Ronkol

FWIW. There are a lot of people making comparisons with larger sports and discuss "participation fee/lodging". I on the other hand have some experience with a niche sports; 10x10 draughts as my brother has been top 15 and now at age 64 is still top 100. Everyone will have a good laugh about this sports, as this is truly niche with little to no sponsorship and hilarious price money. But you know what the bigger tournaments often have? Lodging. Especially for a local venue this is a very obtainable incentive by adding the local hotel to the sponsorship list in return of lodging the best players. It makes a lot of sense for a niche sports not to raise the price money, but to at least make sure there is a field by lowering that bar. On the experts talking about how they pay their own sports: Yep. I myself am participating at my styles biggest Karate Event in Japan. I get it, I really do. It's hilarious someone like me can get a spot as i am nowhere near an international level, but I could combine it without holiday and the organization was happy to add another nationality to the list. But it would be so much better if a true athlete of a young age got that opportunity.... but he/she isn't a middle aged manager with the disposable money to do something silly like this. And that goes for people like Alex Alanko (I am betting he's pretty much scraping on cans of beans to fund his sports)... how can a top 10 rider of his age fund his sport? Answer: He can't which is why he pretty much disappeared from the field. By at least offering lodging people like him can compete in the big events again...

That nearly OTB moment... I felt that one.

@eckljkr: As if Claudio and Rob weren't making mistakes or not full of silly hype/ People are exaggerating the quality difference.

@yakimonti: Clearly not as cool as howling with the mob ;)

I'm clearly in the minority by being not bothered by the commentary at all.

I don't understand the vitriol. I think the commentary is fine and not worse than Rob and Claudio.

Ergonomically, perhaps, but some of their compound reacts on sweat and becomes taffy.

My expensive Rudy Project clear cycling glasses are hands down my best buy of the last decenium.

Every drop deeper than you can roll through demands a modicum of technique. A 90 cm (3ft) drop is brutal without technique, especially if it's a drop to flat. On what's going wrong? I see guys lifting their front wheel while going slow, not realizing that if your front wheel goes down again before your rear wheel left the feature you will go over the bars. Quite simple, bad technique. And the other issue is people not going to slow, but way too fast (for their skill level). I see people railing through woods at moronic speeds. To make this plain and simple, put on your helmet and walk with 3 miles an hour into a tree. If you are not convinced, have a little jog of 6 miles an hour and run into that tree. Not learned your lesson yet? Do it at full sprint. Even with a helmet, I doubt you will be up for another go. These guys go much faster without technique and then find out what a hard stop and momentum do to a body (if not their head). Lastly there were a few experienced riders having bad luck landing less than perfectly, diving into a corner and then hitting a pebble or rock while their body was imbalanced. Usually it ends well, sometimes it doesn't, with spectacular results (we all have crashed). But generally it's people not understanding the forces at play. and how dangerous it is to do these things without sufficient skill .

In a way they do. If you have done any competition sports you will most likely have experienced something similar (if not at this level).