CHAOS on the Race Track | BEYOND THE LINE Episode 3

Rob Warner, Emily Batty and Eliot Jackson are back in the studio. Joined by top riders, they delve deep into all the major action from the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
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Bey on the line is back with episode number three here is our hitchhiker slide to the best mountain bike content Elliot I need your uh haat shoe this is legit with track difficulties steadily increasing we’ve picked brighter brains and we look at the future of cross country we all want a fair race we all want a hard race at Miram Nicole’s home race she and T crave sat down with us to talk about the highs and lows of World Cup Downhill Racing home race means a lot of pressure we’ve also got all the action from exciting downhill and cross country races in Le as well as what happened at the cross country World Cup in C Montana as always Rob Warner is hosting with Red Bull TV’s downhill analyst OT Jackson and two-time cross country World Championship Bron medalist Emily PTI providing their [Music] [Applause] expertise hello and welcome to beyond the line where we have just had a weekend of phenomenal French flavor the L World Cup absolutely delivering we’ll come into that shortly let’s start though with CR Montana a brand new World Cup venue for the cross country riders in Switzerland although it wasn’t the venue that stole the headlines it was the track what was going on up there Emily yeah it was so cool to be on site because like you said it’s a brand new track these Riders are having to do with deal with new technical sections and then the weather on top of it you could really see the fear amongst the Riders yeah I mean I always think that you know when you go to a new you there’s uncertainty you don’t have your settings from last year the team is kind of struggling so yeah it’s just it’s a it’s a crap shoot almost you it did feel from all the noise coming out of there that this was a track that perhaps took the sport to a new level let’s find out what the officials and some of the Riders who pointed a bike at it thought at the moment we’re we’re kind of we’re not trying to push the courses further um than than where they are we’re happy with where they are uh obviously we want them to be really challenging for the for the top athletes um and at the same time we don’t want the the riders that are further down the field to feel pressure to to do these big aines we’re in such a unique place in the sport at the moment of the transition of equipment the level of the Riders what they’re always always pushing us to find the limits years ago we used to race on Sunday but we could train unofficially Tuesday Wednesday and so the the courses are getting harder the training windows are getting less and we have to race short track Friday Saturday so there’s this whole new level of challenge I in the end like the course very much with the with the rain it was for sure super hard to to write but um I’m I would say I’m more a technical writers which yeah which suited me which suits me well and yeah I enjoyed riding there well interesting that it’s quite mixed I suppose what we just heard there you know on the sidelines I heard the word dangerous expanded about is it too much was it too difficult this course this brand new track I mean that is the chatter what is difficult and what is dangerous and this I think being the new track and the weather conditions they did they did try to spice up some of the Futures with all of those rocks well that was the thing that I like what is the difference between difficult and dangerous and it’s one thing to put kind of rocks aesthetically lining the track that serve no riding purpose early in the week people were like quite worried and talking quite you know negatively about the track um but being on the sidelines and you could see the distinct lines there there was just a sense of overwhelm among amongst the writers um but I would say it was 80% were embracing it and liked the challenge and really 20% were outspoken about how it could potentially be on the dangerous side of things is this going to become the norm we all want to see progression in mountain biking we are going to see progression is this too much too soon what you know what was your general feeling after the race in my opinion from from having race and now looking from the outside I think we saw a progression of technical to a limit you know four or five years ago and then they kind of backed off removed lus and mount s an some some of the but now we’re starting to see it pick up a little bit with these new tracks I always used to talk about how a bunch of the XC tracks there would be like World Cup Downhill sections and I remember in Norway and hael there was this super Rudy section so I thought it was really nice to see the technical skill of the XC Racers come out when we look at when we look at what’s cool about mountain biking or cross country racing you know there’s the start then there’s the uphill tactical then there’s the downhill technical features and then the the the flat tactical so I think we’re just going to continue to see more of that but but there is a limit let’s have a look what the rule book actually says right because I believe that a course has to be designed to be rideable is that correct and that’s just it I think the track was a little premature I think there were a few maybe a we behind as far as constructing the track to be done and complete for the rider training like Beck did mention we’re our are limit we’re limited with time on the track and uh when they were on the track they were also making modifications to some of the features because of the complaints that were going around so it was more of a they weren’t quite prepared yeah and uh and then with the mud of course it wasn’t a completely rideing ride proof track weather proof track go but the reason when I was talking to the course designer it’s it’s much more um there’s more depth to it he’ said that the Swiss forestry regulations wouldn’t permit uh organic material being imported into the CH that’s interesting so we had a lot of running features which we don’t like to see when it comes to World Cup racing that’s really interesting well they got respect the environment one woman who dealt with it incredibly though Lan LOM taken her 10th World Cup win she’s now the most successful French woman in World Cup cross country racing I mean amazing performance a slow start to this season for us going to be happy with that heading towards Paris certainly I think Lanna is one of those exceptional Riders when it comes