Stevie Smith out for the first two rounds of the 2014 World Cup?

M

my02

Likes Dirt
http://dirtmountainbike.com/news/st...e-first-two-rounds-of-the-2014-world-cup.html

After a super close-fought battle with Gee Atherton at the end of the last season it’s gutting to hear the news that it looks like last year’s World Cup Champion Stevie Smith is going to be out of the title chase this year, before the season has even started.

If you didn’t already know then in the middle of February Stevie was out in New Zealand as part of a SRAM press camp, and whilst having some fun in the Queenstown bike park he unfortunately bust his ankle in the process of completing a fairly mammoth huck-to-case manoeuvre.

I’d have been impressed if he’d had managed to stay on like he did without a smashed ankle, but to stay on with one…animal.

Anyway, the very next day he flew back home to get it operated on, and we were hoping that he’d be good to by the time the first round of the World Cup in South Africa came around, but sadly the world on the street now is that he won’t just miss the first round, he’ll also miss the second one in Australia too. With just seven rounds making up the entire World Cup season, and so many other riders fighting for the title, if the news is true then it’d be almost impossible for him to retain his title this year.


Thats a bugger!
 
morticus

morticus

Likes Dirt
More than 24 hours without a comment? Should have put Gwin or Specialized in the subject heading.

Sucks to hear, was looking forward to seeing him ride in Cairns.
 
C

CN001

Squid
I'm amazed at some of the antics of these guys get up to on shows like This is Peaty or The Atherton Project given that they are professional athletes and am surprised that there are not more injuries like this. I guess maybe the larrikin image is more lucrative in terms of getting sponsorship - would that outweigh World Cup prizemoney?
 
T-Rex

T-Rex

Template denier
CN001 said:
I'm amazed at some of the antics of these guys get up to on shows like This is Peaty or The Atherton Project given that they are professional athletes and am surprised that there are not more injuries like this. I guess maybe the larrikin image is more lucrative in terms of getting sponsorship - would that outweigh World Cup prizemoney?
Click to expand...
That was a pretty standard looking gap line Stevie hit in that video, if it was a race weekend that would be the line the sharp end of the field would be attempting. He just came up a tad short. So not really antics.

But if you are talking about getting pissed and throwing up, like Peaty etc in some of those older videos, yes, surprising there are not more injuries from those silly antics.
 
D

driftking

Wheel size expert
There probably are more injuries than we know about. Although not this extreme.
I think the catch 22 with downhill is the better you are the less likely you are to crash but the better you are the bigger the crash.

These guys are trained to be crash worthy so they will inevitable have small crashes that don't hurt or only requires a few weeks out like everyone else but no one hears about it because they are not game changers, the level of these guys training they are pretty hard to hurt.


That video looked really odd to do that sort of damage I mean I know he cased pretty hard but didn't look unusual at all nor a jump any non world cup rider couldn't do. Seems like he maybe had some bad luck with that one.

Hannah for the winner :first:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top