OG track in Leogang

The third round of the downhill world cup in Leogang is over and, astonishingly, finished with another Canadian double win for Jackson Goldstone and Gracey Hemstreet. Here are a few things I noticed over the weekend, as well as some deep puzzling over exactly how Goldstone went that much faster than everyone else.

Experience shows for the men

On thie face of it it hasn't been the best start to the season for the usual French riders, but somehow Bruni, Pierron and Vergier still occupy 3 of the top 4 places in the overall rankings. Goldstone is in second place and interestingly has scored more points for his final runs than Loic Bruni, but is still soe way behind thanks to Bruni's greater consistency in qualifying rounds. There's still a long way to go in this ten-race season, but it already looks like Bruni, Pierron and Goldstone will be fighting for the top spot as the season progresses.

Hemstreet rules the steeps

Hemstreet was once again streets ahead of the rest of the field in the steeper second half of the track, overcoming a small deficit after the motorway section to end up on top of the podium again with a decent gap over Anna Newkirk. Vali Höll rounded out the podium in third, a result which leaves her a scant 21 point behind Hemstreet and 6 points behing Seagrave in the overall. 

Bruni is a machine 

As well as showing great consistency through the season so far to stay on top of the overall ranking, Bruni showed great consistency throughout his race run at Leogang and was the only rider to have all five split times in the top ten during the final.

What on earth did Goldstone do in sector 2?

Dry weather, a straightforward track (at least for world cup level) and incredible depth of talent in both men's and women's fields meant that times were tight across the whole race. In the men's side, split two showed the least variation in speed of all five split times. The first half of the sector looks relatively straightforward , with the new "section" (2 seconds on the grass instead of on the bike park track) followed by three bikepark berms leading into the second tunnel of the couse. This section took pretty much 15 seconds to ride, almost regardless of who you were, unless your name was Goldstone. The Canadian wonderkid made up nearly a second on Bruni, and much more on most of the field, in this tiny section of track alone. I spent a long time trying to work out exactly how he did this, checking for sneaky lines, wind direction and so on, and the only think I have come up with is that he can ride bermed corners significantly faster than the rest of the riders. Any teams that want to pay me for further technical analysis please get in touch.

Blewitt is back

I was really happy to see Jess Blewitt back at the pointy end of things at Leogang. It seemed like here world cup career was just about to take off in 2023, with a great third place at the Val di Sole race, but a foot injury sustained at Hardline that year left her off the bike for a while and results since then have, understandably, not been at quite the same level. Here's hoping that 5th place is just the start and that we see her on the podium at some point this year.

Speaking of Val di Sole, that's the next race in a couple of weeks time and is always an interesting one with no complaints about lack of corners or high speed motorway sections. Can the Canadians continue their dominance? Will Vali get her first win of the season? Can Seagrave repeat her stunning triumph from last year? I'm looking forward to finding out! 

Loud in Loudenvielle

Round 3 of the World Cup is already underway, so it's about time I got this round 2 blog post done. Here's a few things I noticed over the course of the Loudenvielle weekend.

Always the weather

Everyone loves to talk about the weather. At round one, rain and mud were the order of the day for finals. In Loudenvielle it was quite the opposite. A sunbaked track turned to dust and deteriorated rapidly while strong gusty winds caused problems for the riders on the open ridgeline that makes up the first half of the track. Speeds at the top of the track were extremely high and there were several high speed crashes. As far as I know there were no serious injuries but I heard several people voicing concerns that the high speeds at modern tracks are making racing more dangerous than it needs to be. 

Bruni is human

I expected Bruni to do well again at this round. I don't really see him as a wet weather specialist and with a long flat top section playing to his strengths he qualified well in second place. Finals was another story. He expressed frustration after the race at the windy conditions and a near disaster at the infamous stall wall near the top left him nursing his shredded nerves down into 15th place. Having said that, he's still sitting in second place in the overall rankings and I expect him to do well at round 3 (seeing a pattern here?). He's got a great record at Leogang with two wins and a second place in the last five years and he'll be keen to get himself back into the series leader's jersey.

