Mountain Bike World Cup DH - The last race of the year (almost) streams Saturday Morning

For those of you who like and follow World Cup DH mountain bike racing, Val di Sol will be streaming on Red Bull TV Saturday morning at 6:30 Mountain Time. This is the final stop on the World Cup circuit, the only other being the World Championships in Andorra in 2 weeks (World Champs is not technically a World Cup... so there's that).

There are tons of compelling stories playing out this year, as Josh Bryceland (AKA "Ratboy," "The Rat," or "Miami Bryce") came back to form to win a few weeks back, but maybe isn't exactly 100% after his crushing ankle injury at last year's Worlds. Luckily, the kid hasn't lost his accent (the best in the biz).

Meanwhile Greg Minnaar is perennially at the top despite the whole pesky "aging" thing (the man is a professor), both the Athertons have won here before (understatement of the century), devout-American Aaron Gwin is capable of winning on any weekend (pray for him), and then there's the new crop of youngsters hanging out at the bottom of the podium every week just waiting to punch through (these include Troy Brosnan who qualified first, and my favorite up-and-coming-Frenchie Remi Thirion, who does already have a World Cup win, so maybe he's not so up-and-coming anymore, but it doesn't really matter because he's out with injury).

Watch the course preview to get you pumped, and tune in tomorrow. Top women should be at about 7:15 and I'd say the top men go off at about 8:00.

It's not that early.

Two separate events coming up. Giant on Aug. 23rd and LIV on the 31st.

What goes around comes back around.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I remember this. 

Be honest: it was a terrible bike. 

And now we have this. 

These are not at all the same bike. There is so much tech in the new Session 8 that didn't even exist in 1992, but you have to admit, there are similarities in terms of the look. Can you tell me is this faaaaiiir?

BC

Can't light a fire on the ground in the Sawtooths? Use this.

The Grilliput Duo seen above is here. Photos courtesy of John Sabala. 

Have a great weekend, every weekend. 

- BC

Reading Pete Zimowsky

Thanks again to all of those who showed up to the Roots Rated Pint Night last Saturday. As I noted in

our facebook post, the RR guys (Jake, Ry, and Brian) remarked that they had never run out of cups before 7:00. This was at about 6:40, and not only were the cups out, but it was time to make a run to the Co-Op for more Sockeye.

Anyway, a raging success, as you can see, so... well done, Boise.

In that same vein, check out Pete Zimowski's latest Roots Rated article on paddling the Priest Lake Thorofare here.

These guys are doing good things.

More images from the 2016 Giant Bike product launch.

 Giant Demo is Aug 23rd. 

Ahhh, Colorado. Home of the
inspiration for The Shining.
Go see Room 237 on Netflix now. 

Too early for people to ride sweet new bikes? Huh... 

You're looking at it, but what exactly is a Giselle? Though it's good looking, it's not Tom Brady's wife, and it isn't this:

This is a Grant's Gazelle.

It confused me too, but looking into it a little further, that bike is not, in fact, a new Giant model per se. It is the new Giant Trance 27.5 1. Seen here 

Giant  names each individual demo bike they have to keep track of them, apparently. And it makes for a very quick process of getting the right demo bike for you. Yes, they paid people to sit around and come up with a fleet of names rather than just numbering them all. Then they printed that name in a stylized font on the top tube of the new bikes they were launching that no one was familiar with. Those people then took pictures of the bikes to apparently confuse people like me who are then searching for what a Giant Giselle is. No, I don't know why they would try to do that to us, but what I do know is that 27.5 wheels, in this 5.5" package, is a nice do-it-all, yes-I-live-in-Boise-but-I-also-travel-with-my-bike machine. The colors work as well, we think, and you can ride one on Aug 23rd when the demo fleet makes it's way to Boise's Camelsback Park. We hope to see you there. 

 

We went to Colorado to ride the 2016 stuff. A very initial smattering

"I promise I wasn't the guy who started the poop fire." 

2016 Giant products are rolling out and the Giant demo truck is slated to be here in Boise Aug. 23rd (more info on that is coming soon, keep checking here and on our events page). We recently went to Colorado to sample the line. Here are some initial pics with more to come. 

The fleet's ready, with the LIV brand
representin' for the ladies. 

 The owner just had surgery and could only ride commuter bikes. Then they gave him these glasses. Wha wha wha whaaaa

We like to get to the events early, obviously. 

Getting to the top of Vail Pass on a decidedly city-oriented Momentum bike is impressive, however.
If only he could've gone down on that sweet lookin' trail  

The very capable Momentum Street

But have you seen these? They look fun. Yeah, they're not the most "core" fatbike out there, but you no longer have to invest $1500 to get into the movement. Coming soon. 

It is Colorado, after all. Hotel's gotta cover its bases.