Video: Wyn TV Wraps Up the World Cup Season in Lousa

 Without them Cathro would break his neck again.

 No, he is looking for another frenchie.

 I wouldn't be surprised seeing him riding Enduro

 He's like a real life Inbetweeners character.

 Dak will go to Intense.

 @neimbc: Does that mean Neko's out?

 @dolface: He's just rumouring. Budgets in 2021 are gonna be bad news. Plenty of riders are going to have to go it on their own and probably way more than you think.

Irony is that some teams will have a budget surplus from 2020 to use toward their 2021 seasons so they will be able to field travel, etc. But don't expect much in the way of signings.

A big Frenchie may go to Trek and then Hart & Dak will be free agents. But the team budgets to scoop them up for multiple years? That's the hard part. I'm guessing we are going to see multiple single year contracts.

When you look at who is going to struggle, I think it will be the guys who have won and should deserve good contract money, but frugal teams will low ball. I'm guessing teams will chase "future promise" people like Edmondson, Charlie Harrison, Reece Wilson, etc to get exposure without tying up a bunch of money.

 @dolface: I would say yes - if his contract is up - Neko hasn't been a top 20 rider in a long while. And to be honest - his US champ titles are due to Aaron not racing (he flatted one year and Neko eeked by) nor have Luca or Dak raced the US champs. Just my speculation. Gwin wants a syndicate type team.

 @neimbc: You're forgetting that Gwin shoots for a mentor style teammate. Bringing Dak on wouldn't parallel his usualy team structure as it would be a direct Alpha male competitor. Dak to Intense is unlikely.

There are multiple US bike companies with no Elite US racer. Specialized, Kona & Giant don't have an American on their international squads.

And where is the person guessing Yeti out of the blue dammit? We need that guy.

 @blowmyfuse: I see what you're saying, but look at Greg - he's a top dog at Syndicate - then came Vergier and Shaw. They surely benefited from training with Minnaar and in return as they got better, it kept Minnaar fresh and fast. I think it 's better for top riders to have someone up there with them to push them harder as well - feed off each other's strengths. Unless Gwin has too much ego - but he's a team owner now - it's in his best interest to have the best guys out there.

 @neimbc: time will tell. Dak deserves a paycheck though. Some say he deserves a modeling contract.

 I think rode through the finish area and kept on going straight to the tunnel ......full AWOL! Hah!

 I think you are looking at qualifying there man.

 @humoroususername: LOL

 @humoroususername: doh. Yep. Finals on the right side. Seems Neko was throwing it down up top. My bad.

 @cuban-b: what are you in about? Roots and rain is a brilliant website.

 Visual representation of the finish distance & spread with racer flag is super cool feature. Can even change the # of riders in the graph.
www.rootsandrain.com/event7843/2020-nov-1-mercedes-benz-uci-world-cup-dh-4-lousa/finish-spread/filters/flags,show40/racecats93031

 @cuban-b: Trust me, I'm VERY aware of its shortcomings and limitations.

I don't very often see such criticism though... and I do take some solace from the downvotes you received :-)

I'd love to know what you think is garbage and what I should improve though, if you don't mind taking a moment to reply to me (or you can email me at seb@rootsandrain.com).

Thanks!

 @blowmyfuse: You. I like you, you're a good egg ;-)

 @rootsandrain: Only Ridemonkey alum have thick skin any more Seb. Keep up the good work. Once racing kicks in full steam again, 2021 should be a banner year for you.

Quick question....any idea what the worst starting margin has been for a race winner in the last few years?
What I have been trying to watch over the past few seasons with the tight racing is what is the biggest deficit out of the gate someone has overcome to win a round.

 @blowmyfuse: I don't understand your question, sorry! I'll answer it if you can explain it to me :-)

 @rootsandrain: Yeah, so there are a lot of World Cups that I watch where the race winner is leading at the end of the 1st split and either carries that momentum & pushes it further as they go down or maintains it throughout.

The stat I have always wanted to know (and it's sort of odd because the marker where split #1 is timed can vary from course to course) is "Who won the race after having had the worst time at Split 1?"

It's essentially the "Comeback" stat. It made me remember when Gwin's new video came out and he mentioned blowing off course at Mte Saint Anne but coming back on course to win. I know split 1 is important, but I want to see who it is that gets faster the further down the track they go.

Who had the slowest start out of the gate only to win the race? I've not looked, but I remember the Stevie Smith Mte Saint Anne win feeling like a come from behind. Gonna go look now.

 @rootsandrain So I looked at last year's WC results and only 2 of the results did the winner "Come from Behind" out of the gate in any serious fashion.


