The 2025 Lenzerheide World Cup Review Show

The 2025 World Cup Downhill racing is here and Sven Martin is my co-host for this in-person episode of Bench Racing. We will cover the season and bring you Review episodes after each race throughout the year. We break down the eighth round, live here in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

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Welcome back race fans. This is the Crank Brothers race review series where myself and some selected co-hosts will break down each and every World Cup DH race this season. Crank Brothers is synonymous with the DH Racing circuit last year, celebrating an incredible 14 years in a row of elite world champ wins with that mallet DH pedal. Now, they also won the 2024 World Cup overall title on the pedals. And it’s not just pedals. Crank Brothers has been adding to their product offering over the last few years. And now a whole host of race winners and podium contenders are in their shoes. Riders like Ronan Dunn, Andy Cole, Bernard Kerr, Ocean Oalan, Lucashaw, Cammy Balanche, Troy Brosen, and Benoir Koulange, plus many more. And in other exciting news, Common Makov will be running the Crank Brothers wheels this season. Now, I’m personally blown away by the shoes and pedal combo. I am a Boa Mallet shoe guy myself. It is easily the best shoe I have ridden. All right, sports fans. Oh [ __ ] Here we go. There we live. We’re live. Senos, you know that you know you you’ve told me always push record early and always leave it running. That’s where the nuggets are. Yeah. And you just showed me Nino Shooters Champagne Cork. I I did make a note that that has to make it into this podcast even though it’s a downhill review, but he shreds downhills harder than many. I would say that. So maybe we even start with the GOAT. The GOAT and Exie change the sport. We definitely have to have a segment of him. But um man, Lens Haidider, Lensider always delivers, huh? My very first XC World Championships I shot was camera 2009 and that was his very first uh major one. He won a world champs as an elite before he won a World Cup. So yeah, the first race I ever shot, Exil Champs, uh, Nino won, and I got a flag in the middle, a Swiss flag in the middle of Australia. So I was pretty happy with that. We can pop it in the, uh, in this podcast. Um, yeah, pretty. Yeah, I mean, Champereé to follow up Champereé is always like hard to go to World Cup after a world champs, but then the Lens basically just the whole Nino story. The Nino story basically just uh you know kept it exciting the whole weekend and and often these days I’ll skip shooting cross country but there was no way I was missing this one you know capturing his first one I wanted to capture his last race that’s why we delayed recording is because you were going to shoot exi but as you said I mean you couldn’t write a better script for that ending what were the roars and atmosphere like it looked insane on the telly obviously it’s not the results he would have wished for like how Greg Manar went out, you know, in his last race at home. Not like his last World Cup race, but he uh he was visually apparently a lot more nervous for these last two races than like ever before. And Greg probably was like that in Mount Sanan when he had to get into the top 30 to even do his last race. You know, once you announce your last race before it happens, I think the pressure is almost bigger than when these guys are going for these world champs titles, you know. Well, and and like Daniel, like Greg had to qualify, which thankfully and luckily he did, so we could actually see him. And and same with across country, they have the like, you know, the 80% and you got to be within that top 80% so you don’t get pulled. And they literally had a backup plan that if he gets pulled before the last lap, they they they would let him wait kind of and then everyone else finishes the race and then he comes and does his swan song. Um, but no, he still dug deep and and stayed competitive up to his very very very last race and that was amazing to see like he beat a lot of top guys still and um this year would have been crazy for him and and I think the emotions would probably upset a cross country race racer more than physiologically than a downhill. D he can get into the groove of things and have fun with it where cross country there’s so much going on um for the whole year never mind just the one race and you know he was like emotionally spent which led like at world champs and just to keep trucking on and um and just uh you know he just he just handled it so well the whole team and the nice thing about him uh he’s just stayed true to who he is and very few downhillers um or any athlete actually have stayed with their like sponsors for so long like pretty much the there’s two or three main sponsors with Scott and ShraMM and Rock Shocks um they’ve stayed together and in that team with with Fishy um for his whole career which has really been admirable to see you know not just jumping around from paycheck to other paycheck or Yeah. So it’s just uh you know it’s a generational um he’s definitely the goat easily. No, easy the goat. And it’s it’s really is refreshing to see he was able to stay because sometimes a change of a team helps with your motivation like re-energizes you to go into the off season and train harder and test and got something to prove again. But he just stuck to his guns, you know, and stuck to what worked, which a lot of athletes, even the great like Tiger Woods reinventing his swing, feeling like it wasn’t good enough. He could have easy gone searching for for more gains, you know? So, it’s yeah, valid point you bring up like staying with that team of Scott and Freshy like and Fresh’s posts of like he made he got motivated for another 23 years after his racing or whatever the number is, right? It’s a huge number. Like yes, age is a little less of an issue in cross country and and you see him in epic like he’ll probably do epic a bit more I would guess and that you can have an older engine for lack of a better term but you know age catches up with everyone man. Crazy. Well and his ex- teammate um won marathon worlds Kate Cornney. So, so you know, maybe that he’ll go down that route, but I think he’s definitely going to more go the Pey route and just not that Nino will chill like Pety will and get on the Vers, but in his retirement year, but uh obviously we’ll still see him and be around, but I think he’ll be Can you imagine like having to knuckle down for 20 plus years as a crosscountry athlete and as the best cross country athlete in the world, like the amount of sacrifice he’s made his whole life, like how much living he has ahead of him. Like obviously he’s not going to get fat and unfit cuz that’s just not who he is. But um he’s just going to really enjoy enjoy it for a for a time. No, I can imagine just like on the down side now. I mean every gain comes from a sacrifice that you delay, right? So like Yeah, Nino is fun like on the bike. Like I can’t wait to invite him to one of Brendan and I’s stupid projects. Like he doesn’t really have an excuse to say no now. I mean, I think he still has his place in Cape Town in Selen, so he’ll I’m sure you’ll be having more. He’ll be wearing baggier clothes the next few rides with you. Yeah, definitely. Uh, and maybe he’ll even bring an ebike cuz I always he always says don’t bring an ebike and I always do take an ebike if I can help it. Well, anyway, we were shooting uh Death Grip 2 with Armory and Brandon. Um, speaking of Omry, another winner at on on in Summers West, we were remember we were on that ridge and we saw Nina right at the bottom of the mountain and we just like witnessed he was obviously doing interval training, but I’ve never seen he basically got up the mountain quicker than we did in the 4×4 shuttles and he just was smashing like like minute long intervals just doing, you know, like [ __ ] I don’t know like 100 meters of vertical in like a minute. It was ridiculous. We we thought he was on an ebike and he wasn’t. He’s just smashing it. But anyway, we don’t It’ll be interesting to see what No, it would be interesting to see how he deals with it. Um the lack of focus like he’s only had this one goal all his life, you know, since he was a little kid. So, it’ll be interesting to catch up with him, have have more beers than than recovery drinks hopefully or some nice wine when he’s in in Stellenbos. And uh yeah, it’ be it’d be awesome. So, selfishly definitely going to probably get him on the pod. Uh, I’ve talked to Fishy about it, so I’m just putting it out in the universe. You can put in the comments you want to hear from Nino. But we are here to speak downhill. Lensider always delivers. It’s the famous track for obviously close racing. And Sven made me do some hard researching. Closest winning margin in the female field and in general, the closest margin since 2016, I think, Danny. But we wanted to check female. And it looks like you have to go back to uh Brazil uh for the la the last closest winning margin which was 009 and this was 06. So who was the Brazilian margin between I’m just going to look it up. I think Athetherton and I want to say I did look it up and I did some digging. You were there because