Video: Lots of Wooden Features & Jumps - First Look at the 2024 Bielsko-Biala DH World Cup

 They should have put some GTA music over it, with photos of riders in the corner of the screen. Also, hi Tor

 Hi Tor

 Yeh, but not in a good way. Hard to understand the track just an irritating tease, don't waste our time until track walk videos from the teams.

 Hi Tor

 This guy plays Descenders

 KURVAAAA!

 @suspended-flesh: *Kurwa (we don't do Vs )

 @piotrek88: he just used the slovak version

 @piotrek88: Thanks!

 100%, can't wait!

 I think we can count on some weather-related fun too.

 Will be interesting to see how many ruts develop on all that wood.

 Definitely looks like there are a quite a few natural sections in the instagram photo reel. Those will get chewed up nicely after a few practice sessions.

 @jayacheess: There are, all steep places are natural. The camera does not do it justice really.

 My first thoughts as well when I saw images and video of the track, that will be destroyed after first practise

 Honestly guys, I have seen this track in person and this vid shows nothing. Judging the track based on it is impossible. The wooden features are mostly in wet places, there are little springs here and there and there are places which are wet 365 a year. Especially the finish wood is really a bridge over a swamp, it just had to be there. The jumps and berms are on the flatter sections and all steep sections are natural currently covered in loam since they are 100% fresh just leaves removed from the ground and some stumps trimmed. In my opinion they used close to 100% of the slope's potential. Of course the place is not alpine-steep but is close. It will be good.

 @lkubica: is this new track based/has a common start with Bestyja? I think the preview shows parts of that trail, but I'm not entirely sure.

 @transportguy: The very beginning is Bestyja, but later they are close but mostly separate, except few spots.

 @lkubica:

Well said..!

Can't wait to see the first guys come down the mountain!

 @lkubica: thanks for the insight, looking forward to it!

 @lkubica: Do you know the approx length of the track and elevation loss?

 @reks: 400m, 2.5 minute track according to Downtime podcast

 @BenPea: It's 400m indeed, pity I forget to turn the strava on when walking it so I do not know the distance. Most probably below 3 min.

 002.000

 Even double digits would be nice

 Can’t wait till round 999

 Up voted purely on the username

 They will come out. Just give r time.

 @rockyflowtbay: it’ll be like A-line in August.

 @paulwatt: those are bomb craters more so than rocks. Unhappy hands....

 @bman33: ... or unhappy end

 Y is a vowel

 @lkubica: Sometimes

 It will be needed to stay out of the craters that will form in the main line of most turns.

 translate.google.com/?sl=pl&tl=en&text=szczyrk&op=translate
press the speaker button on google translate to hear. Rough approximation: shchirk

In regards to the video, we've been asking the organisers for a proper course preview for the past few weeks on social media, but to no avail

 Sh-ch-ir-k, with "ir" pronounced like in dirt should be close enough
You can find the whole track here
youtu.be/ujPCkt7aHig

 Don’t worry, Vital has your linguistic needs covered.

www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/poland-world-cup-downhill-bielsko-biala-2024?page=1#comment-463666

 Trees?? Are they crazy?!

 If we cared about aging well, we wouldn't be into downhill

 @nikifor88: touché

 I am going to enter on my road bike and prove you wrong.

 @EliotJackson: Didn't see you out there ............ Leogang?

 The idea is that the track is soft and raw, so it gets rutted in and shaped by the rapid onslaught of traffic it's about to get. By Sunday it will be a totally different trail.

 @drakefan705: It looked very loose in some shots, like it's ready to get blown apart. We'll probably have a different track half-way through practice. Rain coming too, going to be fun...

 @gemma8788: Those steep sections are going to turn into "trust the rut" sections real quick.

 @drakefan705: So you're saying this track is a work in progress. They just need 300 riders to pitch in.

 I recon your wrong

 Maybe Martin Maes will give it a go?

 I'm thinking slope bike ftw..

 How'd that prediction go?

 @Point1Athletic: apart from about 30 seconds in wood it wasn't good. Even a flat square 90 turn with hard pedal out. Sorry that's what I'd call enduro, it's not steep enough to call it DH.

