Are XC Riders Cool Now? | Dirt Shed Show 481

Cross-country racing is some of the most exciting racing out there, and now cross-country riders are making it look cool, Blake. That is new. What's changed and why has it changed? Well, all that and much more coming up on the Dirt Shed Show. Yes, welcome to the Dirt Shed Show, everybody, with myself, Rich Payne, and- And Blake Sampson. Nice to have you here. Hey, buddy. How's it going, mate? Very good. We haven't done a show- We haven't done a show in a while. We finish each other's- Yes. Sandwiches. Yes. That was silky smooth. Dude, cross-country guys, slopestyle guys, steez, or I'll admit, less steez. Less steez, but more endurance and fitness. Yes, but cross-country racing is changing. I know you don't catch too much of it on the old telly box- No, I don't. But when it comes out on social, holy moly. They've got some style to them now, right? They have. I think cross-country is genuinely changing. Racing, tracks, the modern era of rider. If we think about it, Nino Schur, heard of him? Yes, I have. He trained with him. I've got his number on my phone. Clang. That was awkward. I've got Blake Sampson's number on my phone. Yes, I've made it. I don't know how to delete it. Anyway, he's an originator of the whip, right? That Nino whip we've all come to know and love, back ends all tweaked out. Yes, yes. Now, people are throwing Euro whips and stuff. Dude, there's a few people out there. There's a few people out there that spring to mind. I have to read them out because we've got Charlie Aldridge. Actually, I'm a big fan of his. He is good rider. I've got Tom Pidcock, but then the guy that actually does nail it is Christopher- Blevins. Blevins. Yes, specialized rider, rides loads of pump track and stuff like this. Have a look at this little clip here. Little cheeky landing a manual to nose bonk off. I like doing that in the bike park. Yes, and he's doing it on an XC bike with a big old saddle, a big old stem. About an hour and a bit in already. Yes, exactly. These sort of Pidcock, Simon Andreas and on the Cannondale team, we've got Adrian Boucher, a young French rider. These sort of young guns just moved up or some of the under-23s out there, Riley Amos, are all throwing new shapes and new styles. I think we're seeing a younger influence on cross-country now. I like it. It actually brings more people to the sport because it makes it a bit more fruity. It really does. It's inspiring to see them go so far really hard, but with style. Yes. Where we saw a lot of this actually shine through this year was the second round of the UCI World Cup Series in Brazil. What was the name of the venue? I have no idea. It was Arrasha in Brazil. How's Russia in Brazil? Arrasha. Oh, Arrasha. I mean, I may well be saying that wrong myself, but that is where it was. It had these super cross-style sections, right? Yes, you've perked up now, right? It's like pump tracks. It basically was. It was a very short lap. I think one of the shortest XC loops they've ever had. They call that XCC. So that's short track. That's a different one again, but we'll get to that. It had these super cross-style sections where it was just jump after jump after jump and riders are gapping over bridges and things like that you just wouldn't have seen, I would say, three, four years ago. We're seeing bike part design come in, more intense, more flat-out racing. We're seeing a pump track influence and stuff. I think there's going to be more to come. A whole magnitude of different genres coming together. Crushed it. Did you like that? I liked that, yes. What do you think? Do you think this current crop of steez that has come to cross-country racing is the way forward or do we think that more old-school era, more longer technical tracks without the jumps is the way to go or combo? I like the idea of a combo. Combo is more so. And the variety of tracks that we're seeing in the year. Let us know in the comments down below, what do you think of the way cross-country is at the moment, but enough rambling from us. It's time for the news. It's May and I'm ill, but the news doesn't stop, Leo. Neither do I. It's been a big week in the mountain biking world with the UCI Mountain Bike World Series returning to Novie Mesto in the Czech Republic. The under-23 races saw Isabella Holmgren and Riley Amos taking the wins in both the short track and the XEO. Holmgren is the junior world champ, taking her first win in the under-23s. This is an incredible six wins on the trot now for