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MTB World Cup - what was it like and who won
Guys, I've heard no news about MTB World Cup at Mt Stromlo - can anybody give me an update?
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Pretty convincingly, just like in the rugby...
Greg Minnaar. Some results posted here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4676216a1823.html
It was an amazing event to watch, for the riding aspect at least. Weather was cold, rainy and windy. Typical Canberra weather in winter on the side of a mountain. The speed of the riders was just totally amazing. How they can be so smooth and fast is almost beyond belief. Especially over rocks, changing direction, pushing or pulling the bike sideways, etc. What I noticed was that the riders aren't robots. You do see different riders take different lines. This is because they are naturally good at taking certain lines, or had made a mistake in the lead up to that section. What was cool was how you see the riders make a correction and save it before stacking it. That was very apparent. I think I saw only 3 stacks the whole day. Pretty good going on all accounts I think. All of those riders are totally insane, totally brave and committed when you are going that fast.
Liam - what happened to man with caterpillars for eyebrows, did he stack, ride a Specialized, sign autographs on the way down, stop for a latte. Doesn't he love wet and slippery tracks.
I was down at the finish line. It was so cold and the fine dirt at the carpark was a layer of clay-like mud. It was hard enough to walk on let alone ride on! When I saw the fist few female riders cross the line I was wondering whey they looked so buggered, as Liam said the top of the track was hard, but the bottom of the track was a slippery, singletrack, clay-fest.
Lorrie
G'day - I was there for both days (lucky living five minutes ride from the venue) and have posted the results at my (warning: vain attempt at shameless self promotion) blog at http://capitalbicyclehire.blogspot.com I've got a fair few piccies if people are innerested, but I've just seen there's a sep post for those, so I'll stick some up there.
Overall, I was pretty impressed by the weekend. I'm a little biased given Canberra is my home town, and Stromlo my 'home' track, but for an event of this magnitude, CORC did very well. The only low for me was the pretty excessive $10 parking fee - c'mon, TEN bucks?! - and the need for some further spectator trail reinforcing (became very, very slippery with the rain).
Other than that, it was an awesome opportunity to get up close and personal, and see how the pros do trails that punters like me are still struggling with (despite 12 months of practice).
Sorry we couldn't have put on better weather for you interstate folks - I guess you're not going to believe that's the first time it has rained in months, right?! - and hope you had a neat time if you made the trek down south.
Post 'em here:
http://nobmob.com/image/tid/1506
All in all I thought it was fairly well run. the only issue for me was the policing of where people stand.
Whereas getting spectators in was a major part of the event, allowing them trample all over the recovering vegetation (which is only just starting to recover from the fires) seemed like poor planning. One thing that Stromlo needs in abundance is vegetation to provide some shade and also build a root system to help keep the soil together.
Otherwise, the whole weekend was great (other that Peaty wiping out - still he did manage 7th)The trip to Majura on Saturday was fantastic - picked up a few new skills on the doubles and pre-jump - and found a great new place to ride.
I'll figure out how to put my pics up shortly.
I'm glad to see other people noticed the environmental damage going on at Stromlo on the weekend too. Some more signs and fences would definately make a huge difference to protecting vegetation at that bare mountain, ESPECIALLY if you are going to hold large events! Also, paying for parking doesn't make sense if people can park 50 m away on the side of the road. It just means the road edges get wrecked and the roadside vegetation gets destroyed (making the area look shat). ANYWAY...the riding was amazing! I had my jaw on the ground the whole weekend.
markterei, I agree, but to be honest, Canberra really hasn't seen rain like we did on the weekend for months! In one way, it was worthwhile as the organisers can now see for themselves where work is needed. I've been to a number of pro DH events at Stromlo, and it still amazes me that they haven't cut, built and reinforces proper stairs for some of the steeper sections. In the dry, these are dusty and loose as hell; in the wet, they quickly turn to a slippery muddy mess. And, if you head to Stromlo, you'll see that the mountain is still covered in large rocks and fallen trees - just what you don't want people sliding into.
Hopefully, organisers will fix these for future events, but on the whole, they've been pretty good with the environmental management. On the way home from work today, I saw at least a dozen or so folks (volunteers, most likely) up on the mountain picking up the rubbish and other crap left from the crowds yesterday.
I'm amazed people are whinging (and not Steve Peat being a Pom) about the parking at Stromlo and having to pay $10 - how much did you pay to be a spectator and see the worlds best perform in a world cup event..........? BTW it was a fantastic event ,bring on the world champs (with free parking and free admittance to please everybody!)
Yep, was a great weekend away. The Majura ride on Saturday was great (we ended up with a good sized group of 7 riders in all) and seeing the worlds best do what they do was an eye-opener. I've never been to a race event before myself so it was all a new experience for me.
The determined hunger of our Captain Tumeke to seek The Summit at any chance was a highlight, as was his ability to make a can of VB magically materialize. Just don't trust the kiwi's Jedi navigation skills...if he is indeed a Jedi...