to Mud we saw her round out last year with the World Cup win in Mount Z in Canada uh but watching her on the track most of the women were just on the sidelines getting building up their courage to do a feature and you saw Lana with effortlessly was loving it I was like she never I never saw her standing at a feature trying to learn something like she knew the skill and she was just coming in and effortlessly riding through it I always think about even with there is um you kind of have mental blocks on some parts of the track and I would imagine it would be the same with cross country if there’s a section that you don’t quite have mentally and you’re spinning the whole entire lap thinking about that one section and you could see Lana just in her element in the zone like flowing through the whole lap being like present so she was certainly loose and she embraced the fact that every other Rider seemed nervous definitely that for advant and you could see that all week in our preparation on track yeah absolutely so a very dominating performance for Lana as it was for the men’s Wimer winner Tom pidcock who you know won again a perfect weekend for him when he gets on a mountain bike he’s pretty much Unstoppable right our mate Tom all I need him to do all I need him to do is text me and just let me know when you’re going to start the race certainly help you with your predictions if he knew when he was actually but fair to say that when he gets on a mountain bike you know he does win doesn’t he I mean he’s actually Unstoppable right and this was such a tech techical track I’m going to say that he’s not a road Rider he is a mountain biker he’s got to be be a to deal with this yeah yeah there’s so many elements he’s just exceptional at that terrain the the mass field he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all yeah I mean you say that but there was maybe one [Applause] mistake didn’t really matter I mean he he still won by over a minute but yeah I mean he’s pretty Flawless otherwise even he was a little rattled at throwing a foot down there but I mean his odds of winning are are you know almost two out of three it seems he’s he’s just Superior that is the crazy thing right because he’s he’s won seven races and he’s only started 11 right that’s right exactly seven out of 11 starts he’s one to see how he Compares actually to the greatest in the sport to Nino and to Julian the two big dogs who’ve dominated cross country racing forever and look at Tom pidcock’s win rate 63.6% he absolutely doubles the win rates of abson and Sh I mean like the crazy thing to me is those win those races that he hasn’t won he has like gotten a flight like what was it at Snowshoe got and he still got fifth still places on yeah fifth in on the podium crazy I believe the dnf in L was because he’d been hit by a car two days or something before it I mean it does it takes something in to stop him winning out of his control really right I think that’s fair enough to say yeah I think the other men when they’re on the Star Line pretty much know who’s going to walk away with that that win for the every time he’s on the start line and we know how good he is technically because he won in CW Montana on that Phenom of a track but that isn’t everything there’s something very special about his physiology right yeah I mean let’s have a look at some stats here this is going to confuse me I know this is going to confuse me the power to weight ratio I mean for the viewers that let’s see let’s get you on oh here we go Elliot’s the he’s the Yaky Master Okay okay so I don’t want to overwhelm you but the viewers that are into numbers probably my XC crowd can appreciate some power to weight facts um I wanted to do a little comparison here from women to men but um what we’re what we’re looking at is power to weight ratio so you know we’re all varience in different weights so the way we get a number that’s relevant to each other is to take the average power for that time we have 20 minutes which is most relevant for XC divided by our weight in kilo okay okay so when I was at my best 2018 uh two second places bronze at World Championships I could produce at 20 watts or sorry 20 minutes I could produce a 5.5 so say in this area here my 5 minute power was in the 2 point or 6. tws but I’m a light Rider so I was one of the lightest in the women Pitcock is very much one of the lightest in the men almost 7 to 10 kilos lighter than any of the other men I was 48 kilo uh but my my Max Sprint was very very low I was in the 16s and 8.4 over here look at those numbers because you know 20 minutes was kind of like a XC and then like the 5 Seconds is maybe like a start exactly so this is our most relevant to XC racing this is our 5 minute power is like our start Loop so very very important this is like an attack kind of mid-race and then the five seconds would be the beginning of an attack or those little micro surges throughout the race so I’m a light Rider Tom pig coock like I said is 7 to 10 kilos lighter but his economics is is off the charts in the men’s category he’s actually redefined his 20-minute power so he’s pushing I think his record uh that I found on internet was 386 for 22 minutes wow uh at 58 kilos which puts him at a 6.8 so he’s actually rewriting this script and he’s over here at 7.8 again rewriting and we know he’s exceptional at sprinting and no one else has ever reached those numbers before him is that what you’re saying pitcock has literally lifted the bar not next C at least but what his Advantage is is is his e economic advantage of being so light but still producing the top of the R Top of the chart across the board exactly yeah on top of his exceptional uh technical skills as we know one question I do ask is how long will we see him split his time before between sort of the road cyc Ross and mountain biking Vanderpool we haven’t really seen on a mountain bike for three years now Tom pitcock though does seem to manage to do both at the moment yeah he’s balancing it quite well uh I feel like maybe down the road he might have to it seems like we all get to this pivotal moment where we do have to start to I we see Pauline doing that now well yeah I’m going to stop you there because me and Elliott were lucky enough to get our good mate Tom on our just ride podcast and he shed a little bit of light on what the future might hold you would never see yourself coming over fulltime to mountain biking then and and am I right in thinking that you’ve said it’s your favorite like all the more most fun for you out of all the disciplines you do yeah I think so yeah I mean not not anytime soon maybe like the back end of my career