TRUTH BEHIND UCI World Championships Snowbike 2024

TRUTH BEHIND UCI World Championships Snowbike 2024

With endless messages & comments regarding last weeks race in France. I thought the fairest and best way to communicate what really happened from my point of view would be through a video.

Welcome back to the channel guys today we have a very different video for you I’m sat here with a clipboard and my bike from the UCI snowbike World Championships 2024 that is quite a mouthful isn’t it first of all I’d like to thank you all for all of your

Comments and well-wishes going into that race and all of the comments and Theatrical drama involved in the weekend and what was the aftermath so thank you all very much for getting involved I really appreciate the comments and I totally understand there is quite a lot of diversity around the thoughts on this

Race and what it involved and everything like that and that’s the reason why I wanted to sit down and talk to you about it because I don’t believe there are many people actually telling you the facts so all I can do is give you my opinions and the facts of what happened

That weekend that maybe you don’t know about so where did it all start the invitation now British cycling we’re not doing a application process to enter on behalf of British cycling and represent Great Britain which is fair enough absolutely no problem with that whatsoever let’s make it clear this is the first ever

Snowbike serious race and especially World Championship that had ever been held so therefore I don’t think it’s British cycling’s responsibility to start putting together a massive team on the first year first episode let’s say of it so no harm there I phoned them up and had a conversation with several

People of the British cycling team and they were nothing but amazing super super helpful super super positive uh wanted to know a bit about my background what I’ve raced in am I good enough to go and represent the country and British cycling and obviously they came back and

Said yes which I was thrilled with absolutely thrilled so thank you very much British cycling for allowing me to go now then now it gets down to business most of the races that I go to have money pot prizes they have bikes that you can win that’s how a lot of us that

Are in this game make a living and are able to progress in our careers this race in particular there was prize money I don’t know how much it was and we never found out but that money is awarded from the U to the winner of the race it doesn’t actually

Go directly to the winner it goes to the Cy governing body from that participant’s country so therefore if I’d have won the money would have gone to British cycling and then BRD cycling it’s up to them to pass it on to me or to divy it up if

It’s cost them to get there which is a good system I think however getting to the race and everything like that that is down to the Riders to do that so that is for me to pay to get there um and this is a big thing that I’ve noticed a

Lot of people messaging me saying how much did it cost to enter because I think uh a few of you have watched a previous film we did on a urban downhill race and a lot of people want to know how much money is involved so that’s why

I thought I’d touch base on this subject as well so the race in total cost a little bit over 2,000 British Sterling for me to go there to compete and to get back home now that 2,000s is broken down into a various different elements where travel is obviously the number one cost

And staying there so an Airbnb the bike obviously doesn’t cost me any money so I didn’t bring that into any of those calculations the tires they didn’t cost me anything because I’m sponsored by schwabie so we did a lot of modifications and all of the equipment

Side of it didn’t cost me anything so that’s great but it’s still £22,000 to go and do this race so that to me is a hell of a lot of money and it’s worth noting this is one thing that made me really fall in love with the or Ryon and

I know that a lot of you are going to say oh you’re going to say it’s good because you’re sponsored by orbe obviously that’s true I’m not going to deny that but I’m going to tell you the things that I really loved about this bike in particular at this event the

Number one thing that this bike did superb on and performed better than any other trail bike that I’m aware of out there is due to the flip chip so the flip chip is not something I’ve really faffed about with in the past um this is

An element of the bike that Ora has told me to use because it is quite important and in a nutshell basically I remove this bolt here at the back of the shock onto the linkage and you flip the chip and put the bolt back in now you’ve got

Two options low or even lower and what that does if you imagine if it goes even lower it raises the back of the bike up which in effect would drop the bottom bracket lower and slacken your head Angle now that is the one thing that I

Really really wanted to do on this race because it’s a red ski run so it’s not quite a black but it’s red it’s very very very Steep and by slackening the head angle I can make that bike a lot more comfortable a lot more easy to control and I’m not worried about losing

