Qualifying Results from the Val di Sole DH World Championships 2021

 The GOAT FTFW!!!

 I swear he has upped his pace this season. The man is incredible! If Greg is in the start hut, he has a chance to win. Every. Single. Time.

 My money is on Greg this weekend!

 Those of us who are or have been that age know how much slower you are compared to 30. If he was the age of the riders around him they wouldn’t have a chance. Also if he had a bike that actually fit him since his career started his amount of wins would be unassailable.

 @jclnv: And if my grandmother had wheels, she would be a wheelbarrow.

 @Malky79: Why? because she had so much stuff in her?

 Yeah dude, GOAT status for reals.

 @jclnv: I’m 52 and faster than I was at 30 because of the bikes. Could I beat my 30 year old self on the same bike? No but I would give me even odds age 28 vs age 38 on identical bikes. I think late 30s isn’t a huge handicap for a gifted athlete. Look a how deep Kelly Slater went into his career or look how relevant Candide Thovex is skiing. It’s more a mindset and your ability to avoid injury IMO. I believe Minaar in his mind truly sees himself as a peer to a 25 year old pro and that means everything.

 @tullie: my money is in the bank this weekend!

 @swellhunter: there’s a difference to staying relevant in the sport like Candide Thovex or Steve Peat for that matter and to still compete at races with kids half your age

 @swellhunter: If it's not a handicap, why aren't there more 35+ riders in the WC field? Greg is exceptional.

 From what I've seen in the last two days, he and Laurie are the most at ease on the track. It will be a really interesting race for sure

 @Malky79: she can carry big loads? :haha:

 @swellhunter: Throw in... the ability to recover from injury, both mentally and physically.

 @flowisforpussies: Yeah, people should note that Laurie won here in 2019.

 @yeahdog31: Because having to get on with life is a handicap if you're not getting paid well enough.

 @yeahdog31: Injuries, burnout, starting a family, wanting to actually make money, etc. Lots of reasons there aren't a lot of riders over 35 that aren't related to slowing down.

 @swellhunter: I'm slightly faster in my late forties than I was a thrty, because I was so dang slow at 30. You guys just need to set the correct context!

 @jclnv: You can't discount racing experience. Physically he may or may not be as strong as a 25y/o but the mental game is probably way better.

 @Malky79: If your aunt had balls she'd be your uncle.

 @jclnv: winning

 @jclnv: lucky me that I started biking at age 44 and now being 55 I'm faster than ever. So I cannot compare to being 30 ;-)

 GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT

 YES!!!

 Oh my god

 Holy crap i can't believe that rear wheel didn't explode,Bruni is a unit apparently.

 Save of a lifetime

 100% of pb commenters would have absolutely crumpled.

 What?

 @drunknride: nose manny to takeoff!
It was a save a one point, but he didn't ride away.

 I’d be dead.

 Yahoo Buckaroo!

 Great results in the elites also for IRL

 @Gremclon: Thinking the same thing.
A clean run and he'll be in with a great chance to hold onto them.

 @Gremclon: Gold Stone Steve Austin is coming for your stripes!

 @Assclapp: lol

 @Assclapp: And THAT's the bottom line. LoL

 @Assclapp: is he old enough to drink though? Like 2 cans ar a time? LOL

 True it's kinda bizarre.. maybe the young frenchies are more interested in Enduro competitions

 @granjak: look beyond gravity guys ... The new french generations moved to XC seems... and just did pretty well...

 m.pinkbike.com/news/results-junior-xc-at-the-val-di-sole-world-championships-2021.html

 Interesting point, I would say just a short dip, Vidal and Daprela just came out of juniors and are already competing for the win very early on in their elite careers. Reports from the french national rounds is that there are some absolute weapons coming up soon.

 Juste a dip of 2/3 year without the same amount of talent. But there are a couple of 2006 who are already super fast.
Two especially, Lucas Lagneau and Hugo Marini, who are super fast. They already do better time than the juniors in French cups. Marini put 5 secondes to the best juniors at nationals champs a couple of weeks ago.. brutal

 Just qualifying, I wouldn't read too much into it

 3 Frenchies in the top 5 with an average age below 22. Loic and Amaury are the "veterans" in the team. Unfortunately I don't think the frenchies are worried for the future

 @bikeflog: It's been like that all year long, racing and quali so not reading into just one quali result, French junior men havn't even had a top 5 since Daprela in 2019. It's not like the current crop is going anywhere for a long time but just noticed it seems to be a dip by the french standards.

 Wait a few years, the Alran bros are only 14 yo

 Yes, there are not a lot of good Juniors in France... But wait one year, and you'll see Hugo Marini coming. He's an incredible cadet. And if you wait two years, you'll see Alran brothers (already in a lot of Commencal adevrts) on podiums.

 Don't forget Vidal and Daprela in the top 5 here and very young, Daprela is overall leader and Vidal even asked not to race in U21 in enduro since he has no competition: he did some top10 elite... So for the elite world cup there will still be frenchies at the top for the next 10 years at least, about juniors you will have some dips but regularly some kids will be there. Clubs work very well including old champions tips like Voullioz and they have an incredible terrain to train.

