Windham WC DH Course Walk

 might be dry this weekend..and it should be interesting to see who can really open the throttle

 Exactly what I was thinking Looks really smooth too

 It's definitely not like Chatel or other popular courses, but this course offers some unique conditions. Moist clay that gets packed down, thrown around, leaks some slick mystery fluid after being squeezed, and has a tendency to thickly stick to stuff when flung at high velocity (like your goggles, grips, and brake levers)... this stuff gets your tires and the nearby roots and rocks coated in some gooey slick fluid which can be the recipe for disaster, especially at high speed. Put your foot down in your turn and your pedal can become a slippery mess too.

It's steep up top, tight and fast with some varied lines, drops, a fairly gnarly large rock garden, which then opens up which really tests how far racers are willing to go. It seems to be a race more about the mind... if you felt the surprising danger of the slick roots and rocks, you may not dare to go so fast. I imagine that the course conditions will change a lot and lines you planned before will probably be the worst once it's your turn. Those who rocket down recklessly/confidently and can create their plan on the go to flow down while going so fast will definitely give a good show, but that comes with great risk. That seems to be how they designed it and why they're marking even seemingly insignificant rocks with orange paint... those can throw you off with how slippery they are (they can sometimes be like ice).

When you see the injuries this race may cause, I think you guys may think twice about how "technical" (challenging would be the better word) the course is in a competitive sense.

 Meant to say Champéry, not Chatel.

 Don't forget also that once riders get on this track it will grow rocks on the course! I used to live 10 minutes from Windham and I swear rocks grow in the Catskills!! so stoked can't wait to watch it on Freecaster

 Not to mention, some of those trees look deadly. I prefer fast courses like this one, it'll show who has the balls to open up, and correct your mistakes when you do sample some of the mud there.

 sounds like brendan fairclough should win then

 i thought it looked pretty tame from these pics but i just saw this video extreme.com/mtb/1012845/fox-racing-shox-course-walk-windham-dh-2010 and its pretty damn gnarly and a good video too

 Finally some reason! I wish these kids had the opportunity to come over here for an east coast geology lesson! Track looks awesome!

 Come on Fraser...as if you've ever seen a World Cup live or any pros race??

To the grom kids who don't know, Fraser's been to virtually every World Cup in the past decade. If he says it's a good track, his opinion qualifies.

 "The riders who can keep it under control at mach 1 and stay off the brakes will win."

I'm not disputing his knowledge or anything but I think everyone has worked that one out already.

 Nah bro. It's more wet 'n' wild than a swedish hooker.

 I wish whistler could have a world cup and crankworx you can run downhill and xc here

 ya if they were able to get a wc race on the west coast, would be siiiiiick

 BC is basically the home for MTBing, Theres honestly no excuse why there isnt a WC race out here. Mt St Anne? lolz.

 Looks fast!!

 good luck iggy

 gnarly, looks pretty steep

 and who says american tracks aren't gnarly

 The track looks pretty interesting, can't wait to see what happens. I'm likely to pick up some neg props for this but from the comments I have read, looks like people will be using this article as a way to shit talk U.S. tracks......

 ^ yeah, think people look at tracks being better if they're steeper, this is a FAST track, the lack of pure steep corners means you can really let go, think it'll be sweet as! Plus those gaps look fun

 ahhh back in the US and only 3 hours from me, love it! And for anybody complaining that its not steep enough or not technical enough just keep it to yourself. Having a variety of tracks can bring out different riders strengths, going to be a super fast race which is going to be awesome!

 sickgnarshrrrrreddddddddd!

 holy bananas that looks technical

 track looks sick!

 iggy's racing this?

 U S A !

 Man that is one h-core rock hip near the top. I can see someone going down hard off that.

 So it's ok for everyone in the US to attempt to write off other countries venues, yet it's unacceptable for anyone to say anything negative about your tracks? Don't you understand the irony in that?

Stromlo anyone? Some f*cking hardcore obstacles on that track yet it was still not good enough, even though no Yanks came close to the time Peaty put in, I guess that was because they didn't want to try on such a mundane track; save those for home

 Buff forearms everywhere!

 can someone tell me what time it starts in british time please

 EAST COST REPRESENT!

 WEST COAST REPRESENT! (p.s. much better riding on the W coast anyway)

 youve never ridden the northeast, sucka. or the northwest...

 Tank3827, Gwin is from the driest part of the states, and Joey isn't from a particularly wet place either. I see what you're saying, but the US has extremely varied climates in different regions so it's not completely accurate to say that about all US racers

 runner, can see what your saying mate an agree that if the rider aint from a wet area they may not be sutited to it but look at sam hill from the land of oz that place is dry as fook an he is a ninja in wet techy tracks thats why on the flip side of the coin the athertons head to your country to train because they live in wales(if carlsberg did wet countries this would be it) an ride there, they use the great dry tracks that you guys have to make sure they can ride both well see my point ?

i think an i may be chattin bollox, but at there level you have to be able to ride all tracks well not just the ones you like the look off if you stand a chance of becoming world champ

 lol true

 I tought they were gonna paint the whole track with that orange paint....it just seems like he put a lot of it on every rocks and every roots, i mean whats the point of highlighting something if the rest around is bright orange as well?

