2026 Gravity Season (races, freeride events, etc.

Ian F said:
Jackson Goldstone doing Jackson Goldstone things... crazy to see him cleaning the track on his first run ... 😳

For some reason, this video appears to only be posted on the GoProBike Facebook page and not on YouTube:

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That route looks super fresh. Love Jackson’s quote that the riders have done more for the track than the builders. That big gap after the left turn has been cased by most of the riders. There are YouTube vids of preruns. Gonna be fun to watch.
 
The big gap out in the open about 1/3 down the course was removed prior to qualifying. Apparently, conditions (wind) had to be near perfect to clear it.

Earlier today, I watched Asa's qualifying run on my phone, but I can't seem to find it on the laptop... did find Jackson's run where he does the B line around the jump at speed:
 
Cassinonorth said:
Insane he even raced.

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I saw that video - yeah... I'm sure he's sore AF and was in "just get through to finals..." mode.

Wyn's crash definitely sounds insane. According to his post-Q2 video, the same hardtail rider Asa passed was partly the cause of Wyn's encounter. As much as I think it's cool that someone could even ride a World Cup course on a hardtail - and I'm sure he can out-ride me on the best DH bike, I tend agree it was not a great idea to have him practicing with riders going a fair bit faster even in B Practice. Plus the whole issue of the B-line getting routed into the landing zone of the A-line which was definitely a course-design fail. A bit surprising that wasn't mentioned during the track walk.
 
Ian F said:
The big gap out in the open about 1/3 down the course was removed prior to qualifying. Apparently, conditions (wind) had to be near perfect to clear it.

Earlier today, I watched Asa's qualifying run on my phone, but I can't seem to find it on the laptop... did find Jackson's run where he does the B line around the jump at speed:
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Riders saying the B line is better because hitting and clearing the gap has you going to hot into the left hander.
 
Ian F said:
I saw that video - yeah... I'm sure he's sore AF and was in "just get through to finals..." mode.

Wyn's crash definitely sounds insane. According to his post-Q2 video, the same hardtail rider Asa passed was partly the cause of Wyn's encounter. As much as I think it's cool that someone could even ride a World Cup course on a hardtail - and I'm sure he can out-ride me on the best DH bike, I tend agree it was not a great idea to have him practicing with riders going a fair bit faster even in B Practice. Plus the whole issue of the B-line getting routed into the landing zone of the A-line which was definitely a course-design fail. A bit surprising that wasn't mentioned during the track walk.
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Bad course design. Bad marshaling. Bad hardtail rider awareness and etiquette. Bad WB forcing cuts instead of top level safety protocols.

With privateers no longer able to compete on the WC, whoever the sponsors are for the hardtail guy should be banned from the WC for at least a few years. That kind of YouTube clickbait bs has no place in elite DH. It’s so dangerous to begin with. Throwing the hardtail dude in the mix makes it an unacceptable risk to the entire field.
 
In other news, Fox Suspension is back with a new series "The Setup". Not quite the same as "vlog-style" of Dialed, but the production seems good.

 
The Worst said:
Bad course design. Bad marshaling. Bad hardtail rider awareness and etiquette. Bad WB forcing cuts instead of top level safety protocols.

With privateers no longer able to compete on the WC, whoever the sponsors are for the hardtail guy should be banned from the WC for at least a few years. That kind of YouTube clickbait bs has no place in elite DH. It’s so dangerous to begin with. Throwing the hardtail dude in the mix makes it an unacceptable risk to the entire field.
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If the rider has the UCI points, they can enter. There are usually a lot of more "local" riders who enter at most world cup events, but that mix tends to vary by the location. I would imagine a lot of the lower ranked riders who attend a lot of the European races don't have the travel funds to get to Korea. It's similar for the North American races that many of the Euros don't get to but you'll see more US and Canadian entries.

Who knows what the hardtail guy's story is... maybe his normal frame broke and the hardtail frame was all he could get in time. Maybe he wins at his local races and actually thought he could compete at that the top level.

That he made it as far as he did before Asa caught him is still impressive. Asa would have caught me riding a DH bike about 30 seconds into his run.
 
a.s. said:
It’s an inside joke amongst the regulars. Basically, some swear that any drivetrain creak or noise can be attributed to the chainring. You can read the original thread here.
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I figured it was something like that. It went a little over my head on the last thread, so this was my attempt at squeaking my way in on the joke 😉
 
I read in another discussion the hardtail rider got his entry via his national federation.
 
Well... one advantage of the race being ~12 hours ahead of our time zone is by the time I woke up this morning, the highlight videos were already posted to YouTube and I was able to watch them before hearing about who had won. Looked like some great racing!
 
One of the most exciting races I've seen in a few years. And without giving spoilers it was historic.

Can't say I loved the track as much as most others but what a race.
 
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