@teamrumours on Twitter was running with this image to illustrate their thoughts on the 2012 international downhill series, are they correct?
Today it was announced a third major UCI approvedA�downhill series will be run in 2012. The iXS Downhill Cup has been running for many years now (you may remember Josh Button finished second overall in 2011A�andA�Troy Brosnan won theA�Leogang round earlier in the year against a pretty heavily stacked Senior Mens Field) and is now the official UCI European Series.
After the announcement, Freecaster’s newly formed DH1 series will be debuting in 2012 (which is on theA�UCIA�calendar),A�the UCI announced they are going to support the iXS Downhill Cup to “further develop mass audience awareness of the sport through targeted PR work”. What does that mean? It sounds a little wishy-washy to us! The timing is quite peculiar considering the announcement of the DH1 series.A�Extra awarenessA�is a good thing but is this going to happen by having a third major downhill series? Is it all getting blown out of proportion because the iXSA�Downhill Cup has been around for years andA�it’s just now the UCI are officially supporting it?A�Was it a knee jerk reaction by iXS at the threat of another high level series? The other statement by the UCI is it will help expand UCI racing to a more grassroots level, almost a feeder series to the World Cups, much like what happens in motocross, that’s a good idea, lets hope it works! Realistically what does it allA�mean? For spectators it appears to be win-win, more races means more chances to see the worlds best riders race each other. The flip side is for the riders and teams though. They now have to race up to three times as many races in the season. The main concerns for riders are; burning out from too many races or crashing and getting injured (think about sports such as MotoGP, Formula 1, etc they all race seasons now equivalent to racing three downhill series) or the other concern is the cost of getting to, accommodation in the race area and cost of entry. Are these valid points or just something riders and teams will adapt to? It leaves DH1 in a scramble to schedule races around the UCI World Cup and the European Series. What are teams going to place more emphasis on for 2012? We might just have to wait and see! We will try and get some views from riders because at this stage most of the comments are coming from the public forum. Whatever happens it looks like for 2012 thereA�will be downhill 24/7!