Wow the Athertons are officially the mud masters this season. That top ten is sick, Rat boy finally lays one down as well as Neko. Sam Hill and Peaty in there, can't ask for more than that. Gwin vs Gee is on!
@fecal: It does look like it's shaping up to be a Gwin / Gee battle, but I sure would like to see other dudes come in and not let these two win every race of the season. It would be rockin' to see a title chase including 4 or 5 riders.
@ fecalmaster and @BDKR I said just before the first round in south africa just how excited I was for the upcoming season. I think that this year we have the strongest, most competitive top 15-20 riders that we have possibly ever seen in recent years. Would be brilliant to see 4 or 5 different winners at the first 4 or 5 races. Would also be great to go into the final race and have about 5 riders actually in with a shot at the title. I hope its not just a 2 horse race. ( Gwin and Gee ) Lets see after fort william if mr Gwin is really back to speed (and actually riding on a demo). Glad to see Josh putting in a couple of great results to start the season, and Sam Hill is looking like this could be the year that he challenges again. Hopefully
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Gwin too mate, just want to see how his pace is at fort william on a demo because the first 2 courses of the season required him to ride a different bike (enduro s-works). I meant I want to see how fast he is on the downhill bike on a proper downhill course. There aren't many pedaling sections at fort william compared to the first 2 courses. He really showed his fitness by getting a 1st and a 4th but I just am interseted to see how the new demo performs and can he get a win on it, instead of the enduro rig he was running for the first 2 races. I want to see him do well, but now that the 2 most pedally courses are out of the way Specialized are prob going to be using the demo for the remaining races of the season. Lets see if he can keep putting in the quick times on that bike til the end of the year.
I think I might have made a bit of a mistake by saying he wasn't riding a demo at Cairns. Whoops, my bad.... I do want to see how he does on the new bike that specialized are unvailing at Fort William tho. Should be interseting
"Some guy jumped on track without a helmet, and took the bike through the whoops. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and knocked himself out" --UCI Technical Delegate
It was Adam Brayton's bike, not Peaty. Brayton's broken himself off, which was the original pause, then the guy who goobed it into the woops without a helmet on and knocked himself out.
HAHA awesome video! STRAYA! I heard from mates who were there that he was actually trying to bring the bike back to brayton's team but got carried away in his 15 sec of fame and got knocked the f*ck out!
@bikounet, he's an idiot for stealing it in the first place, let alone trying to ride down. Only in straya do you get spectators that think they can join in, some of the shit the commentators were saying though hahaha "oh yeah, watch out for those mutant drop bears, i heard if you put vegemite behind your ears it keeps them away" hahahhaha
Hopping on Demo with its short chainstays n these conditions is just asking for trouble. Had he got past the whoops, his rear wheel would have slid out in the next corner.
O Hey Everyone, Looks Like Protour Is Still The Reigning Village Idiot.
Why Didn't His Rear Wheel Slide Out All The Corners Before The Whoops Then? He Must Have Been Able To Get The Bike To The Whoops So He Probably Would Have Been Fine After Them.
Brit Style Brakes Messed This Guy Up. Not Half An Inch Shorter Chainstays
"STRAYA" is for Aussies as MERICA is for the yanks! hahaha. BTW If Rachel wins her heat you can almost bet Gee is fired up and will probably do the same! Such an awesome duo those tow, to see how excited Rachel gets when he wins is incredible!
zer0byte - it is about a situation where a bloke who has never even qualified to a national race, never designed a bike, never rode a world cup track and never rode a Demo, tells a guy who won the World Cup title twice what is wrong with his bike.
@alexisfire It's nothing to do with that chain stays, but I doubt its his brit breaks, have you not seen how brayton has his suspension set up? Jesus pinkbike arguments are so irritating hahaha
My phone does the capitals on everything I type.
VitalMTB was reporting that it was the brit style brakes, that the rider grabbed a handful of front brake meaning to get the rear.
I don't think vital know what they are on about! As for the brakes, if the spectator was Aussie, as I suspect he was, they run brakes the same way round us brits do. So that probably had nothing to do with it!
No kidding! I've been trying to find a statement or real reason on why he got the DQ. There is NO WAY that was an advantage...
If sliding out was an advantage, Neko, or maybe even half the riders would have beaten Gee.
the live stream is always live.
the women are shown relive because only the top 30 guys are shown, and otherwise you'd watch black screen for an hour.
it's been like that for the last 2 years and it's not really complicated...
There has been a crash and the only way to bring the bike and rider down is the trail. And some hooligan got on the bike to ride it down and crashed again.
Warner keeps on talking about the guy stealing the bike, but I believe he just wanted to help and take the bike down to the team. Better than leaving it in the woods.
For all you guys complaining about being up at 3am welcome to what we normally have to do in NZ and Australia to watch the world cup. And apart from this years series that was always on a Sunday night/Monday morning before going to work. Table spoon of cement lads and harden up.
