Well back in crappy London now after a week of great (relativley) weather and top class racing. By now you all know the results and what happend to who. so here is a few little bits and peices I picked up over the time.
The organisors. Those guys have thier shit together, for a full time staff of only three people Rare management have put on one of the smoothest events that have ever been involved with in any industry, and as an event manager I have seen a few. The local volunteer crew have obviously committed alot of time to making sure that things run smoothly.
The volunteering. My girlfriend and I volunteers as track marshalls. all accomodation and meals were provided as well as receiving merchandising and some travel money. If you get the chance this is a great way to see this sort of event as you end up in the best locations to see the racing and are not fighting through the crowd to see what is happening.
The injurys. As we all know some big names were injured during racing and training, Good luck to Jared. I spoke with Mick Hannah on Sunday and he says that he should be fine for France this weekend.
The nice guys. My girlfriend had the job of marshalling the riders for 4x transport (because she dosn't want to watch the crashes). Alot were getting shitty because it was a slow turnaround time and blaming her. Mike King was more than happy to put them in there place.
Fabian Barrell, has to get the prize for unlucky nice guy, on the Thursday he had four flats in five runs and then another flat in the final after qualifying about fourth. Most times when he came past during practice he would stop for a chat and invited me to hang out in the Kona tent for a while. I had a putter round the pits on his race bike, very nice, especially those new 888 forks.
The gossip, Damien Grundy tells me that they are shooting to have the Worlds in Fort Will in 2006 or 2007. they have my vote.
The 2005 worlds are in livigno in Italy. I went snowboarding there a few months ago and think that they would be able to make some great tracks, and it is a little village where everything is duty free. 1.25 L of Jack Daniels for AUD$30
The Courses. The downhill was the best that I have ever seen with the exception of the Cairns Worlds track. It has a great mixture of open and forest, natural and man made jumps. During practice all of the riders were getting arm pump by the time they got into the forest section.
The cross country, great to see a cross country worth riding, alot of the euro team managers were complaining that it was to technical. sections included north shore boarding, a 60m steep dh section that was more tech than anything on the acutal dh course. a singletrack decent near the start / finish with some nice jumps. It was refeshing to see the riders getting into this section and xing it up for the crowd. Both tracks were built by the forestry commision and they did not spare any expense. the XC course cost £87000 that is about $217 500 aussie. Looks like Gillian has some work to get that sort of funding. Both tracks are now open to the public to ride.
The partys, The friday night was the seimans lake jump. A ramp and jump were set up on the loch and some top jumpers decked out in westuits pulled off all of the normal stuff with the whole town turning out to watch with a real bad dj and big srceen. I gave them PJs number for next year.
Saturyday saw the premiere of natural selection. this proves what happens when you have some one with a video editing kit and a mudcows video. It is exactly the same as mc (including some of the soundtrack) except every thing is british so the stair jumps are only four high and dh is in mud and snow, if you see it in shops don't bother.
the poms, everyone was really pumped up for Peaty to win. during the dh final I was on the last drop before they went into the 4x course were there was a big crowd, at one point it was Rennie, CK and Hill in the top three with peat in tenth. As I reminded the corwd of this I was in fear of my life.
I think that is about it, sorry i didn't get any photos, Keep an eye out for me in the press photos, just below the tissot banner weearing a bundy hat with two aussie flags.
Overall the event was farkin great
I will definatly be heading back to ride both tracks.
The organisors. Those guys have thier shit together, for a full time staff of only three people Rare management have put on one of the smoothest events that have ever been involved with in any industry, and as an event manager I have seen a few. The local volunteer crew have obviously committed alot of time to making sure that things run smoothly.
The volunteering. My girlfriend and I volunteers as track marshalls. all accomodation and meals were provided as well as receiving merchandising and some travel money. If you get the chance this is a great way to see this sort of event as you end up in the best locations to see the racing and are not fighting through the crowd to see what is happening.
The injurys. As we all know some big names were injured during racing and training, Good luck to Jared. I spoke with Mick Hannah on Sunday and he says that he should be fine for France this weekend.
The nice guys. My girlfriend had the job of marshalling the riders for 4x transport (because she dosn't want to watch the crashes). Alot were getting shitty because it was a slow turnaround time and blaming her. Mike King was more than happy to put them in there place.
Fabian Barrell, has to get the prize for unlucky nice guy, on the Thursday he had four flats in five runs and then another flat in the final after qualifying about fourth. Most times when he came past during practice he would stop for a chat and invited me to hang out in the Kona tent for a while. I had a putter round the pits on his race bike, very nice, especially those new 888 forks.
The gossip, Damien Grundy tells me that they are shooting to have the Worlds in Fort Will in 2006 or 2007. they have my vote.
The 2005 worlds are in livigno in Italy. I went snowboarding there a few months ago and think that they would be able to make some great tracks, and it is a little village where everything is duty free. 1.25 L of Jack Daniels for AUD$30
The Courses. The downhill was the best that I have ever seen with the exception of the Cairns Worlds track. It has a great mixture of open and forest, natural and man made jumps. During practice all of the riders were getting arm pump by the time they got into the forest section.
The cross country, great to see a cross country worth riding, alot of the euro team managers were complaining that it was to technical. sections included north shore boarding, a 60m steep dh section that was more tech than anything on the acutal dh course. a singletrack decent near the start / finish with some nice jumps. It was refeshing to see the riders getting into this section and xing it up for the crowd. Both tracks were built by the forestry commision and they did not spare any expense. the XC course cost £87000 that is about $217 500 aussie. Looks like Gillian has some work to get that sort of funding. Both tracks are now open to the public to ride.
The partys, The friday night was the seimans lake jump. A ramp and jump were set up on the loch and some top jumpers decked out in westuits pulled off all of the normal stuff with the whole town turning out to watch with a real bad dj and big srceen. I gave them PJs number for next year.
Saturyday saw the premiere of natural selection. this proves what happens when you have some one with a video editing kit and a mudcows video. It is exactly the same as mc (including some of the soundtrack) except every thing is british so the stair jumps are only four high and dh is in mud and snow, if you see it in shops don't bother.
the poms, everyone was really pumped up for Peaty to win. during the dh final I was on the last drop before they went into the 4x course were there was a big crowd, at one point it was Rennie, CK and Hill in the top three with peat in tenth. As I reminded the corwd of this I was in fear of my life.
I think that is about it, sorry i didn't get any photos, Keep an eye out for me in the press photos, just below the tissot banner weearing a bundy hat with two aussie flags.
Overall the event was farkin great
I will definatly be heading back to ride both tracks.