when when you know I would I would come and uh when you’ve won the Tour yeah um well yeah no I mean I I I think I’m not I’m not going to rule that out I’d certainly enjoy doing that have you spent any time on a downhill bite is there any Pinella going to make a downhill bik but I mean have you have you ever ridden one really in Anger uh in Ang you know I went downhilling with Greg I don’t know if it was last year or the year before but I would I prac I practiced the the black run in Andora and and I dropped him he had practiced oh we got the exive we got the exclusive well that is a big big call from the Olympic champion now we might have to get Greg Manar on the phone dropped dropped him on a downhill he told me never to repeat it but it’s a bold statement Tom could be telling the truth I think yeah find out have you seen him in the tour have you seen him descend on a road bike well that’s right he is absolutely the Speedy is just phenomenal yeah the risks involved and of course he’s taking part now in the tour to France the eagle eyed out there may have noticed there’s a brand new team in there the Red Bull border hands grower team with Pablo Ro excuse me Primo rogl in there as well fourth in GC at the moment do you think that Red Bull getting involved might make the difference to this team to RIT he’s won the valter he’s won the jro he hasn’t won the Tour yet I mean to me like seeing a bunch of Red Bull Riders it kind of like brings that mountain bike flavor over to it you know you saw the team announcement in the hanger I think it’s uh it’s cool to have another group to follow and I also think that it’s been cool even in you know for us like interviewing enimy V Luton we see Pauline doing a lot of we talking about Tom the Roadie coming to the mountain bike and there’s a lot of chat isn’t there Emily about Pauline pran provoda mountain biker perhaps well she said it’s her last year of mountain biking right she yeah she has stated that um it’s just rumor still but but the rumor is that she’s going to be going full-time to road with Vima Lisa bike w wow big rumor don’t doubt it I don’t doubt it one bit now one thing I do know about the tour to France and I have been following it forever is that it has a tour etiquette if someone in the pelaton needs a Wii It’s Not Unusual for the entire pelaton to stop and wait for them does it exist in mountain biking let’s find out there are many Unwritten rules and I think a lot of it is also about just maintaining sportsmanship within the grp group um and there’s kind of a common understanding that we all want a fair race we all want a hard race but those positions actually matter quite a lot I saw a really big change in the moment when I was leading the World Cup is the respect among the Riders but outside the top 10 it starts getting messy because there’s no respect it doesn’t matter who you are people just poof crash like because it’s [Music] desperate on the first lap is every man themselves to get that position if you want that spot is whoever backs down less there are some people they do stupid stuff in a way you know my coach always says like if someone’s hips are in front of you like they have the line and I think that’s a really helpful visual as a rider but obviously if bars are like this you know our number one priority is not to crash cuz crashing is very slow I definitely have had my fair share of learning and how to bump and when I do have to bump like I’m not afraid of it ideally you don’t want to give up your space but you also don’t want it to crash so it’s I I find it’s quite difficult sometimes what to do in those situations sometimes if you have a little bit more power and you can get just get 5 cm ahead you just are the one that has the handlebar in front and then you are in the position you assert yourself you kind of control your space and instead of hitting bars you really want to lean in and you know give them one of these when I see a rider coming I just like to protect sometimes my side hey hey hey hey and then you go and when you want to pass you just pass it and then you put your position it when you’re descending you can’t really hold people up you know no one’s going to just pull the brakes but when you’re climbing on the top of these steep kicks like it’s a little bit of a cheeky move but if you ease up right at the top the people behind you are probably going to have to put a foot down so that is a tactic that I think is part of the sport for sure I’ve been in races where that’s happened and I think it’s a card that people definitely do play but whether that’s right or not I’m not sure I’m too nice to do that it’s just like a then you’d feel really bad and calm as a and you don’t want that to come back around at [Music] you obviously when it’s the last lap there will be a little bit more of a Scramble for the right wheel if we were Racing for the podium right now it’s like I’m not helping you you’re not helping me in the end it’s it’s all about being respectful for your opponents I would say like this is the most important [Applause] thing well it sounds to me like it all goes on out there that there are no rules e Richard saying I’m too nice to get involved is that the case to you I mean I definitely had this is probably my most fun segment we’ve ever worked on because I you know talking with the athletes I wasn’t going to let them give me some black formal High answer I know what goes on in these R that’s what I was going to say did they actually give everything like you would know the stuff that they held back like I wish this was a 10-minute segment cuz you’d get all the dirt but that was a nice little jump clip but for certain these these kind of things go on because you’ve got all these athletes within half a percentage of Fitness so it comes down to who is a little bit more uh assertive or a little bit more confident in those those moments of contact yeah they absolutely go on and I feel like in other forms of racing the thing that you worry about most is like retaliation so if like right like you throw an elbow then you’re probably going to get an elbow thrown back at you at some point in the future yeah actually once uh Beck Henderson actually mentions um how you know you kind of have to build allies and there’s a bit of role playing there too you are friends you’re legit friends and you Karma like eeve said is definitely thing you have to factor in as well but not everyone’s friends right because you know there are incidents on trail let me draw your attention to this a rider must act in a sporting manner at all times and must permit any fast R faster Rider to overtake without obstructing I