What do you think of the evolution of XC? Do you think courses are getting too gnarly for the riders, or do you think it just makes the racing more exciting to watch?
Something about _cross_ country tells me race tracks must be ridable in all directions, like all ways across. But most importantly, wheels down, rider up.
I run a 2021 Yeti A.R.C. with 120mm forks and NO dropper post for XC racing. Race results have been much better since I switched from a full-suspension Yeti ASR.
I dont know what its really supposed to look like, but I thought XC is supposed to be something amateur hardtail riders can ride, but the skill moreso comes from speed. Adding downhill features to an XC course doesnt really make sense to me, as theres downhill as well as enduro which somewhat bridges the gap between them. For me XC non racing encompasses lots of blue trails but also greens and access "gravel" roads, I refuse to have a dedicated gravel bike for access roads and also dont see any point in drop bars other than them being a tradition from road cycling thats been adopted for riding access roads.
Pidcock is the male version of PFP, he's incredible on anything with 2 wheels and a set of pedals. Of course PFP pulled the hat track a couple years back, winning XCO, road and gravel world championships in the same year.
I'm the weekend warrior middle of the pack novice local race rider, and i ride a 140 front 130 rear specialized stump jumper build with a dropper ,quad piston brakes, and wide bars. I'm good enough to notice the extra heft to my bike but I need to ride comfort and forgiveness from the travel. increasing my fitness would be job one. but racing cross country on a trail bike is deffinitly going to slow you down in some cases.
The amateur XC races around Texas are not too crazy, seems perfect. The UCI courses, for example in Fayetteville, are pretty wild though! But then that is only pros competing, seems appropriate. However as mentioned, some of the features become stupid if it rains. No matter how skilled you can just end up dead.
could use more reasons for bike vault super nices. i want to see a special on the best of super nices and those would be the real super nices. you guys are super nice…. get what i did there
A possible answer to the purple question.... Purple is a color of spiritually. Mabey, purple, represents the hardest trails because you might not survive. 😂
I don’t think Tom Pidcock’s mountain bike skill comes from his road riding, I think it’s the other way round. His descending and climbing skill on the road is definitely from his mountain and cyclocross background. Regardless, he’s an incredible talented rider and is doing absolutely smashing in everything he enters
I think the XC world cup courses are fine. These are the best XC riders in the world, the courses should be hard. If the course is too easy it just becomes a fitness contest. Crans Montana was particularly dicey this time because it was in the wet. The "timber garden" is literally something I've never seen before, not even in a bike park, they invented a new feature for XCO.
I think it's good that the courses are becoming difficult. For quite a while now, XC has just been roadie-on-dirt. It's had the same obsession with grams and watts and the which energy gel gives the most joules per cubic millimetre. Lets see XC come back to being *mountain* biking.
Yea! - We've always loved the pre-weekend ride feel of the show, but this move allows us to be more timely with any news that happened on the weekend so we are giving it a try
Evolution of XC? To what, Downhill? Keep XC what it’s supposed to be, Cross Country and leave the knarly stuff to the downhill crowd that ride with the correct protective gear.
#askGMBN Whatdya mean you've never heard of Tarland trails - get yer southern arses up here and try em out! (Nah, 2nd thoughts, it sounds like a Martyn, Owen and Anna only trip).
Yes, we love the 'let's get stoked for the weekend' vibes of a Friday, but moving to earlier on in the week allows us to be more timely with any news that happened on the weekend. So we are giving it a try 👍
sorry guys but 1. Pidcock is a mountainbiker & roadie that began riding cyclocross 2. Every xc worlds level athlete trains in road , thats not a secret. great we are back to tuesdays!!
I raced XC from '97-'05. IMO, the reality is the tech is just different. Almost all of the really gnar tech sections in XC these days are man-made features, so you can either roll them on the correct line or clear the jumps/drops with the right speed. The tech stuff today has the advantage of being well designed despite looking bad and creating a mental hurdle for the racers. The top riders are also all being guided by skills coaches. Compare it to 25 years ago and most XC courses were still natural rock gardens and root chutes as their most technical bits that had no flow, but on 26'er hardtail rim brake bikes with 1.95" tires and 60mm of travel. The tech back then just 'beat you up'. Just because people are crashing today doesn't mean they weren't crashing back then. The sport is just evolving, both courses and bikes.
I second that, i raced XC from '90 - '97 ish. We had bombholes in XC races still back then, which always separated the cyclocross riders from the mtbers
What you said about tech today “being well designed despite looking bad” really set in with me. I think that’s generally true, but maybe not at this race for those conditions.
Speak for yourself. I can’t even recall a crash during a race (I raced in the early 90s). I’m sure there were a few minor slideouts, but none bad enough to actually remember. And I was a descending demon who was ski racing during winter; so I was not holding back, AT ALL. Of course being a former street skater as well, I had balance skills and bike handling skills that were only matched by one other guy I knew. And he had the exact same background: street skater and ski racer. I only had a few minor crashes in my entire riding career. Did I mention I was racing in Alaska, where we have mud that’s far slicker than normal mud due to glacial silt? I did go OTB off the side of a trail on a ride and did an almost complete front flip to land in a stand of willow (no damage to me or the bike; I was riding with old school road shoes and cleats and toe clips with double straps, so no way to get out of the pedals), but that was during my first two years and I hadn’t yet developed my skill base; and it wasn’t during a race. I really didn’t crash hardly at all. I always seemed to be able to stay upright in conditions where other people were crashing right and left. 🤷🏻♂️
Would you not change the setup of your bike to suit the conditions. Maybe even have a different style of bike with more travel and slacker head tube to handle the drops and different tyres to suit the conditions. Looks like they took a knife to a gunfight and got smoked.