 Oh if you take Tom Guillo in junior: not as fast as expected, but able to land a double flip. Our next Kade Edwards!

 @PauRexs: what's the point of looking beyond gravity?

 Pompon in second will be a close one.

 Fingerrrrs crrrrossed

 Awesome link- thanks!

 Great to see so many riders in the field! Hopefully they can continue to garner support and progress their skills & Canadian DH on the whole.

 Finally switched her off my team for cami and she'll probably get the win now.

 @spicysparkes: I did the opposite

 Its a treat to watch him ride this track. Fucking nuts.

 This track definitely suits him. In 2019 he beat a peak Bruni/Pierron rivalry (plus a very fast Vergier and Minaar) by a few seconds here, and in 2018 2nd only to Pierron during his insane winning streak. I definitely expect to see him on the podium

 Cathro isn't on the GBR Nat'l team, bruv

 since it's not a world cup the video rights are not the same and lots of the usual people are not allowed to film, at least that's what was said in the last "Dialed" episode of the Fox team

 I don't profess to understand how in international sport they decide whether Great Britain competes as one country or as as England/Scotland/Wales/NI like in football but Holy Red Velvet Cupcakes* they need to create a Scottish National Team just so Ben Cathro can ride the course.
*Holy Red Velvet Cupcakes is a BMX track announcer type phrase I stole from Tory Nyhaug

 It's a shame the most important event of a DH race weekend is left out of the WC format. I probably won't watch in protest.

 Neko Mulally’s Instagram story says Grice broke his arm in practice.

 @nickgarrison: Oh No!

 @ridesmoothbro: yup, sadly he broke his arm and is having surgery on it today

 Geez! That suck!

 @ajaypate1: Totally sucks, was rooting for Chris!

 @thewho07: Not quite. Per www.uci.org/docs/default-source/official-documents/2019-uci-mountain-bike-world-championships---all/competition-guide---cm-mtb-uci-2021---val-di-sole.pdf this is stated (on page 10):

"For all DHI events (Men Elite, Women Elite, Men Juniors and Women Juniors), riders are
required to ride in the qualifying round. The number of riders qualifying for the final are as
follows:
- Men Elite: top 80 riders in the qualifying round
- Women Elite: top 40 riders in the qualifying round
- Men Juniors: top 60 riders in the qualifying round
- Women Juniors: top 15 riders in the qualifying round
For the final in the Men Elite and Women Elite, the “protected riders” are: Riders ranked in
the top 10 Women Elite and the top 20 Men Elite of the latest world cup standings of the
current season.
Even “protected riders” must start in the qualifying round in order to be entitled to ride the
final."

It will only be a restriction for men elite as totalt number of entries are lower for all the other categories.

If this means that Seagrave which DNF'ed qualiyfing is out of the final or if it counts as a run, I don't know. edit: it says "start" in the qualifying, so I guess she's in.

 @lowgear: Yes, it is not rare for a (protected) injured racer to only start the qualies to then pull over and DNF. But yeah it still puzzles me why not more riders would be doing that if the qualifier run doesn't count. Of course it could be a mental boost to do well just like a timed training. But experienced riders like Gwin and Sam Hill were known to not bother too much with timed training either so I don't quite know how to interpret the results at the fast end of the results sheet.

 So I guess as Thirion and Hart are plate numbers 10 and 11 they count within the top 20 men so will still be in the finals tomorrow.

 @vinay: I would guess it's good to get in a full run at race pace, but of course your mileage may vary on that one.

 Tahnee said on Instagram that her neck was sore and she decided to skip it and rest. she is protected and will race Sunday.

 You only have to roll down the start ramp if you are protected but you must show up.

 @joshleb: They are 11th and 8th overall in the current world cup rankings, so they are protected. The number plates at this race are based off of UCI ranking, with the prior years world champion holding the #1. It's silly protected status is based off the world cup overall and not UCI ranking.

 In Germany you can watch it so i think you could set the VPN Location to Germany maybe?

 just pay for express VPN, its worth it - connect through germany.. and use the new EDGE.

 Yes RedBull definitely changed something with their geo restriction policy. It seems they not only filter IP, I can't watch it from my Linux computer anymore being in France. Works well with my phone or android TV (using same IP as my computer)

 express vpn and cancel the subscription (via support only) within 30 days to get back the subscription fee..
then choose albania and watch it here: www.redbull.com/int-en/events/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-val-di-sole-english-only

 @eekamouse: Not sure it's Redbulls fault actually. UCI holds the rights and if they sell it to a national (or otherwise) broadcaster in some country for top dollar, Redbull have to georestrict for that country. Economics.

 vrt is supposed to have the rights for belgium but nothing to be found on their channels ???

 @Fred10195: anyway I'm not interested in watching the XC race

 @lowgear: The UCI sells the World Championships as a package; so you get all the disciplines in one. So here in the UK, both Eurosport-GCN, as well as the BBC show them; as well as Red Bull TV showing the MTB Worlds.

