Manuel Fumic's Cannondale Scalpel Si - Cairns XC World Champs 2017

 Judging by the air pressures in the shocks I'm taking a guess the rider weighs almost nothing

 I was also like, stop, rewind, what?

 @ctd07: probably, i wish bike checks like this would say how much the rider weighs, and how tall they are. Otherwise its useless information.

 Descents are for recovery in XC and nobody will be risking a flat by riding at 100% on descents to save 3 seconds. What those pressures are about is keeping the bike in contact with the ground under heavy pedalling loads and on loose climbs.

 Google says he's 1.75m and 69kg, so yea relatively sounds pretty plush!

 The top cyclocross pros will run 23psi or less depending on conditions and they are only 33mm wide MAX (thanks UCI), so a little less on a much wider tire doesn't seem that crazy, especially when you factor in the suspension.

 @overgearedss: why is it bad UCI limited the tire width? At what point does the "progression" just turn CX bikes into old school XC bikes?

 @jcav5: It's not that the UCI limited tire width, it's that they did so in a completely arbitrary fashion. 33mm was chosen as the maximum width for all CX tires because... the UCI felt like it. There is no science, engineering rational, or math behind that number. There is no consideration given for rider size or the course. 33 mm wide tires are not even a particularly convenient width for rim and frame designers. The only equality is that everyone equally hates the rule. What it ends up doing is severely penalizing taller and heavier riders who have to run higher pressures and loose traction compared to their smaller counterparts, and is a complete pain in the ass for companies who have to build frames, rims, and tires for all sizes of customers, but still have to get their designs certified by the UCI to one single arbitrary size that does not change based on the rider.

 @jclnv: Recovery in World Cup XCO races? If you ease up on an Workd Cup XCO course you will immediately be caught and dropped by the other riders, it is truly brutal at that level. XCO is 1.5 hours going as fast as you can and if you aren't Nino it's going faster than you can until you blow,. Take a look at the last couple of Pink Bike photo epics of the World cups, especially the faces of the guys and girls after they cross the line. They are totally finished. Even the easier tech sections of an world XCO course are much harder when you are sitting at 180BPM.

 @tsheep: "The only equality is that everyone equally hates the rule."

It couldn't be further from the truth. We love CX because of the struggle, not despite it. The whole point of CX is to ride a bike that is not perfect for the task so we have to run when things gets too difficult. And people love CX for that.

FWIW when the UCI used to allow 35mm tires a few years ago some riders such as Sven Nys felt it didn't separate enough the good from the bad bike handlers. CX is pretty much a traditionnal sport compared to his younger MTB counterpart. At some point a line has to be drawn and 33mm is quite good. It is significantly wider than what people used in the 80's / early 90's* but not too wide to change the sport completely.

* back in the days cross tubulars were in the 26-30mm range. I still have a set of wolber 26mm diamond cx tubulars somewhere that are narrower than the veloflex vlaanderen I'm using currently on my road bike.

 Don't let the little knobs fool you, the Thunder Burt 2.25" is actually a reasonably volume tire, and at these pressures it actually grips quite well. It's 2.1 counterpart though, not so much.

 I run 18 rear/16 front with 2.25 Racing Ralphs mounted tubless on ENVE m60s (23 internal with) and weigh 150lbs.without any issues.

 @Kiwi19: It's all relative, they are recovering on descents, taking clean lines and concentrating on not flatting rather than putting a foot out in corners and smashing rock gardens.

 @ctd07: 149lbs it looks like

 @jclnv: you've obviously never raced or watched an xc race then. it's full gas the whole race

 @tomgibson: Yeah I've only been racing 25 years. If you race and you're sprinting out of the corners on descents to gain a couple of seconds you're lost and I highly suggest not doing it and watching your results improve.

Or maybe rock up at the next World Cup and ask Nino why the hell he's rolling and pumping the descents and not cranking the 10T.

 @tsheep: Allowing fat tires on CX race bikes would be like outlawing mud. It just wouldn't be cyclocross.

 @allballz: CX = Cyclocross = super shitty XC bikes

 Thought the same thing. For both Cannondale riders!

 Something in the drive train certainly ruined his race, maybe even the win. Very disappointing.

 @DCColorado: Something in the design of the suspension more likely

 Most likely somewhere between 9 and 10 kg (20-22 lbs).

 I would imagine there loaned to various main dealers to be put on display and taken to trade shows etc.

 I think you mean Marco Fontana...

 @deepcovedave: I think youll find they both did

 Probably because most of the top guys won the U23 WC.....

 @zutroy: but most of these are people that haven't won since U23 or even podium'd in most cases. Not saying that doesn't make them world class athletes as anyone who can make a long term carrier of racing deserves respect. It's just almost seemed like articles have been targeted at previous U23 winners the last few weeks and previously hadn't hardly seen it mentioned in the several years of daily PB reading.

 Fumic was the 2004 U23 World Champion.

 @Everlasting2108: they've been racing against Nino though, which kind of derails their career

 To ride at the top level (World Cup XCO) and be a professional sponsored rider, you will find that most of these riders have been national champions and have one a world/continental or Olympic title/medal (or two) This is the F1 of MTB XC racing. The competition is so hard, just getting into the field is a serious accomplishment.

 @Kiwi19: Id say dh is F1, but that's just like, my opinion man

 The only cool parts are the stem and the saddle

 MCFK used to make them. But could be from Darimo Carbon too

 Super expensive carbon www.starbike.com/en/mcfk-lefty-steerer
Or reasonable Alloy from Project 321 project321.com/product-category/bicycle/lefty-adapters

 " Enve takes care of the handlebar and rims" no mentions of stems

 no dropper post because he has short legs an no saddle to bar drop at all ;-)

 SRAM don't make pedals for XC so the SRAM sponsored riders are free to ride their choice.

 @Kiwi19: I am sure Shimano reps are smiling seeing their pedal on a competitor's crank.