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EC is with Hyper. Check his IG for what he's doing. Just finished doing a riding camp, if I remember correctly.
the X2 with 210x55 seems availlable OEM and with us retailers only but not on fox's pricelist.
Rant over.
About Gwin. I'm all for guys getting paid what they are worth. It's the same in any business. If a sales guy brings in the sales and hits his targets he is entitled to his bonus. For sure Gwin didn't hit his targets in 2018. Maybe that's made everyone financing the team take a step back and reconsider.
My point about those older riders is they all had to find something new to keep them and families afloat. They didn’t leave setup for an easy future, where I think that’s part of Gwins goal.
I´m not a Gwin fanboy or anything but come on, he is injured once and doesn´t deliver runs that devastate the competition anymore and people think he´s done for? I don´t believe that.
I´m pretty certain a company willing to invest millions into a bicycle racing team for marketing reasons is capable of a more valid risk assessment procedure than simply "hurrdurr Gwin not win anymore, we no pay anymore".
Certainly anybody involved knows a racing team and the marketing value it produces is a continuous process of media exposure first and foremost and (constant) winning is nothing but a bonus.
Otherwise we´d end up with only one team per season as nobody would be willing to pay for second or third place riders.
I´d rather suspect Gwin has simply done his part for the company/team and isn´t worth investing the money anymore. He established the brand as a household name in record time. YT went from zero to hero in only a few years and i´m certain his hero status has helped tremenduously with that. Now is the time they can sell bikes even without constant podium domination.
With the apparent cost for his services i think he has become more of a flash to spark sales for companies than a rider to represent continuous effort. His aura will cling to a bike for a while even after he left the company as a sign of validation and accomplishment.
If YT can get somebody like Blenki or any other stylish top ten rider on the TUES after Gwin left, i think they are well set up for the future but with way less cost involved so that may be the reason they let him go.
I also read somewhere last season Trek doesn´t consider downhill a valid market, but they do in fact value the marketing value very highly and are willing to invest a lot in it. Gwin certainly knows his market value and he has already shown he´s willing to sell his services to the highest bidder (and i fully support this), so i guess he just went window shopping other teams as always and ended up with a better deal which the mob wasn´t willing to match.
If it was not Trek, i guess there´s other companies out there which came to the same conclusion about marketing values of downhill racing and Aaron Gwin in particular.
My money is still on Trek though.
My post wasn't a criticism of Gwin. The guy is a beast. He was unlucky with the type of injury he had. but you know what they say; 'Win on a Sunday, sell on a Monday'.
I fully expect Gwin's partners to have done their due diligence. Maybe Gwin's pay was heavily based on a bonus structure where race wins and the overall contributed a huge amount to his wage. This is the only way I can imagine YT etc were able to offer more than Specialized etc. Somebody with big bills might want to switch to a different, more regular pay structure.
This is all speculation of course. Gwin's a smart guy. I fully expect him to make a deal then come out fit in 2019.
This pretty much confirms it.
Post a reply to: 2019 Racing Rumors