I think we if I remember I think you were Baler Cambrio. Yeah. I think you’re riding for me that year and we like got rock shocks to foot the bill and and look after you in Brazil. Was that right? So 2006 technically I wasn’t. Um but the previous year I was and I had to remind Dawson that we had the bet that I qualif get get the get the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like you were quite cocky cuz I qualified Fosters at Deer Valley. you went to to to Dawson was like, “Do you going to have to take him?” He’s like, “Yeah, sure, man. If he wins a race, it’s all expenses paid.” Um, and you were like, “Yeah, he just qualified fastest. Like, let’s take the bet.” And then I um broke my chain guy, dropped my chain and crashed and got 15th. And then I think he had like a soft spot for me and he said, “Well, if you get yourself there, I stayed in his hotel room.” Like this is head of like the Rock Shock race department at the time. And and you were the lowest rider on the tote. You were the lowest rider on the totem pool. So he basically gave me his spare bed in his room and had to deal with me and we both got Brazil mudbutt that week. So it was not like a great place to share a room toilet. Well, you won Schwitzer Idaho beating Mano later on that year. So you made up for it somewhere. Yeah. So anyway, Sven trying to keep giving me credibility, but age has caught up with me and that’s why we’re bench racing. Age is not catching up with Amory. No. Um, nor are injuries catching up with him. Well, I I was like thinking because usually we’ll get into the analysis of the winner at the end, but like we generally don’t do anything usually usual way. Um, and like uh I was trying to figure out cuz he he basically knew he had a scrappy run and when he he obviously went down early being being the winner like second in Q2. Um those guys all the Q2 guys go first in the start list and then you get the top 20 in Q1. Um and this was the first race we’ve seen the winner come from Q2 in um men’s and women’s actually. Um, it’s always been a Q1 uh qualifier that’s won before this. Um, but basically he he wasn’t super nervous in the hot seat. I asked him because he didn’t think he had the winning run and there were the whole all of Q1 riders still to come through and he knew he had made some mistakes at the top. Um, and then also one thing like sometimes I I will like ask a writer straight out like why aren’t you doing this line or if I think they could or should or some riders I I give ad like line advice to if they’re looking for it or if they’re open to it. Um and I didn’t in this case normally I would sort of tell Elmurray like I pick and choose like anyway last year he came or two two years ago he basically broke his neck right so there wasn’t any kind of risky line advice that I wanted to give him just based off the last time here he broke his neck and it was kind of the beginning of two years of different injuries that just all just on top of each other you know he bounced back strong every time but the whole week he wasn’t doing the rock the double rock drop that that you saw Ton do so well you saw um Asa do so well basically anyone that did well really nailed those the rock drop um wall towards the end of the run and if you even they just put up the GoPro comparison they got overlaid aces and and Henry’s because they were the closest two riders together time wise and you just see how much time pulls on the first sort of greasy long off camber first wood section and then you see as you pull it all back. So there’s just literally two sections on the whole track that separated those two riders. The rest of the track they rode pretty much on pace and basically um two things happened with Alry there. He flattered there in his quali um going riding a bit more aggressive. Um and his teammate Dylan Maples basically separated his collarbone, tore his ligaments off his collarbone. Another like third injury in a row for Maples at some like a Superman. So, like I obviously knowing this history, broken neck, maples crashing, him flatting, you know, I just had no place to say, “Hey, dude, you need to man up and ride that rock on quicker, better, faster.” And and luckily for him, a couple of the other riders all had, no one had perfect runs, so he that he did enough the rest of the track to to win the race. So basically, um, yeah, he he I would say I wouldn’t say he got lucky, but he, you know, he thought he had a top 10 run. He didn’t think he had a winning run. And and usually usually with how tight it is these days, especially on track like this, you you can’t leave that much time out on the track. And um, yeah, that’s just the way it worked out. And and it’s a different race because it’s a first dry race the whole week um for a long time in a while. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean a few things stand out like Amarie mentioning over and over like he didn’t think it was the best run. Like that track is the that it must be one of the finest lines of allout aggression mixing it with precision. Um you know that’s why Greg Manar has won there multiple times. Lloyd Brun in qualifying. But his hypothetical the hypothetical fastest lap is two seconds faster than Amy’s time. So it proves that obviously there was Yeah, exactly. It is the biggest year off the top of my head. It just hasn’t seemed that big and we’re talking about Leger Nllie tracks like maybe Leger. I must just go check those ones. But it just shows you that that track is like there’s such a fine margin. you saw so many riders like, okay, if you go like a percentage or two over the the pace cuz the like the racing line’s also quite like it’s only an inch or two and then you’re in the [ __ ] again. You know, in other tracks you can be aggressive, make a little mistake, run wide, not lose so much time. Like if you make a mistake there in the wrong place like Tarnie did before the motorway section, like she loses so much time there. So yeah, your run doesn’t feel that perfect there, but it was perfect enough, right? Compared to how many flats there were, how many crashes, mistakes, and just like guys overriding the track. Like someone like Luca Shaw I thought would be really good there. Um Ronan Dunn had a great run. Luc was Luc Shaw was on podium time till his till his mistake, right? and his mistake is in like such a challenging little turn and even Jackson said it would be one of the most challenging turns because Luca was clearly going for the win, you know, like his aggressive pace for him and then you just overcook it in one section. But um yeah, I mean Amarie ties Sam Hill. He’s three wins away from tying Nicholas Fier. Like I think it’s going to happen. Yeah. Like he can still do some winning, you know? He’s winning after a broken collarbone in the middle of the season. Just think about that. Yeah. And and um I’d say the for all these record breakers, uh I think Manar was the first one to point this out as as he as he would. Um like there’s there’s more races now. You know, we we went through years of just six or seven Daniel races and now we’re getting up to 10 and and moving forward is looking to be the same, which is amazing and awesome. Um, so like these records are going to probably, you know, and and Greg said like, “I wish I had 10 races every year because then he would be on way more than uh, you know, what is it? 43 or 30.” Uh, yeah. Well, Gwyn Gwyn might be a lot more because when he was going on a rampage if he had more races this season, he was winning more as well. So, it goes both ways, you know. Um, yeah. I mean, in a shorter season, Amry might not have come back to this sort of pace. uh and not had a win in this season. So that’s super interesting. But um yeah, look, props to him. He didn’t really expect it, so he didn’t feel that good. Um but it shows you like class, you know, it rises to the top that he just goes and gets the job done. And yeah, the two people winning out of Q2 is super interesting. I think in a perfect world, we you’d love like some sort of re-rank for the broadcast, but there’s pros and cons to that decision. And obviously Ben Cather was mentioning like you do unfortunately lose the race in the middle especially if someone comes out of Q Q2 but look you can do a rerank and someone can still have a flyer from early on. That that always is part of the risk. But I think quite a few races you’ve got these heavy hitters that just miss out on Q1 and then they step it up in Q2 find the pace and then by the and then by the Exactly. And then by the race run, they definitely have found the the winning pace, you know. So maybe a thought to like try a rerank at some point. And look, there’s pros and cons. Like you’ll say it’s not fair, then they’re getting advantage to go later the next day. It’s like, well, it’s like you win some, you lose some. It’s going to even out over a season. You know, maybe maybe at a certain point like uh let’s say past the midpoint, you know, when you got the last three races of the season, it is then the focus world champs is over. focuses to the World Cup overall. And at that point, you know, you want to see all of Lo and all of Jackson’s runs. You know, they obviously went in the top 10. So, we did see that, but um you know, you want to see