5 Things We Learned from the Les Gets DH World Champs 2022

 Hope this Ric Mclaughlin guy can match Rob's passion and excitement and not over talk every inch of the racer's run with senseless dribble.

 Searched on discovery go and discovery+
Not a single result for uci, world cup, world champ, downhill. If it's on there they don't want it found.

 Ahhhh... I was wondering why @reecewallace got a DNS. Very disappointing results for my Fantasy DH team as a result.

 @tbmaddux: bet he didn’t get fined for not starting!

 In Europe it was on Eurosport. Still on the Eurosport player. Their owned by WBD. Have a look at the WBD website and see what channels they have. I don't know what sport channels ye have state side but some are listed on their site. It could be on one of the, but it's also possible it's not.

I presume you can't get Eurosport in the US?

 @agrohardtail: Well damn...

www.eurosport.com/mountain-bike/that-s-massive-loic-bruni-s-stunning-winning-run-at-world-championships_vid1735765/video.shtml

I had no idea. If they streamed the entire race, the marketing team at Warner Bros Discovery must have been on vacation. In fact, I don't think they're doing much of anything to promote their coverage next year. Pretty weird.

 @joepax: lol. Spoiler right in the link...hilarious. @sarahmore - just FYI...this didn't seem to make it on the radar of anyone

 I watched the DH finals on Eurosportplayer and was surprised how good the commentating with Ric and Reece Wilson actually was.

 @zombiezebra: I watched it on Redbull tv and then just by chance found it was on replay on Eurosport. The Czech commentator was absolutely clueless what was he looking at.. so I switched to English and that was way better. Not as excited as Rob, but as you say, I was pleasantly surprised

 @joepax: Maybe it was a Soft Opening and we weren't invited.

 @joepax: That was actually pretty decent.

 @joepax: Before red bull had world cups I used to always watch it on Eurosport. Didn't remember seeing them advertising World Champs, but they had all of the DH and XC on show

 @neimbc: Defiantly going to miss Rob .

 @tbmaddux: LOL

 Check out GCN+. Replays of all the Worlds' races are available. It was good commenting, not quite as loud and super excited as Rob Warner, but in-depth & great quality.

 If I remember correctly Reece Wilson was commenting with Rob Warner for Hardline 2021, and Reece was amazing, an absolute natural at it. He had the perfect mixture of racing banter and technical expertise. Would love to hear more from the guy.

 @neimbc: agreed! Announcers never shut the F up.

 @Primetime85: definitely and defiantly!!

 @Kolikjun: then the Spanish commentator didn't ride a mtbike in his entire life...

 @IMeasureStuff: he also did several track previews last year, and was excellent.

 @joepax: It will likely be streamed on the GCN app, which links up with eurosport for major road races like the Tour de France. Eurosport has already been showing glimpses of DH racing racing on their advertising for a few months now.

 @neimbc: He can't, complete opposite to Robs comentry persona.

 @suspended-flesh: I never get invited to Soft Openings...

 @neimbc: Ric has charisma of cheese.

 @Gora: He must be really really good at something back the curtains...

 I rewatched it on Eurosport,and while I missed Rob Warner's commentary,I would like to give props to the camera coverage,it missed the crutial section where Bruni gained most of his advantage but otherwise it was really good.

 @nozes: Same exact video feed as was shown on Red Bull's stream, terrible dirt transition and everything.

 I saw the race on Star+. It was awful to hear a man, who is not Rob Warner, saying "look at the time".

 Sounds like a great time for @chris-b-mtb: to invest in some/alot of additional broadcast media training.
And then getting them to re-record their previous work for practice and analysing their pauses with software.
I sure it will be worth it as the first show will be pivotal in there short term success
Hopefully they can tweak Ric’s adorable but unfortunately almost unintelligible accent to my English as a first language ears .
@chris-b-mtb:
@neimbc:

bravestudios.com.au/teachers/tamara-oudyn

www.broadcastacademy.net/courses/26-27-september-2022-live-football-commentating-online-course

brightnessmedia.com/about

 @microwaveric: i thought there was dirt on the screen or the video was trying to buffer……

 @neimbc: hopefully tho, he doesn’t need to remind us who Luca Shaw is dating every race

 I don't think we'll see domination like that again any time soon if ever. Rachel was the last person to dominate like that. Holl has the potential if she decides to stay focused.

 that was a priceless gem from Warner, he will be missed.

