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He raced DH this season too. Qualied at Lenzerheide, injured his wrist at Leogang, eased back into some Enduro after some rehab. Made it into the big show at Snowshoe. Smacked noggin during MSA practice and that was the season. Still a top prospect no reason to think he won't find a ride next season.
There's a really good video from former World Superbikes racer Taylor Mackenzie where he shows exactly this structure, and how it works well. Also good for athletes in case a team folds, as they've already got a good chunk covered. And it can never be a bad things for athletes to get good at knowing (and calculating) their value, then selling sponsorship.
Like Brendan Fairclough has been doing for several years now. It's definitely a model for the future.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1WcZ72LIxe/?hl=en
If Nukeproof is as dead as some are speculating, then what happens to Nukeproof-Sram? I know there's some speculation Mr. Hill takes a bit of a step back, but Elliot Heap, Kelan Grant, and Dan Booker are each quite competitive.
Another factor is that team has good management via a well-connected Nigel Paige. Helps a lot to have a guy like that around when shopping sponsors.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Gwin and John Hall going their separate ways. Gwin on a new bike and based in Windrock full time. John staying on in a formal role at Intense in California.
Edit: but I’d personally love to see Gwin hang around and get a win on that intense.
That’s a fair point. I didn’t think about them going their own ways. But that could make sense. It would be weird to not see John pulling wrenches for Gwinn though.
Precisely. I think a very, very smart move for Forbidden.
She’s got a very strong following on the U.K. Instagram/YouTube bike scene (if you’re into that sort of thing). She posts regularly, engagement is high and she comes across as very friendly and approachable. All great attributes for a brand ambassador and it won’t be costing Forbidden much more than a couple of ‘free’ frames a year. They know exactly what they’re doing.
I full well know that it is a far better ROI to sponsor “influencers” over actual racers, and I know the industry has been and will continue to throw more money that way, but I’m still allowed to hate it. I get so bummed seeing sponsorship dollars flung at Instagram riders making average, run of the mill, background noise content for 10k plus people, than going to someone pouring their heart and soul into hours of training, riding, and generally busting their ass in search of chasing the dream and putting up results that at best, a few thousand will see.
I spend time wrenching for our local NICA development team during their race season and I spent an absurd amount of hours this off season emailing companies asking for support for this year because these kids grind themselves into the ground riding base miles and going to the gym for basically nothing, simply because they love the act of racing bicycles. I’m very grateful a handful of companies have the same view I do (thank you Tifosi, Better Bolts, MountainFlow, ODI and MTX) , racing is the very tip of the pointy end of our sport, filiming yourself on your weekly Saturday mates ride and posting it to YouTube is low hanging fruit. It’s an unfortunate hill to die on, but I’m willing to do so.
I don't think there really is an 'average' to say they're paying below, or at, or above.
There are so few riders being paid in MTBing--especially enduro right now that the 'averages' mean little.
Last season, there were a handful of men racing EWS that are making good cash... Like Rude, Jesse, Moir, Hill, Maes and maybe a couple others all making $150k+, maybe $200k+ with other sponsor salaries. Then it drops off quick. Probably less that 20 other riders making actual salaries of $50k or more a year.
Going into 2024, we've seen a ton of cutting. I'd bet the number of male EWS-only racers making $50k+ in salaries, will be under 15. Maybe under 10.
I think it's doing Meg White a disservice to call her just an "influencer" - she's a legit racer with multiple national level wins.
As for sponsoring influencer over athletes - remember, it's a marketing arrangement. The sponsor picks the people to support who will most likely move the needle in terms of sales.
If racers don't want to lose marketing investment, they need to get better at being like Neko - a perfect blend of athlete and brand storyteller. The modern athlete in any sport is a brand. Its just that MTB is very, very slow to come to terms with that.
John is a smart man... sees the writing on the wall... Gwin likely racing only 1-2 more seasons. He's in a 'real' job role at Intense (product development). He lives in California, 3,000 miles away from his racer. I'd not be surprised at all if he took a full-time gig at Intense and stopped doing world cups with Gwin. That said, if Gwin is doing his own team with Intense frames, I could see John keeping his full time position at Intense and ALSO go on the road to the 7 world cups and world champs to wrench for Aaron (plus maybe a couple other races).
Angel Suarez posted a story from a rather bland looking field in North Carolina. That field just so happens to be the parking lot for Ride Rock creek, confirming the rumor of his frameworks ride.
Im betting we see an old YT mob reunion soon with Gwin at Windrock.
I think she use to be in a band 😂
proper spy geekery
If there's anyone but Jack,Jesse and Richie getting paid anywhere near 50k next year I'd be surprised.
It'd be interesting to know what Isabeau's getting from her sponsors - she's fairly dominant which you'd hope would come with a reasonable renumeration.
Related to that, the same goes for Melanie Pugin. Riding weird brands with non-endemic sponsors would suggest it's for the money, but I wonder how much that really is.
Ollie Lowthorpe no longer with Norco according to his IG post this morning. Maybe Norco is freeing up more cash for the GOAT ?? Hmm 🤔
Cutting costs to cut costs AND to pay for the Goat's huge salary (compared to what they've paid people in the past). They're going for broke on this one... If he does well this year, or at least is in the mix, Norco will get a big brand recognition/positive recognition boost it needs.
i put this in the racing talk forum too, but hooray for #USDH!
https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/monster-energy-pro-downhill…
Danny off Cube and still doesn't have a ride for '24.
"Still looking for something moving forward, I will be on the start line in 2024 no matter what. Challenging times right now! See you all in 2024!"
I was talking about on the commercial side. Both disciplines share a lot of the same brands. Also, one half of the season the motor folks run outdoors on "natural" terrain tracks much like DH does. So, again, commercially whether it's the television/streaming side or venues and attendance maybe there are some things both could learn from each other. Amazing how ignorant and closed minded people can be about what they love.
Personally, I would love to see and maybe this does happen and I do not hear about it. I would love to see some of the past folks get more involved and get their input on possibly making this world we all love bigger. I know some of the greats are involved in teams but it maybe on promoter side as well.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and you all have a Happy New Year.
They have cut around half of their employees and almost the entire rider roster to make room for the GOAT. Going for broke is an apt way to describe it.
afaik, greg isn't a protected rider going into the season. qualifying will be a must for the first race. his ability shouldn't hold him back from qualifying, but a crash, a mechanical a small injury...anything can happen.
Aggy off YT
such a boomer to see a lot of athletes getting dropped off...
Also a very real possibility that they aren’t picking up Greg and are just hurting as a company with the current state of affairs.
Angie Marino just dropped a new edit and announced it’s her last project with canyon. Add her to the list the lemoine and genon. They are getting rid of a lot of their freeride athletes.
A representative from Norco Factory Racing at MSA mentioned a pause in new bikes for 2024 as they move through inventory with plans to update models with technology from the race program in 2025.
Haven’t heard anything about layoffs at Norco recently
Funny though, found a PinkBike article about Norco shutting down DH and XC teams in 2023, and as we all now that never happened.
Who else is itching for race season to start? Lol
This no new bikes notion is false, but more of a discussion for the Tech Rumours thread than this one.
Norco did end its XC race team in 2023, they had rising stars, or at least contenders, in Gwen Gibson and Carter Woods and just let it die...
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