Great vid! The commentary was much better, wasn’t it? Rachel brought genuine excitement and the racer’s eye to the Elite ladies commentary; she even ripped up the plugs for the local Dyfi trainer (Rico Martin) and Conti’s on air! Less is more seems to be a thing in life too. Semi’s on Saturday is also an improvement for us as we can follow on the UCI timing, though I still regret not being able to watch it. Loic suggested having more riders getting through each stage, including to the final, but not putting the first few riders on the TV. That gives up and coming riders experience riding at the sharp end, even when the protected riders don’t do so well (or get injured, eg Finn) in quali and Semi’s without making the broadcast too long for the punters: I liked that.
Looks like some great racing - it almost has me wanting to spend the money on a Max service here in the US. Josh did well. He added some that excitement that was missing, but without it feeling like he was trying to copy Rob. Oddly enough, when you watch some of last year's races with CG, he had a lot of that screaming and enthusiasm you mentioned. I definitely hear you when it comes to racing in crap conditions. When I was amateur DH racing 25 years ago, my best races were when conditions were crap and just being able to stay on your bike could net you a good result - something I was good at. But that doesn't mean I totally enjoyed it.
Bernard Kerr’s comments of “fuck the semis” is coming a lot more from him. He basically said “you’re just not riding your best” on purpose and he longs for the single Finals run where it’s all or nothing…..he’s a bit frustrated with the current format, and it’s showing
Great re-cap vid, but I hope it isn't wrapped up by Bruni already though, it would be good to see more of a battle towards the top. Fingers crossed the irish lads manage to bag a few more stellar performances. I did find it a little strange at the start that you were showing footage of Lachlan's run whilst you were talking about Loic, was this a mistake...?
Hey Dean, Vali mentioned in her Wyntv that there might be 15 races next year? what are your thoughts on that are there even enough venues? surely this would mean new venues? is this a rumour going around ?
I'd love to see more races as I don't feel like 8 is enough, they would just need to me the schedule makes more sense and not jump around so much, for example, run Les Gets and then hold a race at Morzine the week after.