 @darlos-finest-son: I laughed too when I heard that!

 @darlos-finest-son: I hope he goes all out for the final round

 @sudochuckwalla: been thinking the same thing. Would be awesome if he does

 Even more bizarre was the French crowd pushing 3 broken down vans up the hill, red white and blue, to make a flag. Considering how hard it was to walk up, pushing vans us was impressive. The crown were bonkers. But all in a good friendly way of course. I love that DH doesn't have the fan rivalry of other sports. Even the riders, they were happy signing my lads jersey with Specialized logos on, no matter who they rode for. It was really nice to see how approachable they were and just every day nice guys

 @weeksy59: We're pretty good when it comes to do stupid things for some coverage. Even more when we have a chance of going big in the results and have moooore coverage !

 @weeksy59: I agree with you about how approachable the riders are and the great thing about there not really being the fan/team rivalry of other sports. I know I have my favorite riders but at the end of the day I'm just thrilled for whoever won and so glad I was able to see them all come down, hopefully in one piece.

 The "Make Downhill Great Again" poster with Loic's face on Donald Trump should get some people riled up!

 Fat and furious was my favourite. Fat Loic is the future Plump Track World Champion.

 @MTBrent: Loved all of the posters! Fat and Curious, the Power-Mullet, etc......

 @commental: strong

 @Mtmw: Dude please explain the Gwin run of dominance and the fact that for the last two EWS seasons, the three top male riders are not European.

 @Mtmw: one of the most accurate comparison and analysis I've ever read... Not really

 @Mtmw: i was ready to teach you a thing or two about a few non-european riders... gwin, moir, rude, sam hill, minaar...

But there is so much bs in your saying that i'd prefer you to google these names...

 @HMBA106: Mtmw is overstating the issue, but it's hard to argue there isn't a home field advantage when 80% of the world cup races are in Europe. Of course there are some really fast guys from elsewhere on the planet that do really well. But there's always going to be an advantage to racing in a place you're familiar with that's driving distance from your home, compared to flying half way across the planet with whatever you can cram into your suitcase.

And that advantage plays out in who shows up for the races. A bunch of mid-pack guys from Europe skipped Snowshoe and MSA because it wasn't worth it for them to travel across the pond. That difficulty obviously flows in the other direction too. Look at Vallnord, for example - out of 63 racers in the finals, 39 of them were from Europe. Even at World Champs last weekend, which is more "diverse" than most races, racers from anywhere-but-Europe still made up less than half of the field.

 @toast2266: At Vallnord 39 of 63 racers in finals (61.9%) were from Europe? You'll be surprised to learn that at Mt Saint Anne WC this year, 38 of 61 racers in finals (62.3%) were from Europe. So, the cost-of-flying-across-the-pond argument is probably dead.

 @toast2266: Definitely agree with your first take, toasty. Thanks for the well thought out point of view. First comment just was a bit too out there for me.

 @mi-bike: No - the argument is that a race circuit that primarily caters to Europeans is going to have a lot of Europeans in it. Even if the circuit jumps across the pond for 2 weeks, it's still mostly Europeans that are on the circuit.

If the schedule spent a few years truly spread out across the world, I bet we'd see a lot more racers from elsewhere on the planet.

And to be clear, I'm not arguing that should happen. The European venues tend to be better, and globe trotting isn't exactly cheap. The best thing for the sport may well be the Euro-centric series we have now. But that doesn't diminish the fact that it hands an advantage to European racers.

