5 Things We Learned from the Val di Sole DH World Cup 2022
Jordan Williams set the fastest time of the weekend
Both Jordan Williams and Jackson Goldstone have been in a league of their own for most of the 2022 season with dominant Junior wins as well as regularly threatening the time of the Elite riders. Val di Sole was no different as Jordan Williams beat out all Elite riders in qualifying with a time of 3:40.491. Proving that it wasn't just qualifying where he was fastest, Jordan also set the fastest lap on finals day. This isn't the first time in 2022 that a Junior has had the fastest time on a track as Jackson Goldstone was the fastest rider at Vallnord.
Of course, there are different conditions for riders in Juniors and Elites, but both Jordan Williams and Jackson Goldstone have shown they will have the speed when they move up next year.
The second biggest Elite Men's winning margin in Val di Sole
Loris Vergier's winning run was incredible to watch and the gap of 3.008 seconds back to Andreas Kolb was a huge achievement on the tricky course. Looking back through the history books, Loris' winning margin in Val di Sole has only been topped once before by Aaron Gwin. Aaron's win was a massive 7.85 seconds on the Black Snake against Greg Minnaar in 2012, but in every race since then, the silver medallist has been within three seconds of the win. The Elite Women's win was the sixth largest margin in Val di Sole, but it was Myriam's second largest win on the track at 4.069. Myriam's World Champs win was slightly larger last year at 4.827.
Intense finally has a competitive race bike
The Intense team has had a tough few years with various different bikes and prototypes not seeming to work for its team of riders. Given Aaron Gwin's various team changes and it seemingly not affecting his ability to win, it always seemed odd that he suddenly lost his winning ways with the move over to Intense. For 2022, everything was changed with a completely new frame and design process and it seems to have finally paid off. Since joining Intense back in 2019, Aaron Gwin has only managed to take four podium positions - all of which have been fourth-place finishes. Since swapping to the new prototype, Aaron secured three of these podiums making it the most successful period he has had since joining the new team three seasons ago. Before the new bike, you would have to go all the way back to one of the Lousã rounds in 2020 for his last podium result.
It seems Intense is finally on the right track with the new prototype and we can't wait to see what another off-season of testing will do to the bike. One thing worth mentioning is we never did see the six-bar prototype Jeff Steber was teasing when we interviewed him earlier this year. Maybe it has been scrapped after the success of the current design or we could see something wild for the season opener in June next year.
Tough end to Junior Racing for Jackson Goldstone
Jackson Goldstone has had one the most successful period of Junior racing in World Cup history as he won both the 2021 and 2022 overalls alongside the World Champs last year. Until the Les Gets World Champs, Jackson had never finished outside the top two in any finals. In his two years of Junior racing, Jackson managed to get nine wins and five-second places. Jackson's Junior racing career hasn't ended in the way he would have wanted with crashes ruining his streak of only taking first or second places. In Les Gets, Jackson took 14th while a crash ending in a broken handlebar put Jackson in fourth in his final Junior race in Val di Sole.
A brutal track to end the season
Val di Sole is always one of the roughest tracks on the circuit but this year brought an even harder challenge with the course being in one of the worst conditions we have seen in quite a while. The course was full of holes from the first practice session and the track continued to deteriorate through the finals with even some of the best riders struggling to stay upright through the week. By the end of finals, we saw some of the largest lists of DNS and DNFs all season with seven riders not making it down their final runs after qualifying. Since the end of racing ,we have heard the news that Greg Minnaar has fractured three vertebrae and Laurie Greenland has shared footage of a massive spill that took place during his race run.
While it's great watching riders take on a tough track, we have heard that not everyone was enjoying the tricks the track brought this week and there may be a couple of changes coming for the next time we visit Val di Sole.
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They both won their first world cups this year and Walker got his first. Finn got more hype though lol.
Ideally with a bit more tech and a bit less gnar. Maybe aim for bit lower average speed, or just safer high speed sections.
TV producers understandably want speed and large jumps to sell. Build those, but make those sections more safe, and try to have the races won and lost in the turns and tech.
Ideally people shouldn't need to risk their lives on the high speed sections right next to trees or bridge handrails like at Vallnord, or risk dying on an OTB in ultra sketchy chunky parts like at VDS.
Ski racing and moto gp kinda has it figured out? High speed crashes are ok where there are crash nets or massive slideout areas. Not ok when you rapidly decelerate hitting a pine tree.
