

Is It a DH Race If a Trail Bike Wins?

By Matt Wragg



Racing has always been racing. You show up at the race track and do whatever it takes to win. There are no moral victories, only the podium. If you're not sure, go and ask Sam Hill about his Champery race run in 2007. Eventually, we will stop calling it the greatest race run in downhill history, everyone will forget that the rain coming in mid-way through finals turning the track into a mud-bath, and people won't remember the world's fastest riders flocking towards him in admiring disbelief. With time, all that will be left will be the record book. And that says that Matti Lehikoinen was a second and a bit faster than him and won the race. You'd be a fool to bet that Sam doesn't understand that more clearly than anyone else.



Since the earliest races recorded by man, people have tried to find an extra edge over the competition. Whether it was the early Greeks covering themselves in olive oil, or Nico Vouilloz calculating exactly where to tuck on the course to maintain speed without wasting energy, it's hardwired into anyone willing to spend their life chasing wins. They will take any advantage they can find.



That means we can't fault Mitch Ropelato for racing this weekend's Fontana Pro GRT downhill race on a 29er trail bike. It's within the rules and it was obviously the fastest tool for the job. To take that win, he also had to beat his new teammate, Aaron Gwin. We would be pretty damned pleased with the world if we could beat Aaron Gwin in a push-cart race, let alone any kind of bicycle race. For a few years now, we've been hearing from The People Who Know These Kind Of Things that Mitch is very talented rider. Now that he has been taken in by Specialized's racing programme, it looks like he's shaping up to fulfill that potential. So, hats off Mitch. You killed it.



We should also say that we quite like the Specialized Stumpjumper 29 he used to take the win. We have one on test at the moment and while we don't want to give too much away on that front, we can let on that it's a good trail bike. What it very definitely is not, is a downhill bike. The fact it weighs 10lb less than the lightest DH bikes out there is the big giveaway.



What we want to know is why anyone is running a downhill race on a track where that is the fastest bike to race on?



Since Aaron Gwin began beating the rest of the World Cup circuit into submission with the kind of consistent, winning form that hasn't been seen since Nico Vouilloz, people stopped asking what happened to the US downhill racing scene as often. Yet if you look behind him, there isn't what you'd call a stacked field. We've already said here that Mitch has potential, Richie Rude is probably going to scare a few people before long, Neko Mullaly still has his ride with Trek World Racing, and then... For a country as big as the US, with as many people riding bikes, that's quite a small group.



National races are supposed to be the proving ground to move up to the higher, international levels. World Cup racing is at such a high level these days that the jump from even the most competitive national series to that highest level of competition is still brutal. They aren't the only thing that matters, of course. Switzerland has some of the best downhill tracks in the world, and little more than Nick Beer and Florian Pugin to show for it on the World Cup circuit. But, if you look at each of the strong downhill countries, you'll see a strong national series. It's fair to say that if you show up to a national race in Britain, France, Australia or New Zealand on a 29er trail bike, you're going to end the weekend at the lower end of the timesheet with a bag of bits that used to be your bicycle.



Maybe you're now asking yourself "Why does a Brit writing for a Canada-based website care about the state of US downhill?" Because downhill needs the US. It is the biggest bike market in the world, and whether the rest of us like it or not, it's the most influential country for mountain biking. For downhill to grow and develop as an international sport, we need Americans needs to be part of it. It is supposed to be the fastest, most demanding pinnacle of our sport. If one of your top national race series is being won on trail bikes, you can't help but wonder if some people are missing the point...









What Wheel Size for World Cup Tracks?

By Mike Kazimer



At first, it sounded like an April Fool's joke: Mitch Ropelato beat Aaron Gwin at the Fontana stop of the Pro GRT race series riding a Stumpjumper EVO 29er. With a water bottle in the cage. Now, it's not surprising Ropelato won, as he's a ridiculously skilled bike handler (witness his three-peat at the Crankworx Pumptrack Challenge), but winning aboard a 29er trail bike does raise some questions. I will let Matt Wragg address the questions about the course itself (you can view one racer's helmet cam footage here), but while the Fontana course isn't the longest or gnarliest course around, three out of the top four riders were on non-26” wheeled bikes – could this be a glimpse at what will happen during the upcoming World Cup season?



For the internet mountain bikers, the message board trolling experts of everything, Ropelato's win is a splash of gasoline on the already blazing fire of wheel size debate. Granted, the Fontana course is tame in comparison to World Cup standards – it's unlikely anyone, no matter how talented, could win Val di Sol aboard a trail bike, but aboard a downhill bike rolling on something other than 26” wheels? It's entirely possible.



With pre-season training in full swing for pro riders, there's no doubt that many of them are experimenting with different wheel sizes, especially 650b. For a racer, if changing something as simple as wheel size can give them an advantage, they're going to do it. When racing is your job, equipment selection becomes more crucial, and can mean choosing to race on a wheel size that wouldn't be your first choice if winning wasn't the ultimate goal. With the difference between standing atop the podium and watching from the crowd coming down to a matter of seconds, or even milliseconds, it's worth trying any bit of bike technology that might add that extra blast of speed.



When asked for his thoughts on riding a 29er vs. a 26” wheeled bike, Mitch Ropelato said, The 29er is a bit different to jump - it takes some getting used to, and you can't really scrub off the lip, but it handles like a champ everywhere else, the same as a 26 inch bike.



No professional downhill racer has piloted a bike with anything bigger than 26” wheels to the top of a World Cup podium. That could change this season, and if a bigger wheeled bike does make it to the top, it will signal the tipping point in the wheel size debate, providing evidence other than the scientific and pseudo-scientific facts that marketing teams use to peddle their goods. There are still two months before the first World Cup, but Sea Otter is rapidly approaching, and the downhill course there is notorious for being better suited to a shorter travel bike. Will bigger wheels take the win? Only time will tell.



Mitch Ropelato aboard his Stumpy 29er, complete with water bottle and cage. Photo: Cashman33