those top 10 riders. You want to see their full runs. So, maybe in the back half of the season, you’re right, we could do a bit of a rerank just to see more of their runs or or just, you know, maybe for World Cup finals, you just everyone in the final gets the full four minutes, you know, not not just the last 10 riders. Um yeah the you you were just saying something which which sparked to me ah we’re talking about this race and the and the different time the bigger time gap for the perfect run and and how people approach it after Q1 Q2 there were a lot of flats like more flats than we’ve seen all year um almost more flats from the whole year combined into this race you know obviously the faster drier track the sharper rocks but also is the first time this year that all the bike setups have to be pushed a lot different and a lot harder. So, so it’s not so much just the rocks and the speed and the dry speeds, but everyone’s riding a harder setup on the bike, you know? So, are they going up in tire pressure along with that harder suspension setup and that harder suspension setup, it’s essentially, you know, even if your bike’s not bottoming out for sure when you’re hitting rocks, there’s less give and less cush. So, you know, dryer race with rocks, you’re just going to get more flats. It doesn’t matter what tire rim combo you have. You know, you you can’t speculate as to that. But, um, just looking at debriefs, um, with Armory going, you know, flatting in Q1 and and having a bit of a struggle all week, as he says, is interesting to see, you know, some riders just be like, okay, race, one more click or, you know, and they just get over it. But Alry and and um Artur the let’s say the race engineer at um Common Cell they I don’t I don’t well I wouldn’t understand they’re speaking in French but I I noticed they sit down probably for after that Q2 they had sat for like 30 minutes and they were just talking and like I was trying to like get a little portrait then come back in later and they still talking. I’m like, “What are you guys like? We’re just talking about the bike and and what are we going to do for like for tomorrow?” And I’m like, they literally sat for 20 30 minutes speaking about. So, there’s a lot of changes, especially the common cell bike, but it’s just pretty interesting how they will make such major changes, I guess, because um you know, small changes to top riders is is a much bigger change to to, you know, an average punter. Yeah, just um it just shows you what it takes these days that they’ll literally nerd that hard and it’s not for like a testing session. It’s just literally for one more run or one more day on the bike and they spoke an endless amount of time and you know and and it obviously worked and paid off. It wasn’t just a quick rushed brash decision and they gambled the dice. It was a long long long discussion and you know and it’s not about just you know yeah they had then planned for flat tires. They had a plan for so many things and maybe that’s why Army knew well I’m running a tight hard bike setup for everywhere else I’m just going to have to take it easy on that place where I have flattered a couple of times this week you know so I can’t do the big Remy on her line of the big double double. Yeah I mean and Remy you you wouldn’t put this on uh a top track for him to perform at this level. Uh maybe Dun as well but Dun showing his racecraft consistency. Remy Terron showing he literally I mean speaking of age catches up with you. It doesn’t catch up with Remy at all. I’m like what are you talking about? He went from like 18th to seventh which meant he like to jump seven places ahead. You is unbelievable the pace he put on the next sector. Dude, you’re riding like a different speed like visually a different speed in these steep sections compared to some of these guys. And he he obviously knows it. He’s like, I’m going to give up in the motorway, so I’m going to hail Marriott in the in the steep stuff. And he consistently delivers like top three splits in those sectors on every track this year. And and like when he won like when Andor was a new the first the old old venue and when he had his win there and he was doing Remy lines when not a lot of people did remy lines. Now a lot of people will do Remy lines like the talent is depth, you know, the depth is there. But I still want like I would just love to design a World Cup course if you could somehow find the right mountain where the whole race run was just remy sectors like it would just be amazing that there was no like you know not just one or two sectors that he can win it in or be you know can you imagine like that’s the kind of track well we’re getting getting closer like shri had too many turns but it could have been the mountain that you could track on. Like the twe had that sort of gradient. Yeah that’s true. Yeah. not as many like wide raw sections cuz they had to like traverse it. But yeah, it was really cool to see. And I mean, we might as well round out the podium and then talk about uh not an umbrella gate, but a gate incident again. We can have some conspiracy theories from Sven there. I forget. I had a conspiracy theory that someone else said, and I was like, that’s such a Sven thing. But I had a conspiracy. But then I actually spoke to them Mark Mark and Pinky the next day and and he had a good smile on his face and I was like cuz to me the first thing is like how you can’t at this level and this level of experience even though Pinky is young. It’s like you can’t [ __ ] it up that bad because everyone talks about that poor girl that like world champs one of the one of the girls like just fell off the start. I think it was Lea Gang and she just rode off the edge of the start hill. Um but you know so you can’t make fun of of some poor person that’s never done a World Cup. You can now make fun of Pinky and um Morrison was like I wish I had an umbrella to push him off the start gate like No, I mean it it honestly it is so it doesn’t happen but it I’m not surprised it’s that easy. It can happen that that gate is narrow. So if you go for like a lunge and your bar turns slightly like it’s too narrow like make a wider and a wider gate. Jackson at Lunville lit he did the same thing like he Oh, there was something with his gears or something. Yeah, like it. No, no, he just did the almost like he got hung up. So the first thing I asked um Pinky, I said, “Is the World Cup gate 100% uniform the same at every single World Cup round?” And he says, “Yes, it is. There’s no changes.” Because remember the years when like there was a start out and man would hit his head and like it was different. It wasn’t like uniform. So now um there is consistency which is great and there’s uniformity. So literally Pinky has no excuses. I thought like did he snap a chain? Did his free hub give? But no, he just said he just pushed so hard like he just pushed hard and you pull on the you pull on the bar and it will go sideways. We all do it. Um if you’re doing sprints again, just realize what happens. But yeah, dude, it sucks. Um, but I guess what he has going for him is the splits from once he got to sector one onwards. Now that’s great for confidence. That’s great to soften what he said was an embarrassing moment. Like you’ll look back and laugh at it, you know, but also I’ve crashed in the first sector. Many riders have. He would have been angry. The pressure was off. He could have he rode free. So, it was I think a little bit easier to lay down this perfect run he’s been wanting to do. You would argue, but not taking anything away. I think that’s it’s cool that that happened because now he goes, “No, it is there. I just need to maybe not crash out the start gate.” I mean, look at Kefir. He had the same thing and he bounced back stronger. two two podiums, World Champs. And and then this weekend, like um uh yeah, so it it uh what doesn’t uh what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Um and it it worked for Kefir Start Gout’s incident and got it out of the way. And and um it’s it’s not really a surprise for Pinkerton cuz he showed speed at certain dry races last year and we saw him in the time training and in Q1. So, um, yeah, like if, uh, you know, we’ll see what the weather’s going to be the next two races. I feel we’re going to be cursed. We had the most glorious weather week in Lens Haidider. Literally Monday morning, it was like pouring with rain and the the waterfalls on the drive out were just incredible. And Monsan’s one week later this year. So, we’ll, you know, let’s hold thumbs. We’ve had great weather the last two years or or racable consistent weather, but let’s see. Uh let’s see if we get cursed with a massive downpool. Yeah. And I mean you’ve mentioned those two names. I would say coming into this season these guys have overd delivered even above anyone that says they’ve got the potential. This is what they’re going to do this year. like Pinky has just been in every final with speed, building consistently, then you see a track that suits him like Asa, which we’ll obviously have to talk about, you know, later. But Kefir as well, like second year elite, second at world champs, another podium, and now we’re talking about top three podiums, not top five, which I obviously would like