If he was trying to help, he would have walked the bike down or he would have handed it to a course official. He wasn't trying to help, he was being an Ass. He deserved what he got for trying to ride a WC track, in the wet without any protective equipment.
He actually was trying to help. He told the people at the accident that he would walk the bike down to the pits. After a while he got bored and started riding it.
What was up with the "live"stream starting after the race had finished. I went to check pinkbike as I started watching the stream and accidentally clicked on it and almost had a heart attack when I realized.
Neko would have won if he didn't crash in that one bit down low. I was absolutely going nuts, waking everyone up in my house, so stoked for him! Best run of the day to watch in my opinion! EAST COAST REPRESENTING!!
A little unfair to the Atherton's as they have always been 100% committed to the sport, consistent, professional etc. Such success only paves the way for other riders to get sponsors, coaching etc. plus it makes the sport over here much bigger. Sure Gee and Rach have benefited from Peaty's legacy and Manon, Ratboy and others are benefiting too.
I think it's shit. She has got a massive advantage over any of the other girls due to the environment she is lucky enough to be in. There's no competition at all.
Nobody is stopping the other women from stepping up. The trouble with the women's race is the money is not there to put into them, and it is true that Rachel get the advantage there, but what is important is she stuck the flagpole way out there and said "this is what ya got to do" and true enough you are starting to see the rest of the women's field moving in on her. Kinda.
Very true. The other thing I mean by massive advantage is the fact that should has got her super fast brothers to train with. Also their own dh tracks and a massive sponsorship deal behind her. The vast majority of female racers have a normal job and are not pro.
Yeah. It's a crazy deal she has got going on there, but as you can see with much of the men's field that stuff only takes the horse to water, it's the rider who does the drinking in the end!
I have to say that although they are committed to the sport and show that through their intense training, they just don't present themselves well. Gee is only happy when he wins, some will call that ambition, however that attitude just doesn't seem to suit the sport. Do they deserve to win.... yes, do we want to see them winning repeatedly...... no. Mon' the Ratboy!
Gee was laughing and smiling when he crashed. And seemed to be having fun. I too am a ratboy fan and would love to see him win. But the athertons are an example of a life dedication to getting an extra second. Or 10 over if you're rachel.
You don't get to the top of your sport buy having a laugh. It's racing at the end of the day and racing is ultra competitive so you can't kick him for that.
Seems that Brits are never happy, he got piped at the last race last year and looks like he will do damage this year but that's not good enough, he's not chilled enough to be proud of him, a British champion yes proud no!!
Remember folks, only a few years back, Rachael was crashing and injuring herself fairly frequently. It is through all that hard work and dedication that she has gotten to where she is. This stuff isn't handed to her.
No one who competes at anything on that level is Happy when they don't win. You can't compare Gee to most other riders because there are only a handful of guys who are on his level, meaning guy who have win before. For those guys, who can and have won before, they aren't happy when they lose, and they shouldn't be. For the rest if the field it's a much different dynamic. Many of those guys are just happy to be there. But the top dogs like Gee, Stevie, Hill, Gwin, etc aren't going to be happy when they lose and never are. But they congratulate each other, show good sportsmanship and move on to the next race. Anyone who thinks they owe us anything more is being ridiculous.
Josh Jeffery: do you seriously think she would "move up" and compete in men's? She's a female it should be pretty obvious she will stay in the female class. Well...unless.... Nevermind. But what she will do is keep pushing the other women and eventually they can be getting similar times to the men.
We all have our favourite riders but you can't knock someone for being at the top, regardless of their methods for getting there. I can see how people find it hard to warm to Gee, if anything he is a little awkward and serious for the mad sport of DH but his riding (e.g. rampage anyone?) shows his true character. I am more inspired by the Atherton's as they admit to not being the most naturally gifted riders, instead relying on hard work to get results i.e. there is hope for all of us!
Gee goes to flats and takes off the zero stem and is back on the top step. Played the "this track does not suit me" card well. Great to see one of those old school 26 things ridden with flats come 2nd. Whole 26 syndicate team in the top 10. My nike is not obsolete yet Good to see so many riders struggling, reminds the rest of us that the wc boys are human too.
Thanks for not putting the winners names in the title!! I missed the live feed and used pinkbike to get the replay, and it wasn't spoilt by any reveal! What a race though!! Get on Peaty and Bryceland and the two Athertons, Gee looked stoked so many close calls and what could have beens, great racing!
What's with all the hate about the stream? Just be glad you're able to get some decent footage under the given circumstances... you're probably sitting at home thousands of miles from the Australian jungle, for god's sake!
Cannot believe Minnaar was DQd for his off-the-track mishap. He gained no advantage in coming back in the course 2 meters below where he went out. (I used meters!)
Total BS - apparently they're saying he gained an advantage after leaving the track and not returning to the point of exit. Absolute crap! What advantage did he gain??
so reading ( on pink bike), Rachel is lucky, and not a great rider compared to the blokes , Gee only wins because he trains hard and is an athlete? nothing to do with the commitment and long hours spent in training every single day?
