So oddly enough I was having the exact same feelings as you last night after a similar “dissing” of Pidders (and MTB racing) on a YouTube channel out of Australia (the Nero Show with Chris Miller & Jessi Coyle) https://youtu.be/imKhoFL8s5s . Among the contentions in the show and comments were that Ineos were “soft” on Pidcock for letting him spend time on marginal cycling disciplines (CX and XCO), and that only Road mattered. In particular that XCO was easy as all you had to do was ride single file - nothing like the skill of riding in a peloton. So why so many crashes in TdF on innocuous sections of road and have the doubters not seen how insane some of modern XCO courses are with rock gardens and jumps? Literally every photo of World’s XCO seems to be of that super steep rock descent that I know would terrify me in person. End of the day every discipline has its unique skills and the best riders are amazing athletes - totally making your point on how special those crossover riders are.
2 things ... MVPD is too good on a mountain bike..hear me out. Prior to becoming more calculating in his approach to road he crashed and blew up and made attacks for fun...win ratio not great. Over the last 3 years much more calculating ..hence astonishing palmares. After a poor CX season he was better in 22/3 and then tactically destroyed Wout to win Worlds...very un MVDP. The trouble for him at MTB is he does it for fun and is always super confident because he knows how good he isand this is reflected in a very relaxed approach..hence crash at Olympics and falling off on a very soft but gravelly corner at worlds..Note though he was in front of TP at this point and had moved into top 10. Fortunately via a Pidders like piece of good fortune he will be in the Olympic XCO and if he can reign himself in and do a few world cups then the Gold Medal will go to him or Pidders. Second thing is Fem. Given her age World CX champ. Top 20 World Cup MTBer ( mechanical prevented a top 10) and 11th at Giro Donne isn’t too shabby. Hopefully she will continue to mix it up and develop her MTB skills. Usual great piece of writing.
For me Pidders gets the versatility crown by virtue of his gap jump over his BMW. Haven’t seen any of the others do that ;)
Indeed - the Blake Griffin award! Better since Blake only dunked over a Kia 🤷🏼♂️
So oddly enough I was having the exact same feelings as you last night after a similar “dissing” of Pidders (and MTB racing) on a YouTube channel out of Australia (the Nero Show with Chris Miller & Jessi Coyle) https://youtu.be/imKhoFL8s5s . Among the contentions in the show and comments were that Ineos were “soft” on Pidcock for letting him spend time on marginal cycling disciplines (CX and XCO), and that only Road mattered. In particular that XCO was easy as all you had to do was ride single file - nothing like the skill of riding in a peloton. So why so many crashes in TdF on innocuous sections of road and have the doubters not seen how insane some of modern XCO courses are with rock gardens and jumps? Literally every photo of World’s XCO seems to be of that super steep rock descent that I know would terrify me in person. End of the day every discipline has its unique skills and the best riders are amazing athletes - totally making your point on how special those crossover riders are.
Actual WTAF about ‘all they need to do is ride single file’ !!!
2 things ... MVPD is too good on a mountain bike..hear me out. Prior to becoming more calculating in his approach to road he crashed and blew up and made attacks for fun...win ratio not great. Over the last 3 years much more calculating ..hence astonishing palmares. After a poor CX season he was better in 22/3 and then tactically destroyed Wout to win Worlds...very un MVDP. The trouble for him at MTB is he does it for fun and is always super confident because he knows how good he isand this is reflected in a very relaxed approach..hence crash at Olympics and falling off on a very soft but gravelly corner at worlds..Note though he was in front of TP at this point and had moved into top 10. Fortunately via a Pidders like piece of good fortune he will be in the Olympic XCO and if he can reign himself in and do a few world cups then the Gold Medal will go to him or Pidders. Second thing is Fem. Given her age World CX champ. Top 20 World Cup MTBer ( mechanical prevented a top 10) and 11th at Giro Donne isn’t too shabby. Hopefully she will continue to mix it up and develop her MTB skills. Usual great piece of writing.