to still reference. I think it’s only fair to the history of riders that have have got those sort of podiums. So, um, jeez, that’s impressive. And he’s got a head on him. I mean, he’s obviously been mentored by a Fabian from a young age. He’s focusing on the right stuff and he’s got his process, his racecraft. Yeah. Just dialed in like really impressive. And, um, Fabian’s is great as a as a mentor, line guy, uh, coach. Um, and he will either get depending on how the writer likes, you know, if it’s Troy or Luca, he knows how much give them like maybe line advice. But with Kefir, they get into the tiniest of detail and the writer will either want that style or or input or not, but Kefir from day one has really really really lapped it up. Um, so the combo between Fabian and Kefir is really really paying off. like he will literally speak for like 2 minutes about not even a a section of a track, a feature on a in between section and he will like literally I’m trackwalk I’m hearing them talking about he’s talking about his body posture where to get the pump because of something down there. We’re not even talking about like a section. So Fabian really really really breaks it down and Kefir takes it on board and and it’s obviously um paying off and and we talked about um Pinky and Kefir, you know, on paper they the number three rider, you know, the junior rider or the you know, you got Troy and Luca, so you kind of you’re not ranking them, but you know, in your head you you are thinking and the same thing um with Pinky. you know, you got Dak and Ronan and you, you know, he’s the thing, which is why it’s real smart for some of these big teams to have, you know, more than just the traditional two elite pro men and, you know, because things change or conditions change or riders develop and, you know, a third ride is not necessarily always just your reserve good, you know, if everything happens bad to the first two riders, but they also, you know, can go win races as well. So, um, you know, that’s the nature of the sport and these big teams. They’re stacking up the elite fields as well. Um, you know, we’ll have four elite riders next year with Common Smarkov. Um, so it’s sort of a sign of the times. Um, yeah. Uh, but that never happened back in the day. Like if you think about how he’s expedited his learning and his racecraft and his experience. So, who mentored Greg Manar? like he had coaches and PD a little bit but he’s racing against Pey like there weren’t Lions coaches there weren’t guys staying in the industry there wasn’t the internet social media the I guess some of the budgets like it really is awesome to see and it is a new way of doing it the mentorship happened a little bit in the background if you got the correct coach with a bit of experience like I employed um Stefan Gerard who obviously did Volio so you can gain that sort of knowledge you would hope he’s passing on some of the stuff he’s taught and learned But you I didn’t have like a direct world champion saying this is what I’m seeing you do wrong. this is what I’m seeing that you could do better like every race, every like you’re saying every run, not every couple races or in the offseason like, okay, this is what we’re going to work on, you know? And Brian Lopes is helping Pinky. He’s a self-made athlete like he barely had a coach his whole life. So, he’s taken all that experience, all that learning, and he’s just, you know, these these kids are hopefully sponges, which they clearly are. Yeah. Pretty awesome to see. And then we mustn’t gloss over Lohei Stevens McNav. I mean, what an up and down season, but he just keeps bouncing back from little injuries, little issues. Um, yeah, he’s a dangerous dangerous ride on his day. Well, he’s been he’s been in the wings. Um, you know, he’s got a couple of fourths. So, the sad thing about not having the fiveman podium is that you overlook that he has been right there. You know, in a normal year, he would have had already some podium. So, here’s one of the top guys. Um, interestingly enough, shooting the cross country, um, they have they do they do a fiveman podium afterwards. They do it at every race and it’s agreed upon and the photographers are there and they take the photo and they get the recognition. It’s not as much fanfare and hyped up and the music bolstering the, you know, fourth and fifth place riders. But apparently that was offered to the downhillers and they just said no, they don’t want it. So they complain. So I give a lot of respect to the cross country riders. they put their foot down and their prize money didn’t get made less like the Daniels just let their prize money get taken away at world champs and the cross country people were like nope and the fiveman podium although officially taken away for cross country they were like nope and they put their foot down and they got what they want so the DS really should take a bit of a page from their book um and you know quit complaining as much and just let’s see some more action from them and and uh anyway Um that’s completely digress from but although it is this race it’s just no but it is it’s like the podium thing is like such a struggle because I was there in Leger and I think I spoke about with win like Hathley was behind the podium and I couldn’t quite understand what was going on and then the officials from Warner Brother did the TV podium and then came over Hathley you ready cool we’re doing the fiveman podium pictures and the media was all there and then they obviously agree that those are the pictures They put on Vital, they put on Pink Pike, they put on wherever hopefully. Um, so that’s cool. Like I understand like Devil’s Advocate, I totally understand. Like to be uniform with the World Champs and cycling three is kind of what they’re trying to promote. Like I get it. It’s a tough one because we had this whole history of accolades for so long. Excuse me. So that’s like a tough one, but we don’t have to beat that dead horse. But I agree like it’s cool that cross country would like they said we like it. The teams like it, the riders like it. So yeah, the downers could easily follow suit. So it’s not my fight. So on to the next topic. Not our fight. No, it’s not my fight. So we’ve talked about Pinky with the incredible run. I think that’ll build his confidence. It’s It’s nice. Look, it’s Would have been nice if he didn’t have the issue and still did the split times. Fine. Uh he didn’t. It’s ironic and comical that the inexperienced things have come from the inexperienced riders on paper. It’s actually just comical, but I think it’s a weird coincidence, but it won’t happen again. Um, well, until like something Well, until it does. But I mean, it’s like everything’s perfect and then in hindsight you go, “Well, I guess the gate could be a bit wider and then just a wider rubber beam that could be safer for this never to happen again.” Cuz it is quite narrow when you’re lunging out of a gate to try and win a race. It is kind of narrow in hindsight. Yeah. But if it’s one guy in in three years and out of um So that’s out of like 2 3,000 starters, then do you change a gate or does Pinky change his No, no, no. I think Pinky Pinky lunges forward first then gets on gets on the bar pulls. But um um who does come out the gate? Hey, who who comes out of the gate like a rocket? Tarn Crave. She’s done it nearly every race this season, winning the first split or up there. I think first split, too. Yeah. But other than that, I think Tarn’s won the rest. Yeah. Like it’s she’s that that strategy and and speed at the top paid off huge. Yeah. I mean, you had Yeah. Uh, watching watching her and Nina, like the approach is so different. Like, if you had to take this take the time away from the from the corner of the screen and watch him, it’s it’s you could never say who’s quicker because the writing styles are so different, you know, like um Nah’s musling and strong and and especially like the physicality. the riders were short course, but we were super pumped like arm pump and you’re pushing off the bike and um with the speeds and then T is just sailing so smooth and just like linking the outside the setup to the exit the setup to the exit and then carrying speed on the in between bits um and using the sort of shr like you see videos of her like when she’s in Mosine like she can shr like just jump into the corner and um you know not a lot um people can do that well and she’s one of the best not just men or women and and uh got her into that rhythm for that run for sure and uh yeah um her her time that she made up from Q1 to or sorry from Q2 to to that um final run and also how close she was to the men’s time in such a big sector um you know that that’s like quite a small deficit for the amount of time for sector one for for her or for the men’s times Yeah, I did see that. I did see that stat and it and it wasn’t a perfect run. She made that big area trying to jump that little rock garden before the motorway with a super Buddha. Um, was that uh is that the one that Val was greet That was the one that Val was tripling all the time. Um, and I think so. Yeah, you like do a little step down over some rocks, then you turn left. I mean, Tony had to get on the brakes and peel up to speed and Yeah. I mean, for everyone at