What happened to...

the French? The top three male elite qualifiers and the fastest female qualifier were all French, so the spectators were probably hoping for at least one home winner. It wasn't to be on race day, with Myriam Nicole making good use of one of the many padded trees and Jackson Goldstone ripping the bottom half of the course to shreds to deny a hard-charging Amaury Pierron the win.

Save of the day

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a save but Charlie Hatton did really well to get away without a much worse crash after getting ejected over the back of a berm. He freerided straight down the hill and perfectly greased a rock drop before slamming into the next berm and taking out a Shimano advertising board with his belt-driven Atherton bike. A point for belts in the battle for drivetrain supremacy.

Told you so!

Last time round I said that I would be shocked if Jackson Goldstone didn't improve on his 20th place from round one. That turned out to be one of the understatements of the year. Despite lying in 17th place after the first split, Goldstone turned on the speed and style and absolutely obliterated the rest of the field in the steeper second half of the track. He pulled back over three seconds on Amaury Pierron over the last three splits and set the fastest time of the finals in all three to boot. The only elite performance of the weeknd to outshine that was Goldstone's compatriot Gracey Hemstreet, who made good on her World Cup-winning potential and put in a run that was remarkable from start to finish. Dead last at the first split, she attacked the rest of the course with style and aggression, jumping gaps that nobody else was doing and braking later and less than the rest of the field to make up an astonishing 6 seconds on Vali Höll over the next four splits. The worrying thing for the rest of the field is that there is clearly still potential for her to improve significantly on flatter faster pieces of track. If she can remain healthy I expect her to be one of the top riders for years to come.

The kids are alright

I think this is going to be the year where the next generation of riders seriously challenge for the overall series lead. On the womens side, Gracey Hemstreet and Anna Newkirk are lying in 3rd and 4th place in the table after two races, and in the mens it's Goldstone and Oisin O'Callaghan. It remains to be seen if they can remain consistent enough to challenge the veterans over the course of a whole season, but it's going to be entertaining finding out! See you after the next round in Leogang.

Szczyrk as you mean to go on

With the second downhill world cup of the season fast approaching it's time to get my blog of the first race done. What with a new race format, team changes, crazy weather, belt drives and tonnes of great performances on the track there is a lot to talk about!

 Health and Safety

Last time I blogged about racing I wished for all of the top women to be healthy, and for once I actually got my wish! The first round of the year had the big six of Vali Höll, Tahnée Seagrave, Myriam Nicole, Camille Balanche, Marine Cabirou and Nina Hoffman all present and correct in the top ten. They are not going to have it all their own way this year however. Anna Newkirk lead the charge for the young guns. Making the most of the new qualification system she made it through to finals in twelth place and laid down a scorching run that for a long time looked like it would be enough for the win. It took a wild run from Seagrave to knock her out of the hot seat. I'm generally of the opinion that it is the rider and not the bike that wins races, but the brand new downhill bike from Orbea certainly isn't holding Seagrave back.

Save of the day

I'm awarding save of the day to young French ripper Nathan Pontvianne. As usual, the winning move was an unintentional nose wheelie. This time the award wasn't so much for the length of said incident as for the timing. Something bumped his rear wheel into the air just before the super-steep dive into the catch berm that took out a number of top riders including Andreas Kolb and second-place qualifier Oliver Davis. Luckily for Pontvianne he managed to get the bike back on the floor just in time and ride it out into twenty first place - a joint career best for elite world cups. I predict even better things to come at some point this year.