Also bumped into Andy at the triple-jump section, where it seems half the crowd were gathered.
Another highlight was seeing this custom built DH-Esky (its been posted in Farkin's PYR section):
http://www.littermag.com/2008/features/1044/1044...
PS: Jeeten, Matt, Steve and any others with pics of our Majura ride, here is the (currently empty) gallery: http://nobmob.com/image/tid/1511.
PPS: Mark, will PM you when i get a chance to add up the weekend.
Cheers,
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my Intense 5.5 ~ my NS Suburban
I know I keep on about this, but seriously, did anyone think that HUGE video screen was facing the wrong way for the 4x and DH. Perhaps they were expecting to fill the empty paddocks with punters.
And does anyone think 4x has just become a ‘BMX decent’? Surely a couple of gap jumps, a few drops, a rock garden, flaming loops, knurled tree roots, a few boulders, and a burning wreck wouldn’t go a miss. And get rid of the girly gates, bring back the le mans start.
On other notes, for a World Class event... you could say a man needs more than VB and pies to survive... you could say $10 is steep when the grass is greener on the other side of the fence... some could even say that throwing beer and Frisbees onto the track is stoopid... but it's the biking we were there to see and weren't disappointed!
The shuttle up the hill was brilliant. I managed three laps of the course on my imaginary VB fuelled bike. The track was well built with great viewing access (despite the flora and fauna destruction). The commentary was typical for ‘cobbers’, but at least they knew who the riders were.
We’ll done Canberra, you can all go home and get stoned now.
Also thanks to the NOBMOB members for getting together and making a fun weekend.
That video screen WAS facing the wrong way, especially for the 4X finals!
I'm glad you raised the commentary - not a criticism, but jeez those guys (esp. the guy who always does Stromlo) love the sound of their own voices. It seems the be the norm for ANY MTB event to rave on and on and on about the smallest detail or nothing in particular - I'm sure there were a few people at last year's Scott 24 Hour that were just about ready to take the commentator's mike and shove it someplace rather uncomfortable.
All in all, I give the event two thumbs up, and as a CORC member, will pass on some of the feedback here to the organising committee. As I said, it is always a learning curve, but the club [CORC] encourages as much feedback as possible, and usually always acts on it.
One thing I could suggest is that all the loud speakers and commentary is heard from the parking lot. That's not much use. There needs to be a line of speakers running fairly close to the downhill track so the punters can hear what's happening.
Also, the screen is useless where it was. Didn't most people go there to see the downhill riders? If so, then the screen would have been better served facing up the mountain where most people could see it.
Finally, anyone that complains about $10 parking has got rocks in their head. Where do you guys come from, Cuba? The last time I checked, any place in Sydney you want to park at all day costs >$20. What's the problem? And you didn't even need to pay to get into the event? Bejasus!!
I liked the idea that you could walk to course. That was awesome and a nice touch that all the punters appreciated. It keeps them close to the event.
Otherwise, well done CORC, it was a great event for a first try. Not much you could do about the weather. Although it was scheduled in a Canberra winter day. A small price to pay I suppose. The world champs will be awesome next year, and I will certainly be there!
Little-Ditty - again, some valid points there. But the thing with the parking (and I don't wanna make a mountain out of a molehill) - Stromlo ain't the Sydney CBD. There's LOADS of space out there, and I guess I (and others) saw the charge of $10 as a little excessive. Don't get me wrong, woulda been happy to pay $3, $4 or even $5, but $10 is pretty unheard of at any event in Canberra. Yes, you didn't need to pay to get into the event, and that was part of the marketing push - "a great free day out for the family". Anyway, no biggie - in the end, I think they actually reduced parking to $5 (due to the poor buggers on the gate copping a bit of flack!), and then had to close it on Sunday due to the mud and muck.
And re the weather - of course, Monday and today have absolutely stunning winter/early spring days, with blue skies, lots of sun and not a breath of wind!
Liam, not sure if you or others realised (i didn't at the time) but the commentary was actually being broadcast on a local radio frequency (99.3 or something) so you could tune in anywhere on the mountain and follow the action. Brilliant idea, i just think very few people realised it was possible.
BTW timgee, do you know the official or near-official attendence figures for the event? Would be interesting to know, though being a free event i guess it would be hard to accurately estimate.
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my Intense 5.5 ~ my NS Suburban
starship 303, I haven't heard the latest 'official' attendance figures for individual days or the entire weekend, but the local rag here (The Canberra Times) quoted 'over 9,000 people' attended the DH finals on Sunday. Again, not sure what official estimates were, but I'd be happy with that level of attendance, particularly given the pretty shirty conditions on Sunday. On more than a few occassions, Stromlo looked like it was part of the European alps as the TdF passed through, with spectators perched everywhere they could get a foothold! From my own observations, there would have been a similar turn out on Saturday - there was indeed a heck of a lot of excitement about seeing 4X under lights.