think might be the important there didn’t follow that rule well come on would you always move over and let someone come by hell no there’s there’s the straight answer yeah I mean it comes down to assertiveness and this that is such a great argu I’ve got a feeling that we may we may have something where Emily was asserting our well I I I comb through the archives because I was I was kind of I was trying to figure this out this is the most egregious example see Emily baddy on the right hand side there and Tak the arm off it wasn’t just an elbow it was a it’s a hand off hook it’s a hand off no but that’s the poor that’s a poor angle give me a moment all right here we go I I don’t know if I don’t know if that rule no but let’s dive into that for an example uh so I was this was a decisive moment uh Yolanda was up the road and I was descending way faster than anakah and she knew that and she’d claw back up on the climb and and so she kept trying to put that effort there is again just if you missed it yeah and so anakah took this High Line and she knew she was going to come in into my bar and it was the same thing every darn lap and I was like get enough is enough and I was she want get in front of you so you wouldn’t ride away from her on the downhill right and GAP like a 20 second Gap over a minute would happen and I it just a Tac and so was I being aggressive and and like grabbing her no in my opinion I was don’t come don’t come into my triangle like you’ve done the last few times but it’s it’s a great area I didn’t yeah you know how was are you friends with anaka now or just out did that did that relationship respect is still the ultimate priority so yeah at the end of the the race well I think it’s there is um you don’t want to do anything dangerous certain where you guys are both going to crash or something in your defense that was a you know it’s a it’s a much slower section right and like there’s all of these kind of microaggressions leading up to it you know like you might you might throw a wheel and you might annoy someone it goes on let’s have a look at a very I would say high profile situation from 2020 featuring an upand cominging young Eevee Richards up against the queen Bing foran provot a 12-time elite world champion in in cycling okay so this is coming in for the finish here in Czech Republic and we have Eevee Richards who is a mega Powerhouse we know she’s got the watch wats to win this the Sprint and Pauline here a critical moment she’s deciding which line of the track she’s going to take here to try to counter Eevee’s Sprint so she can either come to the right of Eevee or she can come to the left she’s got no one in in the space so she’s making this move up on her own as we go so we we see eveve or sorry Pauline is now decided to go on the outside these girls are going to their Max wattage they’re winding up their heads down all all of their force is going into those pedals okay who she’s made that choice to go on the left however just know that back wall on the left side there okay we’re coming in they’re probably around a th Watts 8 850 to 1,000 Watts here but you can see Pauline is quite upset because she her perception was that that Eevee came over to her and she that was that’s a scary moment for her like you’re going full out right like she feels like eeve is coming over yeah she felt she was pinched out but to my argument okay soine is to me e did move over on her right well but to Emily’s Point she could have taken another line she could have gone to the R I would say Pauline uh should have come inside knowing that all of the Riders as you can see the line of all the Riders the fastest line is is the most direct so they’re kind of going from inside to inside and that natural straight line shoots you to the outside and Pauline should have known that right so did Eevee cut her off and pushed her to the Bears no I just think Evee was just going flat out in a straight line so I don’t think that was a you know that one of those moves that we could it’s such a point of contention both Riders have their own eyes on it don’t they I mean it’s it’s it’s a racing incident a lot of the time right I mean Eevee was Eve was devastated about that I mean yes she was she was in tears afterwards yeah she said she had to phone on she didn’t even know you could see it where like you know Pauline is looking over at Eevee and Eevee is looking straight ahead you know she just won the race well I think it was I think she was in the rate to be honest all right okay well let’s leave that there because well was one of the smallest winning margins we’ve ever seen yesterday in Le France we saw one of the biggest PUK Peter winning the cross country Olympic race there by 2 minutes 37 I mean it’s going to have Pauline frano quaking in her boot three weeks out from Paris mad performance right watching PUK it was incredible to see her keep her motivation that whole whole race like nearly 90 minutes I thought she went a little early I think she even admitted she went a little early but she didn’t let off the gas I think maybe at some point she was like you know what let’s just instill a fear in the the Riders at home and see how big of a margin we can make on second that was uh what we were talking about when we were watching it together it almost felt like it was mental training for the Olympics like can I this is the last big event that I’m going to do you know before before Paris and um can I sustain that effort mentally the whole time and Emily could it be a physical effort in that like it was literally like a training ride for it and I say that because the week before at the ok K bike Revolution this Swiss series that we cover I saw Alexandra Keller literally just using this long climb as an interval every lap she admitted afterwards that was a training ride for me I mean what’s going on yeah when you don’t have that competition it’s you against your power meter which they have access to on on their on their in their cockpit yeah they can see what they’re doing or that they’re wasting the clock if they don’t have power in the race so certainly she was using this as a training ride and I think a little bit of a statement to send a message home that she’s she’s a for I mean the one of the things that impressed me the most was the technical ability of PUK there like I think there were so many roots we saw so many people crash Eevee crash you know yeah that cycle cross background that she has it just played into she was making up time up the hills but also on the downhills not losing too much energy and stuff like that no I mean incredible performance it was like she was racing herself