Loose Dirt, Tight Turns: Navigating Andorra’s Challenging DH Track | Course Preview

Yeah boy, big strut, big strut! I'm John T. Williamson, I'm running for Yeti Fox Factory. We're in Andorra and this is the Pinkbike POV preview. First of all, big shout out to John T. We had some camera issues this morning, we were a bit late. And he was waiting for us, he was desperate to do some runs, but he waited for us. We got him hooked up with the mic and the GoPro before setting up the hill. But who's John T. John T.'s first year junior? He's from New Zealand. He's won a lot of New Zealand nationals back home and this year he's actually finished 4th so far as his best result in the World Cups. He's super stylish, we always notice him on track along with his teammate Tyler Waite. So let's join him for a run of this Andorra track. So new jump, new start hut up the top. Super scenic as always. Lots of loose, dry dirt. But we are forecast for some rain later on in the week. This is the photographer's jump. It's a jump right at the top, you can get a bit of steez on. Just like that. This top section is really fun to watch. It's really fun to ride. And right now it's super smooth. They kind of tuned up the track, but you can see the braking bumps are already starting to come out and it is going to get pretty loose and pretty gnarly up there. Now into here, first bit of line choice. They've pegged things so it's a little bit tighter, a little bit more awkward. There's some gaps. Nice gap there from John T. And these sections are going to kind of rut in. There's going to be support developing and it's going to get faster and then it's going to get blown out as John T goes a little bit wide in that turn. This is the big jump that when it was windy a few years ago. Oh, come on T-Bog. That was the one that Camille got blown off. They've made the landing a lot bigger. So it's not as bad. This section is so fun. You like drop into these corners and you just drive the bike through them. I love driving this bit. And the crest on that has been mellowed because some riders were landing super deep. Nice big berms there. Because they built them up so much, I don't think there'll be too many shraps going on. They banked up that corner there. And now we go straight into this fresh section. It used to go super fast down the hill and it was a little bit sketchy. Little fresh turn, slow things up. It's kind of what the riders were asking for. Give us a bit of tech. Don't have anything too absolutely insane scary fast. But this bit is super fast still. Nothing too wild on it. But once you get up to speed, you do come in through here really fast. So a few little line choices inside-outside. So now they've pegged things. So it is tighter coming into the start of this rock garden. Sick gap there from Jonty. So there's a middle inside. Look what Jonty does here. Shave past this rock. Don't flip your pedal. Yeah, a few lines in there. We might ghost that bit. We'll see how we go. Coming down here. Jonty goes for the low line to a high. And down here, you just got to try and stay off the brakes. Don't hit anything too harsh. Carry the speed down into here. There's a gap into here. But it looks like it's mellowed out. This is the corner that Bruni had his big crash around at World Champs last year. Into the open. Now check this out. Big berm into this new feature. He pulls and then triples. That's a really tricky feature to do. As good as Jonty just did it there. Nice straight line through the woods here. Rail that turn. Pop out. Traverse across. A few pedal strokes. Have a breather. And now we're going into the last section of woods. Lots of rocks have really come out in here. It's gotten rougher from last year. So the top section is super groomed. But this is still rough as. Now, there's a high line there. But you don't need to do it. Because they've got a nice scoop at the end that you can just slap into. Weird drop into the big wooden gap. And now there's some high lines here. We saw a lot of riders crashing. A lot of riders having issues. Dakota Norman went straight on in this corner down here. Jonty's got it good. And they've got a landing now as you jump out into the woods. Super big cruisy berm. Last jump into the finish. That was a sick run from Jonty. So thank you very much, Jonty. Thanks for waiting around for us. And thank you very much for doing a run. Tune in to the race. See how Jonty gets on. And we'll see you inside the tape.