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Vid Persak won't be riding for Orbea bikes next season:
Kerry lives across the creek from me when I am in Virginia. He has been miserable the last two years being forced by Kona to race gravel to save his job…
Remember Kona hasn’t made a CX bike since 2019!
Funny, I just went to the Kona site to see if they had any CX bikes on close out. Just some super long gravel machines, I feel bad for Kenny having to race CX on those turds!
Hopefully he finds a sponsor with a more "viable" cross bike to race on.
pinkrollerblade.com
Ooh this could get real interesting as the is also the older of the Alran bros moving up, rumors are that he'll be in Commençal MucOff and both of them are already posting times at national rounds to beat current WC racer, juniors will be amazing next year!
Sadly it's probably un-likely. Less and less brands are really making dedicated CX bikes anymore. And if they are, they're not updating them/developing them/getting them under 'pros' racing CX. Couple this with the decline of CX racing, it all adds up.
Regarding Kerry himself, this could be a death nail to his pro cycling career as it's going to be tough to find sponsorship in the US at this point. That said, he's got lots of visibility, good results and a following, so maybe some brand will give him a paid ambassador/racer deal.
RE Spomer's thought that maybe Canyon opening budget for XC since it's an Olympic year:
-Don't think this is the case. They're not currently hiring new racers for just this year. That cake and budget is already baked. Big money signings (to get people on their roster for Olympics) would have taken place 1-2 years in the past and salaries would randomly increase this year because it's the Olympics.
This is worth a read , sad but probably the main reason for all the job lay offs…..
https://enduro-mtb.com/en/edr-on-the-brink-of-extinction/
Kerry works for Bikeflights now. After Kona fired all the riders and team managers in June Bikeflights was nice enough to give Kerry a wrapped sprinter. They want him to actually enjoy bike racing in 2024, and they will be covering all his domestic travel and racing(he just has to be the face of Bikeflights and the events he heads to).
His priority for race bikes next year are a superduper light FS bike for stage racing- and real CX bikes.
Big ups to Bikeflights for supporting atheletes doing what they love.
Not to mention George Madley on Madison Saracen as a first year WC Junior
They're twins.
One of them is going to be on Muc-Off, the other will be on another Commencal team.
This is idle speculation, but I'd put money on Till riding for Muc-Off and Max joining Estaque, Frix & Co.
Continuing the chat of Danny Hart, I'm also in the camp where he doesn't really come across as much of a "personality" to me, but also not someone who's had particularly great results over the past year.
I have a feeling some companies are also just taking a harder look at which riders are really driving sales. I know Danny's history, but how many riders realistically are going to be watching him and wanting to copy his setup or style?
Looking at EDR, it's the same if you look at what used to be the Canyon team. I imagine a lot of people are interested in Jesse's setup and what he runs, but probably less so for Party Boi or Jose.
Ultimately racers are on teams to sell bikes and parts, but if they aren't really getting that many people inspired to try their setups they're not delivering much for their brands.
To piggyback on this, and correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Danny’s dad have something to do with his contracts and negotiations and was noted as someone who was particularly difficult to work with? I don’t know if this is true now, but I seem to remember reading that back when he was on Madison.
Thing about this is that tyler actually beat the two of them at a few ixs races he did in Europe this year, basically just waiting on the official announcement of him being on yeti now, he made a farewell/thank you post to his sponsors from this season the other day. Saw him wearing full yeti factory kit the other day…
So with that logic he should retire for been a quiet lad and had 1 average season. The guy is a top 10 rider and podium threat on his day. Did he not put that cube into second at Leogang last year and pretty sure it's their best ever result as a team.
He's one of the most followed racers on insta and has as much followers if not more than a lot of the "influencers" so I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe some of his 230K followers are going to be watching him and wanting to copy his setup or style. If he threw his leg over a Canyon tomorrow you can be guaranteed a lot of people will want to know his setup and what he runs.
There is many quiet pinners in racing getting it done Coulanges, Hatton, Williams, Rude, Walker, Shaw should they not race anymore either?
There were 7 different winners in 8 races this year. DH is not short of "podium threats", and not just podium threats "on their day".
Ultimately, Cube have the figures to know if it was working out or not. If it was I imagine they would have re-signed him at the end of this initial 3 year deal.
For the avoidance of doubt, no, I do not think the 2023 World Cup winners, World Cup Overall winner and World Champion you mentioned should retire because you think they are "quiet", nor should the other riders you mentioned.
Edit: All this being said, it is interesting to see how many followers he has. I didn't realise it was that many. Just for the record, I'm not advocating he lost his position on that team, just suggesting that teams are seemingly having to be more ruthless now than they have in the past.
I don’t think anyone is saying people shouldn’t be allowed to race because of being quiet off the track. I think the argument might be that they shouldn’t demand as large of a (or any?) salary if they’re quiet and aren’t increasing brand awareness or selling product.
My 2 cents is being a full-time paid athlete these days requires some level of demonstrated increase in product sales or brand awareness. If you just want to race and not influence too, then lots of brands can offer discounted, or free, products if you have good results and you will need a separate source of income (whether that be winter work or remote work) to make ends meet.