as I said two minutes 37 that winning margin let’s have a look how that compares to other winning margins for over the last last 10 years oh look who’s beaten her twice who is who who would think it could be Pauline farar and proo that pulls out even bigger though yeah that’s true enough look at that very good point Elliot Paris is going to be quite good isn’t it what you think it really is yeah but then there’s Lana LM who’s shown you know Pauline and Lana went first and second but yeah these girls are they’re gonna definitely Alandra Keller as well we know she yeah Alexandra Keller absolutely yeah she’s one of those she can just she can just suffer she she can just sit in the back of a train and you’re not quite sure if she’s ready to crack or if she’s just G to what I saw of her in Switzerland she looks like she’s ready as well and she is leading the overall World Cup let’s have a look at these standings then and there it is after the uh massive weekend in the difficult weekend Pizza shake well not that far off in the points a good margin of Keller we are getting Awards the end of the season now Haley baton not there actually still in third overall Haley you know after those amazing performances early in the season she’s away now uh she’s away now I guess getting ready for Paris right prepar and a lot of the Riders are altitude training once one goes to altitude then they’re at a disadvantage if they’re not also going so we pretty much see everyone you know preparing at at proper elevation incredible well Emily it’s time to find out who impressed you the most in L it was the performance of two ath that caught my attention in Le the Stellar performance of Alan hatherley and Candace Lil has undoubtedly put South Africa back on the map and etched their names into prominence hatherly with his remarkable ability to dominate The Men’s race and take his first ever World Cup win with a lead of over 91 seconds and Lil’s Sterling performance securing a second place the best of her career so far this could very well be the beginning of a new era in South Africa racing and now on the line we have one of those super far South Africans Alan hle joined by Simon Andreas and you’ve both enjoyed World Cup cross country Olympic wins this year Allan your first ever though coming yesterday on the back of a perfect weekend almost to the day 12 years after bar Stander was the last South African to ride I mean you’ve had a night to to think about it now how how you feeling this morning yeah man still still feels unreal um you know it’s kind of something I’ve been working for for a long time and just for some reason didn’t come together so yeah I mean to have a magical weekend like that taking the The Double with the xcc on Friday and the XO on Sunday is just unreal and I think the timing couldn’t be any better with the games just around the corner so yeah still soaking it in for sure I think it’s so cool that when you guys one of you are on it seems like you’re both on we saw something like this reverse Simon you taking the win in Arisha and Brazil ear earlier in the season do you guys have a packed when you leave the hotel room like what are you guys saying how do you know you’re going to both perform so well the same day it helps when when like one person in the team is is performing it helps to lift all of us and I kind of think we feed off each other in that sense so it’s like motivating that you know to see your teammates go really well and Alan you know when I was watching Le like kind of thinking about form there were so many crashes and mistakes on the downhill but it you were riding so good it almost felt like you were using them to recover was there a strategy there yeah yeah for sure I would say like I I’ve raised quite well on that course in the past like in the dry and the and the mud and like this year’s Edition the way the course was like the Downs were even more straightforward I would say than the previous Edition so there wasn’t really much to gain by like going full sand and risking it all so I just yeah P the climes RO and just took my time on the darel as you said got a bit of recovery in and then push the climbs again I think that was where I was getting for sure most of the time well it looks like you guys are on holiday with that background but the next three weeks are quite important can you tell us uh Simon what what the next three weeks looks like for you guys yeah I think I think uh first we are just recovering from the last week um taking it easy this week enjoying the good weather and like the the nice place we’re staying in so I think that’s the plan and then I think we’re going to do some training as well next week and preparing for for the game so neither of you are are training at altitude this last little bit you’ve come down at this point yeah that’s correct I mean I I think we both on the same plan we’ve been uh six weeks now altitude and that that’s done and we just focus on some good times with the the team and like Simon said get some energy and um some final preparations in and then hope go to the games you’ll be hoping I guess for another day like yesterday Allan that was the second biggest winning margin in the last 10 years of cross country Olympic I mean that was some performance you did how can you how can you try and redo that again in Paris yeah I mean at this point it’s quite difficult to make any big changes like a lot can go wrong now in each week so I think to keep it um simpler will be better and I think um with the team and with Dixie and that with the the training plans I think he’s going to smash it so it’s up to to him to hold me back I guess and uh just di di Us in for the for the games now and you know one of the things that I’ve been looking at this year it seems like it’s hard to gauge where you are because everyone is at a different point in their training some people are peing early some people are peing late for you Simon do you take in that external feedback or is it really just kind of sticking to your plan yeah I think I mean don’t really focus on other people just trying to to stick to to my own plan and like the team’s plan I think we we made a really good plan beginning of the year and so far we’ve just been it’s worked out really well that’s that’s the plan well listen we’re going to leave it there we’re going to let you uh clearly putting your feet up by that beautiful Lake where you’re on holiday in Paris you’ve had an amazing season both of you so far so you’re welld deserving to do that and of course we absolutely wish you both all the best in just three weeks time now in Paris good luck with that thanks so much thanks