I think most people "facepalm" when they see Americans posting something similar. Can't we leave the nationalism out of DH? The arbitrary borders and divisions do nothing but serve the ruling elite, they don't help us at all. We're all stuck on this planet together.
Okay. IMO it's a normal thing to belong somewhere, and keep up with people around you who are speaking the same language, have broadly the same roots and culture. I think it's also good to be proud to our nation's successes, and brag about it in a normal, not insulting way. By this I mean that however we should not be haters, or opress others. Briefly, that's all. If you want more, I'll reply about what I'm thinking with pleasure So, I love downhill world cups
Please put the REPLAY As fast as possible... I just went on this article to write that without reading anything, wanna see the surprise myself. The live was 2hours ago I was sleepng don t tell me anything !
I hate to say it, but I think they got the points wrong in the standings. Says Gwin got points for third, and Neko points for 4th. Gwin's points lead is not as big as advertised. And Neko may actually be in third overall.
Great race! I like when the course makes most elite athletes look average. Then there are a few that look like superheros
Amongst the elite men, a quick look at the split times shows that all top five finishers have a lot to be happy about. Loic Bruni also seems to have been blisteringly fast and no doubt he will put together a good race run at a World Cup soon. Also Minnaar and Hannah won't be going away. Missing two rounds will affect Smith's chances no matter how good he is when he returns.
Amongst the elite women Rachel Atherton looks very strong with competition coming from the usual quarters. Tracey Hannah is looking alright too.
I had the added bonus of less than 1Mbps BT Infinity telling me there was "insufficient bandwith" for most of it.....if only I only had the Red Bull delays to contend with
Gee back on form good to see, Josh showed unreal skill popping that bike over roots and mud where no one else would, I reckon Gees power won him that.
Josh you need to train and be a unit like gee!!!
Random takes bike down track knocks himself out almost as funny ad Warners one liners only in strayLA gotta love an ocker for trying even pissed as!
Peaty u legend!!!!
the live is delayed a few seconds - not half an hour, and it has been for the last 2 years. the women are not shown live, because only the top 30 guys are shown, and you'd have a break of an hour in between. that's why the women are shown relive, and the men live live and the stream is not 3 hours long showing 100 riders going down the same track. i hope everyone understood it now
pretty poor effort for still not realizing how it works ...
I thought the track would deteriorate a lot more for the later riders but the rain held off, so it stayed fairly constant for most of the riders. So much luck involved when it's this slick though, great to see the level of skills these riders possess as it's not always obvious when it's dry.
There might be a reason why they crashed. Maybe they were going too fast? kirellis saying that feds is speaking in hypotheticals, which in this case, is pretty useless. Look at mine. Had Bryceland been able to ride faster, he would have won.
honestly, I doubt that sam hill is going to win another race. as much as I'd love to see him win, he just does not seem to have it in him as much as the others do.
Only two people were quicker in the first split than Hill today, he was 0.2s off being 3rd. He's just come back from a knee injury and is still right up there, so lets see how things pan out. Realistically he has as much chance as any of the other regular top 5 riders of winning a race and I'm sure we'll see that day.
When a bike leaves the track during a race it must re-enter at the same place it left the track. I think there is a bit of latitude in applying this rule but it appears to have been applied strictly.
good luck trying to show every second of a run live, when there are up to three people on the track at the same time.
hate people who don't think about stuff before they write posts...
The live feed is never going to be perfect but the camera placement on this round was terrible, 2 cams covering the finish sprint !! perhaps it was a nightmare getting the gear up the hill with the weather??
20secs of technical compared to 30secs of pedalling just didnt seem right! would have loved to see the rock garden from the bottom up. but i am not complaining, after all it is a free coverage..
266 Comments
( on the odd occasion!)
'STRAYA!!!
Why Didn't His Rear Wheel Slide Out All The Corners Before The Whoops Then? He Must Have Been Able To Get The Bike To The Whoops So He Probably Would Have Been Fine After Them.
Brit Style Brakes Messed This Guy Up. Not Half An Inch Shorter Chainstays
Should Every Word Have A Capital Letter?
Played the "this track does not suit me" card well.
Great to see one of those old school 26 things ridden with flats come 2nd. Whole 26 syndicate team in the top 10. My nike is not obsolete yet
Good to see so many riders struggling, reminds the rest of us that the wc boys are human too.
The legend that is Rod Warmer!!
www.redbull.com/en/bike/stories/1331637291915/watch-live-uci-mountain-bike-world-cup-2014
the women are not shown live, because only the top 30 guys are shown, and you'd have a break of an hour in between.
that's why the women are shown relive, and the men live live and the stream is not 3 hours long showing 100 riders going down the same track.
i hope everyone understood it now
pretty poor effort for still not realizing how it works ...
#iamnotspecial.ed
Join Pinkbike Login