Tickets went on sale yesterday...

http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=MTBIKE09&searchId=4a3b...

http://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/World-Champs---Day-2-Pumptrack-W...

awesome....fun looking pump track. heading down tomorrow as early as possible hopefully can catch the 4X. gonna situation myself in the grandstands at the triple treat with a case of beer on Sunday. They got a grandstand setup w/ freecaster on a the big screen. stoked!

the groms were pretty stoked to have Gee Atherton and Fabian Barel at our backyard track on Saturday...

Seriously hope Peaty takes the gold this weekend. And I hope Gwinny does well, but i really hope Peaty wins.

After watching today's practice, my $'s on fabien. Happy to put a 6 pack of ume chu hai on that against hannah daryl. Think Gwin banged himself up yday, not Hill's track and Peaty was looking a little squirrely. Between fabien and minaar I think. Hannah and Rennie could be dark horses though.

WATCH FREECASTER TOMORROW

Also, take a look at the course walk on freecaster. Glen jacobs and the world trail guys have done a pretty good job taking out the pedally bit at the bottom. The result is a treacherous double to berm, massive triple, double, double at the end of the track which should provide some carnage.

Why shimano doesn't sponsor a track like this in japan, given the infrastructure (lifts) is in place is an enigma. Phenominal if japan (haks) could get on the WC circuit. If I was soprano...

in case anyone missed it.....

http://freecaster.tv/live/mtb/1007130/mens-uci-mtb-dhi-world-championshi...

It was a pretty gripping race. The complete abandonment of commentator's impartiality from Rob Warner is classic.

Some photos i took on practice day... i didn't take many photos because, well, i had a beer in each hand.

Aaron Gwin..... Maybe it's Jared Graves.... But i think it's Gwin.... They were moving pretty fast.

Gee Atherton on the big double just before the triple, double, double, pedally bit. Rob Warner and the Freecaster filmers on my left.

Sam Hill.

Unknown rider at the middle gap in the Triple Treat. The crowd at triple treat was massive. The clown next to me brought up a chainsaw motor that he cranked up whenever anybody came through. It was deafening.

Unknown rider hitting the third gap at Triple Treat.

The Boxxer World Championships was a contest for the mechanics to do full rebuilds of Boxxer forks while taking shots of rum, vodka, absinthe, and maple syrup during the feat. There was a lot of vomiting going on. Caroline Buchanan was the bartender after she won the 4X world champs on Friday night. The full video of the shenanigans is on Freecaster here: http://freecaster.tv/mtb/1009239/boxxer-world-championships-2009?page=2

Shenanigans ensued.

So sick!
Shimano really needs to step up in Japan!
Soprano it wouldnt hurt to call red bull or Shimano would it?

holy saturated colours batman! I thought I got a bit carried away in lightroom... looks like good fun though. just one more thing I'm meant to avoid until my ribs get back in shape.

3 Japanese in the Elite Finals... Junya Nagata got 48th, Mio Suemasa got 8th, Tomoko Iizuka got 22nd.

http://nagata.blog9.fc2.com/

http://mioproject.blogspot.com/

Thank god Im color blind then!

yeah... i think it looks better when the saturation gets cranked up, because the sky here is so blue.... but, i tend to go overboard as things look different on a mac for some reason.

I think it's the monitor not the system. My work and home monitors are clearly quite different and photos don't look the same at all. I guess daryl and shinobi will have calibrated monitors so they can tell us how it looks - then again shinobi did buy that monstrosity of a green/brown jacket so not that trusting of his judgement...

Watched the race last night the announcers were funny as fuck! Cursing like sailors just off of the boat. Loved the Faiben part where he get ubber loose in the rocks yet holds on. How the hell they came out of the rocks and into the sharp left corner without much braking blows my mind. That corner was a killer I bet it cost some guys a bit of time.

Yeah...the freecaster guys are classic... they just cheer for Peaty, and you can hear clapping when anybody else fucks up. the total lack of impartiality is great. also they're usually drunk.

that rock garden is nasty, really nasty. those guys make it look easy, but there's not many lines through it and they are big and sharp. you can't really see it in the video but there is a 3m drop into a rock garden just before the triple treat that's very gnarly. the features there are twice as big as any other track i've seen here.

Yeah watching guys like that run through that stuff is unreal. A regular rider would brake and bottom out all over the place. They are basically skipping through the rocks jumping from one patch to the next! Kinda of strange how much they had to peddle at the bottom though for a DH race.

I liked the freecaster first time I ever watched it. Considering that they were talking for 2 hours I think they were super drunk! How can they make money though?

that course is renown for being very pedally. Fabien was running a single crown fork, Sam Hill & Brendan Fairclough scrapped their Demos and rode SX Trails. Sam Hill obviously doesn't like the track, not sure about the others, but my guess is that it's nobodys favorite.

I don't know how freecaster makes money, but there's always an ad when you start the video. there are streaming ads on the website, and they do things like the "Fox Course Walk" etc. Exclusive coverage of the World Cup must cost a fortune though.

if I read this in time I would have taken that bet so we'll just have to pretend I did. you owe me a sixer.

also your mac monitor should be good to go stock for everyday use. but they come a little oversaturated. Your picks are well beyond reasonable in the saturation department. They'd be sick if I wasted on peyote though.

fark. gotta find that happy medium i guess. you guys just aren't EXTREME enough for my EXTREME saturation.

oh, and the sixer boat has sailed my friend.