GOLDSTONE, BROSNAN, WILSON – The Weekend – World Cup DH, Bielsko-Biala, Poland

During the first race of the 2025 UCI World Cup Downhill mountain bike season, 3 champions struggle. We follow Troy Brosnan, Jackson Goldstone and Reece Wilson for their weekend of competition in Bielsko-Biala, Poland to learn about how they setup their bikes, handle changing course conditions and tackle the mental and physical aspect of DH MTB racing.

Troy won the last World Cup DH I 2024 and comes off a solid result at Red Bull Hardline Tasmania. He’s on a Canyon Sender with RockShox suspension that uses electronic Flight Attendant technology.

Jackson returns from a year off the bike recovering from an injury early in the 2024 season that left him unable to compete. He’s on his Santa Cruz V10.

Reece Wilson is on the belt-driven gearbox Gamux Sego as he undertakes running the newly formed Aon Racing team.

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I can’t believe you I could be sitting in the top of World Cup. Imagine me not making it to the finals like picturing that. And now I got to go race. And I was stressing, man. That was that was crazy. I think I said the saying the other day, there’s it’s not this it’s not the sword, it’s the samurai. And today is a prime example of that. Well, I like had a okay run in um in Q1, but just didn’t go fast enough. and like a lot of people like went really fast. So that kind of put me into 23rd I think and I missed the cut. Um which made me pretty angry to be honest. I’m Nathan Carr and uh I’m sparing for Troy Brosman this next couple of seasons. So I want to talk to you about the the bike setup before and after the race basically. So before the bike has even done a run on the hill. What are your base settings? What are your tire pressures? What are your suspension settings? geometry, things like that. Yeah. Uh we run neutral headset on Troy’s bike, so smack bang in the middle. The new sender’s got plenty of uh range. Uh we can change the wheelbase. Uh we can change the front center. We can change progression settings on the rear shock. Um Troy runs the low, sorry, the high PB. Uh it runs a progressive setting on the shock. Uh and I doubt that’ll change at all. Again, just based on our winter, we we don’t play too much with it. We got a real good base that we’re happy with. And tire pressure uh 21 23 most places, but again, that’ll it gets dictated by the track as that beds in. So, that’s what we’ll start on and then uh yeah, we’ll take it from there really. Yeah, we’ve done loads of work this winter. Um I spent a fair bit of time in ours. Troy’s been over in Europe a bit and um yeah, we’ve worked real hard with Rock Shock and we’ve got some, you know, some real good just baseline settings that we’ve we’ve tried out now in like a various weather conditions, track conditions, steepnesses of hills. So, it’s quite a neutral setup. It’s something that we can just go to any race and have a real good baseline. Um we did some testing out in San Remo and uh the other week and you know nothing changed too much for there. So yeah, so we’re going to go there. We know exactly where we’re going to be. We’re worked hard with Rock Shock. So we’re in the middle of all our settings. Uh in the middle of our compression, in the middle of our rebound, so it gives us good range right from the beginning. Uh and then having the Rock Shot Boys on hand, anything we need that’s track specific, we can just get tuned real quick, real easy. What are the challenges of setting up a bike um on a track that hasn’t been ridden since last year? I wouldn’t say the setup is the is the be all and end all. It’s just how that track rides in. Um if it’s had a winter worth of um you know weather on it, uh that track is going to be very very different from track walk to finals. It’s going to be like two different tracks all together. So, I think the key is not to panic too quickly. Um, you know, you can stress and spend a lot of time trying to set that bike up from track walk and ultimately it’s not the track you’re racing on. So, um, I’d probably say you just got to chill out, let the track develop, and then that will guide you how you how your settings sort of end up. So, yeah, I think the key is you don’t panic and don’t rush into anything too soon. Yeah. So, how much you think the track will change? you kind of touched on it, but between now and Sunday, it’s going to get rougher. It’s going to get faster. It might get wetter. Oh, yeah. And it’ll be riding quicker. So, maybe you account for all that and and put it into bike setup. You just got to let it play out and see what happens with that track. For sure, it’s going to get faster. For sure, it’s going to get rougher. You know, these things don’t change every race. That always happens. Um, but it’ll definitely be more so with a track that hasn’t been ridden versus somewhere with a bike park. you know, it gets ridden by thousands of people a week. So, yeah, it will definitely change a lot. But in terms of setup, you just got you can’t have too rigid of a plan. We’re going to do X, Y, and Zed cuz we just don’t know yet. And then again, with the weather, that can completely steer us off course. So, um I think line choice and uh you know, your rider’s ability to just change with that is probably has more of a benefit uh than your bike setup, to be honest. So, I just