Amos. Orbea's Luca Martin finished the XEO race in second, despite a crash. The elite racing saw the top three within a second. Alessandra Keller just pipped Pauline Ferrand-Pervaux and Hayley Batten's first place in the XCC, a similar tight finish in the men's race, all within the same second. Viktor Koretsky triumphant over Chris Blevins and Thomas Litscher. In the XEO, it was a great day to be an Ineos Grenadier. Pauline Ferrand-Pervaux finished over a minute up on second place Hayley Batten and third place Alessandra Keller before announcing this will be her last season racing a mountain bike, which is quite the statement. Clearly planning to go out on top. In the men's race, well, since 2021, it's been the same story. Tom Pidcock, who claimed to have ridden his mountain bike just once this year, took on the top step, relentlessly attacking Nino Schurter, who finished 30 seconds back. Marcel Garini had a great race, equaling his career best of third spot. It was first time on the podium for Mathis Ossaro in fifth spot. Lots of riders focusing on the Olympics this year. Nino will be off to his fifth games, but a rider who won't be joining him is Trex Valad Dasgluu. The Romanian has missed too many check-ins with the anti-doping authorities and has received a 17-month suspension from competition. Some news out of YT now, they've got a new Jeffsy build. The Uncaged 13 Edition is retro video game-inspired, comes with cable-driven SRAM GX, a Mozoki Bomber Z1 fork, one-off Renthal silver cockpit, and matching Crankbrothers synthesis wheels. Very cool build. On top of that, they've opened a new YT mill in Bentonville, Arkansas. The customer experience center will offer residents and visitors an insight into the brand and act as demo and distribution for the area. Bluegrass has got a new range of knee and elbow protection starting at the most protective and working to the lightest with the AuraCore Knee, Aura Knee, Arto Knee, and 3Straps Knee. There are also AuraCore and Aura Elbow Pads too. Based around level two impact dissipation protection and type B coverage, the pads have 39% more coverage and 40% more energy impact dissipation than the lower acceptable levels. Quick blast through Crankworx Cairns to finish off Ryan Gilchrist and Geordie Scott gold in the dual slalom and the pump track. Tracey Hanna and Connor Fearon win the downhill, Geordie Scott and Garrett Metcham in the speeding style, Alma Wigberg and David Godziek in the slope style. Have a great weekend. Time for the sickest thing. It's you this week. What do you mean it's me this week? You're the sickest thing this week. Get out. This week's sickest thing has to be this new video from Lando Stiesi and Birgtec called All in a Day's Work. Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the first people to say, I want to see pros go to epic locations and build insane spots. At the same time, it's just the internet. It's not actual reality. It's not what they're doing all day long. Look at Leo. I think this is what this video is showing. Leo is just a regular kid from an underprivileged background that has to ride in Northern England where it rains all the time. He's just riding skate parks, pump tracks, and local dirt jumps like most kids. His riding is obviously really sick and shaped by the riding he's doing and his surroundings. The bar to slide is really sick. The fact he does the whip to bar on that tiny jump, that's so technical. Also, I don't know if it was a new learn, but it was sick to see you get the decade, dude, just because that was a proper legit decade, not one of those three-down whippy ones. Right. That's my sickest thing this week. Time to go back to the shed. Right. Thank you very much, Toph and Tom, for Sickest Thing of the Week. Our news of Sickest Thing of the Week this week was super sick this week. The sickest thing this week though, apart from that being the sickest thing, is the for the competition where we gave away their brand new metal bottles, being the titanium and the stainless steel one, and then that vest hydration pack. Yes, the chase hydration vest. Who are the winners, Blake? I'm going to leave this one to you, Richard, because I'll butcher the names. Done me over. I will do it instead. They are on screen now, but congratulations, Cahill, Grant, Coyle, Konstantinos Papathanassou, and Sean Eisenmenger. Congratulations. Hacks and bodges. Hacks and bodges. Hacks and bodges. Wow. We are so good. We are up for hiring. Private events, public events, you name it, we'll sing