2023 TEAM RUMORS

Lewis Buchanan reporting that UCI has banned him from racing due to his OnlyFans sponsorship

https://singletrackworld.com/2023/04/uci-bans-lewis-buchanan-for-onlyfa…

The UCI is ridiculous. 

I don't give two shits about it, tbh. I thought he was mostly retired from racing anyways. He must have known it was probable,  the whole thing sorta smells like a gimmick to get clicks. 

He made a good point, OnlyFans is not an issue in other industries. And FWIW, the influx of crypto into F1 for example is welcomed with open arms, including FTX's sponsorship of the Mercedes F1 team. Nobody bat an eye yet the shady dealings of FTX cost a LOT of people a lot of money. But here we are arguing about an 18+, paid only website? It's not applicable to kids (there's literally a paywall) and how many kids have a credit card? If they have it, can't their transactions be limited when it comes to 18+ stuff? Wouldn't that make it the ideal filter? Don't see how it would be an issue with the crowd of legal age and all, unless the UCI an arm of the Catholic Church or something...

We'll see if this is an isolated incident or if Stefan Garlicki suffers the same fate. I feel like he would be looking to race many more UCI sanctioned events than Lewis was.

It's merely a social media platform with a paywall, Twitter lets the same shit fly for free. UCI is gonna scare off other social media platforms from using riders as advertising space because that will always have certain implications. Not saying that a bunch were going to, but it is among the world's largest industries. Seems like a short-sighted decision.

Genuine question: the uci doesn't have to enforce all rules they have on the books, right?

Calling it just a social media platform with a paywall, while technically true, is somewhat disingenuous. That's like saying marin isn't a bike company cause they don't actually manufacture the bikes, they merely distribute them. They do design them tho, maybe this analogy would be better if it was a bike company that just slapped their name on catalog bikes. If 99% of it is porn and they make 99% of their money from said porn...

Regardless, the larger question is not if OF is porn, but rather if the uci should have the rule prohibiting porn sponsorship. 

Personally, porn doesn't bother me, OF seems like a fine platform, a better system than exploitative porn of old. But, I can see why uci might not want porn sponsorships: lots of kids watch racing. You parents out there imagine your 9 year old saw that and asks "what's only fans"? That and the god squad, I could see it being off putting to some potential fans/viewers.

Also I've never seen ads for porn on tv, youtube, or any social media platform, and I'd bet there's laws against it. If, for example, the leogang world cup was sponsored by bang bros and they had bang bros signs lining the track, then could discovery broadcast the race without getting into hot water? I suspect this might be primary reason for the uci rule. 

Taylor Vernon has a new frame for 2023. He used to race a Commencal last season. Maybe someone can identify this frame. Looks good, great for him that he pulled out a sponsor. The guy is fast but had some bad luck in the past.

prime rocket

https://primebicycles.com/product/rocket?color=1&size=L

Based off the podcast that was mentioned here before the owners of OF want to move away from porn on the site (and use other sites for that) and make OF what it was originally intended to do, a Patreon-style webpage. Sponsorship deals like these sure do look like it. And kids asking 'what's OnlyFans' is a prime example of why they are doing it as their parents will tell them the PG-13 version thus shifting the outlook of the site with the next generation of potential users.

What he said is probably just pr horseshit. If only fans really wanted to show they're not just porn, they'd make a separate but identical platform for non porn content only and call it something else. Having "only fans" emblazoned on a helmet is just like any other advertising, it's meant to get more people on that site where they might find "other" content where only fans makes their real money. But maybe I'm being too cynical. Some credit card companies made noise about no longer dealing with OF, that's the real and probably only reason they're spending money to try to whitewash their image. 

Not to mention that they're largely advertising in 'action sports,' like MTB, F1, supercross, etc., that are largely popular with men, e.g. primary porn consumption audience.

Jackson Goldstone posted on IG that he is just leaving the hospital after 4 days with a ruptured appendix.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq1tGSwrLOX/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I do hate when I drop a book and the last few pages of supplemental information pops out the binding. Wishing Jackson well on his recovery. 

Luckily he’s young, fit, and the WCDH doesn’t start for two months.

Sadly that's probably a niche joke since a lot of people born after 2000 will never read a book with an appendix 

Test Event DH Lourdes 2023 ... !

I didn't want to post it !

Wrong thread folks, check the 2023 racing talk thread (maybe the mods can fix it up top?) 

L☻L

Not a rumour so to speak, probably in the wrong thread as well… GT are making a big fuss about being all good and helping privateers etc but dropping their riders mid season.

I'm wondering what happened there as well, was it a strangely timed just end of contract and not picked back up or did something go down? It's unlikely given the rest of the GT line up that it's results related as most of their racers are far more social media presence than top 10 which isn't a bad thing with who they have. In that team, as much as I enjoy her on and off the bike presence wise, Katy would have been the more obvious cut after last year and being hit or miss due to injury if that was the case of budget vs time vs performance. Was there something that went sideways business wise?

Given GT’s track record and general attempts  to at least appear to be “good times” and not results oriented, there had to have been something that happened between them and Noga. It’s not really any of our business and it’s not fair to speculate baselessly, but I can’t help but be curious. 

Noga's contract is just like most pros and should have ended in December. IIRC, she signed a 2-year extension in 2021 so her contract should have gone all the way to the end of this year.

I wonder what happened.

Asa signed up with frameworks for jrs per nekos insta.

Heal up Iago, that sounds gnarly!

JFC, gnarly sounds like a bit of an understatement...