2019 World Cup Split 1 Winner Deficits

Winner Laurie Greenland hit 1st split in 6th place, down by 1.19 seconds to the fastest split 1 time of Danny Hart
Winner Danny Hart hit the first split in 6th place, down by 1.02 seconds on the fastest Split 1 time of Amaury Pierron.
Of the other 6 winners, Bruni WON 3 times but hit the 1st split 0.12" back in 3rd, 0.01" back in 2nd and then 0.6" down in 2nd
Pierron won once being down 0.21" in 3rd
Pierron won TWICE being 1st out of the gate to Split 1

Worst finish for the Split 1 winner last year was 5th place for Hart.

So if you want to win a DH kids, get out of the gate!!!

 @blowmyfuse: I'll come back to this tomorrow, as I'm just about to head out the door, but a quick database query seems to suggest this is the biggest defecit, albeit from the days of only 2 splits:

www.rootsandrain.com/event817/2003-sep-14-tissot-uci-world-cup-dh-6-kaprun/results

If we look at the modern-era 5-sector races, I think it's this:

www.rootsandrain.com/event5898/2018-jun-3-mercedes-benz-uci-world-cup-dh-2-fort-william/results

Followed closely by:

www.rootsandrain.com/event3588/2016-jun-5-uci-world-cup-dh-3-fort-william/results

and

www.rootsandrain.com/event6985/2019-aug-3-mercedes-benz-uci-world-cup-dh-6-val-di-sole/results

I'll post a fuller reply tomorrow!

 @blowmyfuse: Bear in mind these are compared to the best split AT THE END OF THE RACE, not the best current split at the time that the winning rider did their run, if you see what I mean.

 @rootsandrain: Right.

That is awesome to look at. I've not seen an insane split like that Kaprun race in forever. Rennie was up on EVERYBODY BY 4 SECONDS out of the gate. Kovarik was even 2nd up by 3 SECONDS on the winner.

Then you look at that Ft. Bill race and see that Luca and Angel were up on EVERYBODY but couldn't keep that pace overall.

In that 2016 Ft. Bill, everybody faded except Brayton who leaped the field after being way back out of the gate as GM just pulled back a boatload on the field.

Love this stuff.

 @blowmyfuse: It's worth pointing out that -- certainly historically -- some UCI splits were questionable. The top one that came up had a relative no-one 20 seconds up on the entire field... and if that's wrong, who's to say the Kaprun one isn't - you'd have to find a race report from the time to see if anyone mentioned the gap!

 @rootsandrain: I think we both know the answer to that. Old school splits were kooky unless it was Anne Caroline by 20 seconds, which was usually 100% accurate.

 @blowmyfuse: Loved this little thread guys, and I love rootsandrain, where else am I going to find pictures of me going slow but looking pro ?

 Germans wear them on the right hand. Spotting a lefty normally points out the auslander. Wyn must be under the thumb.

 Garmin fenix 6 pro solar

 If you have background knowledge, you understand that GM is Martin Whitley's #1 athlete for his sports marketing group and has been since he was 1st on the scene with Global Racing. It's not anything people in the know have to address.

GM is taking up for his management group. He's also at the top of the heap when it comes to money so he's not going to have the view point of the impoverished privateer or 2nd/3rd tier sponsored dirt bag trying to make it.

"addressing it" wouldn't accomplish anything. Would only start crap and that hardly seems Wyn's mentality. Me on the other hand, I'm going blunt, honest and asking dead pan questions & only getting 1 interview before being banned from the pits. Again.

 What was the criticism?

 @LeoTProductions: I'm only pulling legs, but here it is for what its worth. Minnaar is the gravity riders representative, which Ed alludes to. www.vitalmtb.com/features/Eddie-Masters-Thinks-the-UCI-Is-Suffocating-Downhill-Racing,2969

 @blowmyfuse: how did you get banned from the pits?

 I read the article Ed Masters wrote and I took it more of a criticism of the lack of communication of the UCI overall, rather than of Greg. Yes, he notes that he did not get communication of race rule changes from either UCI or their rider representative. But, this sounds to me more like a highlighting of communication issues from the UCI, not of who the rider rep is. We don't have enough info to judge whether the rider rep is doing a good job or not. My opinion is this is a top down problem, how hard would it be for the UCI to get an email to teams of changes such as the change Ed mentions where only top 60 qualify.

 How do we even know he's criticising Minnaar? I mean I don't really know how the mechanics in the uci works. I only know that there are rider meetings and Greg is the representative. But I don't know how big their influence is and who is the driving force behind what. I mean Greg surely won't have a motive for suffocating dh.

 @cuban-b: it was hypothetical. An example of the fact that Wyn is tactful & if in his place, I'd fudge it and get booted.