UCI DH World Cup 2019 Season

[Headshot]

He's out I think... Had a massive otb

 Ya watch Cathros video for some info. Sounds like he wacked a tree so hard he couldnt breath and has broken ribs. What a pity, he was on the move...

[DieselnDust]

Gwins response on Vital's DH Forum. It looks like an honest explanation but based on the facts I'm not sure why Hall got flamed by him at all...

 

I shoulda been more descriptive and explained things better in that initial comment so that I'm not having to go back and clarify now. I answered a lot of these same accusations in the other responses I made on that same Instagram post but I'll give ya guys the goods too. 

 

I was just frustrated honestly. I had just got a message from the guys at Mountain creek who took the video respectfully telling me that they weren't going to send the video around, which was kind of them. One of the guys had sent it to someone else and that dude blasted it to Vital straight away. I can't control what the media puts out there but with this video and the circumstances being what they were, it just made the whole situation a bummer. They were old parts that we were told not to run and it was a bummer knowing E13 was gonna get hammered so hard. It would have been cool of Vital to ask for any background info to go with the video.

 

Also, John's my guy, there's nobody else I'd rather have with me at the races and he's been near perfect for the entire 5+ years we've been working together now. I trust him completely and we've built a strong friendship over the years, anyone who's spent any time around us knows this. A big part of having a real relationship with anyone though is being ok to admit when you've made a mistake. We both understand that and he'd tell you the same thing. He'd want the blame for this to fall on him and not E13 because that's reality. We don't try to cover things up by passing blame, we just represent the truth of the situation and move on.

 

These were old model cranks that E13 told us not to put on a race bike over a year ago because they'd been having issues with them. The bike I was riding last weekend was the very first Intense that I got months ago before I even signed the contract with them. At that time, I wanted to test it back to back with my YT for comparison and we didn't have a lot of spares to build it up since our new parts hadn't arrived yet. We pieced that bike together with random parts that we had laying around, John had saved those cranks for an enduro bike or something and just threw them on because they were the only ones he had at that time. Shortly after I signed with intense I switched to the XL frame and we built that bike up with all the current parts once they came in before team camp. I just recently went back to that large practice bike a few weeks ago after Maribor, I hadn't been riding it much before then and John just didn't think to swap the cranks out. We both had no idea but when he sent the photos of the broken cranks back to E13 for research with the part number, they came back to us kind of like, "dude, we told you not to run those, why were they on your bike?". When John remembered what batch of cranks those came from he was bummed to say the least. 

 

Anyways, just trying to give some back story since it's kind of blown up over my comment. There's so many factors involved that me saying what I did on Instagram gave a really short perspective to the whole situation and I should of explained things a bit better. You guys all know that the media seeks out the drama constantly and only gives a certain amount of truth in a lot of things that are posted. That's ok, it's become a part of our culture these days but it doesn't mean that I should just roll with whatever way they decide to represent things.

 

The hardest thing that I've had to deal with in my career is harsh judgment from the fans. Might surprise you but it's true. It straight up sucks when people talk bad about you, especially since they rarely understand the reality of certain situations. You guys see a very narrow view sometimes of whatever the media chooses to represent, that's why I've always kind of made an effort to step in and make things clear. Sometimes for better, and sometimes maybe for worse. I'm pretty confident that if any of you were to go out to coffee with John and I to discuss this whole situation, or any other in the past, you'd have a very different view on reality when you saw the trust we have for each other, the factors involved, etc. 

 

Just tryin to be real with you guys.

 

read the thread at Vital on this saga over and over and over and I cannot see how he's flaming hiss mechanic. He simply says the guy made a mistake and that's easy enough to do. Seems like bored fans making a mountain out of a molehill. Why do fans think they need to know every last detail of what goes on behind the scenes? Have people become so biss?

[Headshot]

read the thread at Vital on this saga over and over and over and I cannot see how he's flaming hiss mechanic. He simply says the guy made a mistake and that's easy enough to do. Seems like bored fans making a mountain out of a molehill. Why do fans think they need to know every last detail of what goes on behind the scenes? Have people become so biss?