Dude spot on. That's exactly what I said get rid of those fucking flat bars and go to like a 25 mm riser perhaps even use a trail bike frame rather than an XC frame with 69° head... the thing about cycling is unlike motorcycling is that the Riders and cruise in bicycling are extremely rigid and not that smart when it comes to engineering. Worst of all are the Roadies and the XC types because they are basically the same. Prior to XE courses getting more difficult they were basically Road rides on dirt or basically what is considered gravel now. 🙄 It might take them a while to figure it out but of course changing settings modifying your bike for this type of riding is without a doubt necessary some of these dopes May figure it out and some may never😂
The course was a spicy one, but it's a good thing that other MTB skills are being pushed. This is the elite, the very top tier of the sport. If you only need to be fitter than the other riders is it really rewarding the best rider? XC was kinda just techier CX, now it's getting closer to trail riding! It also makes for a better spectacle, which can help the sport grow
#captioncontest Blake loves everything hard. hard tails, hard pecs, hard biceps, hard jumps..... co-indecently it seems he also finds color co-ordination hard 🙊
Mr Martin you are not a cheater although it's extremely funny on how it all went down but nonetheless it was great keep up the good work young man Maybe one day you'll actually do the full race not just one small micro section that just happened to be there and without you even knowing it That's happened a couple times to other people not saying whom but it has happened by pure mistakes
can i ask a question? whadda y'all think of the RM Instinct Powerplay, specifically the C70? with a fox dhx shock? $8500 Cdn? Lame colourway however, but meh. also, why don't i see many Rocky Mountain reviews? Too good/no samples? Or? also retrospective of Paul Brodie and the Libido URT from '92-3ish maybe? Cromoly hand-built etc, also featuring early Race Face componrnts, originally RS Judy of something, considered DH with 125f/3.5in. rear
"Well-Known Mountain Bike journalist faces cancellation after fraudulent event victory" "One veteran commentator wrote "We've not seen anything so egregious since Donald Crowhurst and the infamous Round the World Yacht Race back in 1968." 🤣
I was brought up riding XC in the 90`s to me, XC is a test of endurance with some fun slightly techy downhills, but these days XC courses are way too gnarly. Its making XC un inclusive. And maybe even making people think they need longer travel more fancy bikes. It`s such a shame. If some people want a suer gnarly XC course, perhaps make it a separate discipline.
Agree that endurance was very much the main thing in the past, you had to have some skill, but nowadays looks like just skill based, which is more like enduro/dh style.
It EXPOSED the posers... I.E. the 'roadie types' with low level bike handling and technique skills. BEST Track ever for XC. It will force the lazy, half-arse riders to raise their game... or they just won't compete. 👍
This last MTB Race at Montana was crazy. This is not Supercross. Mud and wood does not go well together. MTB needs to stop making the courses artificial. They should leave that to Redbull. It's called Mountain Biking for a reason. A bridge is fine. A minor artificial rock garden is ok as well. But to make three artificial lines and not take into account rain and mud is stupid.
It could be said that those features where built to provide consistency in changing weather conditions. For example had those steep sections been left natural they would have degraded to unrideable deep ruts with that traffic. Personally I thought it was a step forward.
YES THEY ARE! I have nothing against the gnarliest courses but we already have a comp for that, Enduro. Cross country used to be about "natural" cross country endurance and speed much like a trail run for bikers. Just like gravel bikes filled the void left because mountain bikes got too aggressive I am guessing soon we will have more aggressive "GRAVEL" races with suspension forks on gravel bikes. Things keep evolving but not really improving for the better.
I've generally found "Olympic" XC races to be trending towards too basic for maybe the last 10 years. With Cyclocross and gravel coming to the fore, XC races should be pushing to be more "mountain biking" XC racing then general cross-country racing (which is gravel now)
I have a friend i MTB with who has been trying to convince me to get a proper road bike. He always tells me itll make me a better mtber. Back story on my riding is, i ride my mtb on the road allot and have done multiple centurys and even a 172 mile ride on a rail trail in one day. So i tell my friend if i just ride my mtb with the same wattage and push myself as hard as if i was riding a road bike, whats the differance other then the speed im going at? I feel like im still getting the same workout or even a better workout because i have the tires and suspension working against me. If i have to ride on the road i like having the option to have to ride on the grass or sidewalk in areas traffic is bad, i hate putting my life in the hands of todays drivers. I do own a old road bike tho... i just hate being limited to the terrain i can ride.
Two non-XC presenters talking about XC? Hmm. As for the course, why design that rock drop section, then have to put padding all over it?? Ridiculous. Why design a 'log garden', then have to close it when it rains (for the U23's)?? I wonder to what extent Discovery / WB are behind this, to make their 'product' more appealing to the TikTok generation? 'Oh, look - crashes will be good on social media!'
