Cube Factory Racing | Downhill World Cup Round 1 South Korea – All Access 🇰🇷

The UCI has not held a race in Asia for over two decades. Last week, that all changed. Cube Factory Racing packed their bags and headed east to South Korea for round one of the World Series in Mon-Yong-Pyong. Oh, I thought I would grab someone like this. Wow, that's so cool. I really like it. Yeah, it's so cool, yeah. Yeah, I'm wearing one. Yeah. Nice one. Just some start sprints, just, yeah, getting used to the bike and, yeah, getting ready for the week. Come, come, come, come. Pretty good having Kev here. Yeah, really good. But it's unfair with this, yeah. And the salt. After a long couple of days travelling, Max and Rosa headed for a quick shakedown before the week kicked off. I'm like a new vessel, a breaker in. Just having a good time. South Korea, World Cup round one. Got the whole gang back together and, yeah, we're walking the track for the first time. Wildlife in Pyongyang, venomous snakes, including the Japanese pit viper. I found a movable area, some ice fields. I'm not getting off track, just riding it. I'm not walking next to it. It's a bit old school, isn't it? Some flat corners, awkward outsides, but mainly on peace. Not override it and keep grip, I think, up here. I didn't really expect anything, so I just saw the one video and it looked... Now it's definitely more rocks than in the video. I don't know, but, yeah, it's good. There are a lot of lines to try out, so I'm excited for training. Scream for the life. Don't hit a rock. It's good. I think it looks real nice. Quite a few options. A good mix of fast sections and tight bits and technical bits and, yeah. I think overall you need to be really patient tomorrow just because how the lines develop and everything, but I'm real excited, actually, to go riding tomorrow. We have delay of one hour to start practice, so, yeah. Back to bed. Yeah, I could have slept one hour more. I would have needed that. So we're gonna go on track, just figuring out where the extra split times are. Kind of quite useful for us to help the riders find kind of where we can make those time improvements and ultimately just helps us sort of position ourselves kind of on track as well. Just after shakedown, getting the bike ready for first practice. So it's just quick bleed and then basically ready to go. First run practice. Check. Let's go. Looking forward to it? Yeah, definitely. Very good. Just some new lines opening up, so we're gonna try that line again and it's going to be inside right now. Is it? Yeah. It's gonna be interesting. Rocks flying. Hello. Try not to crash. You having fun? Yeah, it's fun. Now, second training. Till here was pretty good. I really enjoyed it. So first practice was really hard to learn the track and yeah, but now it's pretty good. Sick. I'm happy. Big smile on your face. Yeah. I tried it the first run, went back to the inside and did the outside again. Yeah. I can, this is all fine for me. Yeah, yeah. I can, I feel really good going through this. Go in tight and then go to the bottom. Yeah, yeah. You see how much time you take? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a bit of a funny one really, cause you come out of the off season with a base set up and you come to the first race and it's a different track to anything you've ever ridden before and the dirt's completely different. So that kind of throws you off a little bit. Made a few adjustments to the fork and the front end really. Lifted the bars up a little bit just to try and get him off his hands cause he was complaining a bit of hand fatigue. Geordie had a few suggestions on Max's fork to try and help him in the bottom section just to try and keep the front end in one direction really cause he was getting thrown around a little bit. I think this is good and it's here. I came in too quick I think. Yeah, that's exactly what I think. Cause I was like, I watched this and I was like, this is your best run and you've like gone off the edge of the track. So I watched the other one and I was like, you've done the same thing. Yeah, well, yeah. So it's like, there must be something in that. Cheers. All good. Still puzzling. Yeah, some sections were good. Some sections, maybe not as good. But overall, yeah, just another day. Another day riding bikes and see how we stack up in Q1 now. A slipped chain, Max missed out on Q1. Cause I can do the top well. I can, where it's pinned, where it's fast, I can rail. It is at the bottom. But then if your chain was off down the bottom cause I know as you come out of the woods I was like, oh no, he's not pedaling. Correct myself for Q2, kid. Rosa had a solid morning practice. It was now time to head up for qualifying. I'm so happy that I'm safe here and that I'm made of it, so. Yeah, tomorrow is a new day, but I'm just so safe that I'm here. That's just so good to leave. You're fast and you are. Angry at myself at the training that I just couldn't have fun or have, yeah, ride good. At least that was the first one of the year. Right now you can just relax now. Tomorrow we go again. Good, well done. That's what we need to do. Right, yeah, have a spin, have a twig, yeah. With Q1 over, Max had to head back up for Q2 to try and secure a spot for finals. Times were tight for the elite men. Max did not make it through to finals. I think it's like, as soon as you've done the turn, get your eyes up, right, take off, and then it's literally eyes finish. And just try and stay off the brakes, try and stay off the brakes. Ah! Right, that's fine. Nothing like a bit of pressure to the, right across, right across the line. Apart from that, all good? Yeah. It looked made, like some of the videos the boys sent down. It's so much better. You look like you're riding really aggressively, good. That's the last jump, you'll do it. You'll do it in your run, it's fine. You look good coming out of the piece and then pedaling back in, like a nice good gear there to do the jump in. Yeah. Was that quite easy? Going into the second last woods, where like all the bumps are, it's like so hard to hold on. Almost when you've done that wooden fly-off out of the woods, you can almost just relax your hands there, couldn't you? It's almost like, take a deep breath, and then you've got two more woods to go. It's almost like reset. You can have a quick little sit down, couldn't you, if you wanted? Yeah. Unleash your hands, and then go again. Yeah. You're better off being fresh, you know. Right, let's attack these last couple of woods as well. It's about 40 minutes, so quick wash, quick takeover, then ready to go. Nice. Nice, nice, nice. Are you ready to welcome her back to the finish line? Make some noise! Let's go, dear! Pretty good. They have the, I hit a tree once in the last wooden section, so, still there, I had a really good run, and then I just didn't want to crash, and just tried to go fast, too. But, yeah, I'm so, so happy with second place, and how the whole weekend went, so, yeah, I'll take that. Good start of the year. Yeah, solid, better off than the first World Cup last year, so, yeah, can't complain. Happy. I have no space in my luggage, so, I don't know. Yeah, I think first race was pretty good. I'm really happy with second place, and, yeah, ready for the whole season, then.