Who Is The Best Mountain Biker Right Now? | Dirt Shed Show 540

Yes, welcome to this week's Dirt Shed Show with myself, Blake Sampson. And I'm Neil Donoghue. Yes, you know this guy? He's like- Was here. He was here. He looks very familiar. Smells the same, doesn't it? Smells like you. It does smell the same. You're looking a little bit greyer. Yes. You still look the same. Similar. Same teeth. Not my teeth. It's all the same teeth I've had before. Anyway, before we crack on with this week's Dirt Shed Show, we're doing a survey about what you guys want to see on the channel and bring in content for you in the future. Yes, it's going to take you about 10 minutes to do it, but guess what? You'll be in with a chance of winning a Garmin MTB Edge head unit and one of three MET helmets and bluegrass protection kits. Scan that QR code on the screen or there's a link down below this video and get involved and you can win one of those amazing prizes. Yes, it'll only take 10 minutes of your time and it's pretty easy, pretty straightforward, and like you said, you get a chance of winning some goodies. Well, Blake, I watched the downhill racing from the weekend. Actually, then the cross-country as well. I was just thinking about the best riders on the planet at the moment. I am, and I think you are as well, a big Jackson Goulston fan. Big Jackson Goulston fan. Even though he's quite small. Yes, but been in the show, been doing the past on the trot three weeks now, and every time he's won apart from the weekend out in Andorra. The four in a row, I think. Going for his fifth. Until this weekend, yes. Then Lo Bruni came in and snatched it off him. He did, yes. Kind of in his second home, Andorra. I think he's one of the crew that lives out there. Yes. Not that that's much of an advantage these days. I think so, to be honest. Yes, I reckon. If you're playing in your own court, you're going to do well. Why do they all live in Andorra, Blake? I don't know, Neil. I think is it the nice mountaineer or is it the tax-free status? Mountaineer, I'm going with mountaineer, a bit of both, yes. But yes, I think Jackson has been an incredible rider this year. We've even got people like Gracie Henstreet who should have won the race. But we've always talked about past legends, people like Greg Minnaar, Sam Hill, Rich Latham. Even Pauline Fran Prevost. In the free ride, we've got Casey Brown, but she's still on the scene. Yes, and that sort of scene has really blossomed as well in the last couple of years. People like Robin Goombes being amazing riders. But it got me thinking about who is the best rider on the planet at this moment, because also, Tom Pidcock just shows up. Don't. He's not in the world, is he? He's not in the world, he's not in the- He has this first standby race. He's been racing on the road all year. Didn't the Tour de France hear of that thing? No, not really. It's going on at the moment, so he's not there. I think he's doing the Giro, Mike, you might know this. Doing one of those, or is it the Spanish one? What's the Spanish one called? You're asking the wrong person. Anyway, he's not racing the road. So he showed up, and I think he was placed, he's 50th on the grid, and he just blew past everybody. Smoked everyone. So if you're talking cross-country world, he's probably got to be that guy at the moment. Well, I would say all-round rider there on two wheels, going over to the road and then coming onto mountain bike, he's flipping. Who's your favorite rider now? Now, to date, I'm going to go with Jackson Goldston. Oh, yes. I'm going to have to say it. As much as I said it before, I actually love watching Loic Bruni race, and it's good to see him. Because he had that one race where he was just 13th or was it 15th, where he's just like, he's never just that. He's always right there. So I was kind of wondering about Loic, where he was, and he showed up, and just the way he smashed that track to bits. Yes, he's a powerful rider, I'm not going to deny that. And I love watching him, and I like seeing the fact that he's got a Porsche 911 as well. One of my favorite cars, it's a dream car. If we're not just talking about racing, and we're talking in the freeride world, I'm going to say Brandon Semenuk. The bike handling skills that that gentleman has is unreal. You don't see much from him really. We don't. You have small snippets of Brandon Semenuk every so often. Do you know what seals it in stone, that he's one of the greatest bike handling dudes? It's just video parts. You look at those video content, things that he drops, it's unreal. It's quite curated, isn't it, the way he does it? It is, which makes it look like it's