Last chance saloon

There were some big changes to the format of the racing this year, and I think they have been a great success so far. One of these is the move to a final of fifteen elite women, and when you see riders of the calibre of Monika Hrastnik and Eleonora Farina not make it through to finals, it seems insane that last year was limited to ten women only. The other major change was the removal of the protected rider system and the addition of Q2. The Q2 session itself was really exciting as a mixture of big names who had problems in Q1 and riders on the cusp of qualifying directly battled to get into the limited number of final spots remaining. One nice surprise was the release of an hour-long video with highlights of Q2, although nobody seemed to know that this would be happening. It would be great if they can manage to put this out live at some point in the near future. Exciting as watching the live timing screens is, a live broadcast of Q2 has the potential to be as exciting as the race itself.

What happened to...

There were a few big names that didn't quite live up to the hype from the off season in Poland. Vali Höll has clearly been the best of the women for the last couple of years, and after she qualified in first place it was a bit of a surprise to see her come down into fifth in the finals. There were no obvious problems in her run, she just went a little bit slower than the fastest women. Jenna Hastings hasn't really found her feet yet in the elite ranks. After a string of podium finishes in juniors in 2022 her best result in elites was a sixth place in 2023. A lot of people, myself included, thought this could be the year she finds some pace, thanks to a succession of outstanding results in the off season. It could still happen at some point this year, but the mud and snow of Poland proved to be half a world away from the dust and sun of New Zealand winter races for Hastings. Another rider that I thought would drop straight back into the pointy end of the world cup series is Jackson Goldstone. His awesome 2023 season showed everyone that he has the pace required, and a win at Hardline in New Zealand suggested that he was back up to full speed. Again though, the muddy conditions in Poland probably were a step too far for a first real race back. He struggled into finals with an eighth place finish in Q2 and ended up rounding out the top twenty. I'll be shocked if he doesn't improve on that at round 2.

Transmission failure

There's been a lot of talk about gearboxes over the last few months, largely thanks to the marketing efforts of Gates Industrial Corporation plc. However the only interesting drivetrain incident in Poland was a bog-standard 20th century dropped chain for Benoit Coulanges. Coulanges had already done what was to be the fastest sector two of the race, and somehow despite losing the chain before a crucial pedalling section of the track managed to bring his new bike home in tenth place. Look out for him later in the season if he can manage to keep the Scott in one piece for a whole lap.

Pierron Power

Amaury Pierron probably did not have the weekend he wanted, with a massive crash in Q1 leaving him limping into the finals courtest of a fifth place in Q2. He also didn't have the best start to his race run with several of the top men beating his first sector time by well over a second. However he kept it together in the treacherous conditions, and unleashed a split four time that had the commentators scratching their heads every time yet another promising run turned out to be way off the pace by the end of that sector. Some commentors wondered if changing track conditions gave Pierron some advantage, but what they didn't notice is that he was fastest in sector four in Q1 and Q2 as well as in the final. Call me crazy, but I think he might have just ridden that part of the track better than everyone else.

Going full downhill

Several enduro riders from last season have made the switch to downhill for 2025, and it turns out that if you are good at riding a bike fast downhill, you are also good at riding a bike fast downhill. Richie Rude and Martin Maes both made an impact in the mens category, finishing in fourth and ninth place respectively. For the women, Harriet Harnden had a great qualifying run but was outfoxed in the final by the tricky conditions and an unknown man with an official-looking lanyard running down the track in front of her. As an only-slightly-biased Brit I'm looking forward to seeing what Hattie can do this season, as it certainly looks like she has the pace for some podium finishes or possibly even better. Adding in the fact that one week before she won the first Enduro world cup of the season, on a belt driven bike of all things, shows what a great athlete she is.

Coverage half full

It is of course sad that we can't have free coverage of the finals for everyone on top of a truly worldwide series that pays out F1 prize money to all the athletes. Having said that, I thought that the amount of content appearing on the official UCI Whoop channel was pretty impressive, with course previews, press conferences, Q2, post-race wrap-ups, full junior races, highlights shows and probably more that I didn't notice. Nice work whoever is responsible, and can we have the Q2 broadcast live next time please??

OK, that's more than enough text for now. I'm going to try to write at least something about every race this season, and I might even be able to visit one of the races live if everything works out so there could even be a blog with pictures. Let's see if I can make that happen. Until next time!