want to talk to you before before you go ride your bike for the first time. Yeah. So, the bike in the stand now is pretty much how you’re going to ride it. So, talk about tire pressure, suspension pressure, setup, and geometry, how it is now. Yeah. So, right now we’re pretty much 63° head angle. Um, chain stay length. I won’t give you exact digits, but it’s about 10 to 15 mil longer than a stock would be. Um, we are on anywhere between a 2.4 and a 2.6 tire. I’m currently on 2.6 after Fort William. Um, they run at around 27 PSI in the rear and 24 in the front. And I’ve normally got a window of around 3 PSI that I’m willing to kind of experiment with depending on the track and and track conditions, dirt conditions. Um, 155 mm cranks. I have raced last year on as short as 140s. So, if there’s no pedaling to be done, unfortunately, there is pedaling here, especially at the start. There’s time to be lost and made. So, I could change crank length. That is an option that we have. Um, and stem height for me, uh, stack height on the front end can change a lot. At the moment, I’m 113 cm from ground level up to center of handlebar. And that can increase with crank length changing and also the the rear end length changing as well. So, I have a lot of I basically have any adjustability I’d like really. Um, we can change the gearing obviously ratios as well for depending on the track. Um, but at the moment I’m on a setup that I’ve been on for pretty much uh the last two months. Uh yeah, that’s about it. Suspension 265 in the shock I think 130 in the lower chamber on the forks and about 60 in the upper chamber. Um compression clicks and rebounds pretty central at the moment to be honest. Uh the main change for me has always I’ve always been bad in the past for setting up a bike a little bit too soft. Um initially your first laps you’re going quite slow cuz you don’t know where you’re going and you’re trying to learn the track. And then me, it’s always been behind the eightball. So I come to a qualifying run or a race run and my instant when I cross the line is my bike was way too soft. Like I have to get forward into that into the stiffer bike setup sooner in the week and kind of yeah force myself to ride faster by making the bike stiffer and harder. So that’s something I kind of want to focus on this week. Undoubtedly, I think most people start on a slightly softer setup and then we’ll go up by anywhere between 5 and 15 PSI on a on your spring rate and probably close things off maybe 2 three clicks. Uh depending on the track and depending on the conditions of course if it rains that that can all change and go out the window as well. So yeah, dry setup things will increase and a wet setup which is looking like it could be wet this weekend. Normally I just change tire pressures. I like to drop the tire pressure by 2 3 psi and leave the suspension cuz the added mud creates a heavier bike anyway. So, you need a little bit stiffer suspension for it to be as balanced as it was in the dry. So, I don’t really like to touch touch the chassis as such and just balance the bike with tire pressure. So, we’ll see what the weather gives us. But, uh yeah, this bike’s been super wellrounded at every track I’ve been to. I’ve been so impressed at how good this bike feels on every track with these base settings. So, um yeah, we could stay exactly where we are or we could wander way down the rabbit hole. Who knows? So, regardless, it’s going to change because it’s going to be wet, right? It’s looking like it’s pretty much non-stop rain from tomorrow till Sunday and Sunday being some of the heaviest rain. So, the track here is quite rocky based. It’s got a lot of route. It’s actually a really similar to home. If you cut all the trees down in Luan at home, it’d be pretty much this place. So, I’m pretty comfortable with what what to expect. Um I don’t think it’ll get too rutddy, but I don’t really mind ruts anyway. So, it’s going to be tire pressure and tire tread, I’d say, are going to be the number one changes. Um, if the temperature really drops and gets super cold, then that can affect suspension. So, we might open things up. Um, change brake pads. If it’s super wet, we’ll go a compound that works a lot better and heats up a lot faster in the wet. Um, and that’s about it. Some warmer gloves and jackets. I’m Woody. I’m Jackson Goldstone’s mechanic. Um, we’re back here currently building on the bike, but then it’s the same model of bike that we’ve ridden for a couple of years now. So, he’s got quite a comfortable base setup as far as uh you know, chain stay chips, flip chips with the shock, that sort of thing. He’s pretty settled on mid headset, long on the chain stay, low for the angles and the and the flip chip in the shock. And then the big change this year is there’s a lot of new suspension from Fox. So, there’s obviously the new rear shock from Fox. And then we’ve got a few other little bits and pieces that we’re playing around with as well. Um, so he’s going to have a couple of different Fox Shock tunes that we might go between this week. He’s got a lighter tune, a firmer tune just to see what we think. I’m imagining he’ll probably be on the firmer tune unless this rain does really really carry on and then it becomes a bit of a slip and slides fighting for grip test. But we’re going to start on the firmer set up um and then yeah, just kind