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Specialized (up until this year, obviously) sponsors DH legend Gwin as a DH athlete. He rides MX for shits and giggles and gets hooked up by KTM because he's influential in a marketplace where there's potential customer overlap.
Gwin and Renner's setup are exactly 180º different from eachother. But I do understand your point and that the potential concept of Gwin getting monetary support from KTM (or any other non-bicycle industry corporation) to race DH is not out the realm of possibility.
press release
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Sam Blenkinsop to Race 2016 Enduro World Series
Norco Factory Racing is excited to announce that team rider Sam Blenkinsop will compete in five rounds of the 2016 Enduro World Series. The World Cup-winning downhill specialist raced the French and New Zealand EWS events last season, earning two top ten finishes.
“The two EWS events I rode last season were a lot of fun, yet very challenging which is exactly what I’m looking for,” said Sam. “I’m the type of rider who performs better the more I race, so I’m excited to compete in even more events next year.”
A threat to any podium, Blenki’s signature fast and oh-so-loose style will be on full display at EWS stops in Chile, Argentina, Italy, USA and Canada.
Sam will be racing aboard the 2016 Norco Range outfitted with components from Race Face, Novatec/Factor, Fox, Schwalbe, HT, Formula, MRP, and Shimano.
His schedule will also include the full calendar of UCI World Cup DH and Crankworx events. The Kiwi will look to build off a strong 2015 season that saw him win the Crankworx World Tour DH Championship title, finish 5th at the Fort William World Cup, and 7th at the World Championships.
Working with PerformX Training’s Todd Schumlick, who is also the Norco Factory Team owner and manager, Sam has been training hard through the off-season and is looking forward to more success in 2016.
Source
Gwinn keeps suspense!
nothing weird about finding a solution to that...
The tradeoff is possibly less pedalling efficiency, but they may not matter to Sam if the bike pedals well regardless of the change, or if the track puts much more of an emphasis on bump absorption than all-out sprinting speed."
That said i find it pathetic that there is no female racer on their factory or supported dh teams - neither a junior nor an elite female rider. The same goes for the Syndicate and GT as well, amongst others. The field at the top of the female category is perhaps not that wide - but i honestly think that it should be mandatory to have both a junior guy and a girl on each top 10? team, as well as an elite female rider. They might not get paid a whole lot, but just the access to race support, equipment and logistics should make up for it imo. Is it fair that a comparatively much weaker woman should get the support that a top 40-60 male might get? No, i guess not - but it sure does wonders for recruiting, male and female alike, to have some more women in the sport. Adding a more pronounced presence in the female demographic should be more than worth it imo. I guess in making the more sport more tv-friendly, meaning adding bigger jumps and the likes, we might be effectively countering the recruiting of more women to the world cup - heck not everyone is Casey Brown either - but that is another discussion all together.
and whoever decided to shut down/threaten with legal actions team rumors is damned fool. I cannot remember as interesting an off season as last year. While Specialized might have born the brunt of a few jibes - let's face it , they deserve it - it was a superb way of generating interest throughout the winter, much more so than this year.
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