Pinkbike Racing Debrief: Snowshoe DH World Cup 2023
For the final two rounds of the 2023 World Cup series, the PB team hopped across the pond for the first of two North American rounds with Snowshoe hosting the seventh race of the season. As always Snowshoe provided no shortage of drama, exhilarating racing and moments we won't be forgetting for a long while. As the teams make the road trip to the classic venue of Mont-Sainte-Anne here's an update on how the PB Racing team faired in West Virginia.
Race Recap
The week kicked off with the course in Snowshoe covered in fog with plenty of moisture to make the always greasy track just a little bit spicier for the initial laps. While most of the course would dry out by finals the roots and rocks remained constant threats for a run or even a race-ending incident as levels of grip varied massively across the 1.9km course.
Torin's first reaction to the seventh round's course was: "This track is gnarly but scary in wet conditions". While Thibault Laly with past experience of just how wild the racing can get in Snowshoe was more like: "Oh sh*t, not again! I want some dry rocks please."
Aimi Kenyon saw a return to form and found her speed in Snowshoe as she made it into the top five in qualifying 15 seconds back from the leader but only 0.854 off second place, a great first result of the week. Aimi had a tricky run in finals that ended up being a little messy but still good enough for seventh place. A great last split saw Aimi only lose 0.7 seconds to the charging race winner Erice Van Leuven and will be a great confidence boost heading into Mont-Sainte-Anne. We have our fingers crossed for a podium in MSA.
It was amazing to see Ben back between the poles this week after breaking his back at the first round in Lenzerheide. While Ben may have just missed out on making it to the semi-finals by just under two seconds finishing in 65th the speed is coming back and we think this week in MSA will be the one. Either way Ben will be providing more expert analysis and recaps of the racing.
Wyatt Harrington struggled to find the pace over the slippery rocks and sadly had a mechanical during qualifying pushing him down to 43rd. Through the first two splits, Wyatt was able to be the 23rd and 25th fastest times showing he was right on pace to qualify before his mechanical. This week is a race on home soil for Wyatt so he will be pushing extra hard for a good result, hopefully, he will have a bit more luck.
Finally, Thibault Laly was feeling good on track in Snowshoe through the week and was still able to qualify for semis with a mechanical in 47th place. When the time came for the semi-finals Thibault set an amazing top split in 19th before becoming one of many riders ending their week after colliding with a tree. We are hoping Thibault is doing okay but he says he has a very sore shoulder and is not sure if he will be racing in MSA. Currently, it has not been X-rayed so we are unsure if there is anything broken.
Just like that the penultimate round of the series is over and the team now makes the trip to the legendary Mont-Sainte-Anne for what could be another washout with rain expected to make things extra chaotic for the final showdown of the 2023 World Cup series.
Story of the Race with Ben Cathro
Ben Cathro wraps up the spectacular Snowshoe racing as the fastest riders in the world take on one of the most technical tracks in the UCI Mountain Bike World Series.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
I also run an ext shock on my DH rig as well coincidently. It does well in matching all the above positives on the back end of the bike as well.
However the flex is a two sided sword. On one hand it's nice having some more flex and a forgiving fork. On the other hand, this fork punishes mistakes like no other. It felt like once you made a mistake, for example wrong body position in a berm, the fork loaded with force and sprung back. More than once I almost crashed and shat me pants because the fork rebounded to quick.(edit: lateral rebound, not damping rebound..
I'm now back onto the boxxer and never had those issues again.
I've been wondering what will happen when there is finally a snowshoe world cup in the wet. Clay + roots + rocks make it a whole different sport. I doubt we'd see any more complaints about the track being too flat.
Word is that Lake Placid NY is getting it.....(whiteface mountain?)
And, Mont-Sainte-Anne looks to also be on the chopping block for 2024 too..........
???????