2022 pro gravity schedule

iLuveketchup said:
This is the first season I've followed DH. I take it DH is where the $$ is at? What WC DH is to EWS Enduro is like F1 to GT3 racing?

Noticed the DH teams have full sponsor backing i.e. trailers, etc. While EWS Enduro have small tents and a rent-a-van.
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Not technically that much more for the riders, but dh has been around much longer and is so much more tv friendly. (I've watched 300 dh races and never one enduro race all the way through even though I'm game for it.)

Next year will be different though because enduro will be broadcast along with dh and xc in two events.
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For old school xc fans i notice there's a woman named Ashley Hendershot who raced the emtb world champs. I remember mark hendershot, a long time 24 hr racer who battled Chris eatough regularly. Can't be a coincidence. 2nd gen.
 
4 American in the top 12 for short track. No one other than Switzerland matched that. Of course its just short track and not XCO but still we are unquestionably at the best time for US womens XC in a decade or more.

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Why VPN companies have to be so sketchy? Just makes you feel so warm and fuzzy that your internet security is in the hands of a company that only provides the ‘extend your coverage’ button and has the ‘automatic renewal’ button disabled…oh well, on to the races!
 
iLuveketchup said:
I mean dh is more of a cash cow over Enduro.
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Maybe a little in comparison to enduro but dh is no cash cow. It's still one of the smallest professional sports on the planet and most pro riders are poor. Pierron is the best rider in the world and his team is muc-off lol. There are no nike or under armour sponsorships. We require a sponsor (red bull) to keep the sport alive. Dh has probably one tenth the money that moto does.
 
Stinks that pauline won world champs. One, because she's a complainer. And two, because this only reinforced the benefit of skipping world cups to focus on world champs. Her and loana got a little guff for skipping snoeshow and msa but now it's totally worth it and I feel like the races leading up to world champs moreso than ever are going to be like JV races compared to the rest of the calendar, especially if they're in North America.
 
Reminder we go right into val di sole this weekend. Both dh and xc, and thats the last world cup of the year.

Maybe we'll get good turnout for the us open in Killington in late sept.
 
Val di sole qualies done and dak 3rd! Finn DNS so pierron wins the overall. Williams 4 sec faster than Goldstone in juniors btw.

Elite Women
1st. Vali Höll: 4:31.753
2nd. Monika Hrastnik: 4:35.945
3rd. Eleonora Farina: 4:42.060
4th. Jess Blewitt: 4:43.345
5th. Veronika Widmann: 4:48.149
Elite Men
1st. Andreas Kolb: 3:41.572
2nd. Loris Vergier: 3:43.532
3rd. Dakotah Norton: 3:46.779
4th. Benoit Coulanges: 3:47.528
5th. Aaron Gwin: 3:48.151
 
Man... what a men's race. What a season... and the end of the RedBullTV era.

It will be interesting to see what the 2023 season brings.
 
Ian F said:
Man... what a men's race. What a season... and the end of the RedBullTV era.

It will be interesting to see what the 2023 season brings.
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I called it. Loris was absolutely on point with this course. Not sure I could even get down the whole track, let alone at any speed.

Awesome season. Bring on Discovery!
 
Obviously with me being a big dakatoh fan I was very happy yesterday. First aaron on the hot seat and then dak. No one could stop vergier yesterday but that's okay it was still such a great race with uncertainty in each section. Also awesome seeing some lesser known riders on the podium for so long and kerr in the hot seat for like 10 riders. Great race that the intense team is justifiably thrilled to end the season on!
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I agree - great day for Intense. Which also begs the question - when will that bike become a production model? It's interesting how Steber stuck with his VPP variants for so long, but this bike is without a doubt a Horst-link 4-bar that in some ways harkens back to the last M-1.

I can imagine BK was disappointed with 5th place, but I'm sure that was mitigated when he found out he moved up to the last spot on the overall podium.
 
Ian F said:
I agree - great day for Intense. Which also begs the question - when will that bike become a production model?
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Let's start with some talks about bikes because there were plenty of bike updates this year.

1. Intense riders rode an ever evolving prototype all season and i would have to think that after the great success at Val di sole (not a win of course but still if you're a fan you now can't deny the intense bike must be a great DH racer), that bike should be fast tracked to production. If they didn't get it out til next summer that would be a big miss.
2. Specialized had their wrapped undercover prototype for half the season under bruni and finn (and I noticed it under someone else too yesterday). Spesh can sell demos regardless and their current production model can't be more than 3 years old, so I'd bet maybe next spring or summer we'll see the new one out as a 24 model.
3. Neko finished in 31st yesterday which is great for him. His solo journey this year working one on one with frank the welder produced a bike that, um, maaaaybe is a great bike? I trust neko but with his results this year it's kinda hard to tell if this one off is any better than a stock bike. It's an auspicious start to his bike company and I really wonder if we'll ever see it for sale like he's said he's doing.
4. The forbidden bike? Eh, who knows. Did conor fearon do any better when he got his big bike than when he rode the enduro bike? Enduro bikes are so good these days for 90% of bike park trails that I question the investment unless you're going to sign big time riders and try to win world cups.
 
DH bikes are definitely a hard market these days. Unless you're racing DH - or maybe live near Whistler - it's hard to justify. If I had unlimited budget and space, I'd have one, but in reality, I don't ride my enduro bike enough.

Part of me wonders if Intense shouldn't even bother offering a carbon version of this new bike - keep it aluminum; low production; and open to on-the-fly changes - the way their DH bikes used to be.

Neko hasn't said if the Frameworks bike will ever make it to production. Apparently, he and Frank need to make one that won't crack every 20 runs or something. But I can imagine someone will eventually be able to buy one from FTW, if not directly from Neko.

I feel like the bigger brands like Specialized and Trek can afford to produce DH bikes even if they aren't huge sales generators. Part of the marketing group as well as an engineering test bed for the enduro frames. For some of the middle brands - Pivot, for example - it's probably a bit of that as well as simply passion for racing.
 
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