of figure it all out really. Obviously Jackson had a whole year off after his injury last year and then we were at Hardline um and did a little bit to set up but yeah it’s it’s more it’s more the track at Hardline then fine tuning the bike setup just making sure nothing falls off. So um yeah should be interesting to get going and see where he’s at and then take the Fox testing and see how that applies to the race. Bill, so when we’re talking about suspension setup um it’s obviously a custom setup that that Jackson has. So yeah, when you’re talking about clicks from open or clicks from closed, that doesn’t really apply to anyone at home, right? Not really. It’s really hard cuz I mean essentially as you change the shock or fork tune, you just move the sort of window that those clicks apply. So, you know, you if you had somebody who was needing to run their compression really closed, you can put them onto a thermune and then open the compression clicks up. So then the clicks might be wildly different, but the result would be very similar. Um, so yeah, I mean everyone throughout the team’s running bits different in the shop tunes, especially like Fox were really good this year in the Fox testing and they went through several levels of different tune on compression, rebound, and bleed uh, as well. So, it’s really quite a lot more in-depth than we’ve ever had before as far as customization on the tunes for sure. So, when you come to a track like this that hasn’t been ridden in a year, plus you throw cold weather, rain, track changes conditions, how do you deal with setup? Um I mean you got to use the data you’ve got from previous you know you you all offseason you’re building that average of data and then even though it is new architecture I’ve got a lot of experience with Jackson from previously so you already have a good you know you’ve been working with Ry for a while you’ve got that relationship knowing what they tend to like and not like and I mean just trying to be prepared for everything you know we’re doing a lot of wheel prep yesterday and today it will be every tire combo that we can possibly get on the wheels ready to go um and then yeah just just play it by every run. You know, you never want to make too dramatic changes, and I don’t find we ever do because again, you’ve you’ve done so much pre-season testing that you tend to fall into quite a a channel of of settings. And then depends on riders. I mean, Jackson’s one of these people who he very much prefers a stable, repeatable setup, like he likes the setup to stay very similar and he adapts how he rides the track, whereas some riders prefer to throw the settings out the window and change something in its entirety. So tell me about tire pressures and suspension pressures and setup. Yeah. Yeah. I mean tire pressures he’s always in this window of kind of 23 24 in the front and then 26 through 28 in the back. Um I’m guessing it’ll be on the lower side of that this week because of the nature of this track. It’s not rocky. You know it’s going to be pretty I mean last year anyway it was pretty soft dirt in a lot of places. Um and especially after this rain you’re going to be fighting for a bit of grip. Um fork pressures. What’s he actually on now? 75 PSI I’m pretty sure with four volume spaces if I remember correctly from the last time. Again, that’s kind of fluctuated between like 70 to I think hard line we went up to high7s just to give him that bit more um support. Um and that won’t tend to change really depending on the conditions too much. We use the compression clickers and rebound clickers more. So the pressure tends to stay pretty stable cuz they want the ride height to sort of stay reliable. Loads of jumps. So, first few runs on track today. How’s it going for you? It’s not too bad. It’s pretty fun. I mean, sun’s starting to come out. It’s getting a little bit drier. Went from mud tires to dry now. So, um yeah, it’s getting quicker. Definitely running up a bit. Like this stuff is kind of crazy with all the rocks. I’m like it’s different every lap and it’s super unpredictable. So definitely struggling here, but um yeah, everything else is good. Feel a little bit under the weather, but going to try not to let slow me down too much, but yeah, just having fun. So, having not ridden here last year, how how are you with bike setup and stuff like that? Um yeah, we changed the bike setup quite a bit coming in this year. Got a bunch of new uh for parts and uh shock parts obviously. So, um, yeah, definitely feeling pretty good on the bike, but obviously I’ve got no no, uh, experience on this track yet. So, still trying to, yeah, catch up, I guess. Uh the track was actually really good yesterday. I was surprised. Um the dirt is literally like grally, rocky um in most sections and it was pretty ridden in from last year. So um there wasn’t really any like uh lomy, slippery stuff. The roots were a bit slick still. Um, but the wind and the sun when it popped out, it dried the track out really quickly. So, yesterday was rolling like little bit slow in the morning, but then sped right up in the aro. Um, but yeah, now it’s pissed down rain, so we’ll see what today brings. Looks like there’s a few puddles out there from what I can see just behind the camera now. So, um, I think it’ll be interesting. her tires um actually look pretty clean. So, that is going to be