What Did You Think of the New World Cup DH Race Format?

I don't mind it but kinda wish the Finals was on Sunday (or the day after semis) to spread it out a bit more.

  I liked it but waking up at 2:15 am to watch wasn't ideal

I agree the semi and final isn’t a bad idea but would be nice to split things up on different days. Logistically I’m sure this is a lot harder and extends the chance of injury probably even further but would be better from at home on the tv

format was considerably better. video coverage was better, audio coverage was terrible - they are so out of touch with what a commentator needs to know

Good video coverage, commentary was questionable,  what was Cedric saying?? Nobody knows..

I don't like the protection rules. I get you are protected into the race.  That race is the Semi Finals. Not both the semi finals and the finals.   I mean if you are that hurt, screw up 2 times be it a mistake or mechanical you don't deserve to be in the finals.   You had your chance you blew it come back next week.  

I like the new format purely from a racing perspective.  It’s going to make for more winners and more interesting race craft.  Will be interesting to see if someone like Troy could 2 and 3rd each race to a championship if no one else is as consistent.  And only 30 in the final it felt like every run could be a podium run.  I realize guys have podiumed from above 30 before.  But was there anyone in the top 30 that hasn’t podiumed at least a jr wc?
 

but they need to step it up big time for semis. Or charge for semis and jrs for the super fan and have finals be free.

cause that semi final was an amateur production.  the racing is too good and too dangerous to have that be on YouTube for anyone to get an introduction to the highest level of the sport.  It was hard to follow and that’s knowing what’s happening.

they got kinks to work out in finals.  Mostly with graphics and commentary. But other than then paywall it’s hard to complain too much.  If that was the free show I think everyone could relax a bit and let things get better.  But with the current format and production I’m forced into paying money to watch what’s in my view less polished than before and everything that is free to watch isn’t all that appealing.  I’ll still watch it probably but even as a superfan of the sport it’s pretty cringy.

As a race fan, I don't understand the new format. I'm honestly curious why semi-finals was adopted? How is the new format supposed to be an improvement over a top 60 qualifier and then finals? Because to my eyes, it's a confusing extra mid-race race that doesn't exactly drive the narrative but gives another chance for race-ending flat tires and crashes. I'm not going to be melodramatic and say this "ruined" racing, because it was a pretty great final with Rachel Atherton and Jordan Williams blowing everyone away. But I just don't get the new format. I'm guessing it was created to get more clicks and viewership per round? It reminds me of when Crankworx had finals and then SUPER FINALS!!!

I think it is ok, I enjoy watching more racing however I think there was a missed opportunity to make a B league out of the 30th to 60th place riders.  I recall Martin Whitely throwing that idea out there last year and it made sense to me.  
 

Realistically some of these guys will never crack the top 30 this year and I think it makes sense for them to race at a slightly lower level and get to race in the big show if they place top 5 in the “B” league race.  Creates more opportunity for them to shine against equal competitors.  They could just take the top 30 in points every year to determine the A class.  

they wont know more than what they know today.. except that lady.. terrible.

I think with the coverage now, there is no need to make B league.. breaking into top 30 finals is going to be the motivation for the usual guys out of these top guys.

Only watched finals. Commentary wasn’t too great. Didn’t miss Claudio. 
I thought that discovery was going to show more of the track. They didn’t show any of the first 30ish seconds. The drone wasn’t great either. 
Hopefully the coverage improves. 

The new format means more race runs to watch on any given weekend which i'm all for.

I don't agree with the protected rider status rules though - if you bin it in the semi-final, you should be out of the main final regardless.

I discovered I am perfectly happy to watch the semis on YouTube, read the finals results and watch the winning race run in the YouTube highlights. So discovery are kinda shooting themselves in the foot if they expect me to buy the app...

My take is that this will heavily favour the more factory teams. And make it waaaay harder for the Privateer/wildhorse's to get a successful weekend in.
The bigger teams having to have 2 identical bikes per rider incase of a catastrophic equipment failure is just not something a guy living out his van will be able to achieve.
Even Cabirou said she didn't eat the whole day because of the tight schedule - so I don't see how a privateer is going to find time to eat, fix bike issues, never mind getting time in on a trainer. 

Dont get me wrong, I loved watching hours of DH this weekend! But I think if you want more screen time then; the old format, but televise (Stream) the Juniors finals (every rider) and the Senior Finals (every rider)... and even go as far as having Quali's up on YT (As they did with Semi's).