I’m a 65 year young Super Vet and I love the new bike ( Vitus Rapide) with Slacker forks and 2.35 Maxxis recon race tyres,great for National Series,even Margham Park which is a bit old school but good fun. One bike can now do all the trails and tech I ride,way better than the bikes of even a few years back and the more technical courses are more fun,love it.
I love watching it, it’s mad, been watching Pidcock riding cyclocross from the early days and he was fluid from a young age and I think he just loves riding off-road. Wat 100-120mm fork should I run on my hardtail ?? not got a fortune to spend and I’m no Tom Pidcick😂
Swimming that like 30 events, Track cycling the same, but MTB has one event, and you can't be trying to cater to all disciplines in one xc mass race. DH riders are going down these features with proper DH bikes, in full padding, full face helmets, and a single rider at a time. So to shove xc riders around en masse, lap after lap over 90minues, it's not a question of if but when they crash. Yes some riders have great skills, but Nino crashed and he's about as good as it gets. Even Pidcock crashed though it was inconsequential. They don't need to put in DH & enduro like this just to see people crash and risk ending their season.. They need to have those specific disciplines represented; not all in XC.
Definitely gone a bit too far. They are not even allowed to wear protection! Glad no-one got more seriously hurt. What's next to make it more 'technical'? Make them loop 'DownHill' tracks?, I'm sure they are ALL capable but it's not XC
Sorry Guys, but XC has never been about crushing gnarly trails and steep drops. Thats what Enduro and Downhill was invented for. XC has to be fast uphill and a bit technical downhill. And a Hardtail should be THE bike to ride. But it‘s all about the Benjamins and the spectacle. The more crashs the more viewers.
More difficult XC is awesome. So much more exciting to watch. And if tracks get even harder with timed ups and downs bikes might change to more 50/50 trail bikes which would be an amazing race. I’d watch that more than any other disciplines. I’m a downhiller also and have never put a leg over an XC bike. If XC changed into this format I’ll be watching
The issue with those extreme XC tracks is that they don't use anything more than an open helmet and gloves. If you go further, it's gona be just like Enduro. I don't know who has the final word deciding the obstacles, if it's just to increase audience, but it's getting unecessarily dangerous. It's Cross Country. Not Enduro. Not Downhill. Not BMX.
XC getting too gnarly? On the other hand…an XC course that can be ridden with a gravel bike…is that really MTB then? Seems to me as stupid as CX and gravel courses that can be ridden/wom with road bikes. Or can you imagine DH track that can be ridden with a XC hardtail? I sometimes ride old, local XC events with a gravel bike (2.2 XC tires tho) and CX with a road bike just to hit some nerves, rather than winning them with proper bikes.
For crying out sakes, Pidcock can ride any thing and kick ass. A huge engine is still the same, regardless of the bike. The simple fact he has mad mountain and cross skill to boot makes him the endurance animal he is. Stop shoving athletes into boxed categories. Who want's a Bender bet on his summer season. A case of beer and a pack of smokes says he continues to kick ass and hurt feelings along the way. Don't you forget about me.... BTW, aren't there a few more stars from the CX world dominating road racing now, as history tells? WVA, MVDP, Vos. Puck, and many others.
Everyone here is so obsessed with numbers. Like god damn enjoy the sport. What happend to the casual guy riding a bike with no name dropping the hardest tricks on the hill? Mtb is about biking, not freaking meaningless numbers. You guys spend several thousands on a thing that needs like a couple hundred bucks to begin with. Mtb 20 years ago felt absolutely different and i was 6 at that time. It was all about riding and jumping. No one cared about your canyon ultra 10k doctor e bike.
@martynashton3607 We saw you at Margham Park after finishing my 1st ever 100 mile ride. We couldn't work out if you'd done the ride or not but thought it'd be a great idea for you to do it on The Random Tandem !!! 🙂
Hey @Toff Dan, here are also non-native English speakers listening. Maybe you could think of speaking a little bit slower, please! Thanks. As the content was great.
Tom Pidcock's win at the Crans-Montana track was nothing short of super-human. The Crans-Montana track obstacles (A-Line) were dangerous considering the track conditions. If you watched the entire race (both men and women) the race was really decided by the climbs where riders had to dismount to get up the inclines. Obstacles should be in the race but not set up to satisfy the blood lust of the spectators and fans. The stage one 2020 tour of Poland is an example of narrowing a sprinter chute with deliberate intent to cause crashes. The Crans-Montana decent where there were lots of tree roots was a simple obstacle giving riders lots of trouble, that was a good example of real world trail navigation.
#ASKGMBN please can you make a detailed video o series about the training to reach the best performance level to participate in an epic race, I’m referring to 100Km in a single day (Baja Epic). I’m preparing for this race in 3,5 months 😅
I see these courses as part of the “downhillification” of xc and mtb riding in general. A non rider only sees mtb’s smashing down gnarly drops, jumps, and berms and this is not what most riding is outside of downhill bike parks. Just let xc be xc and leave the downhill stuff to a different event.
