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Multiple World Champion and WC winner Danny Hart with no ride is just bonkers.
It is a disservice to other competitors to claim Ms. White has "multiple national level wins". R&R shows a single Elite/Pro category win for her, in a field of one, at Moelfre in 2018. She has some Open/Age group wins at a few BDS's and local enduros.
White is a legitimate racer, her added social media presence and low investment requirement evidently means she's worth sponsoring.
Claiming athletes need to get better at being like Neko is a bit silly. He's a great brand storyteller because the brand he represents is literally his story to tell. Being faster is still the priority for 95% of racers because the best "brand storytelling" a racer can do is win. Unless they take that bike to the top, what story is there to tell?
Now Ethan nell off yt also
Also he doesn't have a ride for 2024
Commencal - Schwalbe says will be a new rider
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1aDFgNMFs2/?igsh=MTV5cjhjYnM2ZzY1eA==
Did you not see the multiple "Welsh Enduro" wins. i.e. Wales, the country. Appreciate that nuance may be lost on non-UK people - the UK is a United Kingdom of separate countries: England, Scotland, Wales and NI.
I also don't think it's "silly" to say athletes need to get better at being a brand representative/storyteller for their sponsors, rather than just the race results. There's a handful of hardcore race fans who can remember who placed where and when, but a far, far greater potential audience of people engaging with an athlete who documents their training, setup, riding and racing online. At the extreme zenith of this, Lionel Messi's value isn't solely the fact he's won everything - it's the story, the image, the window into his world through his socials that create the sales conversions for his partners and his financial value.
What the UK calls a "country" is practically what America calls a "state", and what most of the world calls a "province/territory". It's not special, I'm a British citizen too and it is administratively the same thing, the English just have to appease Wales and Scotland by calling them "countries".
So, still effectively regional racing. Albeit in a really small region comprising a smaller population than most American states. This isn't to criticize her achievements, I race non-professionally in a regional series and it is still very difficult. If Welsh Enduro wants to be a proper top-level domestic series it could at least provide professional categories for women, not just men.
My point is being really good will guarantee success. Being popular might help. People want to know the story that brought success, in the case of Mullaly and White. A few good racers being dropped is the outlier, not the norm. Even in those cases, it could be argued their careers were not precisely on the rise, in which case greater social media presence could've helped their value. But that "popularity" will rarely comprise over half the estimated evaluation of an athlete, performance will vastly be the dominant factor so that is where an athlete's priorities should be.
Good argument/advise for a racer in 2021, not currently. Being fast and having good race results is not enough anymore - see the criteria in PB Academy season 3 for reference. Also, notice how the racers that are being dropped from their sponsors are ones with very little social media presence, not a coincidence. I also wished it was different, but it is not.
Btw, wtf with that comment about the UK. That's the most Texas comment ever.
If you are a sponsor and you have a suspicion that racing might get more difficult to view in the future than investing is riders who can produce their own content seems like a logical direction.
her race results are nothing special, the Welsh enduro series is a very small regional series with little exposure
having 30k or however many followers she has is a lot of reach for some brands.
however if a company gives a frame to a rider and a social media person posts about it being good for free then that’s a easy business decision.
most social media people are just cheap advertising methods for big conpanies.
if you post about a product and use hashtags your basically doing free advertising for a brand.
your part of the problem, why would a brand pay for athletes or advertising when people do it for free?
Bummer. Always liked his style and clean bike builds. Still kind of expected. Did not see much of him lately, plus no Rampage this year. Aggy and Ace off YT too. Putting money aside for that new DH mob I hope
Wales didn't get an independent legislature under the crown until the 90s. American states are in many ways more independent than any of the UK's countries, and all states have had independent legislature since creation.
PB Academy is a reality TV show not the real world of racing, and they selected a freerider. Freeriders are in my opinion still athletes that have to prioritize their skills on the bike. To say they're simply influencers first and athletes second ignores the years of practice & dedication it takes to perform those stunts competently.
I think that might be Ollie Davis
Interesting that he tags Martin Whitely but no one else...
But isn't Danny Hart the exact example of how the world (and bikes) spins so differently compared to let's say 10-20 years ago when racing was just enough but that is simply not enough today? (Unless there is something else that makes you special – such as G.M.).
He (Danny) is a kinda invisible guy in the sense that there is really not so much around besides him racing. And that might start to be a hard position for companies even if you are a top dog under the clock.