Bottom bracket height because obviously I’ve got no rocks flying up and hitting my pedals so pedal striking is out the equation so to be able to put that flip chip into the lowest possible position was a huge attribute to this bike and it changes head angle for example goes from

63 to 64 1 12° and the bottom bracket height was at 350 it would then dropped to 343 so we get a 7 mil drop on the bottom bracket the other reason why I really like that is I’m obviously quite tall I’m 6’2 the lower I can get to the

Ground the lower the center of gravity the faster I can turn the more stable I am so that flip chip for me was the best thing about this bike for that race I absolutely love being able to just flip it slacken out the head angle drop that

BB and away we go now whilst we’re on the bike let’s talk about modifications because you can probably see in the camera and I’m now going to show you some b-roll of these tires and this is the sticking point for me in the race so

We’re on ice we’re on snow the UCI said you guys you’re allowed to put spikes in your tires obviously no one makes spiked tires that’s a lie sh be Doom make a spiked Tire it’s called the ice Spiker Pro it’s not necessarily designed for racing downhill the studs in it are very

Small they’re a couple of mil um and that tire is designed for people that live in very very cold countries and do a bit of mountain biking or maybe even commute to work where they might hit some ice now what we needed to do is get

These big screws so this is a self Tapper with a nice big sharp edge on the top of it um what we need to to do was modify two tires so as you can see here I’ve got a tacky Chan on the back and a magic Mary on the front now what we

Tried to do is go for a harder compound because if you imagine in the snow you need the hard of the compound to actually dig in you don’t want a soft tire soft tire is going to obviously roll we’re not looking for roll to go

Around a rock and form to give you grip we just wanted the sharpest possible thing we could do um however I also had to bear in mind that I wanted super gravity casing so that makes the tire stronger because we’re going to be experiencing speeds that were even

Faster than all of the other races that we do so we were knocking on the door for 100 km an hour so that’s a lot more than we would get on a on a traditional downhill track what we did was spend an enormous amount of time after going to

The hardware store and finding the right length screw which by the way on a magic Mary so these knobs here work out to be give or take 10 mil if you include the car carcass that you have to drill through these screws are 16 mil so a 16

Mil screw from top to bottom should therefore give me six mil coming out of the tire which is exactly what the UCI said we were allowed to do 6 mm out the tire no problem one Spike per knob or per knobble whatever you want to call it Knob we allowed to say

Knob yeah knob rules to me are Paramount rules make the world go round it makes sport Fair it makes life fair and I abide by the rules at all times I really do apart from when I go in sideways in my car but we’re not going to talk about

That on camera I studded the front tire as you can see with these lovely looking spikes which are very very sharp to touch and that gives me an enormous amount of extra front end grip I then went to do the rear tire and as I’ve

Said this is a tacky Chan so what I didn’t calculate was my 16 mil screws that I’ve just launched across the floor the knobs on the tacky Chan in the center of the tacky Chan are actually shallower than a magic Mary on the side knobs so by the time I drilled through

The tacky Chan I was then left with 6.5 mil of screw showing out therefore that makes my bike illegal that is a cheating bike I cannot do that because that gives me additional grip above everyone else at the last minute and this is the day before I was flying out I realized the

Issue and I realized the mistake that I had made and it’s no one else’s fault it’s my fault because I did my calculations based on a magic Mary so I managed to then realize what I’ve done wrong and panic absolutely Panic run to a friend’s house borrow his

Angle grinder and then sit there for the next hour and a half going over every single screw to make sure that I lose the 0.5 that was making the bike illegal therefore I had 6 mil exactly on the back and 6 mil on the front so I was

Happy I’ve got a legal bike once we’re on the subject of the screws the issue that we’re now facing as cyclists and I’m sure many of you are cyclists that are watching this we get Tire Buzz so that’s where you’re riding down a trail your bum is in this position your legs

