Anthony":1zs11jt0 said:Another thing I thought the commentators got wrong was praising the course. I thought it was bad - any course where mtb are running with suspension almost locked out and single chainrings has missed the point about what mtb racing ought to be.
Seeing Kulhavy on a FS overtaking a hardtail up a hill to win the gold ought to be an adman's dream, but it takes the shine off it when you realise that he had the rear end locked, so he was only getting traction benefit from the few mm of negative travel that the Brain allows, and no suspension.
The problem was that the course was artificial, with 95% of it smooth high-speed bombing and 5% gnarly downhill. So the best option was run the bikes almost rigid and just survive the 5% mtb bits so that you could be fast on the easy bits. I guess it was a bit like xc races from the early 90s, but not really a test for modern bikes. There should have been some gnarly uphill, and the majority of the lap twisty and bumpy with muddy sections.
And also, why the hell is there no DH in the Olympics?
There was at least 10 meters of very rocky uphill, as far as I remember it was shown once near the end. You must have blinked and missed it?
As for the downhill racing, I think it is in it next year, from what I've heard it could have been in it this year but there aren't any good enough hills in London seeing as it was the London Olympics not the UK Olympics