More folks are realizing that they need to up their game in that way even though they are top ten riders – a great example is Troy Brosnan who is basically an Australian Danny Hart, doing his racing and nothing besides that. However, you can see him doing some content recently and figuring out how it fits him and what "sells".
For sure it does not fit everyone – some are more natural (B.K.) in that way, some less (T.B.). But people and companies demand more, I guess. People want to see someone doing something they are passionate about but unable to perform on that level. And they want it will all that sauce, the whole story... from your morning coffee to whatever. It's kinda weird.
And I'm not saying I like that... but it is what it is.
On the left is Elliot Jamieson riding what appears to be a Commencal after riding for Norco since he was a Junior DH racer. More Norco exits.
Liked by Devitate cycles…. Interesting
Could be something but probably not, the person who basically runs the whole deviate cycles brand in New Zealand is the same person who is incharge of dvo suspension in nz, brady used to ride for dvo nz. You see that deviate account liking posts from heaps of nz riders sponsored by other brands
Thanks for sharing your insightful opinions on the nationhood of Wales and Scotland, however I feel they're wasted on the Team Rumors forum. Have you considered a speaking tour of Wales and Scotland? That way you could re-educate the locals and correct their misunderstandings. I'm sure you'd receive a warm welcome.
Yes, i thought of that! They follow each other on insta
José Borges off Canyon Collective.
What are you on about? Danny is pretty active on social media and has great engagement with his posts, 230k instagram followers and 70k subscibers (50k more than Troy Brosnan btw) on his youtube which he posts good videos on about once a month. Of the top dogs hes for sure one of the more visible outside of racing...
Damn, canyon makes room for someone heavy or just shaves costs!?
For Danny Hart a natural way could be a thing with Adam Baryton, they share a lot of trainings...
Symon Godziek off NS bikes
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1bqDF5A65q/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
David hinted he is too a couple of days ago
Hart and Brayton would be a great combo and create great content. However, if the best racers can't compete due to lack of sponsorship related to non-racing social media obligations, what's the point?
The rumor is there heading to the big S. It’s like 20 pages back.
Just making things up here…. Agissiz to Forbidden.
Ethan Nell’s new sponsor Washington county bankruptcy court. First sponsor deal of 2024, repossessing the Porsche from his last mediocre edit.
Here ya go: https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/2024-team-rumors?page=45#comment-38…
re: canyon (and possibly other big brands)? it's an XC olympic year. could the big dumps and a brand like canyon be for XC talent at the olympic level? i have no insight or idea, but have to imagine olympics are at the forefront of budget talks for brands w/ an xc bike.
re: danny - as mentioned above, he has a very solid social and youtube presence. to say he's "kinda invisible" speaks to the way the system works IMO. he's not an over-the-top personality on camera or vlogger with click-baity/controversial subject matter, so he's not recommended by the machine, making him invisible to most mountain bikers. if you find him, however, he's documenting his experiences in a personal, real way, which many riders find interesting. troy is the same way IMO. he's putting in a good effort with fun vids and insane riding, but i rarely get him recommended. (i don't subscribe to most channels in hopes of seeing how this all works).
i watch skateboarding videos on youtube all the time. i can't count the number of rollerblade videos that get recommended to me. i tell youtube not to recommend those channels, but i still get other rollerblading channels recommended. apparently youtube thinks skateboarding and rollerblading are all the same. OR youtube knows a true, inner identity i have yet to accept...that i want to to be an inliner.
one swear word in the wrong place or discussing the history of a team robot water bottle with a controversial saying on it will mean a video goes absolutely nowhere. when i took the word "abuse" out of the "bike abuse" video titles on youtube, they started doing better. if there's not a crash in the thumbnail, crickets. that's the game that has to be played and it's pretty stupid. it's a game that has nothing to do with bike riding created by people who aren't focused on bikes.
if i look at the big social/youtube stars that are (or were) on less-common bike brands, i'm pretty certain that i've never seen their bike brands under local riders on the local trails; e-bike or regular. does their influence impact sales? i'm sure it does at a national/global level, but locally it's hard to see.
the job of an athlete/racer seems just as difficult as the job of marketing/sponsor person trying to crack the code of what's going to sell stuff. they're both dealing with results, and in the end, regardless of winning practice, followers or view counts, the clock and the spreadsheet don't lie.
More signs of Kona's demise; Kerry has done an AMAZING job bringing visibility to Kona and getting people to buy their bikes (check the comments). If they're dumping him things must be really bad...
Post a reply to: 2024 TEAM RUMORS