Results: Crankworx Rotorua - DH

 they run those baller ass tires known as kendas

 hahahahahaha yeah they were sabotaged

 2nd place for Tracey is not a bad start though

 Don't hate on Kenda, a lot of riders got a flat

 The Polygon crew have been on blacked out Schwalbes all week.

 Eliot Jackson! Right on. Happy for him

 dumb question - is elliot going to race the WC Circuit this year? Definitely a solid result against a stacked field.

 Bike breaks, stops on side of track, drinks beer.

 "I wanna thank my dad for the and my Mum for the Ovary" what a hero!!!

 "thanks to my mum, thanks to my dad fo providing the sperm, mum the ovaries" , Eddy you are a legend

 Ye thats more like it man!! ^^^

 where can I see a replay? EDIT just scrolled down one line on the front page. Shoot me.

 Immortalized on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0DfnNyv50o

 Crankworx get Lord Warmer for the next races!

 All he said "and rider x coming down into section x"

 commentators did fine. i respect the fact they don't 'over act' or 'over hype' every god damn run their friends or teammates have. i've been a race fan since 1972, i don't need over hype.

 The commentators always suck. They always sound like illiterate "bros".

 "commentators did fine."

If fine means boring, predictable, and repetitive, then they were fine.

Brits should be the only announcers allowed in the booth for any DH race forthcoming, they seem to be the only ones capable of quick humor, creativity, and avoiding lame bro cliche's.

 Yet another Crankworx race where not a single foreign name was pronounced correctly.

 @fabdemaere 'Is it Chah-pee? Shah-puey?'

 They did way better than previous events. *rampage and fmb events* it was tolerable. The problem is mtb and limited cameras to talk about relevent parts of the track. Stoked to see sam blenkinsop get so wild. Def the highlight!

 Thought the commentators did pretty well compared to previous Crankworks/Rampage commentary. They came out with some funny lines. Brad has improved, I managed to watch it without turning the sound off.

 Thanx D for noticing. It ain't easy doing what we do. It would be awesome to be as good as the legend Rob Warner!

 Didnt think it was bad at all to be fair, I had no issues at all with the commentary, I actually found the name pronounciation quite amusing.
You have to sympathise with MTB event commentators, they will forever and always be compared to Lord Warner, it would be tough for a commentator from any sport/event to be compared with that.

 and i know what you are thinking, but the 'other guy' is even worse than warner when it comes to attracting mainstream interest in the viewing and growing of our sport. the days of lame inside jokes and bro ing down on the mic is over. the sport needs to move on to grow, it must make a real effort to punch through into.................

 @steve45 ........."You have to sympathise with MTB event commentators, they will forever and always be compared to Lord Warner, it would be tough for a commentator from any sport/event to be compared with that."

any sx/mx announcer
any nhra announcer
any bmx race announcer
any horse racing announcer
any rodeo announcer
any ski racing announcer
any x games annoucer......hey, brad j announces the x games!
any dew tour announcer

they are all better. waaay better and way more professional.

 Opinions are great arnt they!
Brad J and Warner have completely different styles of commentary.
I'd agree Brad J has a more proffessional style, and it works well for him.
Warner has a more untraditional lairy/jack'the'lad style that works well for him.

Different strokes for different folks.
Both have a welcome place in the MTB world!

 I like how you slid in there that brad j works best when he's got the right colour commentary crew with him.
Do you mean the guy in the wheelchair?
Lol.
Props to yourself.

 any sx/mx announcer
any nhra announcer
any bmx race announcer
any horse racing announcer
any rodeo announcer
any ski racing announcer
any x games annoucer
any dew tour announcer


We don't want an announcer. We want lord warner. He is professional. A professional lunatic. And that's how we like it.


Disclaimer: brad who?

 Mad stoked! He looked smooth as hell but really kept it in shape. I hope this is picture of things to come.

 I don't think you know what you are posting about...watch the replay again.

 He said something to the effect of "I didn't even try, this race means nothing."

Then back to the booth and the announcer says "ooohkay."

Hilarious, that was the highlight of all the talking during the broadcast. Also funny when Bruni told her she was cute right after he finished.

It's obviously not a World Cup race if bike park riders are allowed to cross through the track seconds before Sam Hill comes through on his race run. But overall a good kickoff to the season, and a great track.

 haha ..both of you are missing the context of my original post... watch right before the interview goes live to him, he tries to tell the girl that he has no idea what she just said to him without the mic catching it and then the interview goes live @1:48:30

 Haha I love how truthful he is. I bet the factory wouldn't be pleased if he got hurt before the WC season starts trying to win this race. For him it is kinda pointless.

 Totally, sorta seemed like a small guys track.

 He also wrecked earlier when a rider veered to the side a bridge and crashed in front of him. That may explain the awkwardness.

 Yea... really liked Blenki and Brook the buldog's run.... them two were looking the best to me this time. The buldog is wicked, I really like his style.... oh yeah..... Bruni was looking freakin bad*$$ too...

 Blenki's run was so loose. Dat seatbounce do

 Blenki definitely had one of the best finishes. I think Bruni won it partly by not slowing up so much before the rock garden like most did. I was hoping to see someone just huck into it and jump over the first section, but I guess things always look easier on TV.

 Blenki looked amazing! The raddest phuckin' looking rider on the planet.

Interesting juxtaposition: the two fastest guys looked far smoother.

 Sam commented earlier not to expect him on the top spot, he has WC's to worry about and he's probably beat from the EWS training.

 Same. I'm gutted for him, I want to see him make an example of everyone again!

 He was referring to the EWS, not DH.