home, like, what do you mean they gassed out? What do you mean they’re getting arm pump in 3 minutes? But other tracks, you’ll have a section that links a gnarly section where you’re already up to speed. You can’t pedal any faster. There’s no point. You can actually almost take a bit of a mental break, but also physical. Here, those linking sections out of every turn there, some of them are quite flat. You’ve got to put pedal strokes in after that root section that you mentioned at the top where Amry went a bit more inside, Lo went outside. You got to get hard on the pedals. Um, so everywhere that you were thinking normally you take a breath, like to win the race, you’ve got to be you got to raise your heart rate and build up that lactic in the legs, you know, and then the forearms as well because you’re just fighting for speed and pumping the ground. Yeah. And and that’s why it’s it’s a pity um Miriam didn’t end up not racing. Um she basically was second fastest person on track if you look at the the the times on on her Q1. Um had a massive crash the morning of qualifiers on on also that spot where Maples crashed and where Omry flattered which is probably another thing in Omry’s back of his head. Like that ended her weekend, it ended Maples weekend. almost ended his with the flat which is why maybe he took the easier slow approach and not um gapping like the other guys. So she had crashed there and then did her did her qual run and literally like took on a lot of painkillers. her arm is swollen and a younger, dumber, less experienced pom pom would have just gone into done the Q2 as well, but like her arm just gave out and she said, “You know what? She’s made too many bad decisions racing too soon after of a head knock and which has put her in her long-term sort of um concussion um injuries.” And she said, “You know what? even though like she literally could have won the race. Um she chose not to do her Q2 even after like almost winning um her Q1 with if she hadn’t crashed. Um which is an admirable decision. But going back to what we reason I brought her up is because you talked about this race was one yes there’s the maybe only three sections of the track that were enough technicality that required you to be super on it but with the race was one on all the in between linking sections and and it was harder like leger like you said you flow out with speed and you can maintain that speed into the next section but this one yeah the race was almost run one off camera. We couldn’t see a lot of it uh from the first drone angle was too high and it was the getting down to the nitty-gritty which is the linking sections which won the which pretty much won the race. Um yeah, and that’s where the great battle with Tanya and Nina were because she muscled back up to speed really good and um it was it was super close. And did you catch up with Valley at all? I mean the she looked pretty disvastated in the finish bowl. I mean it is always tough when you qualify fastest you’ve got one goal in mind or when you qualify well and then your final result is like less than that which I’m not taking away from anything from her riding and maybe we all thought the floodgates would like open after world champs like little monkey off your back and she did everything right but you know these races I mean you you walk away from a weekend and you just look at the final result and that doesn’t tell the whole story. That’s not how well you rode for many people. I.e. Pinky, i.e. the guys that got flats, you know, all these sort of things. But racing, unfortunately, look at the result sheet. Well, you know, obviously she wants to win races and she’ll be super happy and she fought and dug deep for world champs and got the job done. So, she has a major win this season. And let’s not forget, she didn’t win the race, but she finished ahead of Gracie, who’s her closest in points. So, another no podium, but another solid, you know, number for the overall and going into winning, you know, if she wins the overall and world champs at the end of the year, that’s like a great season. I think give it a year or give it a couple of weeks or give it a day and people will forget that she hasn’t won a race. Yeah, you know, we’ll bring it up in the podcast from three years, but you know, to get the overall and the Ramo jersey in the same year, that’s like better than maybe winning a race to get the overall in in my books in in in the long term. But also, you know, the YT Mar, they’ve got a lot going on. Those riders, you know, yeah, people are starting to talk. There’s contract silly seasons happening and um there’s already all those talks happening around the pits. You see it all over the place. Um, but the YT riders, they, you know, they got a lot more going on. Like they are they getting paid? Are they, you know, they’re already in contract negotiations? Um, there’s there’s there’s already two of the riders on YT Mobs have already signed contracts for next year. Um, one one you could probably gather because he’s wearing a he’s not wearing a YT Mob shirt in the final, you know, and he’s got a pinned on. So, it’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s just No, I guess it was early signing. I think he had an early signing bonus. So, if he signed before the end of the season, he’d get an extra bonus. So, which clothing company? Uh, no. It’s just anyway, it’s just take Hey, we we’re just throwing out conspiracy theories. I thought we allowed to do that. So, you’re not giving away you’re not giving away anything we haven’t seen. It goes on. Well, I mean, like I’ve um yeah, so there’s yeah, two riders already signed up for next year and the third is pretty much a done deal, but um uh so I think Valet, you know, so I think you know what, if she wins the overall and the Ramo jersey, like I don’t I don’t think she gives a [ __ ] She won a race and she won World Champs. Anyway, we still got two races to go. She’ll she she win. She’ll want to and can win at any of those two. But um yeah, imagine imagine No, we don’t want to go there. While you’ve imagine you test you decide if you want to go there while I say I’m very impressed like Gracie Hemshit. That’s a heroic effort. I mean she was in hospital rumors not going to race. Comes back gets a fourth for the overall stays in the hunt. Yeah, that’s heroic. Yeah. And Jordan Williams for going up after that crash. I mean, you know, you know when Jonty sends me crash videos, we don’t like to send each other crash videos cuz we used to race. We still ride. Like, we don’t like it. But when JY says, “Have you seen it?” I know. He’s like, “Dude, he got spat over the bars so quickly his arms and legs went stiff. Like, you know that type of crash?” I’m like, “Really?” So, then I had to go and look. So, this is last last practice run before the race and and Jordan looked amazing all week. He was like definitely podium threat for sure. Um, and there’s only three riders and and they only three riders hadn’t come down yet. So, like the course sweep is like already halfway down the track trying to get these guys off the track. And the only three riders we hadn’t seen was Jackson, Omorry, and Jordan. And when it’s getting to the point it was taking quite long, then you start wondering, I wonder if some one of them’s had a crash. Next thing you see a bike from far away been walked down the hill. And we’re trying to like zoom in to see what bike it is. And we see it’s Jordan’s. And then you see the wheel. It’s not just a flat. The wheel is folded and twisted. So, you know that the bike’s had a major crash. And I hadn’t seen the video till after the race, but yeah, I can’t believe he raced. um his body is going to be feeling worse on Monday than on Sunday than it did on um on Saturday for the race. But gez. Yeah, that’s fair play. Painkillers and a bunch of adrenaline, but that’s what you that’s what you do, right? Freaking That’s what like 80% of his gym work is to take the crashes, you know, and he took some crashes. Yeah. No, absolutely. So, yeah, props to Gracie for doing that. Um we’ll get into the title hunt because that was an interesting development. But Danny Hart, Danny Hart, 120 World Cups on his birthday, back where we want to see him. I mean, you you can’t not be stoked, dude. They did a whole World Cup campaign on on a video, a custom helmet. Um, and it’s random. Why didn’t they do a custom helmet for when he got 100 World Cups? Maybe they forgot or missed it, but like 120. I think we all missed that. Yeah. I was like, “Oh, let’s do 120.” I’m like, “Oh, well, shit.” Yeah, he’s 34 years old, you know, so and he was racing for a long time. It’s it’s no surprise he’s done 120. Yeah. So, it’s um Yeah. So, there’s extra pressure on him. Birthday 120 races and not having the best season by his standards. Um but then he then he like just thrives on it cuz at Champereé as well, there was a lot of just Danny Hart, Danny Hart, Danny Hart and and yeah, that would have been tough. That would have been a tough race. Like it’s cool to go back there, but if you’re trying to perform with everyone like expecting you to be Danny Hart, 14 years later, track, like track’s totally different. It wasn’t Pissing Rain. Like there’s a million more guys that know how to ride that. Yeah, it has BMS