I think Martyn is correct. I started riding MTB back in 1997, after riding gravel for freaking ever (old is new! 🙂). I added road riding into my life in 1998 and yes, it made me a better MTB rider. Getting to ride after rainy days without damaging our trails is nice. Our trails are better at shedding water now, but we still try to not ride them right after a hard rain. Is it a requirement? Of course not. If all you do is DH/Bike Park, etc., the type of fitness road riding will help you achieve probably isn't a priority. We do mostly XC/Trail riding, so distance and climbing fitness is a definite plus.
Pidcock has a motor that’s unmatched in MTB and roadie training likely created that for him. He is like riding a motocross motorcycle compared to his weaker peers.
If XC is going to be any different from Marathon or track running it needs to be like this. We spend more time climbing and less descending, so unless the descending is hard enough to purge the field of non elite level riders the better climbers will be the winner 100% of the time.
#askgmbn at Crans Montana they were running 2.1 tyres. Many of the modern brands are only making their rims with internal width of 30mm now. But 2.1’s need a narrower rim, so how do they handle this for unique races ?
I feel like anyone who wants to learn really good bike handling skills no matter the bike, should learn to mountainbike. Mountainbiking is definitely what made me good at handling a bike, even though I don't ride MTB regularly anymore.
Xc is now trail riding , trail riding is like dh and enduro is everything smashed into one, dh in 10 years will be irrelevant, trail bikes will be able to handle it. Stuff stayed the same for a long time, everything's changed in the last 10 years. Harder tracks will make better riders better action better spectacle
I dont like the show on Tuesday... I always looked forward to the show on a Friday night after a long week at work... Now my Friday night feels so empty
They had easier slower lines, what's the controversy? If you wanted to save time and had skills you benefited. No one forced a rider to ride a gnar feature there was always a B line. Also as an old guy who raced 26 inch hardtails at places like Mt Snow in the rain, this race course is core to the roots of racing.
I moved away from xc years ago because it was all about the engine not the skill. The courses where boring to say the least. I like where its going. Great for spectators and great for mountain bikers. Not so great for roadies making the cross over but hey who cares
The recent XC track is inappropriate. The organizers should have considered the safety of most of the riders. They should have at least require the racers to wear more or upgraded protective gears.
That course looks bettter than most as most xc courses are just lame make cx look gnarlier xc has a really long way to go in my eyes to become gnarly and as for the riders most xc riders ride like roadies sorry sounds harsh but true when xc becomes real they will make xc tyres that look like a wetscream but lighter untill then its still xc ie lame tame . 😁
because i don't get chance to mountain bike as often as i'd like, i road commute and zwift so that when i do get to go out i'm not an unfit mess. so yes, road ride to make you better at mountain biking.
What do you think of the evolution of XC? Do you think courses are getting too gnarly for the riders, or do you think it just makes the racing more exciting to watch?
Something about _cross_ country tells me race tracks must be ridable in all directions, like all ways across. But most importantly, wheels down, rider up.
still waiting on contact about my stunt mug from last DSS.
The rougher the better in my book
I run a 2021 Yeti A.R.C. with 120mm forks and NO dropper post for XC racing. Race results have been much better since I switched from a full-suspension Yeti ASR.
I dont know what its really supposed to look like, but I thought XC is supposed to be something amateur hardtail riders can ride, but the skill moreso comes from speed. Adding downhill features to an XC course doesnt really make sense to me, as theres downhill as well as enduro which somewhat bridges the gap between them. For me XC non racing encompasses lots of blue trails but also greens and access "gravel" roads, I refuse to have a dedicated gravel bike for access roads and also dont see any point in drop bars other than them being a tradition from road cycling thats been adopted for riding access roads.
"Roadie" does not really fit Pidcock. He is riding road because the money is there. This lad is just a force of nature on anything "cycle".
Haha I totally agree tbf. He isn’t a roadie (and actually there’s nothing wrong with that). It’s just mad how much talent is packed in to one Dude.
Peter Sagan started in XC.
Pidcock is the male version of PFP, he's incredible on anything with 2 wheels and a set of pedals. Of course PFP pulled the hat track a couple years back, winning XCO, road and gravel world championships in the same year.
Definitely but he is also winning MTB races because he is training on the road. My fitness definitely increased when I bought a road bike.
A 'Roadie' is someone who only rides on the road; Pidcock is not a roadie - he mixes 3 disciplines.....and World class in all 3.
xc racers are going to need to wear enduro protection now. Full faces and chest protection
I'm the weekend warrior middle of the pack novice local race rider, and i ride a 140 front 130 rear specialized stump jumper build with a dropper ,quad piston brakes, and wide bars. I'm good enough to notice the extra heft to my bike but I need to ride comfort and forgiveness from the travel. increasing my fitness would be job one. but racing cross country on a trail bike is deffinitly going to slow you down in some cases.
The amateur XC races around Texas are not too crazy, seems perfect. The UCI courses, for example in Fayetteville, are pretty wild though! But then that is only pros competing, seems appropriate. However as mentioned, some of the features become stupid if it rains. No matter how skilled you can just end up dead.
Dear Martyn you really are a ray of sunshine!!! 🤣🤣🤣
could use more reasons for bike vault super nices. i want to see a special on the best of super nices and those would be the real super nices. you guys are super nice…. get what i did there
You 2 crack me up -- Cheers!
