We shot some raw practice footage today at Rice-Eccles Stadium with the trusty iPhone 12 during the press day festivities for the 2021 Salt Lake City 2 SX finale. On the video, make sure you change the setting on the Facebook video to HD, the SD takes you back to 1993 dial up. To change that, click the little gear on bottom right of the video.
It looked like the riders got to break-in about 2/3 of the track today. It was a warm 82 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same. They did not allow the riders to hit the the whoops today that are directly after the finish line jump and the rhythm section that followed before turning right down the start straight.
In the section the riders did ride, the long rhythm section was the big mystery of the day, especially for the 450 riders with enough power under their assses to get creative. The 450 riders were trying quite a few different options through the section—250’s ended up with only one obvious fast line most got figured out quickly—but there did end up being two lines pretty close to the same speed for the 450’s. You’ll see Malcolm Stewart trying both the fast lines in the video but most 450 riders were doing the table to table, step-off line at the end of the section. Seeing the transition and face on that first table—small,rounded with absolutely no lip at all—and how far they need to get to land on the second table, then butter it so they can step-off, reminds you quickly how gnarly these guys are.