 @toast2266: I do not disagree with your main argument and only commented on your second paragraph.

 You can find French Lines on YouTube, 40 minutes film by Genepifilm on that topic! (in French)

 @Mtmw: Excuse me, who won Snowshoe please ? I have a terrible memory.
I think most of the top riders have many different terrains to train on and you are miserably underestimating their talent and ability to adapt and perform on various conditions/terrain. Them being European or not is not relevant...

 @mi-bike: I'll put it another way: look at the number of privateers on the start list at any given race. In the European races, the vast majority of the privateers are European. At the North American races, (unsurprisingly) a lot more North American privateers showed up. And I'm sure if the UCI went back to holding races in Australia or NZ, there'd be a ton of privateers down there too. So the cost of flying across the pond might not matter for the factory teams with a budget for that sort of thing, but it definitely matters for the up and comers that are footing the bill themselves. So if you're an up and comer that's trying to get a bunch of high level results and maybe a sponsorship, that's a whole lot easier if you live in Europe.

 A lot of it is cultural. BC has some of the best snowboarders, skiers, bike riders, rock climbers, whitewater paddlers and mountaineers. Like, you think you’re pretty good until you do laps (snow or dirt) with a local…..who just has whatever job lets them keep living someplace like Golden.

They don’t race as much because the mountains out their door are better.

I’d just about (not quite) give up some duplicate organs to live up there.

French cycling culture is steeped in competition, so the talented mountain athletes from the Alps are more likely to end up racing.

 To say it’s homefield advantage may explain a portion of the results, but certainly not all. It’s multifaceted for sure. Outside of Europe, access to cycling is limited at best. Europeans are over represented in the upper echelons of almost every discipline of cycling, from MTB to road. It’s a part of the culture, its part of the geography, it’s supported at the lad management and policy level, it’s something people aspire to do professionally, and the ability to start the trajectory young is much more possible. Certainly there are some spots in N. America, S. America, and Aus/NZ that regularly produce top talent across disciplines, but outside of Europe the world is pretty vast and only a very small portion of the population lives near areas that could possibly give them the kind of conditions they would need to have a chance at cycling.

 @wyorider: This is literally the answer, and it's random to see Golden get a shout out. There are three people that race here, but everyone shreds and explores. BC produces freeriders. Kids build jumps, they don't train. France races. It's what they do.

 @toast2266: fair points

 @Hayek: Also funding. France have centrally distribution of funds to support racers. A lot of countries only do this for Olympic sport, and only at the very top. France have a much wider system.

 @Mtmw: As far as EWS goes... Take the top 10 both male and female categories starting from the very first season and tell me how many frenchies you can count. Clementz, Barel, Barelli, Nicolai, Ravanel, Courdurier, Charre, Tordo...

 @Mtmw: there may be some local familiarity, but how would you explain the success of the various Brits, Minnaar, Mick Hannah etc who came up racing in areas with very little elevation, in comparison to the Alps, Pyrenees? Arguably conditions in Canada, the US and New Zealand are much closer to most European race locations than anything these guys grew up with. Home advantage may be a thing, but the competition in Europe is crazy strong, and I would think the push from that has much more influence on results than "home advantage".

 @Mtmw: I invite you to dig a little deeper and actually look at the competition and supporting infrastructure in downhill racing in Europe and especially in France. France has specific high schools and higher education institutions that offer the combined studying and practicing of a sport at the highest level (even DH), there's specific rulings that help and support top athletes, a solid national cycling program for developing riders once you belong to the top etc... Then the level of competition is just immensely high, have you ever been to a french downhill cup? The tracks are on world cup level difficulty if not harder and juniors are directly compared to elites, only "scratch" results count, pushing young riders to go faster...Minnaar has addressed this recently as well.

And comparing the DH WC Series to the American hand-egg "world series" or whatever it's called is just a plain display of ignorance. Just by looking at the amount of different nationalities competing in the WC should be enough evidence to disprove your argument.