I don't bike a lot but i have snowboarded all over and ive never heard of a purple trail/run Double black and Triple black yeah but not Purple
#captioncontest "Can a GMBN mountainbiker ride the world's famous tour de france?"
A possible answer to the purple question.... Purple is a color of spiritually. Mabey, purple, represents the hardest trails because you might not survive. 😂
Martin tells a beautiful story! And he's a confessed cheater!
I don’t think Tom Pidcock’s mountain bike skill comes from his road riding, I think it’s the other way round. His descending and climbing skill on the road is definitely from his mountain and cyclocross background.
Regardless, he’s an incredible talented rider and is doing absolutely smashing in everything he enters
Definitely a talented rider with great bike control on all bikes!
I think the XC world cup courses are fine. These are the best XC riders in the world, the courses should be hard. If the course is too easy it just becomes a fitness contest. Crans Montana was particularly dicey this time because it was in the wet. The "timber garden" is literally something I've never seen before, not even in a bike park, they invented a new feature for XCO.
Rich must've taken Some edibles lol
I think its time for them to start wearing more protective gear. That lady going OTB looked gnarly.
I think it's good that the courses are becoming difficult. For quite a while now, XC has just been roadie-on-dirt. It's had the same obsession with grams and watts and the which energy gel gives the most joules per cubic millimetre. Lets see XC come back to being *mountain* biking.
agreed 👍
Martyn Ashton cracks me up lol 😆😆😆
I would disagree that the riders weren't good enough because you had every rider in the front from Pidcock to Nino Schurter crashing as well.
Fair point.
When people fall in dh this convo is different. Were just not used to seeing people fall in xc, its changing now
Do you think the courses are getting too gnarly?
Not to gnarly, just maybe some mandatory safety equipment upgrades
@@gmbn I’d say that the “conditions” were gnarly with all those rain and mud.
That confession was hilarious 😂!!! Love Martyn , more random tandem please 🙏🏼
Wait a minute! Dirt shed show on a Tuesday?
Yea! - We've always loved the pre-weekend ride feel of the show, but this move allows us to be more timely with any news that happened on the weekend so we are giving it a try
@@gmbn Didn't it used to be on a Tuesday?
@@jonathanpress4690it was on Friday back in like 2018, then switched to tue around the pandemic, then back to Fri until now lol.
I think Rich accepted some brownies from trail parking lot? 😂
Cadel Evans went from being a mountain biker to winning the Tour de France
Evolution of XC? To what, Downhill? Keep XC what it’s supposed to be, Cross Country and leave the knarly stuff to the downhill crowd that ride with the correct protective gear.
#askGMBN Whatdya mean you've never heard of Tarland trails - get yer southern arses up here and try em out! (Nah, 2nd thoughts, it sounds like a Martyn, Owen and Anna only trip).
Dirt Shed on a Tuesday?
nature is healing
Yeh.... What did we miss? Was one on Fri just gone as well!
Yes, we love the 'let's get stoked for the weekend' vibes of a Friday, but moving to earlier on in the week allows us to be more timely with any news that happened on the weekend. So we are giving it a try 👍
Tom & Toff - back this week = happiness!
14:40 - Don't let him smoke weed during the recording 😂🤣😂🤣😂
sorry guys but 1. Pidcock is a mountainbiker & roadie that began riding cyclocross 2. Every xc worlds level athlete trains in road , thats not a secret. great we are back to tuesdays!!
Has Rich been snorting the helium balloon !
I raced XC from '97-'05. IMO, the reality is the tech is just different. Almost all of the really gnar tech sections in XC these days are man-made features, so you can either roll them on the correct line or clear the jumps/drops with the right speed. The tech stuff today has the advantage of being well designed despite looking bad and creating a mental hurdle for the racers. The top riders are also all being guided by skills coaches. Compare it to 25 years ago and most XC courses were still natural rock gardens and root chutes as their most technical bits that had no flow, but on 26'er hardtail rim brake bikes with 1.95" tires and 60mm of travel. The tech back then just 'beat you up'. Just because people are crashing today doesn't mean they weren't crashing back then. The sport is just evolving, both courses and bikes.
I second that, i raced XC from '90 - '97 ish. We had bombholes in XC races still back then, which always separated the cyclocross riders from the mtbers
What you said about tech today “being well designed despite looking bad” really set in with me. I think that’s generally true, but maybe not at this race for those conditions.
Speak for yourself. I can’t even recall a crash during a race (I raced in the early 90s). I’m sure there were a few minor slideouts, but none bad enough to actually remember. And I was a descending demon who was ski racing during winter; so I was not holding back, AT ALL. Of course being a former street skater as well, I had balance skills and bike handling skills that were only matched by one other guy I knew. And he had the exact same background: street skater and ski racer. I only had a few minor crashes in my entire riding career. Did I mention I was racing in Alaska, where we have mud that’s far slicker than normal mud due to glacial silt?
I did go OTB off the side of a trail on a ride and did an almost complete front flip to land in a stand of willow (no damage to me or the bike; I was riding with old school road shoes and cleats and toe clips with double straps, so no way to get out of the pedals), but that was during my first two years and I hadn’t yet developed my skill base; and it wasn’t during a race. I really didn’t crash hardly at all. I always seemed to be able to stay upright in conditions where other people were crashing right and left. 🤷🏻♂️
@@keirfarnum6811 boast much?