now. And there’s a million people that know how to ride bike park style BMS. Like, yeah, it would have been a tough week to get through, I guess. Like a lot of weight on your shoulders, you know? Yeah. So that’s probably cool that he’s got through that. It was nice to relive it. But uh yeah, I text him. I’m stoked for him. Like people were saying like I I heard some people describing like okay well when you get success a little early in your career sometimes you’re not taught to go through the hard work or the hardships. Like true maybe the hardships here and there. He’s had a pretty good run. He’s had some injuries but Danny Hard has always been one of the hardest workers in the pits. like he has he had that maybe the year after the world champs he had a little interesting off season I would say he came in a little he won’t mind me saying a little like less prepared than he hoped because he had a lot of people pulling him in different directions but yeah there wasn’t an offseason that he wasn’t training his ass off so I know he’s been putting the work in so it’s cool to see buying just like buying and investing into yourself and the future and your community like having a bike park and it’s kind of like you although you’re not world haven’t been multi- world champion but um no I certainly have not no it’s it just shows that like he’s just he’s just froth on it I I that’s my caveat when we talk about the world champs curse I’m like well I don’t have direct like knowledge of this but from the outside we might as well jump into it first race in the jersey he’s gone down now you Don’t there’s no common denominator of crashing. It just so happened in the jersey, but Sven says it wasn’t pressure. I agree it wasn’t pressure. He was going for the win. He came in too fast. He said he hit the bump too hard. And that’s racing. It’s not the jersey. I totally agree. You know what? It’s it’s okay. Uh there is the there’s definitely a world champs curse if you look historically, but you could read with like stats. you could read anything into anything to support your statement. So, uh, we talked about like these kids these days, um, Jackson still being a kid and all these riders, they get spoiled so much with not just one world champs custom bike or one custom kit for one race or world champs race or something, they they um, you know, having new bikes and kits every other race um, sometimes every race. So, I asked him, you know, do you drop your helmet when you get a new helmet? He’s like, ah. He said, “Why would I do that? I like my helmet. It’s cool.” And and like he say, he does not feed into superstition at all, which is why in this instance, I don’t think there’s a world champs curse on the jersey or on Jackson. He just um wants to win races like Yeah, he you know, like, and we can discuss Loic’s approach was his fifth or sixth wedding um place as a result of him getting news of Jackson’s crash. And that even if it was subconsciously and not consciously, did he tone back his run because he knew it was a big weekend to gain points? And if he was in the top 10, he was gaining a lot of points on Jackson. Did that like if he Jackson didn’t crash, would would Lowick’s results have been better? Probably. Even if he will say, “No, I rode my run and I made a mistake.” But I think subconsciously it would have panned out differently for him. Um but Jackson was super quick as he is and if you look at you know we speak about um people’s sector times and we spoke about Pinky and stuff but even with his crash you know how hard it is to get up to speed um after a crash like Pinky is a little bit different because it wasn’t hitting the ground but for Jackson to win sector one and se and the final sector he is the only rider to win two sectors It’s safe to say that okay there’s a lot of sectors missing but it’s safe to say that you know he could have would have could have should have maybe won won that race. Um and if he was attacking like he was attacking when he did crash um I know he had changed his line on the rock wall and and was doing it quicker on final day than he was doing it in quali so he wasn’t going to lose time there. Um, so it’s just, you know, he also knows he’s got two more races and he adapts quick to new tracks as we’ve seen in Lill. So new track in in Pluto in um Lake Placid. Uh, so he’s maybe not that fast to roll the dice and go for the win. And maybe it’s it’s going to definitely hurt him in the overall, but he sees it as still two more races. So he’s maybe not that fast. Maybe he thinks he’s going to win the next two races. Who knows? No, I think you summed it up perfectly. Like I was basically just giving some clickbait um on on the World Champs jersey. Like it’s just it’s a this is a banter cuz you text me before the thing like it’s not a curse. I’m like of course it can’t be a curse. It’s one race. Like you can’t it’s not a curse. But here’s here’s a funny story. It’s not the world champs curse. But you remember how long it took PD to win the world champs. Like his whole career he was in the running for world champs and he got second don’t know how many times. same as like Miriam Nicole just second too many times but he finally gets the rainbow jersey first race in his life first time run I think it must have been a quali basically was the very first time he put the rainbow jersey on was it training he didn’t do a time run it was like training cuz he was waited so long I think he just wanted to do from first day training schloodming 2009 the race after camera and all of us are like can’t wait like photographers we nerd on little things and one of them that none of us not one of us Gary Perkins was sitting next to me have a shot of Steve racing in the you know riding in the rainbow jersey like it’s something we’ve all waited for so long he comes by and we all like ready and he [ __ ] wasn’t wearing his goggles so the very I’ll find the shot the very first photo I have of Steve Pete between the tape in the rainbow jersey he doesn’t have goggles on What a rookie. What a little That’s so funny. And I think it was almost like he’s doing it on purpose. He’s just like, “Yeah, guys.” Um I think the Pey story is funny because like you said, it took so long to get it and that’s probably why it’s kind of a he kind of made it famous that it could be a curse cuz he started crashing so much in that jersey to the point that he started rolling around in the dirt before race runs. That was kind of the Yeah. Yeah. Did he not hear about that? I think eventually I I mean I got to check with him but I remember like eventually became like a running joke and it was obviously that year afterwards where he was like on this tour of the world you know like booze cruise like so this is not comparing I’m not saying anything about people in the current jersey because Vali’s won many many many races in the jersey and and so have everyone else Danny Hart included. So, but I remember I think I don’t know where it was, but eventually he just started rolling in the dirt quickly before the run like you know like how you drop a brand new helmet. So, yeah. Anyway, I think Jackson took it to L. I think he looked attacking, won the sector, the those two sectors you mentioned. He looked like he was going for the win, which I think is a good strategy. Like the way to get ahead in points is to win the race. That’s how he knows he’s going to ride. And it was just like a racing error. just like just hit that section too hard. What do you feel about the waiting of points for wins versus how much you get in qualifying? Like do you feel the waiting’s about right? So it keeps like I need to look at the points because I was surprised cuz before this race before this you could win four races and not be more ahead. And then also uh Gracie verse Valley like consistency should be you should get paid for consistency but you should also really do well like if you’re going to put that many wins compared to someone else. So have they adjusted the points compared to in the past? Cuz in the past like if you had a win or two I mean you ahead. Yeah, I mean the points have been adjusted over the years a little bit, but I’m not sure if it’s just more which is good because I think they were a bit screwed towards the podium and the top. Like you could get seventh and if you compared that to fourth in time like you would lose quite a lot of points. So yeah, I think wins you could cheeky weight them a bit more I guess because it is as we which I guess why finals is finals as qualies don’t count. So it’s just you know it’s just the final race you get the points. Oh, they Oh, that the final round of the World Cup is going to be just finals again. Yeah. Yeah. See, I don’t know if that’s fair either because like the whole year you were rewarded for consistency on quali then the final race why why only finals? I don’t know. Like I’m fine with it being finals because you can do things differently because it creates the hype and stuff like like world champs is is different for in a lot of you know in a lot of positive ways and a lot of negative ways. But um yeah, but how talking about Jackson um how good was it just to keep the practice hype on all those guys just shredding the the big suit? Oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m