5 Things We Learned at the Windrock Pro GRT
The first big race of the year is over, the countdown to the first World Cup begins now. With riders tackling the muddy slopes of Windrock for the past three days here are five things we noticed from the sidelines:
1. Loris Vergier can build on last season's sucess
After taking his first World Cup win last year, it looks like Loris is carrying his speed into the new season as he won by 0.506 seconds over Charlie Harrison. The pair were around five seconds up on third place and managed come out on top in the tough conditions. It will be interesting to see if Vergier can carry this momentum into the first World Cup round at Maribor in April, he certainly looked fast when Peaty was chasing him down at testing in Portugal.
2. Lots of new tech
With the arrival of the first big race of the year comes all the new technology being tested for the upcoming season. Rockshox were running a testing event at the race so we got to see all sorts of goodies being run on sponsored riders bikes. This included what looked like a new air can on the rear shock of Vali Holl's YT Tues. We also spotted a prototype Kenda mud spike on Neko Mulally's Intense M29. See more bikes and tech from Windrock here.
3. Ethan Shandro is one to watch this season
After beating every single rider's time in qualifying and then winning the Junior men's race by 10 seconds and getting a time that would have placed him on the podium in the Pro men's field, Ethan has cemented himself as a name to look out for at the World Cups in just two runs.
4. No sign of riders on mixed wheel sizes
With rumors that teams were testing bikes with two wheels sizes, we didn't see any riders turning up at Windrock with this setup. But there were quite a few riders rocking 29" wheels including Junior World Champion Vali Holl who has moved up to the larger wheel size for the upcoming season. One interesting thing to note is that we did spot Martin Maes riding a GT Force with the 29" front wheel and a 27.5" rear wheel at the NZ Enduro. Is this testing for upcoming DH and EWS races?
5. Slick mud and deep ruts made it tough for everyone
Riders struggled all weekend to get traction and maintain speed on the slick and rutted track but mechanics had the fun job of cleaning the bikes and making sure everything was running smoothly. This can't have been enjoyable with the thick sludge that bikes were picking up with each run down the hill. Whoever is washing the riders kit has the worst job of the weekend though.
What did we miss? What stood out to you during this weekends racing?
Previously:
• 11 Downhill Bikes From the Windrock Pro GRT
• Qualifying Results: Windrock Pro GRT
• Qualifying Photo Epic: A Tennessee Mud Bath - 2019 Windrock Pro GRT
• Video: Windrock Pro GRT Qualifying and Whip Off
MENTIONS: @davetrumpore, @andy9
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Member since Mar 16, 2017
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§ 1 Principles
1.3.007 The bicycle is a vehicle with two wheels of equal diameter. The front wheel shall be
steerable; the rear wheel shall be driven through a system comprising pedals and a
chain.
(Exceptions to this rule may exist for certain cycling disciplines, in which case specific
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4.1.044 For Mountain Bike downhill and enduro events, as opposed to the general rule defined
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(article introduced on 1.01.19).