Adrenaline Sports took Joost to Champéry, Switzerland, to take a first look at the World Championships track. Here are Joosts comments and a few pictures!
'My first impression? Wow! That mountain is steep as hell and as far as I can tell, this will be one awesome 4X track!
There were some rumours about it but it looks like the organisation is going to prove them wrong. The track isn't finished yet but we saw the first two parts and the last part. It starts short and steep. Right off the ramp there's a little drop and it goes on with stepdowns towards the first turn. There we will see the first problems...
They tried to create a double turn, two embankments next to each other. The riders in 1 and 2 have to pick the left embankment, the two riders on the outside will be forced to use the right one. The track designers think that because the inside line is tight (too tight in my opinion), the riders on the outside will gain more speed and are able to pass the riders on the inside on the next straight.
I think the outside is too far away. As a result everyone will try to get the inside and that will cause a lot of crashes I'm afraid. But they are going to test it and, if necessary, adjust it. We'll wait and see.The second part is about 40 metres long with some kind of moguls. Looking good. The the track has a hipjump and a bridge over the water and goes on in the forest.
There is still a lot of work to do. The builders told us there will be a steep rockgarden in the woods, a couple of turns, some jumps and a very technical section with tree roots. It takes a big stepdown to get out of the woods, followed by a big double and a 180 turn. This is a turn you can pull a 'all or nothing' move.
It's unsure what will see in the last part towards the finishline. The builders told us it will have a big stepdown. No, a huge stepdown. I'm curious. Nice to see a real mountainbike track, not a BMX one. The builders are dreaming of a World Champion who uses a fullsuspension bike and didn't had the holeshot. They want to eliminated the start adventage by using a drop right after it.
Concluding: they want a champion with real mountainbike skills. It's a good ambition in my opinion. Hopefully it will be as the builders have in mind. I'm confident about it!'
