 Loic is protected through to Finals, I believe. Not sure about Troy.

 Both Loic and Troy are protected for finals. The full list of protected elite men also includes; Benoit Coulanges, Andreas Kolb, Greg Williamson, Finn Iles, Luca Shaw, Dakotah Norton and Loris Vergier.

 @Hogfly: Both Protected - top 10 from last race

 Isn't it sick seeing podium level guys outside the top 30 and not knowing why? Thanks, Discovery!

 The P next to their name = Protected

 @edspratt: What does the asterisk after some of the riders names mean?

 @heatproofgenie: I think it has to do with their age. U21 or U23.

 @Hogfly: Thanks

 Last I saw he was hoping to, later in the season, depending on how recovery goes.

 I've got two guys and two gals in the finals