WynTV: Lourdes DH World Cup Finals Chat

 i always thought it was "Shot through the heart... and you're to blame... darling you give love... a bad name"

 @whatyousaid - I get what you're saying, but it's not that easy. The forecast was for a storm to come in - but then again, forecasts are uncertain, and I read at least one report that said the forecast had been for rain early, then a bit of a reprieve, then more rain. Moving the whole event two hours earlier would have been hard to do at short notice - and would have probably mean that the juniors and women would have had hardly any audience (in person or online). Not to mention all the broadcast stuff, etc., all of requires all kinds of advance notice, and that's what pays the bills.

So let's say they had decided to run the pro men first, with the logic being that was the largest field, and therefore they'd then have that whole group racing in conditions that were the same for the whole field. Then hold off for a bit, wait for the rain to fully set in, then race pro women, junior men. You could argue that would have produced a fair outcome - the pro men all would have raced in dry conditions and there'd have been a fair contest. The women and juniors all would have raced in wet conditions, and they'd each have had a fair contest. But you would have had pissed off spectators (missed the event they wanted to see because of the change, etc.), and pissed of sponsors (who don't like pissed off spectators), and you'd have basically told the women and the juniors that they're second class citizens to be pushed around for the benefit of the pro men (in an industry that realizes that growth for the sport is very much tied to increasing women's participation). Not great, right?

Or how about they'd changed the start order, running the top 20 or so qualifiers first, then the rest of the pro men. That way, you'd have likely ended up with the favorites getting their podium spots and ranking points. Probably also a "fair" outcome from that perspective - but seriously shitty for the rest of the pro men, to whom that basically would have said that they're second class citizens, to be pushed around for the benefit of the top dogs. Again, not great.

Frankly, this outcome was not great. At all. But the problem with large events is that it's really hard to move stuff around. Conditions-dependent sports are tough that way - you can't schedule the weather and all that. And then there's the thing where in this field, the top guys have a lot of advantages. You could even argue that sometimes the fact they start last is an advantage - because while tracks usually deteriorate throughout the day, unless that just goes batshit crazy (like it did here - where it's not just corners getting more blown out during the day, but the course basically getting flooded by this monster storm), they probably still make out OK, because they get input from other riders' race runs that may help them with last minute line choices (oh, that secret line I've been taking in practice is not looking so good today; oh, that aggressive line we've been liking has gone to shit and people have crashed on it left and right - need to beware of that; etc.). Sometimes, course conditions improve during the day (tracks drying out after a wet start and such). And sometimes, that just turns around and bites the top guys, hard, as in this case.

The WC tour has 7 races. You can do the points math - it's very unlikely that over the course of a long season, this will really keep the fastest and most consistent racers back. It's a complete gut punch on the day, for sure, and I don't mean to minimize that. But it also keeps things exciting - which is what ultimately pays their salaries.

 Then the top riders would have just moaned about the wind, they just need to man up and accept that weather is changeable