However, what always confuses me is some countries are only bothered about road/track - and won't show the MTB Worlds live, and geoblock Red Bull TV in that country. Why?

 @Starch-Anton: Makes a lot of sense. Explains why I stumbled upon BMX world champs on the Norwegian broadcaster who has the rights, today. They would never (pay to) air BMX normally.

 @lowgear: Sure but my point was more about the fact that now they now block Linux browsers whatever the country you live in, it doesn't make sense.

 Ok I think I got it, from France you're not allowed anymore to watch the live stream in other language than French. So you need to connect to a specific URL www.redbull.com/int-en/events/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-val-di-sole-french. What a shame, I hate those french commentators

 @eekamouse: that's strange, I watch the XCC replay with the english comment from Warner and Brentjens
but it was on my android TV

 Was thinking the same, Danny Hart will also be one of the first down the hill (assuming they go in reverse order of quallies)

 Race order is determined by their UCI rankings. So Bruni will be the 4th last rider to go

 I'm more puzzled by why the Worlds aren't at the end of the season so everyone can give it 100%

 @mccarthyp: yeah that was last year too wasn't it? I can't remember the reasoning

 Only 80 spots (in mens) this year I believe

 @Morrrice: umm it says this above: Results from qualifying today do not decide the start order for Sunday's World Champs race, instead, riders will start in UCI order on finals day.

 @feazel: Then I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing that out!

 @Morrrice: no it's not, they are seeded off uci ranking.

 @feazel: I don't get it - then what's the point - there's no points, so it's just a timed run.

 @neimbc: Its because in theory the field could be huge as the number of riders entered by any countries gov. body is variable, so they have a quali to cut it down to only the most competitive riders plus the protected ones (if they don't qualify).

 @benpinnick: Thank you.

 Ronan flatted.

 Start order is determined by ranking, not by qualys

 Broken arm I think I heard

 Broke his arm in practice according to Neko's instagram story.

 @wilsonians: and he hasing surgery on it

 @wilsonians: Oh crap. That stinks. Thanks for the info.

 broken arm

 Chris was listed on the Entry List and was over there based on his Instagram, but he was not on the Start List. Something must have happened. I hope everything is alright.

 uci prefer to holiday in europe.

 The resort has to pay to host the event and whistler don't exactly need to pay for the exposure of a WC on top of crankworks.

 This isn't timed training though, so it doesn't count.

 @mi-bike: True.

 LoL Only if she does well. If she crashes out again I would say no.

 My goodness...that girl is 19 years old, came into elites with a ridiculous amount of early praise and everybody expected from her to just outclass the whole womens elite. The pressure clearly got to her, but there is no need for this stupid sarcasm all the time. Everybody posting comments like this should probably briefly pause and think, how they behaved like as a 19yr old...

 @ThrillPhil46: I disagree. Every rider who was kicking arse before they went to elite were just fine once they got there e.g. Bruni, Hill, Brosnan, Lecomte, Neff, Nico, Sina. That's off the top of my head.

 @iamamodel: Maybe you haven't noticed yet, but not all people are able to deal with pressure etc. in the same way...and no outsider knows what kind of struggles they might go through, even if they seem to be doing just fine in the eyes of us fans/viewers etc.

 @ThrillPhil46: True. No disagreement here. But your original argument was her behaviour was because she was only 19 and I squashed that argument. You've now changed arguments.

 @ThrillPhil46: Easy there Mr. White Knight Snowflake. Don't make mountains from mole hills.

To answer your question, when I was 19 I wasn't acting like I was 5. She is a professional athlete. She should act like one. Not like a spoiled brat. I hope she can get a handle on it because she is the next superstar/future of women's DH. With her age she is an inspiration/idol for many young women/girls across the globe and she can do a lot to move the sport in to the next gen

 @ThrillPhil46: Normaly I just post something and never really respond to any comments afterwards. But I feel like I need to step in here and clear the air a bit.
First of all I thought "Her Hölliness" was a cool nickname, nothing more or less. The interview part was just a little tongue in cheek after the "drama" in Maribor. Just as Wyn Masters did in the post race interviews where he kinda exposed her a bit.

Not too long ago I already posted about the amount of pressure and expectations that she was burdend with when she entered the elites. It was as if becoming WC in her first year in the elites was nothing more then a formality.

That being said, there is nothing comfortable about being a world class athlete. Being on top in any sport brings great benefits, but also tremendous pressure. Not everybody can handle this, therefor not everybody is cut out to do this. Hence why we look up to those people. Acting like a diva or a**hole doesn't win many hearts and doesn't rub off well with sponsors. Being a likeable person goes a looong way and can carry on long after the heydays of your career. To summerise; don't be a douche.

Now, let's all hope everybody get's down in one piece tomorrow and may the best man/woman take the stripes home!

 @m1dg3t: Sorry, accidently downvoted you, can't undo it.

 @Exbow: You should respond to comments more often though I totally agree to everything you said.