EWS Round 8, Finale Ligure Italy - Pit Walk

Wednesday was a down day for most of the riders, so there was a chance to ride some other bikes. Ines Thoma and Max Schumann took the stylish option to carry them to the beach.

While Justin Leov worked on the new Canyon Strive prototype...

This is maybe one of the finest touches anywhere in the pits, courtesy of Canyon's Larry and likely only the eagle-eyed will have spotted it... For his riders he runs one metallic pad and one organic pad as he says it provides a better all-round compromise for feel and longevity.

How obsessive can the gram counting get? How about shaving off the excess parts of your chainguide?

Alex McGuinness is one of the few riders to get his hands on RockShox's Super Deluxe shock, complete with its very sexy bezel-style rebound adjust.

How full enduro has Sam Hill gone? How about bush guards deep. While many may have dismissed them as simply French cheating guards, talking to a few riders they do offer some interesting benefits. For instance, some riders are currently compromising on bar width to keep their hands out of harm's way on track, whereas with these you can still run a full-width bar and keep your pinkies safe.

Let's just take a moment to fully take in Sam Hill's insane paint job on his Nukeproof Mega (we posted a full bike check earlier this season).

Nico Lau has all the good sponsors - this week the Cube guys received custom back-rolling equipment from the guys at Blackroll.

He may be something of a big deal now, but Jesse Melamed was out putting in the work to help get his own race bike ready for practice tomorrow.

Here's a great tip from Seb, one of the Rocky mechanics. A second layer of electrical tape over your rim strip helps protect from really extreme hits where the spoke are pushed back into the rim. Normally they would puncture the rim strip leaving you stranded, but with this system they feel it offers a much greater degree of security to keep racing.

Alex Lupato definitely wins the prize for the prettiest shock in the pits, with this Ohlins TTX mounted on his brand new Trek Slash 29.

Out front he is also one of the first riders to be running their 36mm- stanchion fork.

Damien Oton and Theo Galy have ridden all season with this touching memorial on their top tubes.

It's 20 right now, but will this be 2 for Damien Oton after this weekend?