Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
I also took a mountain biking class in college and only one third of the class were women, and about half of those were only there with their boyfriends.
The only lasting way to get more women racing in the World Cup is to get more women riding mountain bikes. Some of those who ride will want to race locally. Some who race locally will want to expand their racing opportunities nationally. Some who race nationally will want to race the WC. Of those, some will actually have the skills to do it. Honestly, its the same with the men, you just have a much, much larger pool of riders to draw from.
But there is one big obstacle to getting women to ride mountain bikes. One that I have yet to see anyone on any MTB forum or comment section mention. They have to want to try it, and then they have to like it enough to spend their time and money on it. Forcing all WC teams to sign on a female racer will do nothing to convince women to want to spend time and money on biking.
We shouldn't force teams to sign anyone, there are about 30 registered trade teams in the UCI, there are women on I think 14 of those teams, so almost half of the teams have recognized the benefits of having women on their programs.
I am co-team manager for SRAM TLD RACING, Vali Holl's race program and these benefits aren't just to practice some moral licensing, it is because she is very marketable, very good with product development, insane to watch on a bike, fun to be around and has a growing and engaged fan base just to name a few reasons.
There are plenty of guys, masters, juniors and women that do not have the support they need to live the dream of being a world cup DH racer, there are not many spots to go around in the "multi billion dollar industry" (I assume you just mean the bicycle business, one that probably 90% of doesn't pay any attention to DH, or make products for that market).
These discussions never end well, you seem upset, especially with your "mansplaining" comment, but as someone who supports dozens of female athletes in sport, for the last 30 yrs-I would have said the same comment if someone said "Make it mandatory to have a junior, Mandatory to have a masters, Mandatory to have a pro dude from USA" etc....I only have an issue with teams being FORCED to do something they don't want to do when it comes to rider selection.
Flame on.
What is the main driver for a team now days to race WCDH, let's face it.... it isn't to sell DH bikes anymore.
Is it like F1, where it's just pushing the technical boundaries of the sport for future R&D and product dev? Is it just the love for the sport? Is there any way to actually return a profit? I'm asking you as a team manager here.
I always thought to myself If I won the lotto and was a multi gazzilionaire I'd start a WC team because of my passion for the sport, but as a businessman I couldn't see the return in it.
For DH to reach F1 status riders would have to run a different prototype bike at each track, assembled using crazy ideas. One-off upside down forks, linkage forks in the front, gearboxes, custom geometries, etc. But given the way the industry is sponsored (from within), there is no way in that happening.
Funny thing .. All these attempts to make everything equal haven't brought up the participation levels... Payouts are the same, yet the number of female racers hasn't changed dramatically...
It would be interesting if we could see the percentage of women racers vs women who ride and compare that same percentage to the men... I suspect that a similar percentage of men race vs. ride but there is still more men that ride.. Equal payouts only affect a small number of people.
Edith: typo
Keep in mind UCI receives funding from national federations and national federations receive (most of the time) funding from national government aka people taxes (and 50% of them are women). UCI rules are politic (in the most virtuous meaning), they are supposed to support an equal and fair world we want to live in. It's not just a product with some marketing. It's fine if teams don't want or can't support female riders but they don't have to be a trade team.
Social change and progress don't always appear as a free market organic outcome, it needs some impulsion.
I can find 20 French guys just scrolling on IG with decent level, taking time to build and feeding their IG accounts and none of these would get much more than co-factory deals or at best a small gear budget. In the Mountain Sports it is not as much of a problem but it is also more complicated to find women ambassadors than men. Now what is interesting is that I personally know probably 15/20 girls being very active Skier/Alpinist/Climber while I know 4/5 grils really into their MTB, not even DH mtb. So could it somehow explain why it is easier for me to find Mountain Athletes rather than MTB athletes ?
If the sport is a small niche (which DH is, let alone Women DH) you can't expect to have that many people deserving a full time pay because that market is too small to finance it. Remember sponsoring is Marketing, marketing is financed by the margin made on products sold to that said market. or if you are lucky and your sport is bad-ass (like DH) you can manage to get some corporate financing as it could help them make whatever they are selling cooler to the mass-market. Nobody cries because almost no athletes in Kayak or Sabre Fencing make a living out of it, yet those sports are probably still bigger than women DH. One could even argue that looking at BMX Racing very few manage to make a living out of it compared to DH Mtb (men and women) while the number of people taking part in the sport and competitions is probably bigger than DH.
So no, making girls mandatory won't help the sport, it is utter nonsense. Want to see more girls at DH WC level ? Well find the thing to make more girls engage into the sport and those numbers will naturally grow.
Not really. Just wanted to type a lot of horse crap while I'm on the toilet.
What jersey cut is gonna show off my dad-bod best?
Who's the best ortho in my city?
Who can do a STAT cardiology clearance on race week?
Marketing opportunities are endless.
The latest purple rampage product release had a photo of Brendan and his name listed, but was then removed 10 min later.
I'm especially interested in
- Jack Moir: the Shark is ready for new waters
- Thibaut Daprella: upcoming top Elite to grab, it would be a great asset for an upcoming team
- Veronika Widmann: the best value is female DH racing
- D. Trummer: will he get a decent full factory service?
- G. Williamson: he has the most Gucci bike and kit and he could maybe benefit from a bigger structure: Gucci gang
Masters of us puppets, keep pulling our striiiiiings!
Mx
https://www.commencalusa.com/PBCPPlayer.asp?ID=2080378
2 of the 5 are YT and with Martin (I think?) still running the Mob and Vali likely a podium next year maybe a whole new structure?
Women-focused, up-and coming, relatively cheap (there's a whole other discussion about why that's the case) team.
How about this?
- Höll
- Widmann*
- One junior woman tbd
I don't see Commencal letting Daprela get away so maybe he and Vidal are the downhill team with EWS being Antoine's main focus?
*And yes,I know Widmann is likely sticking with Insync and the bike they've said they're building
In addition, there is a vastly higher number of male riders and fans/viewers buying bikes. True, women rider numbers and fan numbers are slowly growing. However, once they get at least somewhat closer to the male numbers, and the competition gets deeper, women just don't move the needle as much in this particular sport.
Before I get berated into oblivion, I fully recognized all this is a catch 22 for women. To get a more competitive field, they need more competitive riders and that requires more outreach to women. However, to force teams into some type of gender-based affirmative action would only hurt the sport, reduce the total number of teams who can afford it.
I will await my down votes.
Post a reply to: 2020 Mountain Bike Team Rumors