for joining us yes guys thanks well let’s have a look then at what Allan’s double win this weekend did to the overall standings here are the updated World Cup overall and look at that taking away the number one plate from the absent Nino shurter it was the last race in Europe two races to go I mean hle is looking he in po position right he’s in a great position here he really is yeah look at that Columbo still there in third swb having a great season but a real battle now I think for this overall title with that in mind I think we should have a look at our predictions because there’s a new player Alan hatherley is the big dog let’s have a look at what we said the last round would happen in this round okay I’m going to interrupt you right there so interesting Tom didn’t know he was going to go Nino I think he was an elev someone who didn’t even go well I didn’t neither one of my people chose someone who didn’t even start Pauline is nowhere to be found the hardem help me out here what we going to make him do this hard thing about XC is figuring out who on the starting line oh I hear me and Emily seem to be all right with it I think it’s get down and give me 10 get down and give me 10 while you’re doing that let’s have a look at our prediction for Paris and for the upcoming World Championships which come up at the end of August summer break now look yeah funnny enough well championships there’s a difference though we’ve both gone for Pitcock and again oh wow the test FL was that 10 well I think I might stick with this it was interesting how it went from 25 down to 10 this week I may or may not have a little bit of PR knowledge I can see it in the future is stick around for the rest of the show right do that and let’s now turn our attention away from cross country and on to this phenomenal downhill that we saw this one of a kind Downer we saw in L the weekend the storm coming in the start being moved earlier and really unprecedented conditions I don’t think I’ve seen a track since Lord maybe 20 you know I think that’s a great comparison so what happens on a downhill track like this is you had a ton of rain and in France in this region of France it gets really soft and so it stopped raining the track dried out it banked in the Sun the Riders are riding the rats got really deep and so once you have that super hard packed clay and it starts to rain sh these are the worst conditions you can ride a downhill bike in that’s right there’s nothing you can really no tire can dig into that impermeable service and give you any grip whatsoever which is why we are just seeing this absolute chaos here look at it it go I’ve never been more engaged a downhill race than I was this weekend out of all the chaos emerged there is this guy this guy one of the greatest race runs we’ve ever ever seen on back back to back the greatest race runs we’ve ever seen don’t forget he won in valder solle a couple of weeks ago he’s had a year out with a broken neck he’s won here by 6 and 1 half seconds I mean you can’t even put it into words what this guy’s doing right so one of the things I really would like to point out is that in years past there was a lot of conversation around em emry piran riding over his head riding you know too crazy but now he makes it look easy he may he he’s like almost like a Troy Brazen but on another level you know he’s had to back it down a bit right is this like the second coming of Amar Pon is he a new Rider I mean he was a little little off in those first few World Cups and actually I was quite surprised because his style is to come back in hard but he did have a different approach it does feel like he’s built to this unbelievable Pace he’s at now yeah I mean this is Peak emry piran yeah he looked really comfortable in his run didn’t he he did yeah and don’t forget that that is one of the biggest winning margins that we’ve ever seen at any world cut race 6 and 1 half seconds absolutely massive isn’t it and look at that there even bigger than when he won here in yeah well you know the there’s one guy that we kind of talk a lot about when he was super dominant which is Aaron Gwyn and he had that over seven second winning margin at V Sol and that was that was more than 10 years ago 2012 and so look at the winning margins here to do this in the modern era of downhill yeah that is spunkers no yeah it’s crazy yeah it’s it’s absolutely that shouldn’t that shouldn’t happen and don’t forget actually it’s not the first time we saw some more brilliant mamory Pon here in [Applause] 2019 oh piron on the edge there so the French not disappointed in the crowd here this afternoon it’s going to be a massive winning margin so am Pon coming down to the line it’s going to be his second World Cup win of 2019 and it’s the one the 2.3 up that is colossal absolutely unmatched peron’s pace and don’t forget actually that since then until his win yesterday only French man have won the Le downhill World Cup and on another note that was peron’s 12th World Cup win which sees him only four of Nicholas voo now the most successful French World Cup race of all time I reckon he’s going to get it I mean that’s rare fight ER I reckon he’s going to get it let’s have a look at what that win then by on has done to the overall World Cup standings here they are updated after Le and it is bruny still at the French W does bruny feel about this his old rival had a year out broke his neck and has come back and is now in touch I have Deja Vu I mean are we going to get another you know lock and Emory last event of the season two to go you know two races to go it lock must be stressing quaking in quaking in his Bo I think he might and you know yesterday was a very different race to everyone to most of the World Cup races they’re pretty clinical this was a mess is there anything else Elliot apart from riding a bike insanely quick in those conditions that can sort of lend itself can help you take a win ironically I would say that this was a a thinking Riders track so there’s to me it was all about race strategy and I think of like kind of two key components there one is communication with your team whether that’s another Rider um the line coaches on the track your mechanic and the other bit of it is bike setup and so when I think about that communication the track is changing so I’ve never seen a track change as much as that one did in Le you know we were we were watching it with real interest is it getting softer is the rain stopping you know it was there was a lot going on I think the thing that maybe most people don’t realize is that you you are assessing the track all the way down and so I I wanted to tea up this clip of of