2024 Gravity Season (races, freeride events, etc...)

Ian F

Ian F

Well-Known Member
While we have quite a while until the race season starts, we do have some early season events to look forward to - Hardline down-under, for one. More timely, Sam Reynolds and the Darkfest crew are a bit early this year. Perhaps to beat Fall (in S. Africa) rains? He's started to drop videos:



and Part 2:

 
Wow... this was unexpected...

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"Today is a good day. I’m very excited to announce my long term partnership and first venture into ownership in the cycling industry with @crestlinebikes. Being a part of a bike brand as an owner is an absolute dream of mine. From our first conversations, I felt that we had great alignment and shared many of the same values and aspirations. I’m excited to share all the details and plans soon but for now, I just want to say thank you to @troydon and Mark for the shared belief and opportunity to help lead this brand into the future. Dream come true, let’s go."

Wow... it just seems odd he's jumping back into nearly the same suspension design he worked so hard to get Intense away from...

Granted... if you go to the Crestline website, information on their DH frame (RS 205 VHP) is pretty thin, but it doesn't appear to be drastically different than the V10 or the old M29, with a high-pivot pulley added...

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And it's sold out, of course...

Edit: Pretty comprehensive interview on Pinkbike that sort of answers my questions...
 
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Who stayed up? I was a little disappointed by the picture quality, granted I was watching on my phone connected to the tv but I don’t think that was the issue. New crop of riders coming up and looking good.
 
Gonna watch later in between dull moments of supercross race . Pumped that 2 savage ladies did a top to bottom run .
 
So, kind of good news I guess...at least if you are subscribed to MAX (in my case HBO through Optimum)...turns out that due to technical difficulties related to the integration of the pay per view ser vices, the B/R sposts add on keeps being free for a few more months (to be determined)...that means I may have to get up early to watch the DH races again...
 
Hmm... I saw this in the Pinkbike comments section about the upcoming WC races... might be a workable solution until the WB/UCI finds it and shuts it down.


I suppose I'll try it Saturday since with all of the rain Friday it'll probably be too muddy to ride anywhere.

That said, this comment is a tad concerning: "If you told me 3 years ago that my best option to watch WC would be a pirated stream from North Korea I would not believe you"
 
Ian F said:
Hmm... I saw this in the Pinkbike comments section about the upcoming WC races... might be a workable solution until the WB/UCI finds it and shuts it down.


I suppose I'll try it Saturday since with all of the rain Friday it'll probably be too muddy to ride anywhere.

That said, this comment is a tad concerning: "If you told me 3 years ago that my best option to watch WC would be a pirated stream from North Korea I would not believe you"
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I use Tiz for road races, it typically works, but you often have to refresh the feeds or feeds get blocked.
 
stb222 said:
I use Tiz for road races, it typically works, but you often have to refresh the feeds or feeds get blocked.
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Yeah, I had a feeling it was a pirate feed of some sort. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, since it looks like it may be too wet to ride anywhere.
 
In case anyone missed it, Fort Bill Semi-finals happened today. Unlike last year, no live broadcast of the semis. Just a surprisingly poor recap video. Like shockingly poor. 15 minutes of random clips that could have been a Vital Raw video... with the final three riders crossing the finish line in descending order. No commentary. No women. Holy shit, that was bad. I suppose what surprises me most is the coverage of the XC races in Brazil was decent. Not as good as the GCN+ coverage last year, but acceptable.

So... anyone who paid for a Max subscription solely to watch World Cup racing will now get a whopping 40 riders. I'm glad I didn't.
 
Juniors were live on YouTube. Good races if you want to watch the replay.

Tiz sort of works. I ended up having to use a different browser that isn't tied to the ad-blocker. The quality seemed stuck at 240p and there were numerous pause-glitches. But... it got through the women's elite and then a few of the men's elite before UCI found it and squashed it. But a couple refreshes and it came back. That happened a few more times. Along with continuous pause-glitches. Finally made it to the end... Good races.
 
Ian F said:
Juniors were live on YouTube. Good races if you want to watch the replay.

Tiz sort of works. I ended up having to use a different browser that isn't tied to the ad-blocker. The quality seemed stuck at 240p and there were numerous pause-glitches. But... it got through the women's elite and then a few of the men's elite before UCI found it and squashed it. But a couple refreshes and it came back. That happened a few more times. Along with continuous pause-glitches. Finally made it to the end... Good races.
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I already had HBO/Max so as previously reported I could watch all 4 events logging in with my cable subscription. HD quality wasn't really flowing but it was watchable thanks to Gwyn's commentary, mostly. I could mereley make it to the end without falling asleep, but that maybe due to my own circumstances...yet, I really did not get into it. Also, I can't believe the World Champ was not protected and did not make the finals...
 
Watching the broadcast on Max mostly worked for me, with the exception of a few seconds of black screen that would show up maybe every 5 minutes. The commentary with Gwin and Tahnee, while she was in the booth, was quite good even if lacking the excitement from the Red Bull broadcasts.

In terms of the results, I've definitely been an Asa Vermette superfan since watching him ride (and win) at a lot of the east coast DH races, so just really cool to see him take the juniors. And also cool to see a win for Frameworks.

In the Elites, it's a bit of a cliche but times really are incredibly tight, both due to the level of riding as well as the way that the courses have changed to faster/straighter. Bruni was his usual perfection, but a 1.8 second win over that length of course is still a pretty thin margin.
 
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