AI or something. But then you also don't see, like a racer, you don't see the bad bits, because he just shows you the cool stuff. Exactly. It's a different world, I suppose. Yes, racing, you see it raw. Yes, exactly. Every mistake. Let us know in the comments down below, what is your favorite rider to date, male, female, in any sport? Let us know. What's up, everyone? Let's begin this week with the news from Andorra, where electrical storms forced the cancellation of junior racing. The downhill saw a return to form for Millie Jansett, piloting that belt-drive intense to third spot. Valley Hole does just enough to maintain the overall with a second-place finish. Tanni Segrave looked aggressive, pushing hard to claim a well-earned victory. A crash on the last feature in sight of the line saw Hemstreet lose a two-second margin, landing her back in fifth. The men's race saw a small mistake on the final rocky shoot for Davide Palazzari, which cost him his first elite podium, potentially his first elite win. He hurtled off into the crowd, doing incredibly well to avoid the camera operator, spectators, and trees. Very happy, he's all good. Berger sent a brilliant benchmark time relatively early on. Jackson Goldstone replaced him on the hot seat for another trademark run, which he could have seen him redefine the Jackson 5, the first male rider to do it five on the trot since peak-era Gwynn. But when the heat is on, Super Bruni turns up, finishing with just over a second to spare. The XCC, it was Keller taking the win in the women's, shortly followed by Richards and Blochlinger. Luca Martin on the top step in the men's. Blevins, neck and neck, but into second and Azzaro into third. In the XEO, Sammy Maxwell had some early problems with a rear flat and a crash. Amazing comeback from her over the course of the race, moving back up to take the top spot. Keller, nine seconds back. Rissveds in third, 15 seconds back. The men's race saw the return of Tom Pidcock. He didn't feel like riding the Tour de France this year, so he's back playing mountain bikes and using FSA wheels on his bike from here on out. Moving up from over 30th in the start grid to a victory over over 20 seconds. Luca Martin suffered a rear puncture, but fought back maintaining his chase of Pidcock to second spot, and Charlie Aldridge did well in altitude taking that third spot. As always, watch the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series on Discovery Plus and Max. Now, if you watched Bruni win on Saturday and thought, I want pants as tight as his, well, Specialized have released S-Works clothing, the downhill range featuring the materials and garments pioneered by the Gravity team. They might not be guaranteed to make you go as fast or look as jacked, but no harm in trying, is there? Check out those on the Specialized website now. Giro have a new goggle. The drop line has a quick change lens system. They have maximum airflow thanks to the way the strap meets the goggle, and have sweat management foam as well, so aiming to be maximum comfort and cooling when you're putting in the watts. Range of colors, 115 UK pounds for those. Brent Reeder's signature bike has launched phase one with a series of clothing drops, with news that its roster of athletes are also part owners of the business, so reap the direct rewards of their influence. Camelbak have launched a Strava challenge. All you have to do to be in it to win it is complete 200 minutes on any bike in 10 days from July 18th to 27th. You win a 20% discount code for their site and be entered to win one of three podium bottle packages worth 120 euros. And Orbea have new colors for the Laufee, pretty minimalist with a design which makes them look dead clean. Digital lavender acid gum, smooth silver matte titanium gloss, and metallic cinnamon matte black gloss, which is a bit of me. They're all live on the site now. Check them out. And last but not least, Rich and I were at Enduro 2 last week. I was let out from behind the news desk to go and be the anchorman in real life, trying to keep up with Rich as we took on pairs racing for the first time in Verbier. I've been on a Garmin training plan for eight weeks in preparation as the bike time this year has been a bit scarce for me, with lots of other life stuff on. I won't tell you how we did. You will have to watch the video to find out. Be on the channel in a few weeks' time. What I will say is thanks to the event organizers, the event was fantastic. Scenery was incredible. Trails were prime. Three days of racing, 17 stages, 10,000 meters of vertical descent. Sam Robson and Joanne Williams won our category, the open men's. Becky Skelton