Final Results: EWS Round Three, Scotland

 Noticed that too. He can't be pleased

 Yeah, ropelato and brosnan are making him look pretty bad considering he is Specialized's enduro specialist. But he's a nice guy so I hope he pulls it together tomorrow a bit.

 I was thinking that it had to do more with the new stumpy that the big s is pushing right now. Hasn't he been on that the last 2 rounds?? The enduro is a better bike for the EWS.

 It's funny how every time Spesh riders do poorly at a race people blame it on the demo and I guess now the stumpy?

 I've often wondered if Keene's training in California limits him it all. If perhaps he's accustom to certain type of track. If you look at where he's done best, it always appears that he's best on home turf, at events in California or nearby. He's certainly an awesome rider worthy of the sponsorship, but it gives you an idea of the world class competition he's up against. In any case, he consistently places in the top 20 in most events which is better than 99% of sponsored riders out there, and he's up against the best 1%.

 The pressure of having a web series has gotten to him But really though, I wonder if the competition really has elevated that much. Unless there's something negative affecting him we don't know about.

 Keene is so much more than the results. Ofc he is awesome rider who probably contribute a lot to the brand but he is also one of the best ambassadors in the sport. Keene gets a lot of media attention, just like with Hannah Barnes, tons of publicity, she probably got a pretty good deal with Spec. Results is only half the job.

 @mlr428 the reason he is running the stumpy is probably because the stumpy handles fine on the course. Spesh riders and most sponsored riders are not forced to run a certain bike, they can choose whatever bike they think is best suited for the job.

 Dont be too harsh on Keene. He's a big guy and where he is riding is tight, loose steep and full of roots. Conditions suit smaller lighter riders like Clementz, Barnes or guys like Callaghan who grew up in those conditions. Stage 6 and 8 tomorrow will allow Keene to get back in the mix as he's a big powerhouse and the stages are long, flattish and very peddley I believe. Curtis Keene is such a great ambassador for Specialized . Crowd loved him in Ireland even though he was off the pace. He brings his personality as well as his riding to the party.

 Curtis Keene is the man!

 @pheller

"Top 20 in most events which is better than 99% of sponsored riders out there"

There would need to be 2,000 sponsored riders in that event (or racing discipline) for those numbers to work

 Someone mentioned that he does well when he's close to home. I wonder if that has less to do with "type" of trails and more with familiarity of the actual trails. CK is fit, strong, and a kingpin in SoCal, where there are a LOT of riders, but his results have me questioning the mental part of the game - where line choice on an unfamiliar trail comes into play. It's possible that there are more than a handful of pros more skilled in this area, so important on the EWS.

 @meathooker, good analysis. I think I meant "events" like, if you took all of the sponsored riders he's been up against in various events he typically does very well. I'd think that he's easily ridden against 2,000 sponsored riders between the various events he's competed.

 The new Stumpy has nothing to do with it. Two years ago he rode Stumpy Evo 29 instead of Enduro 29 which was already avaliable at that time, he changed for last rounds only. Back then people were talking bollocks that he rides Stumpy cuz it has longer stays.

 The Problem is their contracts. Specialized has a very different contract than most. It gives them the power to put their riders on the bikes they want, unlike Leov with Trek. Leov chooses the bike he wants. Curtis rides the bike he is told to ride ,he was first stuck with the 29er, now is the Stumpy. He will have to wait for the new Enduro.

 Out of curiosity, how do you guys know what's in his contract?

 Let's just say that there is a new Enduro bike coming and Specialized will ad an aditional rider with Curtis for next season

 What is the problem? The battle royale between Trek and Spesh bikes? Or a dude got in question, (for no bigger reason at all) then he got a certain spot on a competition in a sport that overwhelms us with number of variables and we wonder why is it this way? Should it answer the question why are we here, how to stop global warming and how to cure cancer? Are results of Leov and Keene dependent on which bike/componentry they ride? Oh, If only Curtis could ride his beloved Enduro 26... what could have been. Look... collectively, we internet riders laugh at people for buying 10k bikes, we call them sheep buying into marketing bullcrap. Well no1 marketing bullcrap is: riderX won competitionX because he was on our bikeX. It is after that when comes the regular: "we are constantly innovating, here we changed something by an inch and it rolls faster and there by 3mm and it is stiffer. What's going on with Curtis Keens results is a fine question, getting deeper into it is like telling guys at Cern how to run the Hadron Collider. You may as well speculate on particle physics from behind strip club counter. Be real guys, just be real... composure. Since DirtMAG went online, we Pinkbike commenters need more composure... they will come here with their flag and claim this traffic, so we need to fight them Welsh basterds with intellect... the future of Pinkbike is in our hands!

#amIspecialized?

 Huh?

 enrico650 - FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING TEASE!! My guess is that they're adding Shaun Palmer.

 My guess is nobody here knows anything about his equipment, his contract, nor his performance. There were adverse conditions and lots of upsets. I saw him riding ucsc a couple weeks ago. Santa Cruz is a pretty good place to train.

