5 Things We Learned From the Maribor World Cup Double Header
Double Headers Should Stay but Tweaks are Needed
![She s been knocking on the door of it for a while but today was the day that Nina Hoffmann took her first victory.]()
Thibaut Daprela Makes the Best Start Ever for a Graduating Junior
![No podium heroics this time around for Thibaut Daprela but a top 10 is still a super strong result for the first year elite.]()
Daprela proved his 11th place at World Champs the week before was no fluke and he backed it up with a second-place qualifier and another top ten for the second race on Sunday. He now sits third in the overall rankings and will be hoping for more of the same in Lousa.
The Commencal Supreme is the Bike to Beat in Wet Conditions
![Mistakes cost Myriam Nicole in a field of top-flight female racers deeper than we ve seen in many years. 4th place for the ex-series leader but at least the plate can turn back to single digits heading to Portugal.]()
The V10 came back strong in race 2 with both Hoffmann and Vergier piloting it to victory and there were also strong results for Greg Minnaar and Luca Shaw as the Syndicate won the best team award. Of course, the bike is just one part of the puzzle but it's clear that the riders on the Supremes were flying in the stickest of conditions.
Brook MacDonald's Awesome Recovery Continues and Remi Thirion is Back
![23rd was icing on the cake for Brook MacDonald s comeback after a week of extremely rough conditions and struggle with mindset between the tape.]()
It was also great to see Remi Thirion back at the sharp end of things. Thirion broke his back at Leogang on a jump that was later reshaped as it was deemed unsafe. He returned to racing at the start of 2018 and has been slowly building form ever since. He's a wet weather master and his second place on Friday was his second-best ever result in World Cups. It also backed up his bronze medal picked up in similar conditions in Leogang. It's great to see this incredibly skilled rider back near the top after a horrific injury.
Bike Noises in the Live Feed Sounded Great
![Leona Pierrini looks to be the class of the junior women field so at the moment.]()
The double header weekend in Maribor was a great pilot and kudos should go to the UCI for pulling it together in a short space of time under difficult circumstances. The contrasting conditions gave us two fascinating races and the tape changes were smart enough to vary up the racing between the broadcasts. It makes sense for the fans, the TV and the teams to pack in more racing to a season and we hope it's something that continues in the future.
As with anything like this though, there were some teething issues. Most notably number plates weren't changed between races, which meant the series leaders weren't given the opportunity to strap their well-earned number 1s to their bikes. The prize money was also split between the two races. Racers don't earn their keep from prize money but they should be rewarded for winning a World Cup in a double-header just the same as any other.
As with anything like this though, there were some teething issues. Most notably number plates weren't changed between races, which meant the series leaders weren't given the opportunity to strap their well-earned number 1s to their bikes. The prize money was also split between the two races. Racers don't earn their keep from prize money but they should be rewarded for winning a World Cup in a double-header just the same as any other.
Thibaut Daprela Makes the Best Start Ever for a Graduating Junior
Thibaut Daprela burst into the elite ranks with aplomb in Maribor. As the latest of Nico Vouilloz's Nice-based prodigies, he made short work of the field in his time as a junior and has now carried over that pace to the elites.
With a third-placed finish on Friday, he produced the best-ever result from a junior rider graduating up to elites for their first race since the inception of the junior category in 2013. It's also the joint best result of a first-year elite in that time too, tied with Loris Vergier who also got a third in Windham in 2015. However, it took Vergier six races to reach that level whereas Daprela did it on his elite debut.
With a third-placed finish on Friday, he produced the best-ever result from a junior rider graduating up to elites for their first race since the inception of the junior category in 2013. It's also the joint best result of a first-year elite in that time too, tied with Loris Vergier who also got a third in Windham in 2015. However, it took Vergier six races to reach that level whereas Daprela did it on his elite debut.
Daprela proved his 11th place at World Champs the week before was no fluke and he backed it up with a second-place qualifier and another top ten for the second race on Sunday. He now sits third in the overall rankings and will be hoping for more of the same in Lousa.
