2022 PRO Thread

[jcrr]

Another technical masterclass from Jolanda Neff in Mont Saint-Anne to win the XCO race. Her skills are sublime....

Agreed. It was particularly interesting to also see her struggle here and there when things were getting really slippery. She handled conditions better than the rest of the field, but it shows that she too has limits.

Similar comment could be said of Titouan, though the conditions were not nearly as tricky. He looks really good for the end of the season, IMHO.

[BenSiskri]

Whilst it was an excellent ride by Carod, he was certainly helped by the lack of urgency by the chasers. The Belgian, De Froidmont led a group for the next 3-4 laps, Carod's team mate, understandably sat on. And the gap just went out.

Euros in 2 weeks, and the Worlds in 3 weeks. At the moment it's hard to see past Lecomte, though PF-P tends to peak for Worlds. In the men's I'd never write off Nino, but if Pidcock has recovered from the Tour, and is in any kind of form, then he'll be hard to beat. Though as we've seen in the past, the MTB Worlds does often produce a surprise winner.....

[Karvalo]

Puppy paws and supertuck bans are both for safety. People go on and cry about how UCI doesn't care about safety when big crashes happen but at the same time they also cry about the things UCI is doing for safety like banning puppy paws and supertuck. And if they hadn't banned those and there had been a serious crash due to someone doing either puppy paws or supertuck people would be out for blood and blaming the UCI for not caring about safety.

It's about acknowledging reality. You can say puppy paws and the super tuck are dangerous all you want but we do actually have the ability to look at the history of pro cycling and see that they simply don't cause crashes. It's that simple. In the mean time signage, course and barrier design - things that are unequivocally far more serious issues - continue to get paid lip service only with zero consequences for race organisers who year after year are frankly negligent in their duty of care and continually put people in hospital.

In short, demanding that if you are pro safety you have to support any regulation that someone else claims is important for safety is a lazy and intellectually bankrupt position.

[Karvalo]

Another technical masterclass from Jolanda Neff in Mont Saint-Anne to win the XCO race. Her skills are sublime....

Agreed. It was particularly interesting to also see her struggle here and there when things were getting really slippery. She handled conditions better than the rest of the field, but it shows that she too has limits.

Similar comment could be said of Titouan, though the conditions were not nearly as tricky. He looks really good for the end of the season, IMHO.

Tyres have limits! They were racing dry tyres in rapidly changing wet conditions. Neff was descending faster than everyone else on every lap and finding out in real time where the new limits were, hence the sketchy moments.

IIRC her last win in MSA was also in the wet. In her interview after that race she said when she woke up and saw the pouring rain she knew she was going to win by 2 minutes - and I thought that was *f##k* awesome! She's an amazing pure MTBer and she knows it.

[spud]

Puppy paws and supertuck bans are both for safety. People go on and cry about how UCI doesn't care about safety when big crashes happen but at the same time they also cry about the things UCI is doing for safety like banning puppy paws and supertuck. And if they hadn't banned those and there had been a serious crash due to someone doing either puppy paws or supertuck people would be out for blood and blaming the UCI for not caring about safety.

It's about acknowledging reality. You can say puppy paws and the super tuck are dangerous all you want but we do actually have the ability to look at the history of pro cycling and see that they simply don't cause crashes. It's that simple. In the mean time signage, course and barrier design - things that are unequivocally far more serious issues - continue to get paid lip service only with zero consequences for race organisers who year after year are frankly negligent in their duty of care and continually put people in hospital.

In short, demanding that if you are pro safety you have to support any regulation that someone else claims is important for safety is a lazy and intellectually bankrupt position.

in other words, puppy paws and super tuck ban are merely window dressing. The things that ACTUALLY improve rider safety are mostly ignored.

[spokenwords]

Making rules under the guise of rider safety is free. Making actual changes for the sake of rider safety costs money.

[LeDuke]

Another technical masterclass from Jolanda Neff in Mont Saint-Anne to win the XCO race. Her skills are sublime....

Agreed. It was particularly interesting to also see her struggle here and there when things were getting really slippery. She handled conditions better than the rest of the field, but it shows that she too has limits.

Similar comment could be said of Titouan, though the conditions were not nearly as tricky. He looks really good for the end of the season, IMHO.

Tyres have limits! They were racing dry tyres in rapidly changing wet conditions. Neff was descending faster than everyone else on every lap and finding out in real time where the new limits were, hence the sketchy moments.

IIRC her last win in MSA was also in the wet. In her interview after that race she said when she woke up and saw the pouring rain she knew she was going to win by 2 minutes - and I thought that was *f##k* awesome! She's an amazing pure MTBer and she knows it.

I was in the general Pisgah, NC area this weekend. Where Jolanda and her partner, WC DH racer Luca Shaw, live. Riding the trails she’s on every day, it’s easy to understand why she excels in brutal conditions. It was wet, slippery and slimy. Only at the very tops of ridge lines did it ever approach *just* moist.


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[Buexx]

[...] Euros in 2 weeks [...]

Euros is this (m) and next weekend (f)?

[Karvalo]

I was in the general Pisgah, NC area this weekend. Where Jolanda and her partner, WC DH racer Luca Shaw, live. Riding the trails she’s on every day, it’s easy to understand why she excels in brutal conditions. It was wet, slippery and slimy. Only at the very tops of ridge lines did it ever approach *just* moist.

I'm sure that does help now - she even messes around on dirt bikes up there like most DH racers do.

But Neff was already up there with Schurter as the best technical rider in the field in all conditions when she was still U23, before she ever met Luca or visited NC. She just loves it.

[BenSiskri]

[...] Euros in 2 weeks [...]

Euros is this (m) and next weekend (f)?

I was talking MTB; 19/20 August, the men's is actually on the Friday evening.

[Karvalo]

Anyone know if Pidcock is on the start line? It's not like he's ever needed a warm up race before but it'd be cool to see him out there before the worlds.

[maquisard]

Cavendish to Bora, makes sense, it was either going to be Bora or TE with the Specialized link.

[CrankAddictsRich]

Cavendish to Bora, makes sense, it was either going to be Bora or TE with the Specialized link.

Is that confirmed? I thought for sure he'd end up at Cannondale.... mostly because when he was on Lance's podcast and Lance said, "Anywhere but Cannondale." Cav seemed to have a nervous laugh like that might be the place. Perhaps he was in negotiations at that point.

[maquisard]

I am an idiot!

https://twitter.com/BOTAhansglohe/statu ... 5l4ta40gxQ

[maquisard]

I did not see the last effort and blowup of WvA on Hautacam for Vingegaard in detail.

This shows the full effect!

https://twitter.com/Eurosport_NL/status ... 7573586944