 Nah guys, you've got it all wrong, it's a new up and coming form of tag art, for real. It's sicko as.

 yeah dude!! snowshoe needs to have a world cup! some of that terrain/trails are just begging to be a world cup race track! steep, good dirt, rocks, fast open shit, long descents, its got everything. im riding there in about two weeks! so pumped!

 Snowshoe wouldn't do it. It's all money. UCI has tried to get angel fire or vail to do it again, supposedly asked diablo, and nobody wants to put up the tons of cash and freebies that go along with a wc stop.

 Bring back WC to Bromont screw that US Lobbeing

 IMO bromont sucks. i really didnt like that track at all. i also heard many of the riders didn't like it either.

 which is why they should settle for whiteface mountain, between windham and bromont... with proper funding and building, a gnarlllly trail could come out of that place.

 this

 finaly!!!

 ahaha yeah kinda

 Oh, you mean a tired ass track that even the pros are sick of?

 No really, it sucks. And super boring to watch. I don't really expect you to change your mind though, I know you british kids won't admit it, just like you won't admit that orange bikes blow.

 knife you made me laugh with the orange bike comment

 I wish i could give you more then one prop Knife-in-the-dark

 fort william blows. end of story.

 More tech, yes, challenging? I doubt it. This track will be so fast that riders will have problems landing on flat sections in between the steeps and drops. Over shoot one of those ledges in the 'bowling alley' will send you flipping at 40 mph down the hill

 initially i thought the track was a bit tame, from previous photos before this article, but i think it is world cup standard. i do think maybe a few more turns would have made the event better, because thats why we all ride mtb isnt it just to hit turns

 @ Knife-in-the-dark.quote "british kids won't admit it, just like you won't admit that orange bikes blow". dude i totally agree with you on that but i am british and i agree that orange bikes blow, i can feel the neg props comming

 cGonzalez, have you ever been to Fort william? I Doubt it, so stop saying it a shit track. And btw this track looks f*cking sick aswell!

 lets just add to this argument, that in the off season the top U.K racing family comes to California to train, might say its because the weather but I think we gotta look into the fact that Gee even says the riding is amazing!

www.pinkbike.com/video/137948

 also it snows on fort bill in the winter ? plus to my knowledge (which is very limited ) in Britain we have very few decent length DH tracks, certainly with lifts, just because we have almost no mountains, certainly in comparison with u lucky bastards

 Yet we manage to produce far more top DH racers than USA or Canada

 yep! how many 'mericans in top 20? i have nothing against Windham track really but in no way you have the right to diss Fort William nor the Orange bikes. they had this new school geometry that "modern" dh bikes used 10 years ago. so shut it! hope to see you with a track in the UCI calender 5 years in a row but i doubt it!

 hey tomboulter we excel at different aspects of the sport. north america is more about freeriding, and you guys are more about dh. and it shows when you look at the top guys in both

EDIT:oh and i think we can all agree that this track is better then last years world champ track. that thing really sucked

 If North America had half of the WC stops like Europe, you would see more badass Americans on the world cup. It's alot easier for even ok riders in europe to be able to travel for races and gain experience, whereas the us and canada has 1 maybe 2 races they can go to, and even those are thousands of miles away, for most. Oh and by the way, just because something was groundbreaking 10-15 years ago, doesn't mean it is still groundbreaking. I put Orange in the same category as mtn cycle, at one time super rad, now just old and tired.

 Knife in the dark , More USA rounds would not help , you dont see the Aussies/kiwis having any probs stomping the top 20 , the prob seems to me (--- only my opinon ) that you guys seem to focus more on the free ride/slopestlye side of things , well thats how it's portrayed in our
Media

 @knifeinthedark were on a forum so I have to expect these narrow minded views of world cup tracks. As to fort william your right it's pretty beaten in some places, but what are you expecting some sort velvet that we could take cannondale/Intense down with out it snapping?

 Okay, I think the reason why USA sucks is because most people here are watching football and eating barbi-q`s all most of the time. And most people dont even know what mountain biking is, if they do then they think of skinny people on spandex.

 @CaptainQueerMTB
i have ridden fort bill. not my favorite. tracks pretty tired. they need to give it a few years off then come back to it so the hype for the riders will be back in that track.

 Fort William is not necessarily about the track although it is fast, long and physically demanding. But the riders love the event because of the fans and the atmosphere there i'm pretty sure it will be held there for many more years to come.