It's always been a rough and difficult track but not impossible for an average skilled rider (I used to train there and I'm certainly not a pro), but in the last few years things have gone really bad.
There are so many reasons behind that, let's just say that you can't expect that the soil you put on the holes two weeks before the race could stay there for long. It was more like a make-up than a real maintenance.
The historic trail builder who took care of the black snake for many years with a shovel and a rake used to start working in March to get the things ready for July/August.
The world cup it's not only a Bruni (who said that was "too much"), Pierron or Minnaar business. There are girls and boys too.
The junior practice was a massacre game. I'm glad that nothing serious happened.
Aaron Gwin not getting on with his new bike was the most talked about subject in downhill for years - and that was when he was in his 20s and still had all his own bones.
I don't think this translates into J & J automatic wins & balling in 2023 though - totally different thing knowing your elite vs. Junior. Just saying the excuses for why the JR's are "not actually as fast" has piled up as high and is as gnarly an ideological mountain as Val di Sol is raw. Just admit - just about regardless of conditions, J & J and a few others are among the top 10 riders at all in 2022. Admire it.
Those guys will win in elite soon, but they had a big advantage in this race.
Just can't say there are ENOUGH riders to set more consistent precedent for how the bikes ride. And that's ignoring the whole not the bike but the rider type narrative.
Could have easily and seamlessly swapped the narrative to "Gwin and Norton relationship paying dividends on the track as both riders earn their best results on the year". Or "track is so gnarly, being a crazy American pays dividends on track that is trying to kill you". I dunno. But like you say, Gwin has won on everything. Even YTs. It's probably not the bike lol
At 30, I refused to accept the offer of a Pro card when USA Cycling ended Semi-Pro class because I felt like I was already on a massive decline and my results would only go down.
But Dak at 30 is getting FASTER and people think he's a kid. So impressive.
I don't disagree with your other points necessarily as small sample size is always tough, but I will say that no one seemed to get along with the old Intense bike and basically everyone has done better moving off of it (to either a different sponsor or the new version).
I'm in western NC just near Asheville (but not in Pisgah District proper - its sweet and where I cut my teeth in the 90's but waaaaay to crowded for my likes anymore. The former Bailey Mtn Bike park was like a mini-Windrock and apparently a pro rider bought it (which was why it closed as a park). Neko lives in Hendersonville and Luka is in Brevard, so w/ Norton & Gwin (prob others) near KX-ville, TN and hordes of riders learning how badass Windrock is - I think its only gonna blow up more. I've been to Snowshoe and most other bike parks on the east coast but Windrock easily blows them all away in my view - the trails, the vibe, the 2500 ft drops from the top - whats not to love.
"Intermediate Mountains"
The whole side-walking of the black & double blacks is truly disturbing and while I do get there is an infinite amount of unsustainable stuff most of us have cobbed in and pounded for 10-20 years maybe some of these newer machined trails will grown in & evolve to where they do erode less and become gnarlier (?) Dunno. Hell, I've been riding out there since the early 90's when NO ONE rode there and that middle black section was pretty bad and badly eroding. But the results - stuff like Cantrell Ck - is just Dollywood sidewalks in my view, formerly awsome and now a must-avoid wacky tourist trail.
BTW was it you saying middle black could've easily been alt re-routes of that by hand w/ local vol crews (something) vs. that getting paved? I don't think machines are always the answer compared to the same style of rerouting done by hand to keep the singletrack feel of places like that.
BTW, you gotta show me these 2-3000ft drops up north...
Ive not been since last Fall - and if its wet, that's a def hell no becase that metased / sedimentary rock & soil there is like plaster & will add 2-3 lbs to your bike (and take hours to clean) - plus its just not fun for me.
But thx for the Thunder / Killington plugs - met a couple dudes @ Windrock who said they are baller and I've not been to either yet...I was refering to the southeast.
Doesn't sound like you own an actual DH bike?
To me Windrock is rugged, rough and it's actually quite tame compared to the 100% cut and ride it used to be. But that's what I love. Not much interest in catch berms and things that require dozer and skid steers or the flat side of a shovel to maintain .
Really do love to "let 'er eat" there
www.rootsandrain.com/event818/2002-jun-2-tissot-uci-world-cup-dh-1-fort-william/results/#h-elitem