2022 MTB World Championship - Downhill Track Walk
Take a look at the 2022 World Championships Downhill course as we join the Track Walk in Les Gets.
All photos: Jack Fletcher
After teams were setting up in the pits and XCO riders were out scoping their lines on Day 1 of the World Championships week on Monday, Tuesday saw downhillers bump into Les Gets, and that meant it was time to get on the gondola for the track walk. Our photographer Jack Fletcher caught a ride up to make his way down the hill with the Canyon CLLCTV, including Troy Brosnan.
Overall, the course uses a similar track to last year, with some subtle changes to how it has been taped. This will have a big impact on line choices available.
As the track runs from high to low down a whole freaking mountain, riders will have a lot of different surfaces: roots, loose dirt, loam, hard packed dirt (that may blow out in the dry)… it will be continually changing all week.
The top of the course is off camber on grass with bomb holes, these will have race lines developing once practice starts. Then the track enters the forest, into Loamville with roots criss-crossing the track.
The racing lines from the 2021 World Cup are still packed in hard, and on the fast fire roads riders need to manage gravel sitting on hardpack.
Lower on the course, the terrain is really dry loam and off camber as well. Further on the course has loose sections in over grown off camber grass.
While right now there are no obvious fast lines in some parts of the course, practice will take care of that, as the best riders in the world dial in their lines – and perhaps sight a few race day options for marginal gains.
The final push to the line needs a flat out pedal and pump to the line, once you've mastered an unrelenting track. At this stage it's dry and clear, but there is talk of rain for race day. If this happens then it will be a switch to B-lines to prevent coming unstuck
The course according to Kael Foale
'It's pretty different to anything I have seen, and the cameras don't do it justice.' Kael said of the course after doing his track walk. And as always, what we see on screen is nothing like how it is on the dirt. 'It's way steeper and longer – it looks fun, but it's a big track.'
Riders develop by racing different tracks, longer, shorter, steeper, more technical – and of course, riders have their strengths based on how they ride. For Kael, he's looking forward to the more technical elements.
'Parts of it should suit me, I like the steeper technical stuff so I'm keen for that. Some of the high speed might take a bit to get used to but I think it will work.'
'The idea is to make it feel like another race weekend. It's definitely feels like the World Champs with everyhing being scaled up 10 notches. But I'll try to just run the same process as a smaller race, and make it feel like what I'm used to.'