 @bat-fastard: ;-) you're more than welcome to your opinion my friend!

 @bat-fastard: did it not have the same average gradient as Fort William!
Steep rewards riders with free speed from mistakes whereas some flatter turns rewards riders who can turn well. 3 to 10 pedal strokes rewards riders who have been on the pedals on the off season.
How many crashes did we see from riders trying to find and carry speed on lines, remove the free speed and the timing becomes more interesting. Bruni nearly won because of a mistake into a flatter section which cost Ronan his 1 second advantage (you can see the mistake in his helmet cam run).
Personally I like a good mix of steep, rocky, loose, bike park. Leogang next, it's probably the same average gradient and has some very groomed bike park stuff so must not be downhill either.

 @betsie: don't really rate fortbill either tbh. Can't wait for Champery to return, hopefully get another day at it in 6 weeks time but there's race in August so hopefully not closed.

 @bat-fastard: comedian!

 @bat-fastard: some boy not liking DH tracks. Must be tough being you.
Champery is European champs this year.
Must sort out my passport.

 @Point1Athletic: nope, fussy bugger at my age lol roll on Les Gets WC and pleney steeps

 Won’t be as good loudenville or
Snowshoe but it will be a good one.

 @bulletbassman: haha those two tracks are very different. Loudenvielle is great and snowshoe is shit (hated by just about every rider, but oddly loved by biased American fans). if this one lands in the middle it'll still be better than Fort William

 @davetrumpore: always made for good racing. Lots of different winners, interesting line choices by top riders, often shook up the standings. Sure I’m a bit biased towards east coast rocks and spectating in person but as far as racing goes it was a good stop that will be missed. Venues like ft bill and snowshoe are sick because they are so different in terrain, culture, atmosphere. Loudenville was just probably the most interesting new track we’ve had since champerry.

 Wire made out of chickens??

 @beermtb: That sounds metal as f*ck

 Roughed up or scored with a chain saw?

 Be my guest and jump a few doubles on a modern day BMX supercross track…..

 Riders on track walk saying don't listen to PB comments from folk not there, the track is seemingly looking sick.

 yea, saw that. sheesh. def a wood drop to slippery wood berm/takeoff of the next thing, followed immediately by another wood thing.

get your tweezers out, gonna be pulling splinters!

 All the wood on this track is on places which are notoriously wet/swampy. So they had no choice.

 The same bike park and blue flow trail that Loudenvielle was last year?

 I don't think you can count...CLEARLY there are 6 rocks...

 don't forget the 2 stumps

 This kind of comments never age well

 Zero

 The same park line/blue flow trail that Loudenvielle was last year?

 see comments on live timing post on the day kooka

 tiz-cycling.io

 Single crown i dont believe… but enduro bikes with double crown 100% maybe

 He rode in Czarna Gora, which is about 4 hours away. Probably the gnarliest bike park in Poland

 @pooceq: ah cool and yeah made fort Williams look like a blue run!

 Lame style

 @neimbc: bet ya its still way to hard for the likes of us, we don’t understand just how steep these trails are and how fast these guys are hauling.

 @Cooper09: Not steep

 @gabiusmaximus: you’d be surprised dude

 @gabiusmaximus: the other day i went on a trail that was hardly steep at all and i still made it up to 45mph in no time so these guys being crazy as they are are going allot faster on these huge jumps.

 @Cooper09: I would be surprised. Cos I know the hill and it's not that steep compared to some other wc tracks I have ridden (slowly)

 @Cooper09: Sure, but watching people send huge jumps is what darkfest and rampage are for. I wanna see dh racing.

 No, I think I saw that he works for Intense now in some expanded role (not simply wrenching for the pros but also doing R&D and product management, or something like that), so he stayed with Intense when Gwin left for Crestline.

 @thekaiser: I forget which off-season interview I hear where AG basically said he tried to lure him away from Intense, but couldn’t match what Intense pays him, John has mouths to feed, etc.

 saturday - qualies + semis
sunday - finals