Val di Sole is here and it's the last World Cup DH for a while. This is the place to keep up on what's happening at the race.
Free, Live Race Streams (we're using GMBN Racing's YouTube live feed as they've seemed more consistent than UCI MTB World Series feeds. Note that race start times are slightly different on the two channels, so we'll update if necessary as the live streams approach.)
Junior DH Race - Thursday June 30, 4:15am PST (says Junior Women, but it's the only Jr race live stream on the channel)
Elite DH Semi-final Race - Saturday July 1, 1:30am PST
We'll kick it off w/ Stefan Garlicki's walk down the track. "The best Val di Sole in a while," according to Stefan. The track has more turns slowing things down, the insane holes have been filled in.
We'll have to see how the track evolves, but I always loved VDS for it's gnar and it looks like a lot of that has been lost.
It'll be interesting to see how the back filled dirt holds up. Lots of changes.
Edit: also it's been made slower and longer with all the bus stops and extra turns put in. So maybe the talk of eso making shorter/faster course for better tv was wrong?
weather for VDS looks like rain, so could dirt wash away if rain is heavy enough?
Lots of turns. Be interested to see how it looks once it’s fully taped.
interesting to see how the fresh dirt holds up through practice, quali semis and i to finals.
The new sections look pretty gnar, honestly. I've walked the old track many times and was always in awe at everyone as they raced it at speed. I'm stoked to see how they handle the new stuff.
After all the talk (complaints) about how gnarly VDS was last year, adding dirt in many sections feels like an appropriate and necessary response. I'd bet it still changes a lot and roughens up through the weekend, especially with some rain.
Also 100% down with the addition of a few shitty, awkward corners. That's what DH needs to separate people as we continue to trend towards fast/straight tracks. So stoked for this weekend!
Remember this is year one where Chris said they're not going to change courses a ton. Explaining Val Di Sole's changes this year:
Riders complained a lot about bomb holes, track falling apart. +Riders complained about safety of the track
= Filled in tons of holes (will make it faster) & added corners to slow it back down given new smoothness.
2024 Val Di Sole track (if it's on the calendar) may chop the top 20% of the track to make race times shorter for ESO's long term plans, etc.
For those who are worried about the track being too smooth, I *promise* the holes are coming back. It's one of the steepest tracks on the circuit, there are unlimited nasty rocks and roots hiding under the fresh dirt, and the dirt on that hill is loose, dry, and unstable. Once they dump 250 racers on the track for three days of practice, quali's, semi's, and finals, the holes will come. I think if they'd made it smoother and straighter that would have been a bad idea, but it looks like they've made some good extra turns to bring the speed in check and I suspect we'll see some great racing. Here's a reminder of what the original race track looked like at World Champs in 2008, and that track got plenty rough over the next 15 years: https://www.pinkbike.com/video/46306/
I've always wondered if certain frames (both of the rider and the bike) would fair better on tracks like this. Based on the results, it never seems makes as big of a difference as I would have thought....
Also if anyone feels like joining fantasy, I built a web app for the 2023 season: www.downhillmtbfantasy.com
My prediction is that it will be faster than it looks. I like the changes and it's definitely not a smooth track now, the old layout was getting old IMO.
bUt tHeRe aRe rOcKs aNd sTuMpS On tHe tRaCk aNd iN ThE B ZoNe. WhAt iF SoMeOnE CrAsHeS?
pit bits vid from VDS. nukeproof w/ the weight on the bike???
Live sesh from the pits with The Union. Dak joined in for a sesh with some great insight.
Contents
0:00 - Dak Norton on Frida Ronning's Bike Setup
10:39 - Lachie Stevens McNab and His Broken Foot
11:57 - Prepping Chris Hauser's V10 & Tubeless Setup
15:22 - Chris Hauser Discusses the Track and OChain Service
19:50 - Hauser Gets Arty on the Crank Bros Shoes
21:41 - Managing Limited Tire Budget
26:25 - Spoke Tension
28:20 - FROTHER
30:00 - Two Mechanics for 5 Bikes and Riders
Val di Smooth.... 🤦
It's steep AF, with a bunch of off-camber sections, awkward corners and rain in the forecast. Not too worried.
1.2" of rain on Friday. On a track that has a bunch of freshly backfilled dirt? That could get bad, really bad. I hope they compacted the dirt!
junior practice from this morn! track look darn rad
Dak updates
this needs to become a thing, Dak updates from the race.
POV w/ hauser slaying the fresh track this morn!
For the Junior DH Finals you might want to go with UCI MTB World Series' Youtube schedule. They say the broadcast starts at 6:40 a.m. Eastern / 3:40 a.m. Pacific on Friday. That matches up well with UCI's schedule, which shows the Junior Women starting at 6:45 Eastern and Junior Men a half hour later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU8_i-kKKY
RIDE printed in huge letters across the ass is cracking me up.
But only in texts. This is gold!
for the last two races the world series page was the one that had problems (live links disappeared and changed etc). i mentioned the diff in schedule between gcn and uci in that first post and will keep on it as things get closer, embedding the ones that seem best.
Reece Wilson is gonna give it a go!
From looks of things it should breakdown enough to force some alternate lines from some guys and potentially make some lines that would otherwise be slow competitive. But it shouldn’t be leogang 2020 bad. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
pit bits 1 gallery - https://www.vitalmtb.com/pit-bits-1-2023-val-di-sole-world-cup-downhill
for those that like to follow qualifying but hate the uci site
https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/mtb?ll=168800652665
In the women's juniors, a new name to follow: Sacha Earnest.
She scorched the qualis this morning, won the NZ U19 Nationals, and has performed absolutely fantastically in Crankworx this year.
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