Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
Connor is a good mountainboarder, no doubt about it. But is he good enough to win the Pro category Downhill competition after only competing for a couple of seasons and not practicing much? Well, today the answer is yes, and that leads me to ponder this anomaly for reasons why.
Connor is definitely a good rider. He rode well in last year’s World BoarderX Championship and he definitely stepped up by joining the Pro’s. A good level of riding is a prerequisite for winning. Without the skills he wouldn’t have stood a chance.
His way of riding fitted the track. It’s a pretty steep track, a bit slidy and with a few tricky corners. Most of the other riders were going into the corners as fast as they could and then scrubbing and sliding their way round. Connor never slid, he never scrubbed, he never took his wheels off the ground. He rode smooth winding lines that meant he went into the corners with the right speed and came out in control and lined up for the next. This approach would have given him a lower top speed but a higher average speed.
He had lots of runs. Nine in fact, compared to most riders having four to six. These extra runs gave him more opportunity to learn the track and he made use of those opportunities to figure out his lines and improve his time.
There weren’t many other Pro’s. There were only two or three other riders of a similar ability. Having less competition in itself doesn’t help a rider win as it doesn’t matter if you are beaten by one rider or ten, you are still beaten, but in Connor’s case the lack of competition was so low that psychologically he knew he only had two other riders to beat. One of those only had two runs so didn’t get the same opportunity to learn the track.
So, the four elements of Connor’s success are skill, adaption (fitting riding style to the track) , quantity (more runs gives more opportunity to learn the track), and lack of competition (not many other riders).