Ok, who magic-brownied Rich?
its not the riders or the bikes that can't handle these tracks. Its the tires.
When I finally did road riding it made fitness better and then had more air for tech
This was the first time XC was worth watching from start to finish. Great change, awesome course. Hope we see more like this.
Most of these new XC bikes have the very similar geo as the 2019 Trance trail bike imo
Would you not change the setup of your bike to suit the conditions. Maybe even have a different style of bike with more travel and slacker head tube to handle the drops and different tyres to suit the conditions. Looks like they took a knife to a gunfight and got smoked.
Dude spot on. That's exactly what I said get rid of those fucking flat bars and go to like a 25 mm riser perhaps even use a trail bike frame rather than an XC frame with 69° head... the thing about cycling is unlike motorcycling is that the Riders and cruise in bicycling are extremely rigid and not that smart when it comes to engineering. Worst of all are the Roadies and the XC types because they are basically the same. Prior to XE courses getting more difficult they were basically Road rides on dirt or basically what is considered gravel now. 🙄
It might take them a while to figure it out but of course changing settings modifying your bike for this type of riding is without a doubt necessary some of these dopes May figure it out and some may never😂
Pidcocks a machine incredible rider.
Can we get a bloopers edit of this episode please
The course was a spicy one, but it's a good thing that other MTB skills are being pushed. This is the elite, the very top tier of the sport. If you only need to be fitter than the other riders is it really rewarding the best rider? XC was kinda just techier CX, now it's getting closer to trail riding! It also makes for a better spectacle, which can help the sport grow
#captioncontest Blake loves everything hard. hard tails, hard pecs, hard biceps, hard jumps..... co-indecently it seems he also finds color co-ordination hard 🙊
Mr Martin you are not a cheater although it's extremely funny on how it all went down but nonetheless it was great
keep up the good work young man
Maybe one day you'll actually do the full race not just one small micro section that just happened to be there and without you even knowing it That's happened a couple times to other people not saying whom but it has happened by pure mistakes
About time they got back to being normal XC race track....more fun to watch, just like races in the early 90's. and the bikes are more capable.
I dont know why we disgusted of road riding.
Im thinking of buying a gravel bike too
can i ask a question? whadda y'all think of the RM Instinct Powerplay, specifically the C70? with a fox dhx shock? $8500 Cdn? Lame colourway however, but meh. also, why don't i see many Rocky Mountain reviews? Too good/no samples? Or? also retrospective of Paul Brodie and the Libido URT from '92-3ish maybe? Cromoly hand-built etc, also featuring early Race Face componrnts, originally RS Judy of something, considered DH with 125f/3.5in. rear
"Well-Known Mountain Bike journalist faces cancellation after fraudulent event victory" "One veteran commentator wrote "We've not seen anything so egregious since Donald Crowhurst and the infamous Round the World Yacht Race back in 1968." 🤣
I've just replaced a 63mm RS Judy XC elastomer fork from 1999 with a new 130mm fork. They are quite different.
Wtf? Is it the weekend already? What's going on 😂🤯
I was brought up riding XC in the 90`s
to me, XC is a test of endurance with some fun slightly techy downhills, but these days XC courses are way too gnarly. Its making XC un inclusive. And maybe even making people think they need longer travel more fancy bikes. It`s such a shame.
If some people want a suer gnarly XC course, perhaps make it a separate discipline.
Agree that endurance was very much the main thing in the past, you had to have some skill, but nowadays looks like just skill based, which is more like enduro/dh style.
This is kinda why you see the growth of gravel riding. So much of mountain biking is inaccessible now.
Agree 👍👍
It EXPOSED the posers... I.E. the 'roadie types' with low level bike handling and technique skills. BEST Track ever for XC. It will force the lazy, half-arse riders to raise their game... or they just won't compete. 👍
This last MTB Race at Montana was crazy. This is not Supercross. Mud and wood does not go well together. MTB needs to stop making the courses artificial. They should leave that to Redbull. It's called Mountain Biking for a reason. A bridge is fine. A minor artificial rock garden is ok as well. But to make three artificial lines and not take into account rain and mud is stupid.
So agree with you
Yeah. They need to chill with these artificial obstacles.
@@keirfarnum6811 100%
It could be said that those features where built to provide consistency in changing weather conditions.
For example had those steep sections been left natural they would have degraded to unrideable deep ruts with that traffic.
Personally I thought it was a step forward.
😢🙄😭
Boohoo... better call Mommy! 😂
YES THEY ARE! I have nothing against the gnarliest courses but we already have a comp for that, Enduro. Cross country used to be about "natural" cross country endurance and speed much like a trail run for bikers. Just like gravel bikes filled the void left because mountain bikes got too aggressive I am guessing soon we will have more aggressive "GRAVEL" races with suspension forks on gravel bikes. Things keep evolving but not really improving for the better.
