rock Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 The "Alien" is set to return to a few selected Wold Cup DH races this year...........
MintSauce Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 WTF!!! Are we talking about the one and only Nico Voullioz...?!
MintSauce Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 The greatest downhill racer ever!!!! In his career he won 5 World Cup overall titles as well as EVERY SINGLE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP he ever entered except one when he flatted. He won 10 World Championships titles. Technically he is simply put.....UNTOUCHABLE! On his homecourse in France(can't remember the exact name of the course) he usually showed his true talent. He won his first World Cup race here at age 16 by 6 seconds. To this day it is regarded as the most technically demanding course ever used for a world cup race. The last time they raced there in the late 90's position 9-3 all finished within a second of each other. 2nd placed was Mike King, two seconds ahead of the 3rd placed man. That year Nico beat King's time by SIXTEEN SECONDS! At that stage winning margins were often only hundreds of a second! The world championship that year was won by Francois Gachet with a margin of 1/100th of a second! BTW, Nico's time in the junior category was faster but they were not allowed to race with the elites! There was also the time at Mount St Anne, rated as physically the toughest course and technically close to the one in France . One year he very uncharacteristically crashed during the race when a photographer got in his way, got up in a rush and tripped again, got up again, got on the bike and still finished in 2nd position i think 2/100's of a second behind the winner! The man is a LEGEND!!!!!!!
rock Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 thanks mints - we need more like you he's such a legnd, but lets not forget the last guy to take a world cup title away from Nico was in 2001 "by a certain young man by the name of" Greg Minnaar...... it went down to the final race (8 of 8) - I have the video - "The Circus" which documents the 2001 DH world cup season - quality film making by Warrick Patteron, think I'm gonna watch this again tonight......
rock Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 On his homecourse in France(can't remember the exact name of the course) he usually showed his true talent. He won his first World Cup race here at age 16 by 6 seconds. Cap d'Ail.......can you say "switchback?"
TitusTi Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 If he's back then this is gonna be insane! What happened to his Rally Carreer? He's one of those Rossi type Freaks, they can make anything go fast and make it look easy!
MintSauce Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 Jasis....Cap d'Ail! That's the one! That thing started with 18 x 180degree hairpin switchbacks i remember. They were so tight that apparently it wasn't possible to ride a bike through them....at least not at any decent speed.This is where he perfected his nose-wheelie turns. Enter the turn at CRAZY speed, feather the front brakes and lift the backwheel a couple meters before the turn and then already start swinging the tail around. When the frontwheel hit the apex the bike was already pointing down the next section of trail. Saw him do it on a video once....PHENOMENAL STUFF! Greg is supposedly the only man who can challenge him technically. However, although Greg places consistently high, he doesn't seem to be as 'faultless' as Nico. The guy just seemed to never make a mistake. Nico didn't always win, but on the right course he was simply untouchable. I think in 01 Greg was maybe at his level, but i can't help feeling that Greg may have lost some of his initial spark. That win in 01 was special though. Greg won that race by i think .7 of a second simply because he pulled a move that he reckons saved him 2seconds. The only other guy to try the same move broke his collar bone. Is it in your video? It involved jumping off a moerse rock, flying completely outside the course tape and landing inside the course again.
rock Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 there's a nano second of that jump, looks like someone else filmed it and he spliced it into his footage.......nuts. he's still doing rally.......check out his page - www.nicovouilloz.com looks like there's a nico jnr now too.....
rock Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 u remember at the world in 2001 - Vail, he cracked his bike the day before the finals, and he didn't have his mechanic with him, flight issues after 9/11, he rebuilt a spare frame in his hotel room the night before, got it ll dialle and won the race, so professional....... oh, Nico didn't even come close to failing a dope test, no asthma *cough* bullsh*t *cough* no nothing.
MintSauce Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 Ja....apparently him and Anne-Caro nearly didn't make it to the worlds because of flight problems. And those bikes, the Sunn downhill rigs....SEX ON TWO WHEELS!
rock Posted January 24, 2007 Author Posted January 24, 2007 ja the Sunn MTB team was like MTB Mafia..... NicoAnne caroGachetMartinezDupouey the list went on.
MintSauce Posted January 24, 2007 Posted January 24, 2007 They ruled....isn't the then owner of Sunn the man now responsible for Commencal? That was definitely his name
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