Originally Posted by
ErichVonCartman
Also like I said earlier... it seems we modify "XC courses to fit the bike" and not the other way around. I see these XC courses as kinda rigged now, and they are not traditional XC courses that I have known.... So when you design a course for a bike, don't you think those bikes will have an advantage?
If by "traditional XC courses" yout mea the bridle paths and fire roads the Euros sadly made the norm in the early 00's then yes, some of the recent World Cup courses don't meet that.
The courses have gotten more technical because people weren't too enthused about watching skinny dudes on tight clothes riding bikes on bridle paths and fire roads with every rock spray painted so it could be avoided. I think the new courses are closed to what mountainbike races should be: people racing on mountainbike trails. That includes technical sections, singletrack, drops, rock gardens, etc...
PS: when you say that you can design a course for FS bikes you are just agreeing that terrain dictates which one would be faster. But I'm sure you can move the goal posts now that the straw man burnt.