There’s a price to doing things on your own terms and I think more athletes will need to make that decision in the coming years.
I am convinced that real racers - and not influencers like Wibmer for example - do not need to be loud and colorfull on the web. If brands need this they should just ask the marketing and production team to make it work. Influencing is a full time job. It‘s a lot different from building strenght for a race season.
but I see that it can be advantage. For the brand in form of exposer and for the rider as additional income.
but these two are not necessarely linked and a fast racer can be a hero even if he is not the biggest media star. Look ar Coulanges and Kolb.
In the end it all comes down to the consumer. And as the average consumer in MTB is more of a action sports interested person who is probabely younger it for sure reflects on the way the consumer consumes. The time of magazine cover shots as being the top thing to do is ower.
I remember the times when I used to read all the magazines 15- X times, staring st pictures of my favorite bikes for hours and imaging how the „beast“ would ride and how the feeling describeb by the Journalists would translate on the terrain. That just does not exist any more. Todays world is the one of the moving image, Insta, youtube or steams.
But I do believe it is not the riders fault if his languge, look, social media activities or color of the riding kid is to be considered in a sport where the real money is speed between the tape.
That's all good and well but lets face some facts here - Cube bikes are junk (I worked closely with the brand at a distribution level), the kinematics were average at best and the frame failure rate we saw was out of control, more than 50% of carbon bikes sold came back with cracked frames and they were horrendously slow with turnaround time on replacement frames, always looking for excuses. Saracen is a walmart/whatever brand so no matter the caliber of the rider you'll never get results riding a piece of crap down the hill. Personality or not, Danny Hart is a force to be reckoned with and a 2x world champion deserves a better ride and a higher pay cheque than some "influencer" does. Actions speak louder than words, 2x world champ says a lot more than some dickwad that rides a 27.5 wheeled bike chainless and 26/24 because they think its cool.
Innovation is rad but influencers are not. Social media begone, it's a scourge on society. The industry needs to pull its head out of its arse (the corporate/social media mindset) and return focus to the real riders (racers), the racers are what make their products desirable and brought in all those dollars in the first place.
A scourge indeed. I'll add that, despite certain claims Danny Hart doesn't sell bikes, he's about the only reason I'd ever even consider a Cube. Now I've got zero reasons to consider one at all.
Danny's still got better odds at winning a WC than most of the field. Very few racers ever mark themselves a career win, and most who win are repeat offenders.
Aimi Kenyon on a Trek in 2024, anyone else heard this?
I saw her story with the 100% camp (Reece and others from various teams) Made me hopeful she is getting another shot despite PBR "folding'
Werd
half of this thread is about instagram accounts I’ve never heard of nor would care about. But a 2x world champ with balls too big to sit down on not having a ride sucks
Greg moving is surprising but I think he saw or was told the writing on the wall that Jacko was brought in to be the new (deservedly) team leader.
see you in Windham!🤘
Is PBR folding? I hadn't seen that.
While I agree they might not be the best brand of bike out there, WCDH overall winner Matt Walker and junior World Champion Jordan Williams might disagree with your opinion of what a rider can achieve on Saracen bikes.
You have to look where Danny's value is thses days.
He brought a worldwide audience to Saracen and legitamacy to Cube.
Given he is a 2x World Champ he does'nt come cheap (and multi year contracts).
For an established brand/large team he's not adding a lot unless he's on the podium (great to have the seasoned vet to guide the young guns but thats a luxury in these times).
For a smaller brand/team he is simply too expensive.
Danny is very independantly minded so putting together his own deal ( like Brendan) sounds like the solution but that is a lot of moving pieces to put together in these times.
Similar things are happening in the Windsurfing world. A major brand has just dropped their 2 ex-world champions and the 4th ranked sailor in the world with no notice.
In surfing Billabong dumped Italo Ferreira (with 2 years left on his 7 figure contract) on a technicality.
My thought is that those who had their contracts expire this year are having a tough time reconciling their worth against others who signed at peak market insanity. In all likelihood, Bex and Danny fall into this camp. They won’t be able to secure a ride if they are expecting the same salary as someone, on par with their results and marketability, who signed in 2022, say. They will need to make concessions which may hurt the ego but will be the way, going forward.
I'm putting fifty dollars on her joining Unior-Sinter
Think they were only intended to last a few seasons, self-described as a "talent incubator". The goal was to get some up-and-comers, document their rise, and get them on factory race teams. Despite the level of publicity garnered, PBR seems a relatively low-budget team. Cathro seems pretty done racing and Aimi has proved herself for a factory ride. T-bo just dropped a solo edit with no mention of the team, think he's marketing himself as a jack-of-all-trades racer, someone who can do style, freeride, & speed.
If they're back next season I'd expect the roster to look pretty different, still young, and with Cathro stepping back to just manager and presenter rather than racer.
probably best to wait to let the juniors race it out next year, leave the bench racing for the established elites who have a true track record at the top tier of racing, no?
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