Andy-FFM

@bashhard: from one fellow to German to another: your irony detection needs proper calibration:) The point you raise in your original post is spot on, though!

@Starch-Anton: My naive hope: if there is a cool venue, in a currently underdeveloped market, then they would of course see to it that an event happens, even if the organizers themselves cannot cough up the regular fees, as that seems in their own long term interest. Perhaps I watched to many Disney movies as a child...

@Starch-Anton: @JohSch: I get that how other sports work (supposedly). I was asking whether the DH WC could be different. Seek out places in Eastern Europe/Asia/South America etc. that could work as venues, but where people have not considered making a bit. Going by this Q and non-A and the general lack of information/decisions for a race season that is less than 12 months ahead, I have little hope for the more immediate future. But one hope to cling on to is that Chris's track record for the EWS is quite good at least in regard to having more diverse venues or non-classic venues.

I have a related question. The current model reminds me of people waiting for their future significant other to knock on their front door instead of going out and seek them, wherever they may be found. Will the future of the WC depend on receiving bits from venues or will there be a bit more active recruitment so that weget to see more diverse venues?

"Austrian Gravity Series aims at newcomers and young riders starting at age 11, all race tracks come without "big balls" obstacles." As somebody from the opposite age spectrum, I still applaud this. Good and challenging racing can be had without do-or-die elements on a race track, and seems particularly sensible for any race series that is not meant to represent the absolute pinnacle of the sport anyway.

@tim-from-pa: you do understand that that means that the marshall at the point where Jessica crashed had about 60 seconds to assess whether the situation called for a course hold, which also needs to be communicated to all the marshals further up on the course to be effective at all, which may not even be that marshal's call, thereby having to decide whether to interfere with the whole race and potentially the whole season, or whether Jessica could be safely moved of the course and be looked after outside the tape, while they would probably also be asking why they volunteered for the sh*** job in the first place.... Yes, this is a 6 line sentence, and it probably took you about as long to read and to discipher before deciding whether to hit reply as that marshal had to make their much more consequential decision. I hope Jessica is alright and I am gutted for Mille, she was on her way to a great result, but I cannot see a complete fail on on anybody's part in this situation.

Yeah, reminded me of my first race replays watched on Eurosport around 1997...Amaury McDonald's run was so dramatic to watch...

Going to be a 38 next year, so I still have the potential to go one year faster next year, right?

@Idaho: Thanks, didn't know that! Won't join the speculation as how that affects Gwin's taxes; I would have thought that Montana being in the Rockies might actually be a better place to prepare for European alpine downhill tracks than Southern California...

Congrats to Norton, well deserved title! Did Gwin actually move to Montana?