Are coming up here and on the inside of your thighs I actually have scars I’m not going to show you on the inside of my thighs from Tires over the year Tire buzzing me here and in a worst case scenario sometimes you take the middle

Of the tire to a region that you really don’t want it now when we think about this that tire spinning at 100 km per hour with these razor sharp spikes would be enough to I don’t even want to imagine the amount of damage it would just personally I think it’s a

Life-threatening situation to have that there a lot of you may disagree with me and that’s just my opinion but my opinion is that I have taken a tire to that region and if you have these screws sticking out you’ve then got basically a chainsaw between your legs and I was

Speaking with Scott Bowmont lovely guy an enormous amount of credibility in the industry he’s been in the industry for just donkeys years that’s showing his age actually I should probably shouldn’t say that sorry Scott um he’s got new nous national titles World World Racing he’s a fantastic human being and a huge

Amount of experience in the sport he said the same as me this is absolute ludicrous that we’re allowed to do this now bear in mind the UCI did not say that it’s obligatory to have a rear fender a rear fender would therefore give you a bit of protection if

Something went wrong so in my opinion if this sport is to continue you’ve got to have a rear mud guard or Fender of some sort a lot of people had their own homemade ones but some of the younger riders that were racing were insisting on not having it because it didn’t look

Cool now I understand we’re in a industry of fashion and looking cool but as you well know from me I have never looked cool I never will and I don’t really care what I look like safety is Paramount so having that mud guard there I used one from mud hugger I love the

Guys at Mud hugger I think that they make some amazing products who cares what it looks like it did the job so thank you mud hugger you saved me and you saved future children so thank you very much so touching based on that one again I think moving

Forward it’s got to be obligatory you’ve got to have a mud guard there but whilst we’re still on the subject of the screws because this is where things get a bit spicy um I want to make this very clear I do not ever want to come across like a

Sore loser or a bad loser but as I said earlier fairness and equality in everything that we do is Paramount um and in sport it needs to be a Level Playing Field it was not and this is the reason why for me the whole event

Was uh tainted is the word I’m going to use um and that’s because a lot of the Riders had spikes that were grossly over 6 mil one Rider in particular I’m not going to name his name it’s not important and I don’t think that’s fair or professional to say his name uh but

One Rider told me openly that he had 11 mil of Spike coming out and I looked at it and I agree from line of site looked about 11 mil so I take his word for it now the UCI didn’t do any scrutineering no checks whatsoever which I I find very

Strange in a sport where there’s a world title and a gold medal up for grabs that for me is a bit strange I don’t really understand it maybe they’ve got their reasons however that’s then Amplified because after me seeing what’s going on and in the race Paddock and seeing the

Other guys I made it clear to a UCI commiss I’m not sure what her role was um and I’m not sure what her name is and that’s probably a good thing because I don’t think it would be fair again to say her name on camera um I want to make

This clear that the UCI all weekend were lovely really friendly guys however I had a conversation with this lady and said look I’m here to race I’m here to compete that’s my job as it is for everyone else however some guys have got double the amount of grip than others

And there’s a rule there for a reason so please can we look into it I was faced with don’t care just don’t care she didn’t care wasn’t interested in my conversation wanted me to go away that angers me a lot because like I say I

Don’t want to be a bad loser but we’re in a sport we need to have a Level Playing Field so the UCI massively failed in my opinion on that subject because let’s face it this snow race it’s all about grip it’s all about grip going down a ski run on snow and ice

It’s all about grip the person with most grip is going to do very well now I want to make this very clear as well this is not a dig at the guys that have performed well because I know some in the top 10 were actually on six mil

Massive credit credit to them and I’d also like to make a point that all of the British riders in the British team were on six mil as well we all stuck to the rules so appreciate all of those guys and everyone else from all the other countries that did stick to the

Rules and those of you that didn’t well that’s your choice I don’t have anything personally against you it’s more of the UCI for not following up on a rule that we were supposed to adhere to zero practice I can’t make that I can’t even explain that enough