surprised you haven’t brought that up as the first topic. You know what I feel bad about? No. You know what I feel bad about? Everyone just credits like man Asa in the back flip and his coll is like oh someone’s got to give little Tanga some credit. He did was the first guy to flip. You know what? I think actually a junior that year might have flipped it before him in the training session before. Someone will put in the comments here. Here’s a comment. Here’s a comment since Teao had a go at us. Overheard. Overheard. Wasn’t me. I I can’t take credit for it. But once ASA had also flipped it, I don’t know who did it first. I was like, “Yeah, it’s that’s amazing that but Teao did it the year before. Tea did it two Tea did it two years ago. So I was like, “Oh, well Teao might have to try flip it in the race and someone said Teao might have to try qualify two years ago. Two years ago he was flipping it and I’m like um and he didn’t inqual and he made he made he he qualified and I said, “Well, now’s your chance.” And this is into the semi. I said, “Now’s your now’s your chance. You can flip on live TV.” He’s like, “No, dude. I’m I’m racing. I can’t flip.” I’m like, I don’t want to break to you, but you’re never going to qualify. You should just That was also when they were broadcasting the semi. And I’m like, just this is your chance to shine. So, he missed on the opportunity. And now um Asa did it in a official timed. No, dude. Props props props for flipping that. Asa, you madman. Did Jackson also flip it in practice? No. No, he didn’t. He didn’t flip it. He did something really visually just like the boosting to the moon with the crazy tweak and we had like knackknacks and the flips and then little playing into the snowboard halfpipe. What was that? I don’t know what that was about on the Daniel course. But um and then we got people like Cade and Chaos at the West Virginia hip and Brendan flipping in it. You know, it’s um it’s cool to, you know, like the riders enjoy give them some fun in the tracks as well. You know, there’s not a hell of a lot of jumps that are good for fun and sending and and you can build them that you can have style and still um and fast, you know, build have the finish line and then have your big super booter and like like supercross when the fireworks go off and like have a trick jump after the finish line or at the finish line. So, you’re going literally the lip of the base of the lip of the jump is the timing beam. You know, make it so they can hit it fast cuz they’re going to be going hell of a fast. going to say, yeah, but I feel like it’s like the amount of ambulance you might have to bring over and stop the race after the timing bean. I think the organizers might be like, “Cool idea, Sven, but we can’t stop this race again.” And there’s not Yeah, there’s not enough space. There’s not enough space in this finish bowls to fit like jump after the finish line. But, you know, we we can dream. We can Nico mentioned he’s like, “Oh, it probably kept his mind off like Yeah, for sure. all the the race and stuff like having fun flipping you jazzed one qualifying with a flip but um no surprise I thought that track was going to suit Asa probably more than runs even though I know there was a mechanical issue there but it’s super cool to see um super fast time is Nico not wouldn’t he be like the coolest team manage to have he’s like smoking darts on the side of the track sometimes he’s building your bike and he’s raced the highest level and just so chill. He’s like he’s got that good management style where like like he he’s he lets the riders do their things and he’ll nudge them certain ways, but he’s like just, you know, someone I you know, you’d listen to out of respect and he’s just got a good management style. I really like the way he’s doing it. And then he gets in the booth is just he’s just one of the dudes, isn’t he? No, it’s really cool. No, no. I like like as as he seemed clean cut from the outside, but then to see him like smoking the darts on the two-stroke, you know, lighting it up and like it’s obviously not he doesn’t actually smoke darts, but for him to just like play up to that thing. They did that awesome bike reveal like uh like that garage discovery show or whatever that they ripped off was super funny. Him and Logan. Yeah, it’s it’s refreshing to see. Of course, and giving credit with D with when he’s good on the commentary booth, I got to say uh I was at World Champs and I heard your commentary. Um maybe it was after World Champs, but literally straight away like I saw the instant I was like, “Oh, something’s wrong with Armory.” And in my Oh, that’s right. I saw it on the live feed, but we didn’t have your commentary. And normally they missed that minor thing, but cuz he was still going hell of a fast and looked good, but I knew there wasn’t just that 100th effort and I was like, “Something’s wrong with Armory or his bike.” And then I watched the rerun from World Champs and you literally picked up on it the second I saw it and you just straight away was said, “What did he say? I think he has a flat. I think something wrong.” But then like afterwards he came. No, he just wasn’t attacking. He wasn’t attacking. You picked up on it. So yeah, to give you some credit on your commentary for World Champs. So, you picked up on it just You’re on the record here, Sven. Giving me credit. On the record. Um, yeah, I got you. There we go. Um, but so I would have spotted it quicker than you. Is that what you’re saying? And I spotted probably a lot of times. No, I’m saying a lot of times these little details get overlooked on on the broadcast and they don’t get noticed and and you noticed it, you know, straight away. And this is what we you mentioned, Alleran Twins, which is what made me think of the same thing. Yeah. He I caught the exact same thing as an Omry at World Champs. I looked up while I’m waiting for my shot and I looked up and he was going through the section going through it fast but he wasn’t going through it at all pace and I was like some something’s off. Something’s wrong. Something’s going on. And sure enough, like he got that what was a slow league up high, but he got that slow league so damn early no one even realized it was like affecting him. and then at the finish line it was pretty much flat. So, um it that slow leak was happened way up the track and and affected him and but then also on defense of Assa Till and Max have kind of stood out every practice session, you know. Um I would say they weren’t and they noticeably like did you see this? Did you see that? It kind of didn’t happen this week in Lensider like that Johny Williams kid. Like I keep looking at my camera. I’m like, “Dude, this is the sickest first year junior we’ve like he’s he’s going to be he’s going to be winning some races next year for sure.” Um, but he looks like attacking. He’s jumping super far. Good crazy style. He’s just like one of those those Kiwis that are just can ride junior Kiwis that are just too damn good on bikes. So, um, good good sign of the times for him for next year. and and um you know I would say he looked more aggressive and attacking than the Aleran brothers even in training even though Max did have a you know a mechanical in his race run. Yeah. I mean, as much as we’ve biged up big big up the L runs and biggged up Asa and big up all the juniors, the there are going to be tracks that suit different riders, horses for different courses, like it just is a thing. And no surprise, Asa coming from Durango. He’s going to do well in the dry sketchy dirt. He’s not riding wet, muddy route, gnarly Europe tracks as much as the Luns up until this point. It is something that he will continue to develop. It’s the same as Yeah. as as many of the riders like it’s just where does he ride those conditions a little bit when he goes east coast in America but um those sort of flatter carry your momentum tracks dude and not to mention he was great on the pedals like if he can win seat elite like he’s got some power in those legs and and he needed that like he he visually makes that bike go forward when he pedals it as a it’s crazy how it’s crazy how the worst Daniel track in the world sea otter can also can also be indicative of being one of the best riders in the world because if you can win on that track you have that one component that like you know people that have won sea to Daniel there’s definitely been some correlation and people that have won sea to slalom so it’s pretty cool that a festival like sea which is the complete opposite that to Daniel you can spot talent you know whether it be from the slalom like a Martin maze and bike handling skills or or like ace her at sea Daniel that gets It’s crazy how cool the sport is that such diverse things can still be a a breeder or a indication of of a of just bike riding skills and talent and depth. True. Or like if you look good at the dirt jump park like a Jackson or a a like they can do flips, they can do 360s. Like it’s bike handling skills do correlate though if you Well, I mean Sean’s not winning World Cups. No, but he Yeah, he probably he didn’t go down. Yeah, I mean, if you forced him to go down that route, I think he could have developed the speed. He’s got the bike handling and the