A Downhill World Cup in Poland?! Vital Downhill Fantasy Pre-Race Show

Welcome to another pre-World Cup discussion as part of Vital MTB Downhill Fantasy! The first race of the season in Fort William, Scotland, kicked things off with a bang! Now, just two weeks later, the excitement continues as we head to a completely new venue for the second round of the UCI World Cup downhill series from Bielsko-Biala, Poland.
Join Vital's own Jason Schroeder, ex-World Cup mechanic John Hall, and podcast co-host and contributing editor Tanner Stephens as they discuss who's looking fast after Fort William, what to expect from the new track, and who to keep on your radar this weekend.
0:00 - Intro & How to Play Fantasy
2:00 - John gives insight into how to approach a new track
5:49 - New track details and discussion
11:00 - Will electronic suspension systems be a thing again this weekend?
14:54 - Loic Bruni’s setup speculation
22:32 - Will experience be an advantage at a new venue?
24:42 - How teams find the best lines during practice
30:28 - Injury updates
34:50 - Fantasy notes and insights from round #1
44:33 - Junior Women predictions
46:48 - Junior Men predictions
52:02 - Elite Women predictions
57:03 - Elite Men predictions
Play Vital Downhill Fantasy - www.vitalmtb.com/fantasy
More mountain bike news and reviews - www.vitalmtb.com

[@Bigmountain73]

Call the wild card the " Hall Pass"

[@reemusbodeemus2656]

Just joined the Global and b practice fantasy leagues. I really dig the way you guys are approaching the format and this discussion was inspiringly wonderful! Thanks!!

[@kubazaborowski7570]

where you want to choose the lines ? :D its typical polish tight track with one line , straight to the next berm or table or.. next berm to the table to the berm ;p

[@TeddyParker]

Crazy Jason brought up the scoring/budget changes in fantasy as I was looking at the 'best possible team' and wondering how the hell am I gonna organize anything like that lol. Are riders 'weighted' in some way? Because it seems like me and likely plenty of others got not great points for picking Loic and Vali. So if they are expected to win, more or less, you should almost never pick them. As they can almost never outperform their scaling/weighting. It looks like the sweet spot for fantasy DH, as it stands, is picking mid pack riders who you think are gonna finish between 10-20 when they are expected to normally finish 40-60. I guess? lol

[@vitalmtb]

Riders are 'weighted' or valued based on past results, both from this season and last, and current ranking. This weekend in Poland will be based on current overall standings since we don't have any past results from Bieksko-Biala to base rider value off of. But the goal is to have potential race-winners at a price that still makes them a valuable team pick. It is a balance of reading the qualifying and semi-finals sheet, finding which racers are looking good for finals but aren't super expensive, while also picking a few big names that you feel are worth the cost. In Fort William, racers like Luca Shaw, Dakotah Norton, Daniel Parfitt, Tahnee Seagrave, and Heather Wilson, were all great value-rich picks with an excellent chance of winning the race (which Heather did do). Vali and Loic will be the most expensive this weekend, but the overall spread should be more even in each category. Also, just because they are expensive, doesn't mean they will win. That is all part of the fun with fantasy-anything can happen on race day.

[@oldkayakdude]

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