Torque is Cheap

Torque is easy on a BMX. Get the right tool, tighten the bolt as much as you comfortably can and go ride. This doesn't seem to work so well on an MTB. More of an emphasis on weight saving means it's much easier to damage things by overtightening them, and I've found that neither of my dropper posts works smoothly if the seat clamp is done up too tight. I caved in early on in my MTB renaissance and bought a cheap torque wrench that is supposed to be good for 2 - 12 Nm, but I have had some trouble with loosening and over-tightened cassettes. When it came to swapping in a new wheel recently I decided to have a go at getting the correct torque for cassettes and brake rotors without buying a second wrench for the higher torque required. Here's what I came up with.

Hands equidistant from the hub, tool parallel to the floor for best results!

 

 

 

 

In case you need to do the same, here's how it works. The required torque is 40Nm, i.e. a force of 40N applied at a (perpendicular) distance of 1m from the pivot point (hub). My tool is 20cm, or one fifth of a metre, long, so I need to apply five times that force to the end of it: 200N. Since I also need to push down the same amount with the other hand to stop the wheel rotating, the total force I'm pushing down with needs to be 400N. Assuming you have scales calibrated for use on the earth's surface divide that by 10 to get what you need to see in Kg on the scales. So here I just push down (rotating the wheel to keep the wrench horizontal horizontal) until the scales show 40Kg (or about 90lb).

That's it! Feel free to tell me in the comments how this has saved you money, ruined your back, trashed your bike or that I've made critical mistakes in my reasoning..

Tube or Not Tube - Part 2a

One of my earliest posts on this blog (and one of the most popular, after at least one colleague read it once) was an explanation of why I hadn't yet set up my tyres tubeless. To summarise: more cost, more faff and few benefits. I had always intended to try it out though, and last month I finally found the time and energy to do so. This is intended to be the first of two posts, the second of which will cover more detailed ride impressions (if my knee ever gets better) and long-term maintenance effort. In this one we are talking about the installation process and first ride experience.

One of the things that put me off going tubeless was the endless supply of online articles explaining why you must go tubeless, how to do so, and all the problems that you will probably encounter in the process. Having run tubes in all my bikes for ever, and in my mountain bike for four years without any punctures, I was wary of taking out the tubes and taking a leap into the unknown. Many of the instructional articles make it sound like a lot of luck is required to get a tubeless setup working, and the thought of missing a ride due to a non-sealing tire when I am lucky to fit in one ride per week at the moment is not one I'm keen on.

So why now? Well, my bike was out of commission anyway due to user error and a long wait for a new rocker link, my tyres were getting a bit long in the tooth (or short in the knob?) and I discovered a box somewhere with some tubeless valves in. Perfect time for a tyre shuffle and tubeless experiment, safe in the knowledge that I had plenty of time to swap back again if it didn't go smoothly.

The front wheel was first, with a brand new shiny Specialized Hillbilly tyre to be installed on my Veltec ETR Extradrei wheel. I'd already installed tubeless tape and it looked in good condition, so nothing to do there. The plan was to try to get the tyre seated without any sealant in, then inject sealant through the valve stem. Amazingly the process was incredibly smooth and easy. The tyre didn't even pop into place, just sort of slid in without any noise using just my normal track pump. I then let the air out and added sealant, gave it a thorough slosh around, pumped up to 20psi and left it alone, expecting it to be flat in half an hour's time.

And that was it. Apart from the slightly unnerving feeling that I'd build something with a critical part missing, everything was totally fine. Buoyed by my success I decided to do the rear wheel as well the next day.