at it. We are fan-desperate, but this week's Hacks and Bodges, where you could win, which was a hack right there or a bodge, is a race jersey of your choice. Yes, not that one. Take a look at this one. Not this one, because this one lives in here and it's been worn. It's been in here for a while. First up, we've got ADVTN. Basically, he's used a yoga mat for indoor storage and maintenance to catch all the sweat and crud and various other bits that come off of you and your bike. Exactly. I think that's a great hack because they've just moved into the city and the wife didn't want them getting dirt all over the tile. It looks tidy. Great. Was that a hack or a bodge? I'd say that's a hack. I think that's a hack. Definitely a hack. Because you can get proper training mats and that's probably way cheaper. Yes, that's way cheaper. Good hack. Who have we got next, B-Lake? We've got one here from Furby31. Furby31. Furby. Says, fixing a friend's shader's lever after finishing this. He rode 600 meters like that. Look at that. He snapped his Shimano lever there. I've done that before. These are my favorite ones. They're just the ridiculous bodged-on zip tie to heck kind of things like that. One of my favorite ones was a spoon as a brake lever a while back. Do you remember that one? It's always stuck in my head. That's definitely a bodge. That's definitely a bodge, but it's a hack because you got back down. Good work. The next up is from Danny I, and I like this one. The drop in, in spell I double N as like a pub if you're in the UK. Oh, a pub or a guest house or a watering hole. Yes. Upside of the wheel, I'd re-spoke to realize the hub was foobard. Foobard? Foobard. Fubbard. Fubbard? Fubbard. Mother Hubbard. Well, that's broken. That is broken. A bit of 3D printing, of course, because who doesn't these days? My bar is now named. You got your own bar, so that's definitely a bodge? No, hack. That's a cool hack. Three great ones this week, but Blake, who is the winner? I'm going to go with Furby31 because I feel like that's very ingenuitive. He had some zip ties, he fixed it, and he carried on riding. Even though I do In. That is a hell of a lot of zip ties. Yes, but dude, I think that's a bloody bodge. It's got him home. Congratulations, Furby31. You won a race top, not this race top, but a race top very similar. Now, if you want to get involved with the hacks and bodges, we have an uploader linked in the description down below. Please get involved because the more bodge, the better. The more hack, the betterer. Shop shout-out. Literally, shop shout-out. We have a plethora of different garments on our website. It all helps our community, all helps us on the channel as well and promote us out there on the trail when you wear it. Get involved. You can look as steezy as those cross-country riders. Head over to the GMBN shop now. Linked in the description where? Down below. Nice. Things we loved this week. It's actually been going a bit nuts. Red Bull Hardline is kicking off. It's bad. There's a lot of stuff going on, man. It's some big obstacles. I am finding it hard to focus on anything else on social at the moment. Yes, well, Matt Jones did a video about the course preview. Well, not preview. He did a course walk. He was hitting some of the obstacles with Bernard Kerr and it came to the big canyon jump. Yes, I like that one actually because it showed a lot of the rest of the course as well, not just the mad stuff that we've been seeing, but the mad Tekker stuff. Right at the top, straight out of the gate. Horrible. Horrible. Bernard, obviously, first to hit that crazy canyon jump that we've all been seeing. Cleared it, sailed over it, literally sailed over it by a mile. Very close to the left, though. Kind of scary. Someone who also sailed over it by a mile, so the honorable mention to Jim Monroe, who ejecto-cedo curse. He did do an ejecto-cedo curse, but he's all right. He wound the windows down for days. He was just a wine and windows. He's okay. Can't get over it. That's the things we've this week. Big old head, bang, no broken bones. Good work, you animal. Unreal. Now, talk about being unreal. Caption contest time. Right, time for caption contest, as we said, and there's this beautiful picture of Anna, wowsers. Looking beautiful, as always. Speechless, yes. Look at that. First one coming in from at, I'm going to spell it out, kjst.gelais1501. It says, when you're about to nail your Park Tool influencer interview. Loves an influencer, right there. From at 01fossies, Anna's