Not sure how I feel about the addition of semi-finals yet. As a viewer it's hard to judge it in isolation from all of the broadcast changes. I do worry that the tighter schedule with reduced practice forced the riders to push too hard too soon. Gwin, Cathro and Pierron all potentially out for the season is such a bummer.

Not a fan of the protected rider set up.

Copying my post from another forum. (and to be clear, I'm a massive Minnaar fan, but he has benefited hugely here).

Greg Minaar has 32 points from Lenzerheide. Flatting in Semis, getting a free pass to finals where he flatted again.

Greg is protected due to finishing 10th overall last year, on 623 points.

Daprella, who finished 11th last year, on 620 points, would have receieved 0 points had he experienced Greg’s problems this week.

Those 3 points from last year have turned into 32 already.

In contrast, the loser here is Taylor Vernon who finished last in finals (he was also among the handful of riders who coasted to the bottom following crashes or punctures), but as there were 31 riders rather than the 30 that there would have been without Greg getting his free pass. Points are only awarded for the 30 riders*.

Taylor received 0 points for his finals run despite qualifying in the top 30. (24th, for which he did receive 36 points).

I'm undecided on the format.

On the one hand, they post the semis for free, which allowed me to watch some racing. And if they carry that through to World Champs it will be the first time in a few years that I will get to watch any racing from that race.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem to serve a real purpose to me. It's called semi-finals, but I call it qualifying 2.0. In my mind, it makes more sense to have two qualifying sessions. Top 20 from each advance to finals. If you don't qualify in the first round you can try again in the second. If you qualify in the first no need to race the second. No protected riders.

I think the new format only serves towards Chris Ball's vision of making downhill like F1, focused on elite teams and riders only. The polo shirt and chino wearing presenters and the laboured camera shots of team managers are part of this.

By introducing a semi final, it now takes about 5.5 hours to watch mens and womens semis and finals, which even as a hardcore racing fan, I felt was too long. Most people, particularly those new to the sport are going to end up watching the finals only, meaning a lot of unprotected riders are going to miss out on a TV audience, reducing their exposure and value to sponsors. 

We were promised that this would provide total coverage of finals runs, but this turned out not to be the case, an coverage was no more complete than what we were used to seeing in a 60 rider final.

I feel the new format is about really about an ultimate goal of excluding everyone but the biggest names and teams from a downhill superleague in an effort to attract big money sponsorship from companies outside the sport.

Agreed. Or when big mtn skiing has finals and "super finals". 

The only thing I felt would make the format more interesting is if the winner was the person who tallied the most points over the weekend. I'm not saying this would be "better" but at least it'd make the format make a bit more sense, borrowing from moto a bit. 

Otherwise, KISS comes to mind here...

I feel the new format kind of "dilutes" the racing, kind of dividing one race runs in two.

Somehow you could now just watch semis and feel like seeing 80%-ish of the action. This makes the main race feel a bit less important somehow.

Also just watching finals it feels like you missed something by not knowing what happened in semis...
They could at least give a good recap of semis...

I’ll watch five hours of racing on television, when a race covers 200+km of changing roads and landscapes and the visuals show the entire thing in entirety with different perspectives using a mix of television quality cameras shooting from moving motorbikes and helicopters.  The same track all day, with limited fixed cameras and jank drones doesn’t cut it for me.  Vital Raws give a better perspective of what’s happening on the ground, and 1080p or 4k is fine for how I interact with MTB content, which is to say on my phone in my spare time.

I don’t like the new format, ruins what I considered the true difficulty of these races: one shot to put down your best time and beat the competition on that day in those conditions.  Every racer is fast, almost identical fast, and the ability to nail it with one try when it counts is what separates champions from players.  The fact that Atherton and Balanche have practically the same number of points after the first race is stupid, only one of them won the actual race… I can already see the overall podium with riders who didn’t even win a race…

For me, DH was awesome as it was.  Aint broke don’t fix it… 

Personally, I didn’t watch anything this weekend, and probably won’t this season.  The thrill is gone for me, sucks, but I’ll survive.  And I might tune in again someday, for example worlds on TV.  But I’m not going to subscribe to anything just for eight days of racing in a calendar year.  Not my style, and I know it’s not making the riders any richer.
 

I did enjoy the “long-format” race recap here on Vital…in quotes because it wasn’t exactly long, but the sentences were complete and it explained what happened with some suspense and drama.  I’ve always enjoyed reading race news written by real journalists who know how to tell the story.  If your writers could go “old school” and publish race articles with good writing and pics (and it doesn’t have to be published 2 minutes after the results are in), I’d be superstoked!  