a hard one to choose. Um you know, if tires are clean, normally drives work uh better than muds. So, yeah, just going to have to maybe try and look at some uh GoPro footage and see what the track actually looks like and some photos from the boys up on track and make a deciding factor um on tires before the first practice run this morning. So, apart from that, the bike will stay pretty much the same. Um, we’ll bring up the speed, but obviously it’s a bit wetter and a bit slower, so it should balance itself out a bit. If you for some reason don’t get through qualifying, then you’ve technically just got a semi-final again. So, yes, it’s the last chance to get in. But, um, it’s it’s the same as last year with the two potential race runs that you could do. But, um, I’m feeling pretty good to to obviously get through Q1 and and, uh, I mean, hopefully win it. Yes, that’s the goal. How are you feeling? Yeah. Okay. Uh a little bit under the weather. It’s been cold. I think that first trackw walk day kind of definitely didn’t help for uh for the sickness. So, been battling it. Starting to feel a little bit better today. So, I’m hoping to hoping to potentially find something. But yeah, it’s been a struggle of a week for sure. Um I think we got some stuff to try and bike set up and hopefully that’ll uh help me out a little bit. And uh yeah, just going to have to try and push through and make it to finals. Yeah, so practice like started okay. I was kind of like like my second and third run like in the morning practice, I was pretty stoked and actually like having a good time. And then yeah, time training kind of started to struggle a bit. I don’t know if it was the sickness and my ears kept getting clogged and that messes with your balance so much. So I’m going to blame it on that. But uh yeah, we’re going to make some bike changes and uh probably do, you know, mud tires and with after all the rain and stuff. So, going to going to mess around a little bit and try and find something. I mean, tires are kind of the first things you can always go for. Um, we’re going to definitely do some suspension chaining as well. Probably going to slow the rebound down a little bit just to try and, you know, make everything as as settled as possible and just try and keep the bike under you as much as you can. So, um, yeah, I think we’re uh we’re going to try and find something. That’s that’s all I’m hoping for today. What’s Nina saying? Where’s she going up? A lot muddier like get cleaned off, right? Okay. It’s It’s HR3 then. Shaker weight on right away as well. Yeah. Do you want to try isolate that first and then do the suspension change after or you want to run straight with it? We don’t got much time. Let’s just do it all. So, what’s the change? What’s the changes for going to go slower on the highspeed rebound cuz feel like especially with the track getting wet and this is a suggestion from Jordi as well. sort of we were struggling with this like pingy kind of not tracking straight feeling on the front yesterday to slow down some rebound. Uh we’ve got a mass damper which we’re going to put on uh which is quite a nice kind of put it on see if it feels better or not. No adjustment with him really. So um and then yeah HR3 is he finished on dryers yesterday as the track was drying up but then now we’ve had a lot of rain overnight. We’ve we’ve got the the fortune of seeing Nina and the women come through first and it’s a lot wet and yeah a lot muddier. tires changed. Slight rebound on the front and then uh yeah, see if the mass dampening does anything. So, you got to put on some uh some high rollers. Yeah, I’ve got some prepped already on different wheels. So, again, we’re lucky that we have like five sets of wheels so we can kind of got some cut screamers, got a couple of dryers, got a couple of intermediates, and then that’s kind of the three tires he rides. Um set them up and then I’ll have a spare that I can take to the top with me for qualies as well. Yeah. What’s the plan for this morning setup? Just tire change. tire change. We were actually on dries yesterday. It did uh it’s pretty much perfect conditions yesterday, apart from when you had that bit of rain on top. The showers that just kept making it a bit greasy. Um but nothing was really going to help that. But this morning, it’s been so wet overnight. It is softer up there. So, going by the girls bike this morning, there’s definitely a bit of dirt to bite into. So, we’re going to get the magics on. Not going full full dirty Dan’s bike conditions yet, but it might come. We’ll see how it goes. We’re looking now up to Jackson Goldstone. Now making a return to competition after an injury last year in place for Jackson. Conditions are absolutely horrendous. If it doesn’t rain, the you’re down the hill, the better. Here in qualifier number one picks that are usual suspects contenders of the overall and win for the wins and it’s Koh holding on at 320 962 and unfortunately 17th for Reese Wilson. Honestly bikes mega there’s a I think I said the saying the other day there’s it’s not the sword it’s the samurai and today is a prime example of that. I uh I thought with this weather it was like one of those survival runs and uh I rode my like just basically don’t make a mistake kind of like worlds again and I thought it would be more than enough. Um whether everybody else has stepped up their