Zero means zero we were told no practice no nothing just rock up to the start line you’re given a random start order I was actually this is random I was given the number one plate which I’m not going to lie that’s pretty cool I’ve got number one UCI World Championship plate

Um so I had to go first The Day Before the Race I thought okay I’ll go up and have a look so I’ll get a Paris skis Susie will come with me on her snowboard and we’ll just ski down it just have a look see if I can learn left right where

We going because again I think from a danger point of view coming over a Crest and not knowing is there a cliff there is there netting there is it sharp left sharp right you just don’t know I think that’s just ludicrous and obviously it benefits anyone that had been there

Before so we took our skis up went to have a look and lo and behold we were told we weren’t allowed anywhere near the track so we went down uh piec that runs almost parallel to it one of the other ones just so I could sort of look

Through the hedges and get an idea a visual of some of the turns however on that day there’s bikes coming down the mountain on the racetrack so some guys again I’m not going to name them but some guys are on track are with their bike even though we were told Paramount

You’re not allowed anywhere near it let alone with a bike um again talking to the conversar at the bottom just not interested they just don’t care now I’m never going to join them I know a lot of people are going to say well you should have done it you should have taken your

Bike up there I’m not doing that because an eye for an eye on the world will be blind so I’m in a sport where I want a fair race I want to take the rule book read it thank you very much and crack on

And I will do that and I will always do that I’m not changing so if anyone wants to give it that drop it in the comments and I will ignore you now whilst we’re on the subject of scrutineering something that I found was very strange was we were not allowed to change the

Frame or the wheels in between the downhill race which was on the Saturday and the Dual slum on the Sunday which fair enough they want to try and level it out so you can’t use a downhill bike for one and then switch to your trail bike I kind of like it

Um I finished the downhill run on the Saturday afternoon and they decaled my bike in all these areas on the wheels I’ve got all of these stickers so clearly there is the means for having scrutineering because they were checking the bike so why didn’t they check the

Tires why didn’t they check when people come down and go KY look at those knives coming out your tire um instead they decided to put stickers on and care more about that um again I think that’s a bit of a oversight from the UCI and again if

They don’t like my comments well I’m sorry it’s just my opinions so what’s the future of snow MTB riding the truth is I don’t know I can tell you what I think is going to happen uh based on what was happening in chatel last week there’s a lot of talk about it

As well the Olympic Committee are potentially looking into into it to see if this has got legs if it’s um something that is good for the fans and good for the spectators to watch and get into now I speak from the mountain bike Community any type of mountain biking

That we’re involved in the chance to go to the Olympics we should all be behind it we should all be backing it because I believe that we’re not going to get many chances to go to the Olympics we’re really not our sport is not necessarily on the top agenda of the Olympic Comm

Committee and somehow and I don’t know who it is that’s behind it has got it to this far it could be the UCI if it is thumbs up from me because to go to the Olympics that would be incredible however I totally understand that there

Is a lot of um I don’t know what the word is discomfort animosity because a lot of riders think well there should be other disciplines that are there that have been around for a lot longer and I do share your concerns and thoughts on this however that’s not on the table

There’s not a suggestion of those so if we’ve got an opportunity to take our mountain bikes to the Olympics and race down a Snowy Mountain my opinion is let’s do it because the other options are not on the table so that’s where I stand on that whether it happens or not

We will see and whether I even go or not we will see it probably not after I’ve made all these comments uh but I genuinely mean it that I hope all of this is constructive criticism towards uh those that have failed in their areas um I don’t mean it with any hatred I

Just mean it from a athletes point of view where I’ve gone to a race I’ve had a lovely time but I think that there could be massive improvements I’d also like to congratulate the winners and I would like to thank everyone else that was involved in making it a very

Enjoyable week thank you very much for watching guys I hope that that the video has given you some sort of insights and information into a race that a lot of you are very keen to learn about and understand what happened um thank you very much for watching I will see you on

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