 The Crankworx Rotorua downhill race is later today – what do you think of the track?

The track's good. I'm probably running a bit low on track time trying to do both events. Again, just trying to get time on my bike, have a good time and get through the weekend

 If you're going to say that he said not to expect him on the top spot and he makes a comment to the question....

"Do you have any expectations as far as results go? (referring to the EWS race)"
"I don't really see a win happening"

It's pretty easy to see how your original comment may have referred to the EWS race....

 Best line ever!

 They will be fine. These guys msin focus us on the focus is on the world Cup in a few weeks. You don't want to say they aren't trying but at they end of the day they aren't going flat out the way they normally would. This ride is a warmup for them. Elliot Jackson is one of my favorite riders but I'm not expecting him to finish WC races anywhere near the times of guys like Hill, Gee, Bruni, Blenki etc.

 Take most pro men?

She usually not faster than amateur/expert/cat 1 men, let alone the pro men.

 But she's still my fav current female racer right after ACC!

 Don't get me wrong she is fast...but the women can't really take the pro men on for downhill...in fact...a 'fun fact' ...aaron gwin's dead last place flat tire run at leogang last year would have netted him 9th for womens...or if you take the #1 womens time from that race, it would have finished nearly dead last...just ahead of Gwin for 77th place..

 You aren't the first Canadian to think that.

 Look up Michelle Dumaresq.

 So stop talking and do it already. Or sack up, quit the keyboard jockeying and jump into the fray with the men.

It's seriously annoying to come on Pinkbike and read so many comments and entire threads like this when the WC women are giving it their all in a sport that doesn't exactly give back. Those tracks are huge, those women are still the top 1% of riders in the world, and you all have the balls the publicly insult the efforts?!

Man. What a luxury it must be, to be part of the peanut gallery sitting on the sidelines, not doing shit but professionally critiquing. Well done, fellas. Well f*cking done.

 @ambatt - Ambatt - i did it. raced semi-pro for years traveling over the western us and even made a trip back east to race in NY and VT. i was working 50 hours a week and racing on the weekend - not a ton of time to practice (like most of us)

here's the story that formed my opinion of women racing:

back at a national race in deer valley utah i had decided to race DS in addition to DH. so i bought a yeti 4x. all of the parts didn't show up in time so we were literally building the bike at the condo the morning of qualifying. we also had DH practice that morning so i didn't get to pre ride the DS track, and i had never been on a DS track at that point. we got the bike built and i rode up to qualify but was too late for practice. luckily one of the officials let me roll down ONE side of the DS course so i could get a feel for it. then we ran both sides for qualifying. looking at the results i was in towards the top of the expert men but what caught my eye was i was faster than all of the women, and Melissa Buhl was there. a reining USA champ, soon to be world champ in DS and 4X and i beat her ... my first time riding that bike and my first time on a DS track. yet i bought all my bikes and paid my own entry fees etc and she was a salaried pro that an off-the-couch dumb kid from idaho was beating.

FYI - last year i did 9 races in 3 states (had a newborn so my traveling was cut down), and the summer before i did 22 races in 5 states ... hows that for sacking up?

 @meathooker... Ironically, that comment was not geared towards you. I know you've raced and I respect the hell out of both your racing and your perspective. You also were positive about your favorite racer, etc. For the vast majority of keyboard jockeys on here, however, that is the kicker -- they don't know (or care to understand) the time, effort or expense that goes into racing.

There's a lot of negativity focused on women's racing right now; from equal payout to female sponsorships and beyond, we take a lot of shit, despite the obvious physiological differences and our giving every ounce of effort we can exert (and often beyond). So while you may be the exception to the keyboard jockey syndrome, there's still too much of it going around from people who would rather talk shit than get involved.

We're doing our goddamned best to be our best, and pretending that there's a physical level between men and women is bullshit. We have to start recognizing individual value before things will ever be truly 'equal'. With that said, however, it would be really nice to log onto something like Pinkbike and not see the female riders getting shit on.

 wow that escalated fast, lets be real girls or not the pro races could destroy all of us in a race.

 So to summarize.
You showed up to a race all disorganized and unprepared and beat a pro. But you didn't get sponsored.
So you're all upset that the sport didn't "give back" to you?

 Xcri, nice try, but you are trying to fan flames that don't exist.

 @meathooker: @ambatt: Same story when I raced moto. As a 16 y/o amatuer male moto racer I was faster than the best female racer's in the world...... They received MODEST salaries, I got some free riding gear one season I think? haha. The difference is staggering. And to be honest, I don't understand why the gap is SO big. The difference in muscle & endurance isn't THAT big. I mean shit I didn't even workout at 16 y/o there's no way I was stronger/better shape than a professional woman. So.... what's it come down to?

 I caught that too.

 Every time he hits the corner he be turning heads.

 and the new lapierre looks like a total race weapon of a bike.


maybe blenki should have took a pay cut and stayed on the new bike for 2015.

the new lapierre will be on the podium this year, maybe even an overall podium.
wc?

bad ass bike.

 blabbetyy blab blabbbbbyy

 Bruni was pulling better results than Blenki last season when they were both on the same bike, he's just faster, simple. I'm sure Blenki will do just fine on the new bike.

 poor, poor xcri.

 not quite as stoked about mine after this race, but we'll see how the season pans out

 Good question?

 Injured again, right?

 Wait seriously? He got hurt again?

 last seen on crutches walking thru nester's market in whistler just last week!

another break?

a clean up session to remove hardware and scar tissue?

who knows.


that is the rumour.

 oh no i hope he will be good for WC.