wet weather riding or maybe in Poland’s just not for me cuz the same thing happened last year. I felt amazing in practice. Same this year rode a great race run smoked. Today same again great race run thought it would be enough smoked. So honestly I’m as confused as everybody else. So, I’ve got no idea what happened there. Um, hey, round one, race one with the team. Hat is in the final tomorrow and she can win it. So, she’s got a big support team from us and yeah, the rest of us need to work harder and be smarter. So, yeah, we try again. The great thing about racing, there’s always another bike race on his big return after a full season off of the World Cup. He’s going to be in the sixth place. A great finale by Jackson. What the is this What the Huh? How stressful was today, man? It’s I can’t believe you I could be sitting in the top of World Cup. Imagine me not making it to the finals. Like picturing that and now I got to go race. And I was stressing, man. That was that was crazy. No protection is crazy. And then to have the mix of conditions and then also to have like 11 World Cup winners go to Q2. Yeah, new formats. Uh definitely no. It’s pretty brutal, man. But uh I can’t believe we made it in. I had to give it everything. And uh yeah, I’m I’m blown. That’s that’s me, Max. Williams also also. There we are. He has first place for Troy Brast. Rost wraps it up here. Has beats by 2200s of a second. Well, I like had a okay run in um in Q1, but just didn’t go fast enough and like a lot of people like went really fast. So that kind of put me into 23rd I think and I missed the cut. Um which made me pretty angry to be honest. And then yeah Q2 um only 10 go through. So it was like you have to go fast. Um and it started pissing down rain. So I was pretty nervous and then when it really started raining I actually got a bit excited. Um I obviously do well when it when it pisses down rain. Yeah. rode a lot more on my toes and a lot lighter and um just followed the river down and and won Q2. So yeah, it was all good in the end. Um but technically I got 21st today and that’s not good enough. So yeah, we’re in for tomorrow. Uh built some confidence in that last run cuz I still beat a lot of fast dudes and uh yeah, we push on for tomorrow. I don’t know exactly what the weather’s going to do. I think it’s going to keep raining. Um, so I guess it’s it’s good for me. As much as I blew my legs out one more time doing another race run, I’ve done a run in the rain and know what to come for tomorrow. So, yeah, the track’s pretty destroyed and uh it’s tough. Like it was Yeah, that that run then was rolling a bit faster, but then it was also so destroyed that you couldn’t carry speed. So, yeah, happy to put in a good run and be in for in for it tomorrow. And look at this. He’s only 8/10 of a second off the time that has been set by Don Platt. And once again, he not going to push it and injure himself again. So, Gold Stone has come in and he sits in second and yeah, I mean, with how this week’s gone, I’m stoked to be uh stoked to be standing here in one piece and, you know, at least made it to the final for a few points. So, um yeah, it was a pretty loose run. I definitely was sliding off a bunch of lips and stuff, but in the actual like techy stuff where the it feels like the track’s actually a track, um I felt really good. I just I got no chance on those flat sections of the mud, especially with the sickness. I can’t I was struggling to pedal and I know it sounds like a lot of excuses, but yeah, just the way she goes. I mean, I pretty much kept the bike the same from yesterday to today. Uh conditions definitely got worse. It was snowing at the top and obviously rain all night, so ruts were worse, puddles were everywhere, and uh yeah, I got a a few little sneaky tricks up my sleeve, but uh for the wet, but that’s all I’m going to say. Uh I actually didn’t touch a single thing since yesterday. I think the only thing my mechanic did was a little bit of a brake bleed, and that’s it. Uh yeah, it may not be uh fighting for the top spot like I’m uh I want to be, but I’m stoked to be uh you know, coming out of here healthy and and uh hungry for for Ludenville. Yeah, Troy is wanting it to show that the little glitch he had yesterday in train in quality one was an affair of the Oh, and he call the glitch. Oh, huge slam for Troy. Not the result anyone wants. Uh Troy’s had a bit of a crash. So I’m yet to speak to him. So I’m I’m not 100% sure of what or how. I was just looking at the timing. So um yeah, open wound at the moment as it were. Yeah. So, in terms of bike setup, um, as the week’s gone on, the speed’s increased. Although the weather’s got worse, the speed has increased from obviously practice one. Um, so compression’s gone up a bit. Rebound actually went up a little bit as well, which surprised me, but um, just to keep the bike balanced really, as the speed increased, we need a bit more support. So, that happened. Uh, we changed the muds real early in the week, mud tires. Uh, and that never changed. We we kept on those. Uh, and other than that, no significant changes to the bike to be honest with you. Just um lots of cleaning. These things happen. That’s racing. You push it. We had the snow at the top which certainly didn’t help. Visibility was super poor. Um, yeah, pushed a little too hard. So, that was that. On to the next one.