and Jamie Haynes took home mixed pair. And two French girls, Bina and Barbazat, were rapid. They followed Rich and me down one of the bike park stages. They won the females pairs race. It's a race about good times, and honestly, a really cool one. I believe there are a few tickets left for Meribel coming up in August, so do check that out. Right, let's get on with the show. It's hacks and bodges time, and I've got some crackers. They all look like bodges to me. As I always say, the bigger the bodge, the better. We're starting with this one. My bottom bracket was loose in the frame, which sounds dodgy already. Why is the bottom bracket loose? So the way to fix it is probably with an old rag, is it not, Blake? No, I don't think so. Look at the state of it. Weaver Janssen. I don't really understand what's going on because you just thread that rag into the threads, and it sort of tightens it up. We definitely would tighten it up. Why don't you use PTFE tape? That's a good idea. Yes, it will stop leaks. Rag's cheaper. Yes, rag is cheaper. That is a pretty crazy bodge, right? It's never going to work, is it? I don't think it is. That's a pressing one because look, he's got a big old bolt that's going to press it all in. It's depressing. I can see what you did there. This next one is, well, I quite like this one, Neil. It's a video of it working. In quotes, air quotes, working. Literally, yes, because it's actually fluid. Air and oil. This is from Matt Mifsud. A steering damper, which at first look, you think, that's pretty good. It looks cool. Then you think, well, actually, have you drilled into the head tube of your frame and your lower crown? Yes, by the looks of it. And it's an RC car shock, which I'm- Steering dampener. Surely, it's not going to give you any resistance, really. Well, he did say here, total failure, zero effect, but looks cool, I guess. Does it? No. I'm sure he's a big RC fan and he just loves it. I'm a big RC fan. Imagine if you showed up to buy a second-hand bike and that was hanging out of the head tube. I'll put a little Fox sticker, all other brands are available. We'll stick something on there. Oh, dear. We've got another one here. Now, this one, this is another video of it, how he's fixed it. He's got an action cam and sometimes with these new fandangled bits, they start to vibrate a little bit. What he's done is he's jammed some rubber, like a resistant band sort of stuff in there. Yes, this is from Artem Chaykin. I've used one of these cameras, the new Insta360. Mine doesn't rattle at all, but I guess if it's an old one that's been- Yes, if you've been using it a lot, it starts to show some wear and you don't want to go through the cost of buying another clip or something. Yes, I guess so. I think that's quite cool. I think that's a pretty good one. Is that a hack? I'd say that's a hack, that's not a bodge. I think the rest of them are bodges. It's as close as we've got to a hack, I suppose. It's a nice little cheap fix, I suppose. I think it's a good one, yes. He's actually put it underneath the clip that clips to his chesty and that does rattle a bit. Very good. If you don't have the rubber bit to stop it from doing that. I like it. That one's good. Now, I'm going to give you the option of choosing which one. So, you get the chance to give away £50 to our shop. Well, I think we have to go with the final one, which is from Artem Chaykin. That's the best one. I think so. Well done. Send us an email, send us all your details and we'll send you this little gift voucher you can spend in our local shop, on our online shop. Very local. It's very local. Just downstairs. It's on your phone. That's how local it is. Now, if you want to get involved with Hacks and Bodges, let us know. Send them to the uploader down below. Better the hack, better the bodge, the better. Right, things we like this week. I'm going to show you this bike. It's called Campagnolo bikes, right? Now, it's an e-bike and I thought, hey, you're coming on so we could go for a ride together on this one. Take a look at that. Problem is, I hate tandems. That's the biggest problem here. No, you can go on the back. Yes, well, it doesn't matter. No, it will blindfold you. I hate the tandems. No, I thought, so they, Full Martin Ashton, so they do trials bikes and they look really cool. I've never heard of them. No, I've never heard of them but this thing came up and I was like, damn, imagine that thing. Imagine going bikepacking with your mate. E-bike, bikepacking on a tandem. I've got a bike. That sounds way more fun. No, come with me. No, come on. I quite like it. Something I like this week is I follow Annie Ford on Instagram. She's