Thinking about my own general passion for mtb this year: it’s definitely down.  I was way more passionate about riding (and buying components and gear) in years past, when I was stoked on the pro racing.  So, it might just be some Rubberbutter burnout, but I’ll be interested to see if others respond to a “meh” racing and viewing format with the same general apathy towards the sport (and the contrary: are you stoked on the new format and if so are you riding more and buying more gear?)

1.  The general exhaustion I felt after finals in the past wasn't there. Something didn't feel as intense and final about this race.
2.  210 guys trying to qualify is nuts.  But then in the top 60, we got privateers (I don't know if they were rich kids or poor kids) who I've never heard of. Never seen on a camera either, which was good.

3.  But man...watch the 60th-40th "fastest" guys come out of the gate knowing within 1 or 2 splits,they are going home for the next 2-3 minutes of viewing sucked.  You're just watching in case they crash.

4.  Women's field being trimmed to a finals list was dumb.  All of those ladies deserved a single finale. I've not even looked to see how many "qualified".

5.  Points was addressed by another poster (good job) and that's absolute crap. You can't get sponsors next year w/ a resume having qualified for a final in 31st 5 times and have ZERO points??? It's a punch in the face to the sport. People stop watching elite sports when they can't identify with the riders in the back of the pack.  Just like motocross & SuperCross. Millions tune in just to see their local hero listed ANYWHERE down the sheet.  

6.  Trying to make it "ELITE" is what the qualifying does. It takes a special guy to get down in the top 60 w/out smashing their bike & still being in it for finals where they can give ONE run (a Danny Hart Attack) that blows us away.  Don't waste man hours, don't risk injuring half the top racers w/ exhausting duplicity.  Focus on high quality production, better commentary, some ACTUAL information about the rider in the gate and just film the full 60 rider Finale.  The top 30 will unfold as stunning as always.  

AND....if the 60th rider happens to be a Pierron or Bruni or Gwin...you've got some exciting things unfolding during the entire filming.

I damn near lost interest by the time the top 5 came off the gate.  CG was exhausting by that point. It was almost better to not have Rob pip "Look at the TIme" during a 60 and a 30 rider call out.  He'd have been knackered.
 

Only awesome thing to come out of the weekend was to see Specialized Gravity ruin their own efforts to market/hype up a new DH platform by having their own new kid smoke their two alpha's on their own base model.

 

I’m stoked on more racing.  I’ll probably only watch finals live and watch semis sometime I can’t sleep at night.  I think more racing will make for a dramatic overall and more opportunities for people to shine.  And I think them changing the point values to more heavily weigh finals will still keep that fastest run in finals magic.  

any highlights show needs to include both semis and finals.  When you watch highlights for super cross they show lcqs and they don’t have points on the line.

the production has been a big miss, but I think the new format is good.  If they stick with it (it needs to be consistent for racers, don’t change it every season) get the production to match the quality of the racing, it’s going to be a reallly great thing for everyone.  As it stands the current production is putting a sour taste in my mouth but the actual racing has only been really fantastic.  Easy to be tough on eso for not nailing the presentation and seemingly always being behind the ball (no pun intended) but I think the one thing they nailed after seeing it was the introduction of semis.

Agreed. Why are the semi-finals?

Having only ten women race finals is pure nonsense.

"I’ll probably only watch finals live and watch semis sometime I can’t sleep at night.  I think more racing will make for a dramatic overall and more opportunities for people to shine."

This part is contradictory & you're basically saying semi-finals is too boring to bother with in anything other than "highlight" format.  

Rather watch ALL 60 come down from beginning to end in a single rip with tension slowly building rider by rider to the fastest qualifier.  In the past, the #1 complaint was we would miss Bruni or Gwin or Amaury or Danny have some blistering morning run that just shakes the whole party up until the last riders come down.  

Now...that can never, EVER happen.

Last, this format is so insanely flawed when it comes to weather.  Storms, lightning, lift maintenance issues, injuries on course & spectator & employee commmitment to being on hill w/out amenities (food, water, toilets) for semi's & finals is begging for major issues.  

Just one glitch will screw up an entire event broadcast.  From a former event promoter's standpoint, it's asking for problems.

 

To be fair that is a widely reported custom frame size so not exactly a "base model".