I've generally found "Olympic" XC races to be trending towards too basic for maybe the last 10 years. With Cyclocross and gravel coming to the fore, XC races should be pushing to be more "mountain biking" XC racing then general cross-country racing (which is gravel now)
I have a friend i MTB with who has been trying to convince me to get a proper road bike. He always tells me itll make me a better mtber. Back story on my riding is, i ride my mtb on the road allot and have done multiple centurys and even a 172 mile ride on a rail trail in one day. So i tell my friend if i just ride my mtb with the same wattage and push myself as hard as if i was riding a road bike, whats the differance other then the speed im going at? I feel like im still getting the same workout or even a better workout because i have the tires and suspension working against me.
If i have to ride on the road i like having the option to have to ride on the grass or sidewalk in areas traffic is bad, i hate putting my life in the hands of todays drivers. I do own a old road bike tho... i just hate being limited to the terrain i can ride.
Two non-XC presenters talking about XC? Hmm. As for the course, why design that rock drop section, then have to put padding all over it?? Ridiculous. Why design a 'log garden', then have to close it when it rains (for the U23's)?? I wonder to what extent Discovery / WB are behind this, to make their 'product' more appealing to the TikTok generation? 'Oh, look - crashes will be good on social media!'
I’m a 65 year young Super Vet and I love the new bike ( Vitus Rapide) with Slacker forks and 2.35 Maxxis recon race tyres,great for National Series,even Margham Park which is a bit old school but good fun. One bike can now do all the trails and tech I ride,way better than the bikes of even a few years back and the more technical courses are more fun,love it.
I love watching it, it’s mad, been watching Pidcock riding cyclocross from the early days and he was fluid from a young age and I think he just loves riding off-road. Wat 100-120mm fork should I run on my hardtail ?? not got a fortune to spend and I’m no Tom Pidcick😂
Swimming that like 30 events, Track cycling the same, but MTB has one event, and you can't be trying to cater to all disciplines in one xc mass race. DH riders are going down these features with proper DH bikes, in full padding, full face helmets, and a single rider at a time. So to shove xc riders around en masse, lap after lap over 90minues, it's not a question of if but when they crash. Yes some riders have great skills, but Nino crashed and he's about as good as it gets. Even Pidcock crashed though it was inconsequential. They don't need to put in DH & enduro like this just to see people crash and risk ending their season.. They need to have those specific disciplines represented; not all in XC.
Definitely gone a bit too far. They are not even allowed to wear protection! Glad no-one got more seriously hurt.
What's next to make it more 'technical'? Make them loop 'DownHill' tracks?, I'm sure they are ALL capable but it's not XC
Sorry Guys, but XC has never been about crushing gnarly trails and steep drops. Thats what Enduro and Downhill was invented for. XC has to be fast uphill and a bit technical downhill. And a Hardtail should be THE bike to ride. But it‘s all about the Benjamins and the spectacle. The more crashs the more viewers.
XC riders are racers NOT mountain bikers. They ruin riding by going over everything and not "RIDING" features. Fight me 💪🏻😂
More difficult XC is awesome. So much more exciting to watch. And if tracks get even harder with timed ups and downs bikes might change to more 50/50 trail bikes which would be an amazing race. I’d watch that more than any other disciplines. I’m a downhiller also and have never put a leg over an XC bike. If XC changed into this format I’ll be watching
The issue with those extreme XC tracks is that they don't use anything more than an open helmet and gloves. If you go further, it's gona be just like Enduro.
I don't know who has the final word deciding the obstacles, if it's just to increase audience, but it's getting unecessarily dangerous.
It's Cross Country. Not Enduro. Not Downhill. Not BMX.
I'm currently rebuilding a 1999 Klein Attitude Race to use as my daily mountain bike. It's all I need for the riding I do.
XC getting too gnarly? On the other hand…an XC course that can be ridden with a gravel bike…is that really MTB then? Seems to me as stupid as CX and gravel courses that can be ridden/wom with road bikes. Or can you imagine DH track that can be ridden with a XC hardtail?
I sometimes ride old, local XC events with a gravel bike (2.2 XC tires tho) and CX with a road bike just to hit some nerves, rather than winning them with proper bikes.
#captioncontest: tight lycra clad purple muscles, - YOUCAN!
#askgmbn is there any such thing as a double purple? If it went triple, would you then be on a Brown trail? As in pants innit.
For crying out sakes, Pidcock can ride any thing and kick ass. A huge engine is still the same, regardless of the bike. The simple fact he has mad mountain and cross skill to boot makes him the endurance animal he is. Stop shoving athletes into boxed categories. Who want's a Bender bet on his summer season. A case of beer and a pack of smokes says he continues to kick ass and hurt feelings along the way. Don't you forget about me.... BTW, aren't there a few more stars from the CX world dominating road racing now, as history tells? WVA, MVDP, Vos. Puck, and many others.
Everyone here is so obsessed with numbers. Like god damn enjoy the sport. What happend to the casual guy riding a bike with no name dropping the hardest tricks on the hill? Mtb is about biking, not freaking meaningless numbers. You guys spend several thousands on a thing that needs like a couple hundred bucks to begin with. Mtb 20 years ago felt absolutely different and i was 6 at that time. It was all about riding and jumping. No one cared about your canyon ultra 10k doctor e bike.
