World Cup MTB Racing - because not everyone cares, but it's still cool

A brief departure from re-living Sea Otter through my iCloud pics.

This weekend, the World Cup Mountain Bike series goes to Fort William. In Scotland. Never heard of it? Well if you don't follow mountain bike racing, I can't say I blame you. It's a storied, hallowed place in

Downhill mountain biking, and like it or not World Cup Mountain Bike racing is super cool. But odds are you probably aren't following it. For a reason.

I meet a lot of people that are mountain bikers, but don't care about racing or what's going on in the competition aspect of our sport. Great, you do it for you and you don't have to...but when riding a difficult section on your bike, how do you visualize what you want to execute? Put it this way, say you've shot a basketball before and you're an old timer. You don't play "the basketball," but you find yourself with a ball at the 3 point line one day when you were just trying to walk through a gym. Haven't shot a ball in years, and you'll probably miss and look bad doing it, but what's going through your head just before your release? My bet is that it's a video reel of Larry Bird in short-shorts nailin' a buzzer beater, or something similar. He showed you how that s#$t is done.

I'm a huge fan of the sport of mountain biking and have been most of my life. For European World Cups I'm up at 5am to get a clear stream on some site, and when I do, there isn't a single person in my life that wants to be in the room with me for the next few hours of scrutiny, elation, and sometime-disappointment. I can certainly understand why: I'm hyper-into it, and cycling doesn't make it easy to be a fan of cycling.

I'm not going to be able to turn you into a super fan, nor do I think you need to be that unless you want to. But if you like riding your mountain bike, you might want to see what's going on at the highest level. You don't have to pay attention like me. Lebron fans don't have to watch every Heat game to know what he is capable of. If you're curious, though, what I can do is give you an overview of the World Cup Downhill series to date. If anything, it'll make tomorrow an even more sports-centric Saturday. Seriously, Belmont Stakes, Miguel Cotto vs Sergio Martinez (boxing, folks), a ride, and then wake up early on Sunday and watch some World Cup DH. Weekends like this are made to be taken advantage of. Go here to see who's who.

http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/Vital-Power-Rankings-Fort-William-Scotland-World-Cup-The-15-Fastest-Racers-Going-In,723

and if you want to stream World Cup DH, go here on Sunday morning at about 7:30am
http://live.redbull.tv/events/356/2014-uci-mtb-world-cup-5-fort-william-dhi/

I'm out of time, but we can follow up more later. Enjoy your weekend, and for the record, I'm rooting for Ratboy (Josh Bryceland) for the win, Gwin to place, and Gee Atherton to show. Giant rider (we sell Giant!) Danny Hart might podium, in 5th, so I guess that leaves 4th to Minnaar. I never, ever, bet against a Minnaar podium (top image). Best current racer and a damn good guy to boot. Best racer of all time? That would be John Tomac (bottom image). Yes, that bike has drop bars which is absolutely so insane that it blows my feeble little mind.

Off to go stream some racing.
BC