The Val di Sole World Cup track is a technical nightmare littered with steep chutes, giant boulders and slippery roots. However, the feature that the riders are struggling with the most are the wooden bridges.

That’s right, a feature that we all comfortably ride day-in day-out at trail centres are causing the world’s top riders real issues and some are even calling for them to be removed.

Top riders such as Stevie Smith, Joe Smith and Andrew Crimmins have have all slid off them but the most notable casualty was Steve Peat, who had to have stitches on a nasty gash on his leg after his crash on them. He has started the hashtag #woodenbridgesdontbelongondhtracks in protest.

So why are they struggling so much? Basically the conditions and speed of the riders mean that a lot of mud is being dragged on the bridges, this makes them incredibly slippery, despite the cursory covering of chicken wire. As these guys are always trying to ride on the limit, the smallest variable in grip can see them off the bike before they have time to react.

Riders are having to take it steady on those sections in practice which isn’t really what they want to be doing when it comes to qualification or racing. Thankfully, the rumours are that the bridges are being sorted but what this means and whether it will have the desired effect is yet to be seen. Watch the race live on Red Bull TV at 13:00 on Saturday to find out