I do agree that the WC series would benefit from holding more races in different continents, like EWS does - giving more opportunities to US, Canadian, South American etc riders to compete at the highest level.

 It's possible, but that's a big ask. I don't see that record being touched. The depth of talent at the top of the sport right now is just so big. I still think Sam Hills 2 Junior World Champs, 3 World Champs, and 3 Enduro World Series overall is the most impressive feat in professional mountain biking.

 @harryhood: Just wait. I give it a year or two before Hill retires to e-biking and gets a few World Champs there too.

 @harryhood: just Sam Hill in general

 @harryhood: A big ask? The dude is averaging a World Champs Gold every other year! (Including juniors, 6 golds in 12 World Champs...)

 @toast2266: He already did a couple of the bike races last year and if I remember correctly he did pretty well

 Couple of e-bike races*

 @toast2266: sam hill will come back to dh, mark my words

 Youtube #50cc and les gets

 Like ^ said search youtube for 50cc and les gets world champs. That's what I ended up doing

 Not for free. That's something different. Some company paid for the rights to sell it to you but you didn't bite. Apparently you don't care enough, that's what they learned. I already had a paid subscription to a Eurosport Player account so I didn't need to pay extra for subscriptions or VPN. I don't think I would have just for a single event.

 Bruh use a vpn it’s not that hard

 @pierceklinke: He missed the live feed so the YT option will have to do.

 Yes and for sure, we were louder for our french baguettes, but every rider from junior women to elite men have been supported and cheered all track long. I think especially of Troy getting the hotseat, the crowd went crazy !
I think most of us just understand what it takes to have a great and clean run and we are just happy for every guy/gal that delivers a good run !

 Think it's insane that we have to deal with that. American's already have a junk DH system for athletes to come up through... now it's impossible for us to even be fans. It's like they don't want us to actually want to do anything but jump off big rocks.

 It was the first time happening in the Elite Men’s race since 1990. There has been three times where all three medal positions went to the same country in Elite Women’s racing.

 @edspratt: While noting the other events were XC, I think in terms of downhill racing - where unlike XC the men and women have the exact same race requirements - it merits mention of the 2014 result.

 Nah, I'm talking out my arse, sorry! You're right about the other women's DH results.

 I took a trip to Mexico City to watch. Feels odd knowing I'm now an outlaw.

 Its out now

 I'm sorry, Wyn TV has been geoblocked in your region

 Too soon, not funny @jgoldfield:

 There were two Dutch commenters on eurosport (=discovery). One of them knew a thing or two about the sport, the other one read a bunch of facts about riders that were obviously googled, kept making references to road racing, and displayed zero knowledge of how a downhill bike is ridden.

 Whatever specialized has under that cover is most definitely working. That's the most stable bike I've ever seen.

 Seems like a top guy and knows about bikes. I unfortunately find his accent extremely difficult to understand. And english is my 2nd language after foul.

 Well, two of the nicest paint jobs raced into 1st and 3rd place, so it does seem to make them ride faster.

 First time since 1990 for the men. Although it is the first time since 1990 that it was done by any three riders on home soil. You are right about 2014 but it was actually done twice before that in 2003 and 2005 by French racers.

 ... BTW the same in Nino VS Marhias crash... I mean is it normal in other sport to always miss the key action? WTH not using drones for full coverage?

 ..and again.. Nino VS Valero missed again the key unfolding and the Broadcast was lost many times...

 Entirely different crowd.

 @generictrailrider: I know. It just looked a little crazy and my mind went straight to that doc . Dakota and Cedric thought the same on Wyn TV. LOL

 @generictrailrider: Derp, Luca* not Dak

 Good analogy except Dame hasn't ever actually won anything besides meaningless regular season games...

 @mmleach829: You have a point, that's just the first thing I thought of.

 @mmleach829: two of those came in the playoffs to close out the series, no?

 @dbullmtb: Kobe could be a good comparison... That man was clutch af

 I mean we really would like to know for what is the green button on Loics bars