 @enrico650 Please tell me it's a Top 10 regular in the EWS.

 Man-Child!!!

 Graveys protege doing work

 Why ya gotta be so Rude?

 I hate that song

 Consistency error? He is only 20 and is 5th in the series overall standings.....

 Mistakes in Stage 5, or just too pedally?

 I don't think Stage 5 was pedally. I think that was 6 and 8. Richie probably just pushed too hard on 5. He crushed Stage 8 which had a pretty big climb in it.

 Stage 5 was a bit of a lottery - very muddy, easy to make a mistake.

 Day two is tomorrow

 Not familiar with EWS rules. Why don't they ever run Day 2 first???

 Proof that good guys CAN finish first...CONGRATS!

 This is awesome for Leov, he made up so much time on that last stage!
Sucks for Richie Rude though, great results except for dropping all that time on stage 5!??.

 The demanding UK and Ireland tracks causing havoc with the internationals. Rude though is excelling. Nice to see different possibilities for podium places.

 saying that, does anybody know if there's any bookies taking bets for this??

 A few comments were made after the Carrick race that it was only because he was a local that he won. Clearly Greg is officially world class everywhere now. I can't believe he is beating Lau so comfortably!

 says the lads from dublin...

 humoroususername you could say that any local riders would have a home advantage, yet the top 3 are all from abroad. It's awesome to see that a rider in his first year in pro's is doing so well.

owlie is there something your trying to get at??

 And P-Diddy

 Still sick (cold/flu)...

 Apparently he has a bad cold

 It's aamazing that he's in 14th place after a full day of racing and still shaking off illness from before last week's EWS. Thats a ton of mileage while feeling crappy! Impressive!

 Yeah, I was not aware of Jerome's illness. I wish him luck and am very excited to see his next performance in France!

 www.sportident.co.uk/results/2015/Tweedlove/Latest

 Thank you!

 CTRL +

 Thanks but I only have access via mobile, hence my question.

 It would have been a second win if not for a crash on stage 8. He lost a lot of time climbing back up to the track. Brilliant result all the same and now 2nd in the overall

 Ews site said he crashed and evacuated from the mountain

 Read he injured his ankle. Say's he'll be fine with some rest and glad he doesn't have to ride stage 6

 Thanks for the info. Too bad for him though..

 There you go
www.pinkbike.com/photo/12281082
(ep1.pinkbike.org/p6pb12281082/p5pb12281082.jpg)

 Thanks man!!!! how did u get to it?

 It's a bit complicated, but if you did it a few times it's actually pretty easy

1. Go to the front page.
2. Rightclick on the picture (thumbnail of an article) you want to have. Then choose "analyse element" (or press Q after you rightclicked it).
3. A window with a mess of HTML-Text appears. The section about the picture gets underlined. It looks like: img class="..." alt="..." src="HERE IS THE LINK TO THE THUMBNAIL" style="..." and so on... >/img>
4. You can find the link to the picture behind "src=".
5. Doubleclick on this link and copy it.
6. Post it in the addressfield of you brower. After you opened it, you will notice that the picture is very small, but we can handle that
7. Copy the section of numbers after the "pspb" from the URL.
ep4.pinkbike.org/p2pb12299968/p2pb12299968.jpg -> 12299968 (Copy this)
8. Then you open any other picture to get the "skeleton" of a normal picture URL.
9. Delete the numbers from this URL and paste the section of numbers you copied in step 7.
10. Hit enter and you come to the page of this picture.

 holly shit!! haha, ok man. well hey thanks so much for the detailed answered dude!!!!! I will paste this in a word document hahahah

 Cheers man

 We'll see in Whistler.

 was the bike that won or the guy/girl on top off it?
most of the bikes there have all that takes to win, so what really mathers is the rider

 Yep but so many morons on here don't get that a 150mm 29" can be faster than 170mm 650b.

 it can be, every type of bike has it's place, but 29" despite leov taking the win"here" aren't the best for most eropean trails, if they where you would see a loot more rider's with them , because they all want to win and preatty much every brand has that style off bike

and then it comes to the rider, riding style size,because one guy can ride awesome in one and other's don't , just because it doesn't suit them

 What brands have slack, 150mm, 29"?

Most riders don't use them because they don't understand the benefits and can't think beyond the consensus/marketing. Plus there simply aren't enough good ones.

People who ride enough bikes (like Steve Jones etc) get it.

Anyway well done Leov. Series leader after three rounds.

 with 29" you see a lot of agressive trail bikes but with less than 150mm
at least for me and where i ride i don't see the use of a 29, since the beginning of the year i've been riding a 27.5 bike with 160mm on front and 155mm rear and on the first ride it seemed already to big , then i adapted my riding to it, but for me 29" would be too big, because i do all with my AM bike, since riding tight natural trails, to flowy, off camber, to DH track's, doing all the jump's tha i do on my dh bike

every one should see what's best for them and for where they ride, i rode some bikes before i choose mine


btw, what bike do you ride?