Follow Kilian Bron and Yannick Wende on the world’s longest urban downhill track! A crazy ride down the stairs and through the narrow streets of La Paz - Bolivia.
That looks like an awesome ride, it also looks like it might be possible to ride it without acting like a douche and pissing off every person you pass, but to each their own.
Perhaps I'll cop a lot of hate for this, but my two thoughts were 1) a large percentage of this "longest urban DH" is just a road ride through a city and 2) if a pov video of the stuff in the town were posted but it was someone on a road bike, they would get universal hate (and rightly so), but because it's a mountain bike it's cool? Nope. I like urban DH, but when it's not a closed course and you're riding straight at pedestrians, at traffic and through red lights, you're just being a knob.
Yeah this is dumb. Piss off enough locals and they'll petition to no longer have these races because of crap like this. I'm certain they can find something else to film for youtube without bothering so many people trying to get around their town.
Same thing I thought. If you brake your neck in the woods because you did something wrong, it’s all about you; but if you brake someone else’s, well shame on you. This is a terrible way to ride a bike.
this is the same Commencal who let Myriam race after her concussion, and let Thibaut after his massive crash biting through his tongue...
i get the people who let this video happen and let those riders race are different people, and that theres more than one party to blame in these situations (UCI and their lack of concussion measures, for example). but unless we lean on someone to make change no change will be made.
I prefer my pedestrians and elderly safe and with their bike hate unjustified thanks, and I like the decision on whether the pros are allowed to race post crash to work on the side of caution, and not to be made by the rider or anyone involved with the team. and ideally i want the sponsors to support and even celebrate that decision.
If you are going to ride in an urban environment (hell, even on trails where hikers and dogs will be present) have a bell or something and give a little courtesy heads up. Goal should be to grow the sport, not to piss people off
The most incredible technical city riding with unbelievable topography (though it's not a 'DH Track' as advertised), but it's the kind of riding that I did when I was a teenager and had no thought for my own safety or anyone elses as evident from the multiple high speed near misses with pedestrians, cars, buses, car doors and surprised angry dogs. Not to mention all the risks of people potentially stepping out from unseen locations and getting obliterated. I know that people will say, what the heck nothing happened and they're skillful riders! But the damage that could have been done to someone.... You only have to watch one of those spectator crash videos from the Tour right? This could have turned deadly in the blink of an eye, which is of course part of why we can't stop watching, but that doesn't make it right and I'm surprised at Commencal for fronting this.
I love all of Kilian's videos, he has been making some of the best and most creative edits in recent years but I really don't like the amount of near misses with cars & pedestrians in here. It was captivating to watch but I don't think we should idolise this sort of riding, I'm all for people risking their own safety in the name of entertainment but not that of the general public. And we don't need that sort of image as a sport, there is enough hate for road cyclists as it is.
If you are going to be rude because you think youre the sh*t on camera, should you really be recording yourself on camera? They have accurately captured everything most people hate about mountain bikers.
This is easy fixed @pinkbike .... instead of getting your knickers in a twist about other politically correct issues that divide our community, here we have an issue that so far 100% of the community are not in favour of supporting... simples... remove it and don't post such pish again
I guarantee one of the usual Trump/ Brexit/ antivax/ antitrans culture war contraversialists shills will pop up to prove you wrong but other than that I agree
Goals for this ride: Piss off every dog in La Paz Almost get run over 3 times Annoy all the locals Terrorize the children Destroy public property Cause at least 5 car accidents Ignore all traffic signs Disrupt public transport Stop on the side of the highway
Also, was anyone else mumbling "Left, left, left, left" while they were on the chain bridge?
This will sound too cocky, but I think this type of behavior is a remnant of colonialism. The way these riders act is like people in Bolivia are less important. I don't think they would ride the same way in a "western" town. In my view, they owe an apology to the community for putting people in danger and for making mountain biking seem out of touch.
Trail equivalent would be bombing by hikers, horses and uphill riders with no pause or warning whatsoever. That would not go over well anywhere, but at least there would be a chance that you'd get a deserved ass beating in the parking lot.
Dude flicks his rear wheel right at/in front of a couple minding their own business on the sidewalk. What a douche. Then they ride around both sides of some guy trying to get out of the way. Completely agree with all the above comments on this ride: irresponsible, unsafe, and disrespectful. Pinkbike should take the video down.
Will get villified for this but I personally found only the part through the public park / square (9:30-9:45) pretty rude. The rest, meh. They picked a very quiet time on the stairs, which was smart and hopefully deliberate. There was hardly any one there. The ped crossing at 9:00 looked bad but the pedestrians crossed through red after the last car as much as Bron went through yellow-to-red. The riding between cars looked annoying maybe but I guess no-one here has ever been to Amsterdam. Par for the course over there.
Yeah wow, was ok at the start but got a bit boring, then got really interesting to towards the end for the sheer disregard of anyone around them. This post didn't make anyone look good here.
I like urban DH, but when it's not a closed course and you're riding straight at pedestrians, at traffic and through red lights, you're just being a knob.
i get the people who let this video happen and let those riders race are different people, and that theres more than one party to blame in these situations (UCI and their lack of concussion measures, for example). but unless we lean on someone to make change no change will be made.
I prefer my pedestrians and elderly safe and with their bike hate unjustified thanks, and I like the decision on whether the pros are allowed to race post crash to work on the side of caution, and not to be made by the rider or anyone involved with the team. and ideally i want the sponsors to support and even celebrate that decision.
If you are going to be rude because you think youre the sh*t on camera, should you really be recording yourself on camera? They have accurately captured everything most people hate about mountain bikers.
Piss off every dog in La Paz
Almost get run over 3 times
Annoy all the locals
Terrorize the children
Destroy public property
Cause at least 5 car accidents
Ignore all traffic signs
Disrupt public transport
Stop on the side of the highway
Also, was anyone else mumbling "Left, left, left, left" while they were on the chain bridge?
They picked a very quiet time on the stairs, which was smart and hopefully deliberate. There was hardly any one there. The ped crossing at 9:00 looked bad but the pedestrians crossed through red after the last car as much as Bron went through yellow-to-red. The riding between cars looked annoying maybe but I guess no-one here has ever been to Amsterdam. Par for the course over there.