Deathgrip: Brendog and Ratboy Shred the Best Track Ever - Video

 Yes! It's like the first time I watched the movie Snatch with the closed captioning on.

 Pretty helpful innit.

 @thedriftisreal: I hope you're being sarcastic

 @thedriftisreal: you are lol

 @thedriftisreal: You're either really committed to the joke, or really dumb. I can't tell which.

 @mprosper: i go with option 1

 @RedBurn: Nah man , he s right , Im folowing DH racing on my TeeVee , I have Red Bull T V, and in the sport of DH that guy was good maaaan , yaaah man , he was racing man , like 10 years ago maaan he was guuut maaan

 I used to be able to do that but I got a 29'er in the knee

 No doubt !!

 FFS! I can't even get my legs that far apart standing on the ground. I'm pretty sure Brendog has a night job as a ninja.

 @BigEvil: Or a stripper.

 Na he's that yoga chick who puts up vids now and then! @BigEvil:

 This kinda isn´t the
downhill track. Well it is, but is the bikepark version of it. The race version has a gnarly part through the woods and some unbelievably steep off camber grass turns.
But despite having raced there a few times I honestly think it´s a great track but nothing too special either.
I still don´t really get the Schladming was so great/ the best ever thing nontheless

 Well, they didn't go into the wooded sections (I can only assume because the light sucked for filming?) but while this track has a lot of "man-made" sections to it, it is not strictly "bike park". Bike parks (like Leogang) love to use pulverized stone & small gravel that almost feels like cement. It takes a beating and drains well, but it's simply not dirt and it rides like shit. Schladming may have a lot of man-made sections (berms, jumps, etc.) but it's almost always dirt. It requires more maintenance since it will get beaten up more, but it simply rides way more awesomer.

What you also don't get from this, or any video, is how well laid out the track is. Aside from a road crossing, there aren't any boring sections or flat traverses, etc. The corners are perfect, the technical bits still have great flow to them.
When you ride a bike park that simply has too many turn and flattens out the natural terrain, it's boring as all hell. That's what doesn't happen at Schladming- it's steep, rough, and flat-out from start to finish in a way that rides really, really well.

It's not the most technically challenging course- no one is making that claim. That honor probably goes to Val di Sole. But this track is a blast to ride, from start to finish and it doesn't have any boring sections to it.

 vimeo.com/6781586

 Agreed. I kinda thought to build the best track ever you have to start by throwing the keys to the dirt moving equipment in the lake and grabbing a chainsaw and a pick axe. Kickass riding though.

 Because its both of their opinion on the track... Don't look too hard into this.

 @scott-townes: Well, considering Brendan is of the opinion that a track like Leogang is too bike parky, I was just curious what the difference was in other people's opinions... I'm not really looking that hard into it.

 @ka-brap: Thanks, this is a great explanation. At about 4:00 there's a short wooded section, and that looked way more technical, but they went right back out to the flowy bits. Maybe you're right and it's a lighting thing.

Interesting about the trail surfacing, and I can understand why that must feel terrible to ride on.

Thanks again!

 I think there's a difference between a track being good for racing and a track being good for "riding for fun".

 There´s also a lot of stuff not shown in this vid.
It´s true there are lots of berms but in comparison to Leogang those berms are built in a way they´ll hold you in even at insane speeds just so they can spit you out into the next section where roots and rocks await you.
If i had to explain why it´s great, it is because they mixed perfect berms into a technical track in order to enhance the technicality by increasing the speed with which you enter the technical sections.
It kinda feels like those (few) awesomely built homespots, where there are lots of natural elements linked by meticulously crafted berms in just the right spots.
Tracks like Leogang, they have those wiiiiiiide sweeping berms. They do not compress you into the berm and shoot you out like those in Schladming. And while they can be ridden fast, that feeling of acceleration a smaller, tighter berm gives you imho is what makes them fun. Also, in Leogang after a turn there´s just either another wide seeping turn or a flat section without any roots or rocks.
And finally, Schladming is a rather steep course throughout it´s whole length, so again, those berms and technical bits in conjunction with the steepness create some quite challenging terrain.
Sadly they did not show the rooty and rocky sections in this clip, but they do exist, even if you´re not riding the lower race track part in the woods.

 @ka-brap: "Bike parks (like Leogang) love to use pulverized stone & small gravel that almost feels like cement"
really???? Thats pretty major, I feel even more spoilt now with whistler up the road.

 My thoughts exactly: this looks like the bike-parkiest track of them all in the video. Great riding, but nothing that a guy like me couldn't get down (with 1% of the speed and style). I only have so much patience for the DH track complaining.

 @game: Not all resorts in Europe do this. You see it a lot in Germany too. But in France and Switzerland I can't remember seeing it much.

 @ldhbaker: not everyone could get down it, it's raw and so flat out, the speed you can carry into and out of sections at schladming is really next level. Go watch some of the older earthed videos when they used to race it as a wc track and listen to the riders comments. I've ridden both bikeparks and schladming is a different beast to leogang

 @Loki87: Great explanation!!! Thanx!!!!

And it really can't be stressed enough how much "more grade" can have a big effect on how a track feels.

Wish I was still going next year, but oh well.....

 @WolfStoneD: @WolfStoneD: Brilliant! btw Is that a fresh faced Scotty Laughland from GMBN in the UCI vest at 5:01?

 I'd love to know!!!

 @SeanOg: their wheel sponsors dont want you to know.

 @SeanOg: me too, are those 27.5?

 @UserNumberTwo: both will be 27.5. Fox didn't make a 29er 40 when this was built and Josh hasn't had the 29er V10 as he's not riding the syndicate this year. Needless to say he'd likely laugh at the idea of riding a 29er

 @chris-barr: It is a 27.5 but he does ride the 29er Hightower as well in several vids and has raced enduros on it. He's also commented in interviews that he likes them. He actually seemed real chill and was like just ride whatever is fun, which is how we should all be. I dunno why there has to be a 'thing' for hating on 29ers to the point that people take a cool rider and assume an opinion that they might have.

 @adrennan:
Yup. And therein lies the problem! Wheels just ain't tough enough

 2 seconds out of the starting gate, you hit a 3m gap to step down that feels like you're falling down an elevator shaft. Of course, they make it look like nothing, most everyone watching probably doesn't even realize it From that moment on, it's game on, 100% non-stop awesomeness until you reach the parking lot. So sick

 Well, i guess that Leogang has not stolen the WC from Schladming, it's more like Schladming can no longer support or fund a WC stop. I don't think that UCI wouldn't allow two WC stops in one country.

 It's easy to ride that way when you will be the fastest down!

 And yes, amazing vid. I bet it would be super fun to ride with those guys for about 5 seconds til they dust you. Mad talent

 @kubaner: that's not dust, that is the tires evaporating from all the fast.

 cheers to that. epic edit all the way up!

 Maybe no song but there was a hell of a lot of subtle and clever sound design in there...

 100%. I just hope someday he will able to buy a caravan for his ma.

 My thought as well. The answer (probably) is Brendogs skills are not the same skills those top 10 have. Bike control he has, but the ability to let your bike get up to (race winning) speed, this would be something else. Watching Gwin at the last WC, like 3 seconds faster (before the flat) than Minnar had done. Amazing!

 He`s too busy having fun stylin it up!

 @dannyfag: And you cant blame him for it

 it's 4K on Vimeo on Demand.

 @gramboh: I'm not buying it twice just to watch it on Vimeo at higher quality lol

 *6:08