The Commencal Supreme is the Bike to Beat in Wet Conditions
The Supreme has been one of the most decorated bikes in the history of downhill (you can read a history of its success here) and that lineage is still being carried on today. After winning half of the available medals at the downhill World Championships through Balanche, Nicole, Hrastnik, Thirion, Chappaz and Slack, the Supreme continued to collect podiums in Maribor. There weren't any wins this time but the bike achieved success across all the categories including trips to the podiums for Ella Erickson, Myriam Nicole, Monika Hrastnik, Dan Slack, Remi Thirion and Thibaut Daprela on Friday's wet race.
The V10 came back strong in race 2 with both Hoffmann and Vergier piloting it to victory and there were also strong results for Greg Minnaar and Luca Shaw as the Syndicate won the best team award. Of course, the bike is just one part of the puzzle but it's clear that the riders on the Supremes were flying in the stickest of conditions.
Brook MacDonald's Awesome Recovery Continues and Remi Thirion is Back
Brook MacDonald's astonishing recovery continued in Maribor as he continues to re-find his feet at World Cup speeds. Brook's 63rd place finish in Leogang was a triumph in itself but in Maribor, he recorded a 39th place in race 1 despite a crash on the long right-hander then went even better with a 23rd place finish in race 2. Brook has shown incredible force of will to get himself back to his point and we can only see him continuing to improve as his recovery goes on.
It was also great to see Remi Thirion back at the sharp end of things. Thirion broke his back at Leogang on a jump that was later reshaped as it was deemed unsafe. He returned to racing at the start of 2018 and has been slowly building form ever since. He's a wet weather master and his second place on Friday was his second-best ever result in World Cups. It also backed up his bronze medal picked up in similar conditions in Leogang. It's great to see this incredibly skilled rider back near the top after a horrific injury.
Bike Noises in the Live Feed Sounded Great
Crowds are a huge part of World Cup racing and it hasn't been quite the same without them. The finish area celebrations have been muted without the roaring crowds and the tracks seem eerily silent as the riders careen through them in search of the fastest time.
The one benefit we do get from the lack of a crowd is that the microphones are able to pick up the sounds of the bikes. We certainly wouldn't trade in the crowd noises but hearing the patter-patter-patter of a perfectly set up downhill bike as it glides over a bed of roots is an unexpected but nice change. We're not sure if Red Bull has increased its sound quality on the broadcast or there was just a lot less ambient noise but it's something we'd love to hear more of in the future.
The one benefit we do get from the lack of a crowd is that the microphones are able to pick up the sounds of the bikes. We certainly wouldn't trade in the crowd noises but hearing the patter-patter-patter of a perfectly set up downhill bike as it glides over a bed of roots is an unexpected but nice change. We're not sure if Red Bull has increased its sound quality on the broadcast or there was just a lot less ambient noise but it's something we'd love to hear more of in the future.
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2nd Place, Overall UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 2004, Downhill
3rd Place: Fort William UCI World Cup DH
4th Place: Les 2 Alpes, France UCI World Cup DH
3rd Place: Schladming UCI World Cup DH
2nd Place: Mont Saint Anne UCI World Cup DH
3rd Place: Livigno, Italy UCI World Cup DH
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Before the specific junior category existed, other guys to get an elite World Cup podium at a junior age include Brendan Fairclough (2005 aged 18 ), Troy Brosnan (2011 aged 18 ) and Loic Bruni (2012 aged 18 ). I'm sure there'd be a couple more like Nico...
Since 2013 juniors have had their own category at world cups. Of course, we can still compare their times with the elite men but it's not quite the same, track conditions are more likely to change between the races etc...
I totally realize now by re-reading what I said how silly that makes me sound LOL.
I actually really like getting up early now... so much time for activities! Also nothing like getting to the top of the mountain in time for a sunrise with no one around. Plus kids have forced a routine on me... can't even sleep in anymore... I just wake up. And this is someone who use to be able to sleep to 4pm just because I wanted to.