The rear wheel did not go as smoothly. Pumping frantically got me to around 30psi at which point the tyre bead was clearly not in the right place and air was coming out as fast as it was going in. Having a second go didn't help, although some careful listening suggested that a lot of the escaping air was coming from the valve region. Plan B was to add some sealant, resume frantic pumping and try to slosh the sealant around near the valve in the hope it would stem the leak. It took a few tries, but this process did work in the end. The sealant did its job at the valve hole and I was able to get the pressure high enough to get the tyre (Magic Mary in super trail casing) to seat correctly. A few more rounds of sloshing and repumping and it was holding enough air that I was happy to take it for a ride.

Initial ride impressions are pretty good. I've been out twice on it since and I'm pretty sure I can feel a difference riding over small roots and the like, and the sensation that I have a bit more grip in bumpy corners. The wheels definitely do lose enough air between rides to need pumping up every time, but since I used to check my pressures every ride anyway this isn't a huge additional effort. I grudgingly admit that I probably should have done this sooner, and it wasn't as bad as all the helpful online tutorials made it sound. Come back in 6 months or so to see if anything happened in the meantime to make me change my mind again.

Better late than never

Take a deep breath. With seven of eight races of the 2023 downhill season completed, we've seen plenty of drama already and there is still a bit to come next week in Mont-Sainte-Anne. I meant to start writing a few blogs about downhill racing throughout the season, but as usual got distracted by other things, so I'm making a somewhat late start now. Here's some of the themes and moments of the season so far.

 

Bruni is back, and then he nearly wasn't

Loic Bruni is so good, nobody was surprised to see him finish 3rd and 2nd in the first two races and find himself sitting at the top of the leaderboard, despite having to come back from an injury-ravaged 2022. After qualifying first and winning the semi final in Snowshoe, a result anywhere near the sharp end would have given him a healthy lead heading into the last round. It was a genuine shock to see him bin it into an uncomfortably sharp-looking pile of rocks on his race run after leading at the previous split. I hope he's not too badly hurt and is able to come out fighting next weekend.

Mind games from the French

Apparently Bruni singled out Loris Vergier as his main championship threat earlier in the race weekend. The view from the commentary booth was that this was classic Bruni mind games, but if that was the case then they backfired badly. Vergier put down a solid run to end up in fourth place on the day and close the gap to Bruni to only 60 points going into the final race. Despite this, Vergier decided to tempt fate by pointedly saying in his TV interview that he was happy to be going into Mont Sainte Anne with no injuries. Let's see what happens.

Pain is temporary, class is permanent

The women's field has been sadly decimated by head injuries over the last couple of years. I've really missed Myriam Nicole's presence during the season, as when she's on form I think she's a rider at who can match Vali Höll's raw pace. The second half of the season has also been missing Camille Balanche after a horrible crash in Andorra while leading the championship. Best wishes to both and hopefully they will be back and firing in 2024. The other, happier half of this story is the re-emergence of both Tahnée Seagrave and Marine Cabirou after long periods of injury. Seagrave had, by her standards, a mediocre start to the season, but it seemed like a trip to Hardline rekindled the fire a bit, and after narrowly missing out on a podium at the world championships in Fort William she is finishing the season strong with two world cup podiums and two seventh places. Cabirou has also had a great season, and after a steady start has lit up the last few rounds with a medal at worlds and back to back wins at the last two world cups. I can't wait to see all four of these women at full strength next season bringing the fight to Höll and Hoffman.

Save of the day

Almost every world cup has one of those moments where you are sure someone is going to crash horribly, but somehow they ride it out without even losing any speed. Snowshoe 23 was no exception, with the save of the day award going to Max Hartenstern for his full speed nose wheelie through one of the chunkier rock gardens. His back wheel was in the air for less than a second but it was long enough for him to pump down two or three big rock steps just on the front wheel and must have felt like a lifetime.

