Troy Brosnan moving from Specialized, confirmed. Rumours are he’s heading to Canyon next year.
Wowsers. Good on him… I hope he gets a good team around him
I like his riding style, but his pyjama game is always outstanding.
Not the world cup, but far out its a long wait, so I’m pumped to see Jack Moir and Tracey Hannah win at crankworks Rotorua on the weekend! Not crazy deep fields, but there were a few men that Jack beat by a good margin, and Tracey killed everyone. Finn also really killed em, which was nice.
Whats not nice is that I can’t go to Derby this weekend for EWS. BOOOOOOOO! But I hopefully have proxy going to take a lot of pics to keep me in the loop.
anyone else going up/down for it?
29er’s in DH
I am so excited for this weekend!
Rock garden on the Lourdes track !!!
Whew!! 29ers have arrived! Watching some of the raw footage on vital, so good seeing the speed from low angle. Looked like Laurie Greenland and Fearon we’re absolutely flying in the vids, but not much happening for them qualies. Massive, massive moment for Vergier to knock off bruni there, came over him so much in that last segment!
Can’t wait for tonight! Ezy, Dave and I have discussed simul-bbq action in the lead up. Not sure if that’s going to happen, but hoping to get some buds around to my place, fire up BBQ and kick off the season in style.
Yet to do the groceries today JP, need to see what’s happening at the butcher! I’m bloody amped up for it. No doubt I’ll force Riley to sit down with me and she’ll pick her favourites based solely on kit and bike colour, though I suspect she’ll very much enjoy Vergier’s french accent.
First up Rachel; what a beast. In her post race interview it was interesting to hear about the pressure she’s feeling on this unbeaten run. To the point she was puking before her final run.
Men’s was really disappointing. Not to detract from Fayolle who put up a legitimately good time, but such a bummer that the fast guys couldn’t even keep it even mildly exciting in those conditions. That fog up top was sooo thick, and the wind before they hit the tree cover was gnarly.
I guess the one saving grace is that all the elite guys rode in the same conditions so it shouldn’t mess with the WC series standings too much.
Luca Shaw’s pre-run interview about people’s chatter regarding the Syndicate was pretty hilarious too
Rachel is still crushing, Redulls, Haribo’s and DH. I’m hoping Tahnee Seagrave can stay healthy this season and transfer those qualifying results into a win.
Shame about the men’s for sure, but I guess with fort william being the pick for the 29ers and presumably Trek and a few others having big bikes there it’ll be an interesting test. See if YT and Gwin follow suit too.
Still pumped it’s off and running, and I had an excellent selection of IPA’s in the lead up and whilst viewing so that’s a plus.
Not to mention - Great conversation about Ice Hockey. I am glad you have picked the Rangers as your new team.
Haha, with JP as left-right-out.
Man, I’m calling it, that XC round topped the DH.I enjoyed both men’s and women’s, bummed for DanMc, but BecHen pulled through so well, I was worried she had gone too hard in the start loop and would struggle to keep it up… she seemed to come back well in the last couple of laps.
Also happy with Anton Cooper’s ride, the Dutchy crosser (van der Poell?) coming through so hard and setting the fastest lap, interesting to see Neff slip so far back, can’t wait for JenRis to get back into it but pretty understandably heartbreaking to have her away and grieving. I think there are two more weeks of XC then Fort William? Its going to be tough for Dan to come back from low start position, and interesting to see if dutch cx guy stays off the road for Albstadt and starts on the front row to give Nino another concern.
Yeah… I’m curious about van der Poel… he went super hard last year trying to qualify for the olympics and couldnt get it together, looks like this year might be a different story. Interesting it was also on what was a very technical course (though he is one of the best technical riders in CX) but still my first guess is that a pure MTBer would have had an advantage. Also - he is known for a being a bit hot/cold as a racer. He may very will get lapped out in the next race!
He likely wont do a lot of road as his team doesnt really have a road component (unlike some of the other big CX teams) so his invites will be less, as opposed to being able to WCs. even moreso after the performance on the weekend.
He has already said he will be focusing on the road next year, but the assumption is that he will need a proper road contract to make that happen as theres no point doing that if the best race you do is the tour of belgium.
The year after the olympics can be a bit of a strange year (at first- its like this in a few other sports as well) as people come down from a stressful year.
MVDP was all over it last night! He looks like being the only person who can shake things up a bit with Nino at the moment. Wish we’d seen the couple of crashes he had. Bec had another beaut ride, again right at the front from the gun, fading a bit and then storming home in the second half of the race. IT makes for good watching! Women’s race was the best I’ve seen in a while. It all makes me want to ride fast.
edit: Also pumped for Cooper, and Sam Gaze giving it a nudge early. Going to be fun to watch those guys over the coming years.
Totally forgot to post up about this.
When MvdP is on his game he is an electric rider. When he isn’t ‘feeling it’ he rides like he has bricks for shoes. Given his road inclinations, it’ll be interesting to see if he rides more XC WCs or balances it out with his normal road schedule. If he is having a good year XC worlds would be tempting but will likely tank his CX season (which is where he makes his actual $$).
Seeing the young guns shake up the front of the field is awesome.
Have heard great stuff about the womens race but got an attack of the naps 1 lap in and need to finish watching it tonight (ive only seen the first 3 laps of the mens).
Glad to see Bec getting some good results, I hadn’t realised how much of a privateer setup her and Dan were running this year so they really need results. Dan’s crash has made that pretty hard for him it seems.
Finally got round to watching the Albstadt race – wowser that was great. MvdP!!! And Cooper. so good.
How about the wild man Flückiger - Oufff!
Also the coverage from the latest EWS is up and coverage is the best to date:
Still working my way through the womens race (and then the mens) but i just want to say… Jolanda Neff descending is beyond badass.
No dropper, no rear sus… no worries.
That fluckiger crash is at the same spot as one of the women hit the deck (but with much less violence). that gravel was loooose i guess.
Yeah, that was so nasty… reminded me of a boxer getting up from a nine count, only to sway his way across the ring and get belted properly out. I was surprised he had a go at that gap only 30m or so after his previous off! And Dice, yes, Cooper was so calm, eh? waiting it out, playing it conservatively. Super.