2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup

[Headshot]

38 minutes ago, Dry Biltong said:

brilliant season

 

new DH format was actually better

exciting youngsters stepping up immediately to shake things up

the goat didnt feature as prominantly but had a decent season

 

XCC and XCO wide open

love watching nino still showing the young guns how to do it a true champion

hatherly hung in there and was a constant in the top 10

 

would say the tv coverage was better

the sport is growing

exciting times

 

Disagree - It was a great season but only because of the riding which would have happened anyway. The commentary was terrible in DH - I listen to music with sound turned off if its too dismal. Camera work was especially poor in some races. They should drop the stupid semi final and have qualifying and the finals, both televised. 

 

Not sure where you get the idea the sport is growing. Viewer numbers are kept secret  but that of course is viewers, not riders. In DH entry fees per team have increased exponentially and the number of riders who can qualify has been cut. There is talk of further reducing numbers and effectively getting rid of privateers which is the opposite of growing the sport. Go google Bernard Kerr's views on the subject. 

[DieselnDust]

On 10/18/2023 at 12:00 PM, Headshot said:

Disagree - It was a great season but only because of the riding which would have happened anyway. The commentary was terrible in DH - I listen to music with sound turned off if its too dismal. Camera work was especially poor in some races. They should drop the stupid semi final and have qualifying and the finals, both televised. 

 

Not sure where you get the idea the sport is growing. Viewer numbers are kept secret  but that of course is viewers, not riders. In DH entry fees per team have increased exponentially and the number of riders who can qualify has been cut. There is talk of further reducing numbers and effectively getting rid of privateers which is the opposite of growing the sport. Go google Bernard Kerr's views on the subject. 

Enduro is losing riders as well and XCO teams are also shrinking. U23 in particular is in trouble because many of the riders are on small teams that can't travel to all the venues. So unless the teams get a slice of the revenue its going to be dead in a few years

[Headshot]

7 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Enduro is losing riders as well and XCO teams are also shrinking. U23 in particular is in trouble because many of the riders are on small teams that can't travel to all the venues. So unless the teams get a slice of the revenue its going to be dead in a few years

i think its a case of greed by the UCI and its organizer/broadcast partners. 

[DieselnDust]

3 minutes ago, Headshot said:

i think its a case of greed by the UCI and its organizer/broadcast partners. 

 

Promising bigger and better comes at a cost. We learned that with the ACE from 2008 to 2012