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Edited Date/Time
5/8/2024 8:08am
Round 2 of the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to a brand-new, never-raced venue in the city of Bielsko-Biala, Poland. The racing takes place May 17-19 next week, but figured we may as well start talking about it! There's an EDR (round 2) at the venue, too.
We'll kick off another Vital Downhill Fantasy round next week with a RockShox Pike, Troy Lee Designs D4 helmet, FSA Gradient 35 Bar/Stem, and Maxxis Tire prize pack! Start list should be out Thursday for the game to kick off. Really stoked on a new venue and excited to hear what the racers think.
Schedule below with race book found here - https://ucimtbworldseries.com/content/22405/01HWMYJZFMBRRVV9JRJX20Y9W8…
here's a video about the city that even has a few MTB clips (rad sui!)
All’s I want is updates about how the Frameworks kids are holding up, and if that info shows up here, I’m following.
I'm really interested to see this track, they've done a very good job of keeping it under wraps. Outside of a few photos some months ago I've not seen anything.
I can't think of another new venue that's had so little attention in the months running up to the race.
The organizers put a video up on their YouTube a couple of days ago showing some snippets of the top and mid sections. According to the Facebook post that went with it, the hardest technical section is near the bottom.
The town has multiple ski areas, some are tiny, but the one that I *think* the race is being held at is "Szyndzielnia – Bielsko-Biała." My best attempt at googling the ski resort says that the vertical drop is 590 meters, or 1935 feet. Now, based on the video, it looks like they're running the race on the lower lifts, not all the way from the top, but still my eyeballs tell me there's plenty of hill and plenty of grade to run a downhill track down to the village at the bottom.
The dirt, rocks, and roots look great, too. My only concern based on the video is that they're trying to do to much, building jumps and berms and high speed sections instead of just letting the athletes rip up the ground and make a track with their tires. But we'll see what the track actually looks like in 1.5 weeks.
The DH race will take place in neighbouring city of Szczyk, on mnt. Skrzyczne. Official course length is 2015m/403m vertical drop.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/YFDRJEcVRYD6ZkBz8
The Bielsko-Biała itself will host enduro race on mnt. Szyndzielnia. the course is not published yet.
You can expect a lot of loose rocks, the area is known for that.
As always there is criticism about the course, mainly from Poles, but I, myself, am stoked!
I'm a local (currently moved to Norway, but will be there for the racing) so AMA.
Okay, serious question: How do we pronounce these words in English?
Szczyk, Skrzyczne, Bielsko-Biała, Szyndzielnia
Pretty sure Szczyk is "shtick", no clue on the others...
I looked them up and I still don't know 😂
I think the idea would that you can't pronounce them in English, 'cos they are Polish words
https://translate.google.com/?hl=sl&sl=pl&tl=en&text=Szczyk%2C%20Skrzyczne%2C%20Bielsko-Bia%C5%82a%2C%20Szyndzielnia&op=translate
Its going to be a hard one for english speakers...
I wonder if this is why Ric seems to have reined in saying the venue name every 2 minutes during race commentary? He knows what's coming.
Szczyrk needs to sound like Wil E Coyote getting zapped. Please Poland don't let me down.
Looks like all’s right in the world once again. I was stressed. From Asa’s IG:
awesome! and how sick is that car wash/bike wash slot for the back tire?
Didn't even notice, too stoked. Thanks for pointing it out!
Didnt they say they had spare frames with them.
sounds like the spare frames were in the van that was stolen
Update on the GOAT. Dude is gnarly to still be planning to line up next week in Poland...
And Lucas Cruz is on the road to recovery! I hope all goes well for him and we see him back when he's ready.
For those without Instagram:
@gregminnaar : A little update on the last couple days. I managed to go see Lucas in Inverness on Sunday night as well as get my shoulder X-rayed. The initial prognosis was a grade 4 separation of my shoulder with some shards of bone hanging around the AC joint. I managed to get to a shoulder specialist down in Manchester on Tuesday and had a better look and it seems like it’s a grade 3 separation with some shards of bone hanging around the joints. So I’m just going to push forward. I don’t think surgery is needed just yet, if I want to carry on racing this season I need to to push on so that’s the plan. Hopefully we can be racing in Poland but I’ll know more on the weekend. I’ll probably try and ride Saturday or Sunday and see how the shoulder feels. It’s never an easy one, I think the pain that shot through my shoulder caused the second crash and that’s what happens with the separation. It’s a feeling I’ve felt before and an injury I’ve had a couple times so hopefully I can get back racing as soon as possible.
@lucascruzmtb : I was released from hospital on Tuesday after a successful surgery! The pain is pretty severe right now but they say I can fully weight bear as soon as I want. I’ve already been doing stairs up and down, going for walks etc. Of course you can’t help but think about the next race I’ll be at but at this point I’m just taking this rehab very seriously in every way so that I can be back with the team doing what I love. Thank you everyone for the support especially my one of a kind team @norcoracedivision for standing by me with this recovery. We have all bases covered and I can’t wait to see everyone soon!
a mom from poland sent us a clip of some berms and a jump at the top of the track. in our insta stories (nothing earth-shattering to see, but passing along anyway) and heard from someone, "not steep, reminds me of killington"
The EDR course has been posted:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6zQwFDL31K/
Not polish but I can translate these two out of my head: Stage 1 - Stone quarry, Stage 4 - Gypsie (my language thats the politically incorrect word lol)
Pre-race show is live for this weekend!
0:00 Intro & How to Play Fantasy
2:00 - John gives insight into how racers and teams approach a new track
5:49 - Bielsko-Biala track details and discussion
11:00 - Will electronic suspension systems be a thing again this weekend?
14:54 - Loic Bruni's setup speculation
22:32 - Will experience be an advantage this weekend?
24:42 - How teams find the best lines during practice
30:28 - Injury updates
34:50 - Fantasy notes and insights from Fort Bill
44:33 - Junior Women predictions
46:48 - Junior Men predictions
52:02 - Elite Women predictions
57:03 - Elite Men predictions
First look at the track from mtb-news.de:
It's not really looking good, is it? But let's wait til friday morning when bikes start ripping up the berms.
Friendly reminder that everytime we go to a new track or a track gets rebuilt peopl complain that it will be too easy, then the track gets rutted up like crazy after 1 day of practice and then the race is great.
Looks good fun to me
Track looks very short no? Maybe theyre not showing the whole thing.
The natural sections look cool. I'll wait to make a judgement till practice starts, but my initial take is that it's short and not steep.
I heard a prediction that the winning men's run will be around 2.30, which is 15 seconds quicker than either Lourdes or the new Vallnord track.
That'll piss some people off, but as an upside it'll make for some really tight racing.
Hopefully this means that we get to see most of the track on the broadcast. Wasn't it Lošnj that we got to see most if not all of the track?
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