Ontario kicks butt at MTB Nationals

shirk said:

Would be great to see more support for both our XC and DH racers at the World Cup level. Kinda sad reading the DH results and only see one guy and gal doing the whole circuit.

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That would be nice. I assume you're speaking of Smith for the men and Buchar for the ladies? (even though she missed nationals this year). Don't you think this has everything to do with the proliferation of many of the best riders into commercially-funded freeriding, rather than the formally recognized discipline of DH? Look at T. Vanderham for example. Doesn't really race DH any more, but obviously he's quite capable in the discipline even without "training" purposefully for DH.

The winds are changing on the XC scene from what I can see. BC has managed to populate the race scene with a disproportionate number of Canada's top XC riders for many years now, with the cream of the crop always seeming to rise toward the top from constant exposure to the available terrain and longer riding season in many parts of BC. However, the well looks like it is drying up somewhat, and the sheer numbers of juniors competing in ON and QC are reversing that trend very quickly. The riding options in BC are too varied to attract and retain many teens on the XC side anymore. Lots of participation in a couple of the high school XC leagues in some areas, but not many movign toward a more serious path of competition.

In summary, in the future it looks as if most of our top XC riders will come from ON and QC, our top freeriders from BC more often than not (duh) and our top DHers? Well, as you've pointed out we're on the knife edge 1 rider away on each of the men's and women's sides from not having any full-timers on the DH circuit, period.