from Tasmania but she is quite fond of an epic ride. At the moment, she's riding Scandinavia to Morocco. I think she's in Scotland actually at the moment, the Outer Hebrides, battling the weather but she's raising money for climate action and having a great time along the way by the looks of it and she's a really good follow. Pretty cool. Well, I'm going to follow her because I've never heard of her. You just told me that she's done the Tour de France as well. That's crazy. I think so. She did some epic ride in North America last year but she's raising lots of money along the way. I think that's one bike trip I would love to do. Really? Tour de France? I get it. Not race, just do it. I thought it but I worry about the wildlife. Don't worry about them. The cougars. Moving on to the caption contest. Who are these guys? They're the two new dudes. Come on, man. They sat right next to you. Oh, I've seen them. Fergus and James. There you go. What are they trying to do? That's exactly it. I actually don't know. Driver truck. Where's this thing going? Is this a bus driver? Maybe they've learned from Rich how to lose your front axle when you go on a trip. I can see the front axle. Yeah, I can see it's right there. But if you want to get the chance to win, we're actually not the chance. We're actually giving away £50 gift voucher to spend in our local shop which is on your mobile phone. It's not as local. It's as much local as you can get. Anyway, Mario Gerin says, so I bought this bike in Australia but the wheels are from here. Should I mount them upside down? Problem is the wheel's sideways, not upside down. No, yeah, that's right. If you're a flatlander, like the world is just flat. I've got BMX. Cameron S523 says, whilst filming a segment questioning the importance of tire directionality, Fergus and James suddenly realized that simply reversing the wheel would not work. No, they wouldn't, would it? Sort of, but. Well, you wouldn't have a front brake, would you? Exactly, sort of is the word. We've got one here that says, Ferg taking a moment to show the new guy, James, how to drive the GMBN team bus. Imagine if we had a team bus. That's Sepster58. Epic. Who's the winner there, Blake? Do you know what? I'm going to go with Sepster58 because he's a big fan. He's got the emojis going. He's a member. He's a member, definitely. I'm going with Sepster. Sepster, congratulations. If you want to get your £50 gift voucher, send us an email. We'll send that straight over to you. Now, this is next week's caption contest photo. Take a look at that, Neil. The flipping heck's going on there. What would you say to that? I have no words. Nor do I. Let us know. Hashtag caption contest in the comment section down below to win yourself £50 to spend in our shop. It's time for the bike vault, and we're going to kick it off with this absolute beauty. Well, it's- With a cherry on the front because of the forks, because it's red. It works. And that, it- Spenny. That's very spenny. It's a Lyric on the front. It's a nice red bits area. This is Greg Hart, Mrs. Bikes. It looks big. He's not really 29er. He's tall. He's 29. Tall person's bike. Look at the size of his inner length of his thigh. Look at that. Look how long it is. Envy Wheels. Envy Sturm. This is a Horsetooth Mountain near Fort Collins, Colorado. I give that a super nice, and the bell's behind you, Neil. Where is the bell? Oh, yeah, there you go. There it is. Oh, ow. Sorry about that. The boss is there. He's going to tell you off. Anyway, that's a super nice. Moving on. Ooh. Scott Spark, 750X, Llandegla, where I took my daughter for her first ever off-road ride. Did she survive? She did amazing. I'm very proud of her. This is Neil Owens's Scott Spark. You know what? Scott Spark's a great bike, isn't it? Yeah. Is he still running a two-by on the front? He does look like he's running a two-by on the front. Or is that a three-by? I don't know. That's a two-by, Neil. That's a two-by. That's a three-by. It's probably a three, yeah. Nice. Good art story. It's cool. Yeah, it's great. Next is from Jack Badenhorst, and Jack says, real men ride hardtails. And woman, I love a hardtail, and I actually quite like the color. Purple. Yes. Now he just needs a pair of purple hazers on there. Purple haze. Ooh, snap. You've already given it a super nice. Super nice in that, Neil. Awesome. I've got this one. Do you know what this one is? Oh, I know. It's a Marion Alpine Trail E1. E-bike. Mullet, 29 in the front. Obviously, 29 in the back. 27 in the back. Business at the front, part in the back, as the caption actually says from JMC. Where is this? My friend with the Joshua trees in the