Video: A Rapid Run Down the Leogang World Cup Track

 I've ridden that track. It is easy. Its hellish in the wet. But in the dry? Piss.

 We are fans of a professional sport. We don’t have to be on a pro level to analyze, comment, or criticize what we are seeing. Any judgement is relative. If people say the track is easy, right or wrong there is nothing wrong with an average person having that opinion because they are judging it against what they see on other World Cup tracks.,

Using your logic no one could ever criticize a professional athlete or team. If I’m watching basketball or football I have every right to say a players sucks. Of course as a professional player that person is obviously very talented and better at their sport than 99.999999% than the rest of the population, but relative to their peers, and in the context of playing the game at the highest level, that player could also stink.

 I don't think people realize how chewed up a trail gets during a WC race which makes it that much harder. That last woods section looks insanely steep, it was an awesome race in 2019, I can't wait.

 In case the haters/criticizers forgot how awesome it was, here ya go.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbN4fY9nWE0


The riders make the race, not the trail they're racing down.

 Following this logic I can't judge pianist improvisation, if I can only play "twinkle twinkle little star".

 I can ride a moped around a MotoGP track and it's easy. Does it make it a shit race track?

 I’m happy to see the pot holes have been filled in.

 @hirvi: Probably ride a moped down Leogang too.

 @Jaib06: I’ve raced it before as well and this is true, but the pace the top guys go in the dry is absurd and you still couldn’t win on anything less than a downhill bike from the braking bumps alone. And the top guys at Leogang will be pretty similar to the top guys at any other round so I feel like all the “not real downhill” chatter falls flat

 sure, i could do it on my $500 hardtail. Would i have a good time? no. Would i get scoliosis by the end? probably. Would i be going that fast? Hell no. Could i do it without dying? yes.

 @scott-townes: have to agree with you statement

 @Jaib06: well, so take your bike young boy and let's go race world cup !! I can't wait for your result:-) .....oh well not this week....It's too much easy for ya huh :-)

 I find the motorway sections just a bit tedious to watch.

 This is one of those strange rule proposals.
At what point does a track being easy and riding a track fast easy ever become the same thing?
Most tracks are hard, especially blues when you want to go flat out.

I like Leogang v other tracks (it is not anything like my favourite track, I mean I like that it is different) we need the overall winner to be the rider who is the most rounded. Leogang is about flat out through berms and minimal time differences through a large proportion of the track, making the technical part of the track where you have to take the risks to get the win as the areas to make a significant difference are smaller. Add in that the bike park ideally needs a different setup to be the fastest than the lower section, especially if it is wet. Which is what we saw last year.

 @sino428: what do you think you're doing? Spouting logic isn't acceptable here.

 @WillisWeston It's funny because I totally agree, the woods at the bottom part of the track are exactly what you'd want to see for a pro DH track. You'll notice that most of the rest of the track is considerably different from that.

 Well every race is hard in the sense that you have to go faster than the other people, regardless of the track. You could have a DHWC going uphill for 5km on a gravel road and it would still be very hard because you would have to pedal as hard as you could.

I think the issue really is that it's *relatively* easy, compared to other tracks, to go 99.5% as the fastest person, so if you make one very small mistake you can end up quite far down the standings below other riders who in general are not as good, even if they got a faster time on the day.

As you say it does reward precision, but in reality there is a certain amount of randomness in our sport, things do change from run to run and there is always a slight margin of uncertainty about how fast you can hit something. I think the general perception is that tracks like e.g. Andorra punish people less for getting caught out by that little margin of uncertainty, as the track as a whole still gives enough opportunities for the "better rider" to make up time.

I don't even race and if i did i would be far from WC level, that's just the impression i get.

 I appreciate it takes a lot of skill to go as fast as the wc racers go, but the motorway sections are just so boring to watch. It would be better if they skipped those bits on the live stream and placed the cameras on the more technical sections of the course that are more entertaining.

 @kipvr: Agreed. No one is saying the speeds they're carrying isn't crazy. But large parts of the track are just super boring.

 @friendlyfoe @kipvr this definitely is true, good coverage in the demanding sections would be way better. But then they need to build more plattforms to place cameras on, as it's too steep to just put them on the ground

 @kipvr: I agree. And every year they have 80% of their cameras on the motorway. None in the woods

 People piss and moan about Leogang every year, then line up on their DH bikes to hit A-Line all day and brag after about how serious they are.

 @aljoburr Sorry meant to post not reply

 @james182: I half agree with you. Except the wood section which is a "proper" downhill track, the top section looks pretty much like a sort of A-Line...

 Actual Dh riding starts at about 1.28
Stops again around the 2 minute mark
Starts again at about 2.50 continues pretty well to the end

So thats roughly 2 mins of DH in a 4.20 track. By modern standards thats better than average

 @james182: A Line is not a race track and not built to be one.

 My only complaint is too many tunnels. Seems like a disastrous injury waiting to happen.

 @PTyliszczak: except for the global level Crankworx race on A Line, I assume?

 @samdeatley: Crankworx is not a WC Downhill event. Different type of race. I should have specified, it is not a downhill race track of the type expected for WC Downhill and World Champ downhill racing where you will see roots, rocks, raw track, with a mix of manmade features.

 It's where Vali Höll injured her ankle if I'm correct.

 Is that the same one that Vali Höll got her injury on?

 Not the person in charge of the DH Fantasy league, that's for sure....

 Not saying there wasn’t someone actually up late, but I’m sure the Pinkbike software has a feature that lets them set what time a post goes live. They can queue up a bunch of post and set them to go live at different times.

 @handynzl: I'm sure they'll give us at least 17 or 18 minutes to get our teams set before qualifying starts.