I actually enjoy being up early, but I struggle with it, I can do it like once a week if I need to. If I were to go to bed at 3am and wake up at 10am, I feel fine. If I go to bed at 12am and wake up at 7am I feel like complete crap, even though i got the same amount of sleep.
*Warning: do not attempt during early baby months without your wife's permission. And if she says yes, be very careful about how much she means that yes!
When not working from home, I get up at 5:30, am out the doors at 6 tor ride through the woods to be at work at 7. Brilliant start on the day
She is super independent too, so if she wakes up at 0700 on the weekend, she'll go downstairs, fix a snack and start coloring, other than hearing her door open she doesn't disturb us.
@ryan2949 your results may vary. I have friends who's kids are up at 0530 every morning.
Especially dislike the chainsaws and vuvuzelas.
That's just f*cking greedy on behalf of the race sponsors. There was pretty much the same amount of coverage as two separate races, maybe a tiny bit less because there were less interviews, but that is because of the pandemic, but not because of the double-header.
WynTV: "Hold my beer!"
Without being able to charge parking, admission, food, beer, etc it sounds tough for the organizers to even be able to cover the costs based just on the 60% of their advertising space they can use
www.uci.org/inside-uci/constitutions-regulations/financial-obligations
The mountain bike documents there cover the rider fees, team fees, hosting fees, prize money amounts, etc. It doesn't directly spell out in that document who funds the purse, but I think that is specified somewhere else.
For 2021, it looks like the UCI has now added a $4151 "candidate fee" for race organizers, separate from the event fee. My guess is that they added this so that if events are cancelled due to covid, the UCI still gets to keep the candidate fee.
For 2021 they have also specified that it costs $5931 more to host a double-header than a single event. Until now there hasn't been anything specified for that. I wonder if the organizers this year are getting away with the single event fee or being charged double the regular fee?
I heard Troy say he had a dry rear and that screwed it for him and I think Matt Walker ran a dry rear in the first race which he said made it sketchy.
I had a wet rear once. Needless to say my underwear was not impressed
I would like to see a true double course though with two distinct WC level tracks - the efforts in maribor are commendable but if they held that in the Porte du Soleil you could run three world cups in three weeks from Avoriaz, Morzine and Les Gets - actually chuck in Chatel and you could do 4. Morgins 5, Champery 6......Do the whole season from one location Boom!
Also because the last race is outside of Europe, more European privateers would attend. If you notice last year attendance at snowshoe was down vs Worlds in MSA. Maybe if it was a double then the attraction would be more incentive to go.
The doubles are definitely a thing that should be utilised for other races. There should be world cup races in asia, africa, south/central america, and oceania.
A double header in a couple of US locations would make the trip worthwhile. I am not sure why the US is consistently left off the schedule.
What's the distance between these two fictional towns? Twice the distance between Ft. William and Nové Město na Moravě.
It's pretty much why the US is consistently left off the schedule.
You could take Loris Vergier and put him on a V10 from 2 generations ago and he wouldn’t win that race. He’d still smash us mere mortals but wouldn’t beat Bruni on his current bike
Pretty sure that would put Specialized or Santa Cruz in the "fastest bike" placing if actually averaged finish time for them. I could be dead wrong also.
Where are my math nerds?
I quite literally believe single pivots only excel on certain style courses and that multi-link rear ends that allow the rear wheel to track backward more freely are "faster" designs that let the bike & rider carry (or not lose) more speed. YT, Scott, GT, Specialized, Pivot, Mondraker, Giant in my head all should have a faster average than the combined average of Commencal, Kona, Nukeproof, Norco, etc.
Actually, I'm undecided on Devinci & Trek. The floating rear axle paths are nothing I've had much time at all on...let alone big, consecutive, chunky flat rock sections where you have to float and/or pedal/sprint.
A commentary-free effects feed option for the sound is well overdue Red Bull.
V10 is still fast.