back, I feel like that's in the States somewhere. That's a cactus, that is. That's a Joshua tree. That's not what they call them. Yeah. I'm not convinced. They're all like, this is Mesa, horse trail in Mesa, Arizona, Red Mountain Rush. Yeah. With an incoming monsoon storm in the background. Oh, super nice. I quite like that one. Whoa. Super nice, that one, Neil. It's a Nukeproof Scout. I've not seen one in that color. Neil Osborne's bike. Is that? Oh, wow. It's a 27.5 Scout. It's a smooth, yes, beautiful. It's got an oi-oi saddle. It's got a gold chain, gold lucky chain, gold looking chain. There's one hell of a fork up front. Doesn't it look like it slacked the bike out a bit? It does, doesn't it? You've already super-niced it. I super-niced it. It's a hardtail. It's Nukeproof. It's beautiful. This is Raymond Kuhlemann's Santa Cruz Tallboy 4 from 2022. Yeah. I live in the south of the Netherlands and make a lot of trips to Belgium, Ardennes. I visit the bike park in Germany, especially Green Hill Bike Park. Ooh. I love all the jumps. Yeah, it's a really good bike park. I quite like that bike park. It's changed a few things. Switched up the GS derailleur for a wireless one. I upgraded the brakes to Magura MT5 Pros with Galfer discs and pads. Wow. I'm very happy with the bike like it is, but for next year, I'm planning to buy a Nomad Santa Cruz. I would say, why didn't you plan to get a higher-rise bar that you can lower your stack? Do you think that? Yeah. You did a video on all about higher-rise bars and how good it was. I do like them. I think it looks better than having loads of space underneath them. Yeah, super-nice. I like the gold pedals. Now, we're into dirt jump territory here. This is your neck of the woods. Craig Jensen. Look at that. Yeah. What frame is it? That's quite a seat clamp. This is my DJ bike on the MTB trails. It's a Whitey? It is. Whitey Dirt Love. Levington Spa. Nice. Yeah, Craig's bike. It's very nice. I like it. I've never seen a mountain bike without the seat clamp bolt. Bolt through. Kind of derives from BMX, I guess. Yeah, exactly. The down tube up by the edge, it looks pretty funky as well. What are you going to give that? Super-nice. Ooh, in here. I'm riding my dirt jump bike quite a lot. The BMX track recently. Yeah, I've seen. I've seen on your social. Check this one out now. Steven McNutt. Look at that. That's the new track, isn't it? Fuel EX. Not the EXE, which is almost identical. Ooh, I thought you were going to say that. No, almost. It rolled off the tongue, almost. It's a 9.8 XT with upgraded front and rear RockShox Ultimate Suspension. Love the bike, and it's more capable of handling anything thrown at it. Then again, at my age, 58, and skill level, a walker would also be more than capable. I see what you're saying there. It's a bit more than what I like. I'm going to give that a super-nice, Neil. That's been brilliant, isn't it? Very good. Hey, some good bikes in there. I put some e-bikes in there for you, so you feel at home, even though you are at home. You've disappeared. You've fleed the nest. Well, yes, here I am. Anyway, if you want to get involved with the Bike Vault next week's show, then there's a link in the description. Upload your bike to that. Remember, half mast on your saddle, drive side. Nice, fresh picture. Rules. I forgot there were rules in the Bike Vault. There was none of that over on EMC. No, you just dump your bike on there, right? Sure, whatever. Sheesh. Anyway, rules. They're all super-nice. Tell you what, I know there's a cool video coming up in GMB on this week, because my friend Steve Jones was out in Val-de-Sol just a week and a half ago, whenever it was, probably a couple of weeks ago, actually, and he was filming a video with Steve Peat and Jackson Goldstone. He was basically following them around for the weekend. Spoiler alert, Jackson ended up winning the race, but Steve Jones was following Steve Peat around to see exactly what goes on behind the scenes. Behind closed doors. And I can't wait to see it, actually. I know it's coming this weekend on GMBN. I'm going to look forward to watching that. He's leading the charge. That team, he, the boss, is leading the charge of winning the World Cup, I reckon. Yes, because Neil Hoffman won as well, so they're doing very well this year, the syndicate. It's all down to the team manager, isn't it? Exactly. There we have it. The end of our Dirt Shed Show of this weekend. Man, it's so good to see Neil back in the shed with us. Oh, thanks, yes. I wish it smelled a bit better. I'm sorry, I'll change my cologne next time you come back in the show. That's what it is. Until next time, we'll see you. Bye.