No they don't but sports personalities like to promote themselves and spread all kinds of info around.  Did you read the VitalMTB instagram comments where Gwin first appeared and complained about the video even being there? He mentioned his mechanic by name and said it was his "big mistake" and "luckily he hasnt made many"- he could have just said "we" put the wrong crank on or made a mistake i.e a team error. It was in poor taste I thought. 

 

Either way its not very important and got way too much air time.

[Grease_Monkey]

No they don't but sports personalities like to promote themselves and spread all kinds of info around. Did you read the VitalMTB instagram comments where Gwin first appeared and complained about the video even being there? He mentioned his mechanic by name and said it was his "big mistake" and "luckily he hasnt made many"- he could have just said "we" put the wrong crank on or made a mistake i.e a team error. It was in poor taste I thought.

 

Either way its not very important and got way too much air time.

Pretty much spot on. Gwinn comes across as a dick, but quite honestly there are bigger things happening, and the fact that this got so much airtime shows just how bored people.

[MrJacques]

He was just a little cranky after the incident.

[Hairy]

He was just a little cranky after the incident.

don't worry I see what you did there!

[DieselnDust]

No they don't but sports personalities like to promote themselves and spread all kinds of info around.  Did you read the VitalMTB instagram comments where Gwin first appeared and complained about the video even being there? He mentioned his mechanic by name and said it was his "big mistake" and "luckily he hasnt made many"- he could have just said "we" put the wrong crank on or made a mistake i.e a team error. It was in poor taste I thought. 

 

Either way its not very important and got way too much air time.

 

 

 

Putting things on social media is a contractual obligation for a pro athlete so I don't see why they should attract condemnation from fans.

Also theres generally a bit of quid pro quo between the media and athletes; "I grant you access to my time and training/ride prep/etc and you don;t cover failures that are embarrassing to me or my sponsors". Seems that professional journalism is out of the window.

most bike jounos don;t even know the difference between upshifting and downshifting so why would they bother with decorum?

[Hairy]

Putting things on social media is a contractual obligation for a pro athlete so I don't see why they should attract condemnation from fans.

Also theres generally a bit of quid pro quo between the media and athletes; "I grant you access to my time and training/ride prep/etc and you don;t cover failures that are embarrassing to me or my sponsors". Seems that professional journalism is out of the window.

most bike jounos don;t even know the difference between upshifting and downshifting so why would they bother with decorum?

you stating this as fact, or assumption?

[Headshot]

I think the whole post is a fact free and jam packed with **** stirring assumptions. Back to XCO please. We promise not to follow you there.

[Markellis]

https://m.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/The-WORLD-CHAMP-Interviews-the-G-O-A-T-Loic-Bruni-and-Greg-Minnaar-Get-Personal,36696/sspomer,2?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=spotlight

 

Pretty cool interview with GM

[Headshot]

And Tahnee has a collar bone injury and left the course in an ambulance... go and edit your teams. Its messed mine up big time.

[BaGearA]

https://m.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/The-WORLD-CHAMP-Interviews-the-G-O-A-T-Loic-Bruni-and-Greg-Minnaar-Get-Personal,36696/sspomer,2?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=spotlight

Pretty cool interview with GM

Bruni can ride a bike fast but he sucks at interviewing

[Markellis]

Bruni can ride a bike fast but he sucks at interviewing

Lol yeah he was puzzling at stages. Different sense of humour to us.

[DieselnDust]

you stating this as fact, or assumption?

 

Fact!

 

or do you also believe WWE and Power balance bracelets are real and work respectively????

[Hairy]

Fact!

 

or do you also believe WWE and Power balance bracelets are real and work respectively????

[Stretch]

And Tahnee has a collar bone injury and left the course in an ambulance... go and edit your teams. Its messed mine up big time.

Yup . She's out for a fair bit unfortunately

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByJA5tYgJ_x/