touch for sure. Um, so you said Lloyd Brun, I think it would be very difficult to argue against subconsciously if he heard the news, but you sound like he did hear the news that Jackson. Did he get radioed up? We don’t know. I have no I have no idea. And I didn’t I spoke to him, but I never spoke to him about the race. It’ll be interesting to get an idea if he did hear or if he requested to hear like I feel like if I’m in the title hunt, which I haven’t been, or maybe at the Norbers, but I’d want to know if he crashed, but if he stayed upright, I don’t want to know times. So, that’s just like every ride is different. I don’t know what Lo would request. Um, we needed win. I feel like you want to know like especially coming into the last race of the season. And I think LO would want to know, but if they qualify close enough to each other, you ain’t going to know. Yeah. Yeah. But Oh, you might well if they watch a live broadcast, you know, Jackson was Q2, so he went early, you know. So, um, and I feel like Here’s a conspiracy theory. You hack the broadcast, you AI crash, you let the other rider think that the guy crashed, then he rides chill. How’s that? That’s a conspiracy theory, dude. That’s just You got to be proud of that one. That That’s That’s just silly. Um Oh, come on. And yours weren’t silly. Yeah, too. Um but yeah, you got changes. You got like um Syndicate getting a big new truck next year. Specializ getting a big new truck next year. Um they already have a big new truck. What do they need another one for? I guess Specializ were one of the first to get the big big the big shiny truck that was that’s been around now. Like even the syndicates like rusted little box. Actually, I think I know who might take that truck off them. The syndicate or specialized. I feel like I I can’t talk out loud about it. Goodman will probably get um Santa Cruz as one, but um yeah, it’s going to be an interesting silly season. It definitely, like you said, it’s public knowledge. Whity’s in disarray. Maybe maybe Whity’s truck’s already been bought by one of his teams. It was on lease. Okay. It was on lease, luckily. Anyway, that’s Yeah. Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s public knowledge or not. I don’t know if the lawyers listen to this, but they can’t impound that one. It was on a lease. Um, I’m just scanning through the results. We for sure done. We did touch on him. He looked way better than I thought he would on the whips. I I said that he’s in it’s in it’s it’s incredibly consistent for someone that has been known to be, you know, willing to put 110% into a run and and there’s places on this track you can’t do that. Yeah. I mean, ah, the one we have to speak about is is Rosa, the junior, well, the fastest woman of the day. Um actually all the junior girls I think I think like three or four of the girls like four or five of them or five or six of them would have been in the top 10 of the elite times. She was fastest time of the day. Top six. They’re all faster than the top six or top five. Yeah. So, um that that that group of junior girls and and uh some are staying, some are moving up, but um all of them, you know, Rosa, Letha, the other Rosa on Specialized. Um yeah, which is also interesting like she’s had her injury, but she’s also like it’s cool. Like we talked about management styles. Specializ are happy to let her like miss races because of school and like get her like, you know, we’ve always said that, you know, we we we want the juniors to do that and they haven’t had any, you know, pressure or push from the one of the biggest best teams on the circuit to like make her just focus on racing um and allow her to heal from injury. So, that’s really good to see that. And then Lena and Matilda uh Hubush, it’s um yeah, it’s it’s junior like they take their time the two years. Although, you know, Rosa’s first year and they, you know, when they graduate out of juniors, um, as we’ve seen with the men the last two years, they’re ready for elites and and it’s the same is going to be set, I think, this year, other than Valley this year, you know, this is a really strong graduating junior women’s class. So, um, yeah, it’s going to be even tighter next year in their elite women. Yeah, that’s well said. a lot of first year juniors, but still it’s not just one that is um at the top that’ll sneak into elite finals. You know, we’re going to have a few junior junior male men. That’s going to be ridiculous. Yeah. Uh that’s going to be very very scary. That’s for sure. Um yeah, I was very impressed with those times. It is a different story when you get into elite category, but at least you prove that you have the times. So, you just need to sort of sit back and just remind yourself that you’ve done the times before you do belong. and you just it’s just another race run. Easier said than done. Yeah. Like like Sasha Ernest this week, you know, um she’s also had an up down year, but she was one of the top juniors consistently on the podium and won some races as a junior and it’s taken her a couple of years, but now she’s, you know, top five. That would have been a podium. Um now she’s, you know, um right there battling, you know. So it just some juniors come in, swing in, some juniors take two or three years in elite like like we’ve seen with a lot of the men and and then they start giving us the results. So uh it’s different for you know for a bunch of different riders. And was that Cammy Balanch’s last World Cup? Like she’s not going to do no last two or is it just the last because it was in Switzerland and all the friends and family could be there. They celebrated as well, right? She’s going to US Open I saw. Yeah. And Nina is not going. Nina Sha, what’s his last World Cup period and Cammy her last World Cup in Switzerland. Yeah. Okay. That was really awesome to see and we should be celebrating her before the last last race. Like what an incredible career and and really special for them to race at home and have friends and family there. Um because what she achieved in a short space of time is insane. Yeah. and and the writing styles of Rosa um you know and and uh very similar in terms of that I would I won’t say just that perfect fluid using their long arms and legs um yeah very very similar you know riding styles really like mature settled um clean um riding styles and then do you see the little practice videos on Instagram that you know it’s not often you’re getting stoked watching junior girls practice on social media clips, but like those top five, six, seven girls were just training and on the big Buddha jump or the that jump um like whips uh suicides and then into the snow halfpipe like it’s you know it’s pretty funny when a junior girl’s mega train gets makes it into your explore page and then you’re watching it like it’s as exciting and entertaining to watch as as all the like elite male men doing their flips and and whips and stuff. So, it’s um yeah, this the female racing um as we’ve said so many times and junior female racing is like as exciting as the rest of the categories. And we still got two more races to go. So, uh make sure you tune in. You know what to do on the tubes, on the audios. Follow Sven Martin photo on Instagram. You’re always posting. What’s it? Hey, Jackson. Jackson Jackson kept the Crank Brothers world champs wins alive with the pedals. Yeah. 15 years in the male category. 15 in a row. That’s quite a streak. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. No, I didn’t I didn’t intro it, but it’s good that we outroed. Yeah. If Omry like won, then Crank Brothers could still be like there’ll be an asterisk an act will be like 16 wins and then it’ll be a like not pedals, just wheels. You know what I mean? Um yeah, that’ll be quite funny. No, good for them. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast. Go check out all the epic product they have. Um, yeah, adding to their product offering with the wheels, with the shoes. Um, not much more we can say. 15 wins in a row. What else do we say? And then Nino Shutter, take a bow. Credible career. I’ll see you in South Africa for Enduro Shredding and some wine. Uh, Cammy Balanch, your last race in Switzerland. And for everyone that we missed, we do apologize. Ping us in the comments. Uh, till the next one. Peace. Cheers, Andrew. Thanks very much to Crank Brothers. This was the Crank Brothers race review series. Myself and a selected co-host will break down each and every World Cup this season. Now, Crank Brothers is synonymous with the DH Racing Circuit. Last year, they celebrated 14 years in a row of elite world champs wins in that mallet DH pedal. They’ve also won the 2024 World Cup overall title on the pedal. And it’s not just pedals. They’ve been offering to their product offering. And they have a whole host of race winners and podium contenders in their shoes. Riders like Lauron and Dunn, Andy Cole, Bernard Ker, Ocean Ollan, Luca Shaw, Cami Balanche, and Troy Brosman, plus Beno Koulange, just to name a few. Now, in other exciting news, common soul makov will be running the crank brothers wheels this season. Now, if you’ve know me, I am personally blown away by the shoe and pedal combo. I love them. I picked the Boa Mallet shoe at the moment. It’s easily the best shoe I have ridden.