Epic MTB riding skills - not a lot going round it seems :-)

[nathrix]

Everyone will be queuing to buy Merida's now  

[DIPSLICK]

so smooth.....

just flippen crazy     and its not like those others are going 5km/h

[RocknRolla]

He shows the other part of Mountainbiking, that cant be taught or excersised by spending hours on a power enabled trainer. Nor does the equipment on his bike make him ride like that.

 

I would go so far as to say he could have done the same on a fully rigid. Sure he would have been a little tired afterwards...but the basic technique principle stays the same.

[RocknRolla]

Everyone will be queuing to buy Merida's now  

 

Only if the name is changed to Hermida's...

[GLuvsMtb]

just flippen crazy and its not like those others are going 5km/h

I flagged his KOM on Strava. Lets see what happens...

[Headshot]

 

Roadie alert... 

 

PS: Somebody should let Jose know about this dropper post malarkey...

He'd had overtaken those Olympic XC champions a whole lot quicker then   

Hairy i agree and disagree... brilliant riding from a super skilled pro who can do it all, but...

 

...if you watch carefully, Hermida is making the best of a bad situation, bike wise. Note how his heels are parallel to the ground instead of dropped,  forced on him because he has a seat in the way. Most of your suspension is in your own body and dropping your heels on a descent is part of utilising that suspension. He can't because the seats in the way. He overcomes it with skill and experience  - the stuff many in the field don't have.

[Hairy]

Hairy i agree and disagree... brilliant riding from a super skilled pro who can do it all, but...

 

...if you watch carefully, Hermida is making the best of a bad situation, bike wise. Note how his heels are parallel to the ground instead of dropped,  forced on him because he has a seat in the way. Most of your suspension is in your own body and dropping your heels on a descent is part of utilising that suspension. He can't because the seats in the way. He overcomes it with skill and experience  - the stuff many in the field don't have.

I agree and disagree

 

He uses his knees radically.

 

The heal drop thing is to get your weight in behind the axel of the pedal and push down into it ..... great to stop going OTB

[Hairy]

My point is that you do not have to be a "true mountainbiker" (whatever that means?) to be successful. You merely need to understand your limitations and decide on how you address them. Some limitations can be more easily circumvented, like technical proficiency opposed to climbing ability. 

 

Now stop trolling

Fact remains, a large percentage of riders are just not proficient (You don't have to a ST descending god) on basic ST.

 

I think back to last years Epic where the riders were coming through the last ST at Conters (The flat rolling stuff) and so many of them could not ride the trail without hugely exaggerated braking, overshooting turns/berms or managing to fall in the most undemanding terrain...and some also walked really mundane stuff that my 9 year old could/does ride.

[CAAD4]

Everyone will be queuing to buy Merida's now

That suspension seems fairly efficient. I didn't notice the rear wheel lifting off the ground once. Brand snobs much be choking on their over priced, branded chain lube...

[Warren_G]

Headshot, I like the Chariots of Fire music.

 

....but that little 20 m long stretch is waaaaay trickier than the camera angle makes it look. It is blooooody steep, off camber and loose as greased ball bearings on banana peel! Without a dropper post, most xc race bikes will drop their riders otb there. The bit above it is gnarly enough to make most riders seriously nervous, so, by the time they get there, they are all stiff with a death grip on the brakes, a recipe for otb. 

Was watching from the bridge at the summit looking down on this section and directly from the ramp you hit a nice deep rut covered in very fine fluffy dust that caught many riders out before they even got the lower section featured in the vid. One could certainly admire and appreciate the pros bike handling skills on that section.

[GLuvsMtb]

Fact remains, a large percentage of riders are just not proficient (You don't have to a ST descending god) on basic ST.

 

I think back to last years Epic where the riders were coming through the last ST at Conters (The flat rolling stuff) and so many of them could not ride the trail without hugely exaggerated braking, overshooting turns/berms or managing to fall in the most undemanding terrain...and some also walked really mundane stuff that my 9 year old could/does ride.

You may find that many are overly cautious on the prologue. As the event progress they skill up quickly as every time they dismount they lose 20 places and they have to expend energy to make up those places. Same thing happened to me when I was over in Canada 2 years ago. By the time we hit Squamish I have learnt to take momentum over the roots and not get twitchy if the wheels slip over a wet root. Sadly we have nothing similar in SA so that I can condition better for my next BCBR in 2017. I will definitely attend a skills clinic that side a week or so before the race to get some proper tuition in this regard. In the meantime I will have to work on my upper body strength as the arm pump becomes a real factor after 3 or 4 days. If I was preparing for an Epic I would almost skip technical refinements and focus on weight loss and climbing ability.

[Headshot]

I agree and disagree

 

He uses his knees radically.

 

The heal drop thing is to get your weight in behind the axel of the pedal and push down into it ..... great to stop going OTB

I think you may be right - which brings us back to square 1 and all the OTB's on the prologue

[nathrix]

That suspension seems fairly efficient. I didn't notice the rear wheel lifting off the ground once. Brand snobs much be choking on their over priced, branded chain lube...

 

Nonsense, would've been able to ride like that on any of the other T P brands like a boss... 

[SwissVan]

Fact remains, a large percentage of riders are just not proficient (You don't have to a ST descending god) on basic ST.

 

I think back to last years Epic where the riders were coming through the last ST at Conters (The flat rolling stuff) and so many of them could not ride the trail without hugely exaggerated braking, overshooting turns/berms or managing to fall in the most undemanding terrain...and some also walked really mundane stuff that my 9 year old could/does ride.

 

Just remember for a lot of riders the first aim is to finish, i.e. avoid falling off and breaking something on the bike / themselves so they might be playing it safe, especially considering most of them are unfamiliar with the route and don't know how easy / difficult the next few meters are (clearly many commenting here know the routes). Also combine the above with fatigue and riding in close proximity to other riders also tends to make riders over cautious.

[Headshot]

There's playing it safe and theres skills defecit. If the OTB's in the video were playing it safe then clearly they need to work on their skills to get playing it safe right.

[Brian Fantana]

Hairy i agree and disagree... brilliant riding from a super skilled pro who can do it all, but...

 

...if you watch carefully, Hermida is making the best of a bad situation, bike wise. Note how his heels are parallel to the ground instead of dropped,  forced on him because he has a seat in the way. Most of your suspension is in your own body and dropping your heels on a descent is part of utilising that suspension. He can't because the seats in the way. He overcomes it with skill and experience  - the stuff many in the field don't have.

 

 

If the Cape Epic was won or lost on the descents your argument would have been valid.  In XCM you spend more than 50% of the time climbing, so you gear up and set up for that, and tolerate your setup for the rest of the route.  In XCM and XCO, riders set their bikes up to be the best compromise for the route they will have to ride.  In XCO they go even lighter (high risk/reward) and in XCM they go a little more towards reliabilty.

 

The fact is, that even if Hermida could have gone 10 seconds faster down that descent with a dropper post, he would have to ride with a dropper post up each and every climb, on a route where the big margins are made on the climbs and not the descents.  In addition to this,  a dropper post is something else that can fail on a bike, and in XCM reliability plays a big factor.  These guys set their bikes up for the race they ride, and they use their skill to compensate for the shortcomings of their setup.