Greg because he really outlined what that looks like the communication looks like between a rider and a team in his in his Podium interview it definitely was a team effort today uh you know Alan R it up and let me know how greasy it was down bottom and you know that low line seemed to work so I I’m I’m I’m super happy to to be on the podium again it’s uh it’s been a while um and in this race you know I I lost a friend this week um spider and this race is for spider so uh as he’d always say stay loose and that’s exactly what we did but uh I mean what a race but I knew as soon as that ground starts to get uh a little softer the the T started gripping and the time started coming down and you know Andy and I sat there going o and but then you look at I’m Marie didn’t only put it into us in sector one and two he just kept that momentum going so man what an animal so what Greg is talking about there is that you know that terrifying section at the bottom the line that he did and a bunch of other people people did they had never ridden you would never ride that line that was the first time they did it and the Riders who took the high and ended up crashing the racing line right those were the Riders where their team managers their their riding coaches their line CH coaches they didn’t communicate up with them because you normally don’t want to hear any of that so it was a really decisive decision for the Riders and the mechanics to say you need to take this line and that’s what you heard Greg talking about there I mean that was a shock to me straight away I thought if it’s a decisive line and that’s the winning move or the clearly the losing move why didn’t they override the normal and just say hey heads up you know nine out of 10 Riders are making an error here why wouldn’t they say that I mean it takes so much trust because if you are putting things in your Rider’s head and if you are thinking about that on the way down where you’re like I’ve never R this line what do I do where do I go then that’s time lost all the way down and one thing we know about Greg is is that no one probably no one goes into their bike setup like he does and on a day like this how much of a difference would that make Elliott I am so glad you asked here we go so so I wanted to uh I wanted to talk about this this bike setup I I want to set up a theme I pick three Riders I’ll I’ll talk about a theme of the track and then I’ll talk about like what they were doing at their bike setup so this is Greg I love that he picks his tire front tire up two inches to skip a rut because watch what happens to his back wheel there slides out so the what is happening the theme of the track is really this inconsistency and the way that that I like to show the traction one of the ways you can think about it is how much Roost is going on so look at it there and when I talk about kind of like inconsistency you have it super wet you could see how little traction he is this is that line that we were talking about here this whole part is is no man’s land that’s that’s the racing no one set tires on that in practice no no no and so when I talk about assessing all the way down how was Greg supposed to know that a branch just happened to go over the top of this and there’s dust we just saw him sliding around so you’re constantly Elite mail down remember yeah and so he’s constantly assessing the next Rider we have is Finn he just got up and this is just slime and so Greg had actually taken up a bunch of different tires uh he ended up running intermediates you can see the roost here all of this Finn’s actually on muds I think Finn was one of those riders that had one of the worst tracks I mean he’s just sliding all over the place he got the same information that we talked about but he decided to turn up and ride this line one of the reasons he was able to do that yeah he he wrote it really amazingly now we have Amry and he’s just so good on the breaks I mean when Greg was talking about it being soft look how little Roost and that shows you how much more traction he had so you go from Greg being inconsistent a little bit slippery to uh to Finn having that really SL Mii track and then Amry having a soft track but I mean for him to be able to assess that have the confidence you watch this feet up no one is taking that line here I mean and you can see how soft it is over there it’s just so insane I mean like genius right thereal that is exactly what you want you know it is just one of the greatest runs we’ve ever seen and again I reiterate a man who broke his neck last the first race last year and sat at out for an entire year it’s impossible to come back to the level he has and he’s done it again for sure and I mean the other piece of it you know I mentioned the other piece you have communication and then you have bike setup so I wanted to I wanted to show you with Valley here so on the left hand side we have uh Le and then on the right hand side we have V solle so the last two races as gnarly as Le was it’s actually a smooth track so look it on the right hand side you always have to make a trade-off with bike setup she’s bottomed out you don’t want to adjust your suspension for this one part that’s why you go to the gym that’s right and look at on the right hand side look at how rough the track is I actually wanted to show you what rebound is cuz that’s one of the things you’ll do here lower the tire pressure soften the suspension up and you have the square Edge bump I’ll mark where Valley Suspension is on both of these not not a square Edge bump on the right here but that’s okay okay and so I’m going to go one frame and look at how much she’s rebounded over on the right over on the on the left it’s all good right if she would have had fast rebound front end would have gotten unweighted she would have lost traction yeah because pushes the front wheel away when the traction isn’t there it will slide totally and so like you can see how low her suspension is staying on the left on the right you know it’s really active going to be much stiffer and I wanted to show you kind of what she did and what that a bike setup would do here you have tires she took that low line so she had communication as well but that slow rebound is actually going to allow you to hold lines like that back tire isn’t going to rebound out hop off of that ledge so like I said it was a really a thinking person’s game they all of these athletes are thinking about all of these things before the race the entire Team all the way down you know it’s downhill is it’s nuanced yeah it really is and when you when you get into it like that I mean it’s like cross country there’s a lot