Video: Story of the Race with Ben Cathro - Snowshoe DH World Cup 2022

 I really want to see that line again in replay or even slowmo. I have ridden a few times over the years, never seen or hit that line thru there.

 @bman33: it’s at roughly 50 minutes in the redbull feed replay if you want to watch it again. The replay has all the riders start times bookmarked so you can quickly skip to who you want to see.

 That was line of the day, I too thought there's be mention of that. Anyway, I've watched it about 10 times so far. Just awesome.

 Cathro said at the start of the vid that he hadn't watched the race this week?

 RB won't allow Ben to do stuff like this, sadly.

 "Two kinds of people wear elbow pads, smart people and pussies and I ain’t either one of those."
Kelly Mcgarry

 @editor: McGazza! Great quote. I'm both

 @editor: haha, that’s awesome.

It’s also really hard to find elbow pads that don’t either cause serious arm pump when or fall down your arms… especially when your givin it 110% during race runs.

I’ve finally found a set and I have to set them up just right, but they work great for me.

Also, everyone’s body’s are different, so a set that works for one person may not work at all for others.

 @editor: Crazy because for a time he'd rock one POC elbow pad

 And which model were they running??

 @50percentsure:
Men were mainly riding, Argotal - DH - SuperSoft Compound in qualifying and finals...
I guess there were some attemps to go on Krpyto-Rear as it has more self-cleaning than Krypto-Front the mud seemed to be very "clay-like"

 Iirc they mentioned planning to run the Argotal

 Seriously the only thing I want to know is what tires they run.

 I am SUPER interested by these new Conti's. They look so great, the features are excellent, as well as the weights / prices, etc...
Thinking about a Kryptotal Rear + Argotal front and eventually a Hydrotal front for winter.

 Continental needs to jump on here fill in all the details. boost their annual sales to new record

 Hydrotals? (The full on mud spike)

 I’d like to see coverage of the podium’s tyres after each race anyway. It will shine a light on relative performance (or even if it doesn’t, that itself is interesting). Matt Walker’s win at Leogang, where he made up time on the rest of the podium through the woods, was done on DHRs as far as I can tell. He mentioned tyre choice as a factor post-race.. question is: what was everyone else running?

 What'd he run?

 Don't forget that the protected riders who didn't qualify got to start ahead of some big names too.

 @blowmyfuse: Didn't know - how, which were these?

 @blowmyfuse: agree. I guess that’s just how it goes. For me, the biggest difference comes in where who gets the podium and who wins it, so basically the top 10. For example finn Iles and Greenland went 18th and put a fire of a run. These guys are top of the cream and if they had a lil drier track and went later the chances of them winning or coming very close to Amaury’s time was a strong likelihood. But that’s how DH racing goes I think. Many factors come together to decide who wins among the top 5-10 riders, for snowshoe rapidly changing track and tire choices may have been too on the list besides riders skills.

 @DuRietz: Easiest way to spot them is to look at the start list, which is hard to find then look at the rider in 20th place. Then look at the Roots & Rain qualifying list to compare.

Gonna copy and paste the one example from this race from another comment I made further down so sorry for the duplication:

The only unfair part of seeding for the races is riders who qualify top 20 but get pushed back to an earlier start time to allow the "Protected" riders a slot when they blow off track in qualifiers or have a mechanical...or even worse...just don't qualify very high.

I'm fine with adding the "Protected" riders back to the main field. But inside top 20 is a bit too much grace for a guy who got 18th last time around and gets to slot in front of guys who earned that late of a start. Not sure where protected riders should slot in, but that is almost too beneficial.

Several riders had much muddier conditions up top due to this.

Good example is Laurie Greenland. He qualified in 21st at the Shoe.
Austin Dooley qualifies 1 spot ahead of him (20th) but is pushed back to 28th start time on race day and Greenland by new rules somehow gets AWARDED 16th.

It might not seem like a big difference. But that pushes Dooley to 2:11 PM. Greenland doesn't leave the gate until 2:39 PM.

If you've ever been at the top of a wet mountain on a sunny day waiting to race, you know that leaving 28 minutes later in the day is a HUGE advantage on the open parts. You'd be amazed what 30 minutes & 11 elite riders cleaning out the main line will do.

Qualifying 20th at a World Cup DH sucks. You're the first guy punished.

 Seems crazy to me but then again Remy Morton rides fest with no knee pads and Jorts on. Each to their own.

 @dkendy1: way to sell him short, no mention of his BMX background

 I'd be more concerned about getting MRSA. I've known several guys who've gotten MRSA from cuts in muddy DH at Snowshoe. A friend actually passed away as a teenager from a horrible months long battle with MRSA that he originally contracted from a huge cut going off the Wild Zone drop.

 @blowmyfuse: yeah my elbow got seriously infected from a deep wound on Huck Yeah in QTown. Luckily my mate noticed the green oozing out of my bandages. Took a year to heal as they kept it open for months to clean it every two days. Scraping with a small circular scalpel, fun. Elbow pads are good

 @dkendy1: nasty stuff.

My thing is that Snowshoe has all of it's condos on the top of hte mountain. They've all been there for decades and so has the plumbing. So no telling what toilet ooze can seep up through the springs on that mountain side.

The top looks like paradise, but the age old saying "Shit flows downhill" is what I bank on.

 Any time there is rain it's rarely "fair." There have been plenty of DH and enduro races where it started dry and then started raining halfway through. Just the way it goes sometimes.

 Quite the opposite really. Nothing could be more fair than the fastest qualifiers earning a place on a drier track. Unlike rain late in the race, where the fastest qualifiers get a worse track, making it less fair. I think this round was DH racing at its absolute best. Brutal, but brilliant!

 Agreed, most time the track is hardest for the fastest qualifier and they'll still smash the field by seconds. So even though they may have had an easier track for the rest, I don't think the results would be very different had the track been the same for everyone.

 The only unfair part of seeding for the races is riders who qualify top 20 but get pushed back to an earlier start time to allow the "Protected" riders a slot when they blow off track in qualifiers or have a mechanica.

I'm fine with adding the "Protected" riders back to the main field. But inside top 20 is a bit too much grace for a guy who got 18th last time around and gets to slot in front of guys who earned that late of a start. Not sure where protected riders should slot in, but that is almost too beneficial.

Several riders had much muddier conditions up top due to this.

 Good example is Laurie Greenland. He qualified in 21st.
Austin Dooley qualifies 1 spot ahead of him but is pushed back to 28th start time on race day and Greenland starts in 16th.

It might not seem like a big difference. But that pushes Dooley to 2:11 PM. Greenland doesn't leave the gate until 2:39 PM. If you've ever been at the top of a wet mountain on a sunny day waiting to race, you know that leaving 28 minutes later in the day is a HUGE advantage on the open parts of the mountain. You'd be amazed what 30 minutes & 11 elite riders cleaning out the main line will do.

Qualifying 20th at a World Cup DH sucks. You're the first guy punished.