Puzzling in the Pits with Andreas Kolb & Jordi Cortes at the Bielsko-Biała DH World Cup

Puzzling in the Pits with Andreas Kolb & Jordi Cortes at the Bielsko-Biała DH World Cup. Behind the scenes on how Andrea prepared for the ALL NEW Poland World Cup.

Athlete: Andreas Kold – @andreas.kolb66

This episode of Pitted was made in partnership with Fox.
https://www.ridefox.com/

Subscribe for more content from the pulse of mountain biking.

Website – https://pinkbike.com
Podcast – https://pinkbike.link/pbpodcast
Instagram – https://instagram.com/pinkbike
Facebook – https://facebook.com/pinkbikecom

[Music] I’m pretty stoked on Poland so far I like like our accommodations have been good the track looks good way better than we thought it was going to be I think uh everybody was a bit worried fresh venue social media did not portray it in really positive [Music] light Poland’s sick food is cheap people are friendly we got a lot of vodka already here so should be a good after [Music] party we generally try to start wherever somebody left off that’s the last thing they were familiar with so you get back on a familiar vehicle and then work from there and really track to track changes aren’t huge they’re always small or they should be small coming from William I changed to a bit more compression on the fork I think I was a bit too much on the air side on the fork it was a bit I don’t know it went through the travel too much and now we added a little bit of compression high speed and low speed and I think it’s just yeah more Supple all the way through any good mechanic is going to have settings from however long they’ve been with that Rider hi I’m Ben Lille and I’m Andreas C’s mechanic quite a difference from Fort William Forks we’re running sort of mid90s we vary around in that window uh six volume spaces quite open on the compression um Andy likes to sort of control his Fork on the spring and then he’s actually slowed down his highp speed rebound a little bit recently and sped up his sorry slow slow down is high speed and sped up his low speed um just to try and get a bit more front wheel control you’re trying to control the velocity at which the wheel is moving up or down uh you have obstacles that are far greater than the amount of travel that the bike has so you have to manage those obstacles by balancing Springs and damping to slow the wheel down as much as you can without making things harsh or losing traction I think coming from for William my goal in for William was to get a top 10 and I got ninth so I was happy with it I wasn’t stoked of course but I think for this race it’s a bit more my kind of riding style I think a lot of line option bit slower bit more like Tech riding so I think the goal is podium for sure but I also think I’m capable to take the wi [Music] you honestly I don’t think it is that different um other than four William being really long and mostly Rock the like the gradient very similar and the the types of impacts are going to be really similar there’s a lot of that weird kind of plopping Drop Like abrupt [Music] transitions just putting some air in the forks this morning we do this pretty much every run uh we’re starting off fairly high with the pressures because there’s going to be some holes we’ve just seen some videos of the track and she’s pretty blur now so first run Andy suspension set up how are we going to what are we doing for the first run um I tried some stuff home in schening just a bit more compression uh let’s see how how it feels on this track and yeah just give me a little bit more support I think there will be big holes on check so yeah let’s [Music] see so Andy’s just come down from his first run um you can see he’s pretty much in the right ballpark had a bit of a moment on a front wheel case in T-Bone with Charlie so um we’ve got a bit of space to go so we’ll probably leave the pressures as they are for [Music] [Music] now what’s that noise Benny boy it’s rain Summer’s nice while it lasted in Poland but goess at the minute can’t tell if it’s going to be good or bad hi Andy hi Jordy are people doing anything interesting with this suspension today interesting or productive they’re two very different things yeah he was about to change then the rain went he went while I won’t be able to feel it now so I’m going to go back up from what I’m used to and then maybe we’ll come back down that’s the problem with yeah he’s like but I want he like I really want to try that I really want to try the CX4 but he’s I won’t be able to feel it now but maybe I don’t know maybe he would if it’s going to be that slick I think well I think he just wants to compare he’s like oh if I go from like that to that I won’t actually know what happened where run interesting you want to be productive yeah we’re interesting enough you see why were we are thr on the L let me just take this off l oh no way as the bridge on the end the very last one where you drop onto the Finish Bridge like a hole onto it and I perfectly hit it bot him out the for he used it all maybe a little bit more than all as well there so um but he said he hit a massive hole off the last drop so I think if he avoids that we’ll probably be about the right pressure awesome unfortunately for Fox this week I thought there was going to be quite a lot going on and the weather has provided us some mix conditions it’s going to be real claggy now which is just going to be Mission keeping the mud off the bike keeping the weight off the bike but it’s just going to be really hard to tell the difference between the two tunes of the shocks that we’re going to go we were thinking of changing to so um this might even be something that we change tomorrow if it goes back to being dry or stays consistent but currently it’s changing every single lap so we’re not going to be able to tell the difference between the two you said I’m not looking cool when I we here so that’s why I changed worse on the top is it you look like an absolute clown you hiking with your cousin the house we got hide the see this thing follow me in the bin I hate my friends [Music] I’m just updating my book from his last run