@martynashton3607 We saw you at Margham Park after finishing my 1st ever 100 mile ride. We couldn't work out if you'd done the ride or not but thought it'd be a great idea for you to do it on The Random Tandem !!! 🙂
Apparently you guys never heard of the old school Shasta Damn Lemurian race of the 90's. Tomac's favorite!
Hey @Toff Dan, here are also non-native English speakers listening. Maybe you could think of speaking a little bit slower, please! Thanks. As the content was great.
Tom Pidcock's win at the Crans-Montana track was nothing short of super-human. The Crans-Montana track obstacles (A-Line) were dangerous considering the track conditions. If you watched the entire race (both men and women) the race was really decided by the climbs where riders had to dismount to get up the inclines. Obstacles should be in the race but not set up to satisfy the blood lust of the spectators and fans. The stage one 2020 tour of Poland is an example of narrowing a sprinter chute with deliberate intent to cause crashes. The Crans-Montana decent where there were lots of tree roots was a simple obstacle giving riders lots of trouble, that was a good example of real world trail navigation.
#ASKGMBN please can you make a detailed video o series about the training to reach the best performance level to participate in an epic race, I’m referring to 100Km in a single day (Baja Epic). I’m preparing for this race in 3,5 months 😅
I see these courses as part of the “downhillification” of xc and mtb riding in general. A non rider only sees mtb’s smashing down gnarly drops, jumps, and berms and this is not what most riding is outside of downhill bike parks. Just let xc be xc and leave the downhill stuff to a different event.
You can't just say Tom is a Roadie.. you have to say Tom is the best male Cyclist in the world right now (Across all disciplines).
I think Martyn is correct. I started riding MTB back in 1997, after riding gravel for freaking ever (old is new! 🙂). I added road riding into my life in 1998 and yes, it made me a better MTB rider. Getting to ride after rainy days without damaging our trails is nice. Our trails are better at shedding water now, but we still try to not ride them right after a hard rain.
Is it a requirement? Of course not. If all you do is DH/Bike Park, etc., the type of fitness road riding will help you achieve probably isn't a priority.
We do mostly XC/Trail riding, so distance and climbing fitness is a definite plus.
Pidcock has a motor that’s unmatched in MTB and roadie training likely created that for him. He is like riding a motocross motorcycle compared to his weaker peers.
If XC is going to be any different from Marathon or track running it needs to be like this. We spend more time climbing and less descending, so unless the descending is hard enough to purge the field of non elite level riders the better climbers will be the winner 100% of the time.
#askgmbn at Crans Montana they were running 2.1 tyres. Many of the modern brands are only making their rims with internal width of 30mm now. But 2.1’s need a narrower rim, so how do they handle this for unique races ?
I feel like anyone who wants to learn really good bike handling skills no matter the bike, should learn to mountainbike. Mountainbiking is definitely what made me good at handling a bike, even though I don't ride MTB regularly anymore.
Umm, what is Up with Rich for this show? Just back from the dentist & laughing gas perhaps??😂
New XC is basically old DH with some climbing involved..
Xc is now trail riding , trail riding is like dh and enduro is everything smashed into one, dh in 10 years will be irrelevant, trail bikes will be able to handle it. Stuff stayed the same for a long time, everything's changed in the last 10 years. Harder tracks will make better riders better action better spectacle
I dont like the show on Tuesday... I always looked forward to the show on a Friday night after a long week at work... Now my Friday night feels so empty
They had easier slower lines, what's the controversy? If you wanted to save time and had skills you benefited. No one forced a rider to ride a gnar feature there was always a B line. Also as an old guy who raced 26 inch hardtails at places like Mt Snow in the rain, this race course is core to the roots of racing.
I moved away from xc years ago because it was all about the engine not the skill. The courses where boring to say the least.
I like where its going. Great for spectators and great for mountain bikers. Not so great for roadies making the cross over but hey who cares
Some cross country courses were this tough back in the 80's and 90's with no suspension and no dropper posts. Hard courses are much more entertaining!
The recent XC track is inappropriate. The organizers should have considered the safety of most of the riders. They should have at least require the racers to wear more or upgraded protective gears.
Oh c'mon. Even the best of them can make a mistake. I'm sure you have seen that Van Del Poel crash on a drop that everyone had no problem negotiating.
Due to XC now being gnarly, is there an opening for ‘short track gravel’??
Definitely intimidation
Also it’s a bit tougher at 160-180
Pidcock isn’t a roadie…he’s a cyclocrosser. There are road handlebars, but the riders are very far from “roadies”
#CAPTIONCONTEST I didn't know Richard Simmons took up mountain biking.
The course looked awesome, and I think some of those crashes could have been avoided with better tire selection and flat pedals.
That course looks bettter than most as most xc courses are just lame make cx look gnarlier xc has a really long way to go in my eyes to become gnarly and as for the riders most xc riders ride like roadies sorry sounds harsh but true when xc becomes real they will make xc tyres that look like a wetscream but lighter untill then its still xc ie lame tame . 😁
Why say pidcock is a roadie? His does roading to thrash everyone else’s endurance on the mtb
because i don't get chance to mountain bike as often as i'd like, i road commute and zwift so that when i do get to go out i'm not an unfit mess. so yes, road ride to make you better at mountain biking.
#captioncontest Hey ladies, how about riding a purple route?
Caption Contest-Blake's famous "bikecep" pose