best entry, trying to look like Gary Fisher. I mean, similarities. Pretty good. I've got another one. Hammy on a bike when you're going through a muddy puddle and you get a little something stuck on your lip. That's that big. It's questionable. That's questionable. Andrewmtv420, I didn't know Calvin from Park Tool had a daughter. That's a good one. That is a good one. We do, but what did they win? A stunt mug. Oh, dearie me. That went a bit crazy. Yes, you can win a stunt mug. Who do we think is going to win? I'm going to go with Calvin. He's got a daughter. Okay. That was from Andrewmtv420. I didn't know Calvin from Park Tool had a daughter. Congratulations. A stunt mug is winging its way to you. Great catch. Great catch. Anyway, this is this week's caption contest photo. Oh, Leo on a low throw. You get a chance to win a stunt mug of your choice by going hashtag caption contest in the description in the comments down below. Coming up on the channel this week, some things we're looking forward to. Is a modern cross-country bike faster than a 10-year-old downhill bike, Blake? It's very interesting, actually. I would guess the downhill bike. On a downhill track, I should say. Just in general. This is on a downhill track. Well, you're going to have to wait to see to find out. Definitely. We built, actually, we didn't build, Neil built a free coaster bike. Yes. It's a bit weird how he's made it, but it's super cool. Very clever. Very clever. Neil on a bike. That's a question we'll leave to you. Yes. Also, essential accessories for your mountain bike or to get into mountain biking coming up, and what last? The bike vault. Time to get into it. We're not doing how to build confidence then. No. Cool. It is time for the bike vault, which means we need beautiful assistance. The bell. We're not just talking about you, Richard. Ding-dong. Up first, we've got a reappearance from ADVTyun with his Yeti ARC, or ARC is something you call it, in the countryside. Now, this is a lackluster. What's that? Anyway, moving on, we're going on to the next one. This one is a Scott Spark 910 or 910. I like that. This is from Cyclist166091, and that is- Oh, it's a beautiful bike. Yes, that is. I like that because obviously, it's got the hidden shock, but it's super stealthy. You can tell you must do some big days because it's double bottling and got the gear strap full of kit on there. Oh, I didn't see that. The bottom of the down tube blends in with the graffiti. Yes, it does. What have we got next then, Blake? We've got Matrix Concept. Well done. Yes, we do. This is a DVA- It took a while to get that one. DV8 Highlander 38s, Ohlins rear shock, 5Dev cranks, Nexty rims. They look gold. I like gold. Yes, you do. You like these bikes because you really- I used to ride for them, yes. Yes, super nice. He also says, love your channel, keep up the good work. You just got yourself a super nice there. Super nice, well done. What's up next then? Go on. Oh, Tickle Mark. I'm not Mark, I'm Blake. Oh, sorry, I get confused. It's a Kingdom Vendetta X3. I love this bike. Yes, it's a titanium rig. They're gnarly looking hardtails, aren't they? I do like this with the tan walls or the tan saddle and the tan grips. And then the Kashima. Yes, some thoughts gone into that. Very nice from Tickle Mark. That's my boobie. Who's next? Oh, this one's Joe Bay, Joe Bay 297. Joe Bay 297. It's a Vitus, Vitus, no more us. Yes, out in Austria. It looks like he's been having a good time because it's dirty. I actually like it. Mixed wheel, yes. Is that a full house? Oh, no, we got another one. I'm going to scroll further on my script. We have Roger Wall 1851. He is very old. He's very old. He has been around a while. He's older than the Rockies. And that bike, Rocky Mountain. Good one. That joke, sorry. It's not even a joke, it's just rubbish. Super nice. Good job. That's all of them. No, we've got a Commencal Meta. Oh, God, I need to scroll further. Oh, the chaos. We have a Commencal Meta SX from Theo Valassi. From Theo Valassi. Shake the bell. I love the Meta. And that is the end of the Bike Vault. The upload is below. Send your bikes in because we actually do love to see them. This has been chaotic. XC's got Stezia. This has been a fun show. It's been incredible. Have a great weekend, everybody. Send your bikes into the Bike Vault because if you don't, we're a bit scuppered. We really need them. It's been a fun show, Blake. I absolutely loved it. Thank you very much, Richard. See you later. Au revoir. See you. Cup of tea.