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Asa is Junior and Elite champion but Austin is the UCI champion!!! weird situation.. "In the event a Junior 17-18 rider records the fastest overall time, the Junior rider would be awarded the Elite and Junior National Championship jersey, but only the “Elite” rider would be recognized by the UCI (UCI regulation 4.1.006). " It would make more sense for Asa to be over-ranked as an elite so he doesn't "rob" another junior from a title.. Anyway, the kid is fast so at an exceptional individual, exceptional circumstances!

No offense to the riders and really I don't have much credentials to contest this design decision but it sounds fragile and dangerous to design bikes only based on riders feedback. Road and xc racers are incredibly conservative.. Look at how long it took for them to adopt disc brakes. I would be really interested in seeing data about performance of full suspension versus hardtail I'd like to see evidence of stiffness impact on speed. How much weight impact speeds.. There are all concepts anchored in the road history that are slowly being proven wrong I understand that a stiff frame and narrow tires give a feel of a strong acceleration but does it actually translate into forward momentum and even if so, is it really significant to win races? The idea of keeping position relevant between road and mtb is interesting but maybe the position to improve is the one from the road bike? It's not always because a solution is successful in the market or in the field than this solution is better.. There is a scientific methodology to compare objectively different solutions.. 2 of the already best riders winning who keeps winning is not a statically significant result

OMG. even after watching it twice, it looks unreal! I can't comprehend how you can go that fast!!!

@dariodigiulio: My son calls it the sport mode!

It looks like many racers if not most don't take timed training really seriously. With quali and semis, they are not in a hurry to pin a full run as soon as possible..I'm not sure we can read a lot from these results.

@winko: From my experience, Fox and Shimano offer better service to privateers, Sram is much more restrictive and usually only supports athletes they specifically sponsors. Shimano also often offers neutral service at domestic races. It's definitively an incentive for me to stick with these brands.

@opignonlibre: As you mentioned, the bike clubs are key components in French Cycling, there is nothing even remotely close in North America. I was a member of a French bike club in my youth in France and we would receive subvention from " jeunesse and sport", we would also receive funding from the FFC and from the city. The city would let us use some of the public infrastructure (sport complex, place to meet..etc). The city would often pitch in to organize local sports events... That's what I call being supported by national and local governments. The resorts have been built and heavily supported by regional governments in an effort to support the transition from agriculture to tourism in mountainous regions. In North America, everything is 100% private and for a niche sport like mtb there is very few less opportunity. FFC annual budget is 20millions for 65 millions people and USAC budget is 10 millions for 335 millions people. My point is just that the importance of efficiency of French bike club should be better appreciated and known outside of France so it would be more compelling for other nations to develop their grassroots infrastructure

Interesting.. mtbers still use moto googles that arguably are designed for ...motocross.. a total different use case.... maybe it's time to have mtb specific googles.. we don't ride with moto gear and football protection anymore...

Frameworks meet Fezzari/Ari/ meet Pole meet Transition meet Cybertruck ... Lots of different strong influences.. Super cool project. It would be rad if the brand would find its own unique voice...

Dylan Stark! Grinding everything. That's bringing something new to the sport! It's much more mountain biking than slopestyle moves on manicured jumps and wood-built features. It's a good example of applying his creativity to the terrain rather than overly molding it to fit its creativity..