New kids on the block

A lot of the talk at the start of the season, and rightly so, was about the arrival of Williams and Goldstone to the elite category. They haven't disappointed. Jackson Goldstone has slotted into elites without skipping a beat and is currently lying third in the overall despite a puncture in the final at Snowshoe. Jordan Williams has been unable to match that consistency, but winning the first race of his elite career is the sort of thing that might never happen again. There are lots of other new elite racers this year too. Phoebe Gale and Gracey Hemstreet are the Goldiams (or Willistone?) of the elite women, and both are in the top ten of the overall standings after round seven. A couple of podiums for Gale were enough to put her into tenth despite some mishaps. Hemstreet has combined impressive consistency with a couple of stand-out moments, including an awesome run in Val di Sole that left her 7th despite a full on front-wheel-wash-over-the-bars incident. Without the crash her run would have been fast enough to separate Höll and Balanche in second place.

Crystal ball time

For the woman this is easy: Höll has already done enough to wrap up the overall and the main interest for the final round is the battle between Hoffman and the resurgent Cabirou for second place. The winner in the men's is a bit harder to pick. Normally with Loic Bruni leading into the final round you'd expect him to close it out, but I still don't know if he picked up an injury in his crash in finals, and Vergier now has a bit of momentum going into the final weekend. I'm expecting an all-French fight for the title but there are another three riders in Goldstone, Iles and Kolb who could mathematically still win if the top two slip up.

Well, I've run out of weekend so that's it for now. Maybe see you again after the final round for some more mind-expanding revelations.

A Pressing Issue

 In 1885, John Kemp Starley completed his design of the "safety bicycle" - a bike with two equal-sized wheels and a chain drive - and about a week later the first official complaint about a creaking bottom bracket was recorded. Since then the situation does not seem to have improved much. Persistent BB creaks that resist attempts from bike mechanics, manufacturers and exorcists to cure them are the bane of many an otherwise happy cyclist.

Part of the reason these shudder-inducing groans can be so tricky to get rid of is the challenge of accurately diagnosing them in the first place: there are simply so many possible causes. It's easy to immediately suspect the BB itself, but it could just as easily be an over-tight or under-greased pedal bearing, a worn or innacurately torqued crank / axle interface or even something completely different. (Hint: if the mysterious noise stops when you stand up then give your saddle a good wobble and see what happens.)

But let's assume for the moment that the pedals don't creak when you swap them onto another bike, that you've stripped, cleaned and properly tightened your cranks, and that you are now as sure as sure can be that it's definitely the BB. Before you hurl your bike off a cliff in a fit of rage, it's worth sparing a thought for your poor bottom bracket, and what it has to put up with. 

Landing heavily off drops, "schralping" berms, battering through fields of loose rocks and even pedalling back up to the top again all put a lot of stress on the bottom bracket area. Just standing up on the cranks puts your whole body weight through two pretty small bearings, as well as applying a massive amount of torque to the axle itself. The poor thing is suspended a few inches off the floor, right behind your front tyre, as you plough your way through water, mud and sand. And to top it all off nobody will buy it if it weighs more than 95g, even if pro DH riders nowadays are stuffing their crank axles with lead to make their bikes more stable. No wonder it complains occasionally.

The several different bottom bracket standards currently available fall into two camps based on how they fit into the frame: threaded and press fit. There are certainly people out there who are believers in the one true bottom bracket standard, whichever side of the divide they are on, but as usual the truth is that both of these approaches have pluses and minuses. 

Threaded bottom brackets are less likely to creak. The press-fit interface between the bearing and BB cup can be permanently installed by the manufacturer, and the threaded interface between BB and frame should keep itself tight as you pedal. It is also normally easier for a home mechanic to remove and reinstall threaded BBs, as long as they have the correct BB-specific spanner on hand. Press fit BBs on the other hand can be a bit lighter, and allow for a stiffer and stronger frame design in the BB area, all while being cheaper to manufacture and simpler to build into a carbon frame. You can also install them with a hammer in an emergency, or if you have a BMX.

So is one better? That of course depends on your perspective and requirements. I can only tell you that I haven't had any problems with press fit or threaded BBs in the last 20 years, and yes that includes several well-used and never maintained BMX BBs that were installed with a hammer. Square tapered axles on the other hand are a different story, and the quicker they are consigned to the bin of history the better.