Chris Boardman talk about obsessive marginal gains on MTB's.

[mass199]

On another note - did anyone notice which tyres the GB Women's rider was running. They looked as if they had white sidewalls.

Me likey!

The tyres weren't bad either

Dugast tyres I believe

 

[oldave]

From the little which I watched I thought Boardman was really quite good. Was the winner on a full bouncer? If so, just think how much quicker he'd have been avoiding wasting all that energy-sapping comfort!

I think that the bikes used are brilliant - just what I'd ride if I could afford them. I'm too old for rose tinted nostalgia. Innovation CAN be a very good thing.

 

[gradeAfailure]

On another note - did anyone notice which tyres the GB Women's rider was running. They looked as if they had white sidewalls.

Me likey!

The tyres weren't bad either

Dugast tyres I believe

Yup, A.Dugast tubulars - quite a few of the riders were running them, not all had amber walls.

As for Boardman, he has a rather dry sense of humour so a lot of what he says is rather tongue-in-cheek although it may not always come across that way!

 

[DM]

Well here in PT that was the exact problem, the guy was several times road portuguese champion from 76 to 90's... Course I remember seeing him on some XC races running on the veterans class, still he showed no "deep" knowledge about riders and sport to make it good watching. It felt lame when he talked about things like "this is the fat tire version of the road bike, it has suspension forks".
It would have been a better job if they got someone from MTB world rather then a former road champ, its not that hard I think.

It was exactly the same with the idiots doing the BMX coverage.
I was watching it online (in German). As soon as I heard "Steven Spielberg..E.T...." I knew it was time to turn the sound down to avoid "commentator bull$h!t"

 

[mikee]

is that a halfords bike with the forks on the right way ?

my mate scouse reckons he knows boardman , reckons he's a ****
but he says that about most people

i quite imagine he knows his stuff tho

 

[richmog08]

Boardmans ok has a commentator, but would have preferred to have Tim Gould co-commentating, now there's a dry wit for you. The funniest MTB commentating that i ever heard came from David Duffield, back in the early 90's, when they were struggling for anyone with any knowledge of Mountain biking to commentate. I remember him saying that one of the riders bikes 'Weighed 15 kilometres'! Classic.

 

[Stodgy]

Following on from the tyre question regarding annie last, does anyone know what tyres schurter was running? Are they the same? I think they were 650b/27.5, but they looked good with the skin/amber wall.

For what it's worth, I like boardman. I think he's a highlight of cycling coverage and the wiggins of his day, but in his day there was no one else British really.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

What everyone seems to be forgetting is that the majority of the viewers/spectators of these 'niche' events had probably never bothered to watch them before, therefore they needed commentators who would make them sound interesting to complete novices, not bore the *rses off them with mind-numbing technicalities and Trivial Pursuit-style minutiae...

...if you know what you're watching you just tune the commentary out anyway and concentrate on the action.

 

[Anthony]

The main commentator said he had never seen a Cannondale Lefty before and it looked odd to see a fork "with only one bar". Where did they find such an ignoramus as that? Boardman was far from perfect, but a lot better than that.

Why didn't they show this corner on the TV coverage I wonder?

 

[one-eyed_jim]

Following on from the tyre question regarding annie last, does anyone know what tyres schurter was running? Are they the same? I think they were 650b/27.5, but they looked good with the skin/amber wall.

Dugasts again:

http://www.a-dugast.com/

http://www.bikeradar.com/gallery/articl ... eels-33467

http://www.twentynineinches-de.com/wp-c ... r-650b.jpg

Monsieur Dugast has retired these days, but they're still hand made one at a time - in the Netherlands now, rather than in France. Everything old is new again!

Time to dig out those old Wolbers?