more moving components than you see just on in the actual race runs right yeah absolutely yeah those micro details are what make them break especially downhill what makes and breaks these segments well for two women on the comeback Trail this year L is almost a home race home race means a lot of pressure but in the same time it’s just the best spinning ever it definitely feels like more of a home race than Fort William for example liion means the world to me because I’ve been racing here forever this is why I figured out how to ride a bike properly a mountain bike so yeah there’s a lot of memories and people have so much passion for watching us it was challenging but because I’m still on my way back from injury it helped me a lot to be like okay you’re here to enjoy the race more than to to put some pressure on yourself I’m very internal when it comes to the pressure and not external so yeah those things just fire me up even more I was happy to be on the podium with her and uh we are we have some big goal together we were really good friends before but then we both went through our head injuries and we were just yeah she was someone I lent on a lot in that time and vice versa so yeah it’s incredible to share share podiums with pom pom it’s just like a lot of talking and we we are really good friends yeah it was just very nice for us both to know that someone’s been through something similar and I’ve always looked up to Miriam as inspiration coming back from injuries I had so much support from everyone that’s what abled me to get back to where I wanted to be but that wasn’t the goal at the time I just wanted to get back to a healthy and happy place I feel like I see the progress and the Inner Strength it was good for me in Leia to really enjoy and in St Gate I was really like happy to go in my race run even if it was really bad rain I was just like so happy to be on the bike I would really wouldn’t have um continued if it didn’t bring me joy or happiness to ride my bike well great Rivals and great friends and I know that last year you were following Tan’s Story coming back from that concussion with great interest I mean did you actually ever expect to see her get back to the Diz Heights of where she is now yeah it’s been an incredible story she’s done it so quickly I think the fact that she didn’t put that pressure on her s to to come back that quick is what has allowed her to to recover so fast but I as an former R racer I want to make sure she doesn’t get so attached to the story being her run Le she clearly is back to the racer that she’s been in the past and just detaching from that that face don’t let it Define her and you know she didn’t get to the bottom like so many actually in L without without a big upside down moment but she rode so brilliant I mean we we were I don’t think we’ve seen her ride that well before but no one in Le could match the Italian elanur Farina she’s been trying for 10 years and finally she’s gone and won a World Cup I mean it must be an unbelievable feeling for her I love that this happens I mean she rode incredibly well the track was still soaking wet so like all of these lines that she’s doing there was women that crashed before her after her Landing off of that onto that skating ring is is terrifying but this she said to herself I mean you know she just didn’t want to crash but she she put everything into it when you see her face on the uh oh my God she was like did I just I think I just I just won a World Cup I and by my Reckoning you’ve got to go back to the to the when ital Italy ruled in down here with Cado her and God bless his soul and Giovani benatti the last Italian World Cup win would have been over 20 years ago let’s find out what elanora had to say after making some history finally winning a World Cup wow it’s amazing in my mind at the start when I see the rain coming I say like El stay on your bike stay on your bike stay on your bike this was just in my mind and I did it winning a work cup is such a good feeling uh yeah now I just have to realize it probably Italian she’s absolutely Itali amazing hero C I love it amazing let’s see what that win next foron nor has done to the overall World Cup standings here they are two races to go remember in this year’s series now yeah I mean and I I think that there’s been a bit of a shakeup we kept on that train of of Valley winning and then crashing so this was her uh this was her crash but she’s still in in the lead absolutely yeah Valentina then crave not too far offer but it is looking more and like it’s going to be valentinas but you know there’s so much can happen we’ve seen valy crash a few times this year luden VA that might be another wet one as well before we go to Monson an in October it’s going to be interesting there as well isn’t it yeah anything can happen still plenty of fights or anything can happen anything might be about to happen let’s have a look at our predictions for the yeah I know start oh you guys both lost wow we’ve got to let him enjoy this for a minute you guys suck that’s crazy we haven’t been this hard on you what what you what’s the forfeit 10 10 presss like you did earlier yeah goad I guess you guys can both do them so I mean obviously here we got I picked the right person you got two losers there was a good pick but um yeah I think uh I’m going to be on a roll there as they do their push-ups let’s see what we’ve got so World Championships Dakota for me two lox that’s a good pick uh Valley’s a good pick be a world class athlete pressor just say class athletes huh how we looking here yeah I’m pretty happy with World Championship I’m happy with those are you are you did you remember what you I think I I think that’s all good I get my heart rate back down listen it’s been incredible today we’ve been brilliant we got this to look forward to while my heart rate before it kicks into its Max which is coming fast I think we better say goodbye thank you so much for joining me today thank you for joining us at home we’ll see you on the next beyond the line that’s it for episode number three of beyond the line but there is so much more to come on R Bol TV at the end of July it’s time for the best slopestar mountain bikers to Crown their respective king and queen at repel Joy Ride find out if David godc can become the next Triple Crown winner of slope style also don’t miss out on the crank work’s festivities around Red Bull Joy Ride as Whistler Canada once again hosts the biggest bike Festival on the planet and stay tuned for the premiere of anytime beyond the line is heading into a small summer break we will be back after the downhill World Cup weekend in lenville France