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paintballimpact.com / Sports / Mountain Biking Downhill Competition
The Mountain Biking Downhill Competition
Americans are never satisfied. Though the sports of baseball, hockey, soccer, an American football have been around for well over a century, the adventurous American public has been continuously searching for new sports that will satisfy our need for speed. We also like to challenge ourselves against nature's toughest elements. For thousands of years, we have stared with wonder at nature's whitewater rapids and mountains that reach all the way up to the clouds. It was only a matter of time before people started to climb the mountains and navigate the rapids. Recently, technology has caught up with the adventure seeking enthusiasts in the sports of rock climbing and whitewater rafting. Though cycling has brought Americans a cheap, clean means of transportation, healthy exercise, and world-famous road races, Americans have recently turned their focus to what trouble they can get into with their bikes off road. From there the sport of mountain biking was born. Within this discipline are two main categories of events: the cross-country competition, and the downhill competition. The cross-country competition is a very long event, usually between 25 and 40 km with varied terrain that includes various hills and inclines. In the Mountain biking downhill competition, riders navigate a zigzagging, mostly downhill course in a timed race.
The downhill competition: While the biggest challenge of the long-distance cross-country race is maintaining a high endurance level over a very long distance, the steep decline of the course poses other challenges. The course takes place on a steep slope dotted with obstacles. Unlike the cross-country race, where the riders begin the race at the same time and place, cyclists start the course at intervals of between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. Each rider gets two passes through the course and the times to complete each pass are added together for a final score. The racer completes the course in as short a time as possible, all the while staying within the boundary lines. The course usually has a drop of at least 400 m over the length of the course, which ranges between 2 and 5 km. If there are over 140 competitors, a qualifying race is usually held prior to the event. Usually the top 25 women and the top 50 men in downhill competition world rankings automatically qualify for the opening round of the event.
Like in the motorcycling Grand Prix, racers use their whole body to navigate high-speed turns and bends. When a cyclist comes upon a high-speed turn, he leans his body and leg toward the inside of the turn to keep the bike on the slope. The leg towards the inside of the turn comes off the pedal to provide a point of balance and to keep the rider upright in case the bike begins to skid. The entire race lasts about four minutes over a 2 to 5 km course, so racers reach very high rates of speed on a narrow, windy, and sometimes sandy track. In such a hazardous sport, it is just as important to learn how to fall as it is to learn how to ride, as the occasional wipeout is almost inevitable. At certain points along the course, racers can top out at speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour. For added stability, the bike tires are usually 63 to 76 mm wide, significantly wider than those used by their cross-country cousins. Cyclists keep their legs bent to absorb shock from especially steep sections of the course. The riders constantly keep their hands near the brake levers, using the brakes to check their speed. Paintball markers and mountain biking frames are made for many of the same materials, including aluminum, carbon fiber, and titanium.
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