Arierep

In my mind at least, stage DH is different than enduro. The appeal of the sport for many was always how it reflected the winch and plummet type of riding so familiar to plenty of us. The racing format in its turn put pressure on brands to optimise bikes for that, to the benefit of the consumer. Also interesting was the idea of the enduro racer as a very complete athlete, capable not only of performing in the timed DH stages but also of racking up the Kms and elevation gain. This might be an idealistic view of the sport, but nevertheless on shared by many. Fast forward to today and, at least in the public's perception, enduro progresses more and more into stages DH. The athletes will do their job, which is optimizing for the conditions, so no wonder that some felt a bit conflicted about this week's event

Well, that trail bike is essentially an enduro bike from 4-5 years ago, so there's that. Also considering how much climbing there was, it could be a slight advantage. Maybe there's a reason to why race enduro bikes were more like the Stumpjumper a few years ago when enduro had less shuttles, instead of single crown DH rigs

@waldo-jpg: I started following "seriously" (as if there's anything serious about watching other people doing sports...) in 2017/18 and felt things were markedly different back then. There was an enormous influx of bike checks, interviews, race course previews, etc etc, both video and photo before each race. GCN used to send their reporters sometimes even to race the event. New school enduro bikes were being released every month almost. The hype was real.

@Coastalbee: had one of those Stumpjumper Evos back in 2019. Interesting concept, but: - very low anti squat made it pedal like cr@p - crazy low BB made it hit any pebble on climbs, the low anti-squat made it even worse - all bearings were of very bad quality - the shock bolts were made of cheese. Went through 3 while I had the bike Crazy good looking frame tho, and probably the best cornering bike I ever had

I guess you'd be surprised by how many bikes around are designed exactly the way you're describing. The big frame manufacturers in Taiwan put way more work into the bike designs and engineering than many people realise

I bought a Bird AM9 in 2018. I believe that frame was announced in 2017. If one checks the original AM9 geometry chart, it's almost 100% in line with what's being released today. Bird doesn't get enough credit

It's a pity that Duke isn't more popular out of Europe. Their rims are always a sight to behold

@MDW83: I believe they can change the post. Tires, wheels and even a strut replacing the shock have been replaced in the past. Anyway, both Luca Schwarzbauer (P2) and Sam Gaze (P1) seem to run rigid posts exclusively

2 rigid seatposts in the podium

@briain: Maybe you mean that "XC bikes became cool at Pinkbike 2 years ago", to which I would agree. But globally, they were never niche