what he set went up on his settings with just so we have like a track what he’s doing so I know I don’t know might never come back to it but kind of know that now I know what he’s running in the wet just so makes life easier for me tracking what he’s up to so here I’m going to change I’ve done is all we Chang this Fork pressure on suspension and we went on to different tire well that was it here we go [Music] again clap clap clap boom boom clap Bo clap clap zigzag across the floor sh in the no one else know the hiking is my passion hiking is sick that’s awesome see you later bye bye driver if it’s going to be dry the rest of the week today was a waste of time and I think if you Riders approached it that way and that they were just like nothing Good’s going to come out of this the track’s going to change substantially in the next couple of days whether it rains or not you can always argue about that a lot of people said like while you going back up it it’s going to be dry tomorrow but on the other note there’s so many days we had in the past we thought it’s going to be dry and then suddenly Rains Down in finals and you don’t know what to expect and now we pretty much know how the trick is going to be if it rains before finals now we like two different practice sessions today super dust in the morning which was really sick and super wet in the afternoon which was also sick so yeah good day good day I haven’t worked with Jordy a lot yet last year testing in Portugal was really good he knows the way I ride and the way I like the bike so yeah I think when I’m struggling I definitely go over to Jordan and he’s helping me out like the settings on the fork now he helped me uh he actually texted me from schladming last week and we went through some Fork stuff and he’s I think he’s really happy with that so now we’re going to move on to a slightly different shock if it stays dry tomorrow if it rains again tomorrow then I think we’re just going to leave it alone and let him be comfortable on what he’s with yeah I think the new format with moving semis I personally don’t like it I think it just crams everything in everybody seems to be kind of in a rush and you don’t really get the same time to set up and and learn things you’re always just kind of focused on getting going getting stuff ready for the next [Music] run pry cold but as you can see up on the screen it’s 71 off for the pace at the four intervenient time yeah you got a pretty fast SK in training but very well and keeping it together what will it be for Andy they always do that though like you change and they’re like yeah it’s good and then it’s not good comes over the line in right now it’s not bad rains tomorrow after finishing the season finally he is looking really good at yeah I started off really good I think I was second at the first split which is sick but um there’s like an inside line which broke away and I nearly bended there I nearly crashed um and then I was a bit like too much in the comfort zone afterwards sitting there waiting for your run and they didn’t show it didn’t it oh I had a moment down there I fully unlipped like I wanted to pull with my leg my PES the this I going to go down hard both times though really close every run is different and you try something as the bike was different anyway yeah I think leave it least you know what the bike’s doing yeah good times are close though he he said he risked his life in a corner and it was scary I think something like that maybe Austrian something something something moment he’s going to walk this track now and find some seconds I think he only needs two seconds but I think all in all it was a good run I pushed again which I didn’t do in quality really and bike felt sick but the only thing is like I’m still carrying a cold since 5 weeks now or something and on the bottom when you need to Pedal my throat is like getting tight and yeah I struggle a little bit but I think tomorrow when the adrenaline kicks in it should be good [Music] right to smoking in [Music] here that was good good race like it’s good when it’s well obviously it’s good when we win but that’s beside the point as well that was good racing it was every different brand was up there for the win and like machin’s run in the beginning might have been I don’t know that might have been one of the most impressive runs of the week the worst conditions and a phenomenal run um unfortunately Andy’s run was good but not quite there I think track conditions played a huge part in that too like from wet and slippery to Optimal to falling apart a little bit to then getting really fast in the end but uh I haven’t really talked to anybody afterwards so I’d like to see what uh what the Riders think of that too [Music] I guess we’ll do the picture after as jump the gun [Music] here it was good I made in top 10 again which is sick but close to the podium again and I got pushed out of the top 10 from the oall which annoys me a bit but but yeah I just need to push harder I think but on the other side I think I wasn’t 100% this week still with my cold which I had a couple weeks ago not feeling too well so I think I should be stoked but we want more and Leo gang is up next we going hungry baby go for it men Junior started in the wet and then it dried by the end a little bit and then Elites I think it was still it’s definitely slippy in places it really didn’t dry out until I don’t know maybe the last 5 or 10 where it seemed like it was 95% dry but still looked like a couple little patches we did a click High spe compression on the fork we added a just that was the secret bit more support I think it was the secret maybe I should have gone for another one that would been the podium but we’re going to find out in game we’re going to add one more there and if we going to go on the podium or when we know it’s that click now I think the bike was dialed cheers to Jordy and the fox crew honestly Fox is insane but just the guy on the bike needs to get a bit better and then we [Music] swinging I’m the Leo gang got two weeks to decompress and start fixing little issues and then start racing again [Music]