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Dak is on Mondraker.
Gwin will race this year.
Frames AREN'T cheap if you have to reweld it and CNC a new rocker every weekend.
top tube not thin enough for a prime, similar angle:
He might stick with Reserve wheels. They seem to lasted better than the ENVEs and also Ratboy still runs them as well, I think.
Danny to Giant
Probably a good fit for both really.
Well, I understood it like that the team ceased to exist, not that just the head/main/title sponsor changes.
To be fair, in the road cycling world teams are talked about more the way that Bizutch is doing. The team is really built around the sport director, and even when a team's entire docket of title sponsors changes, it's not considered to be a folding or dissolution of a team. In the case that Gwin is still owning the team, employing the same staff, and carrying all of the same bank accounts, the team isn't really dissolving; it's just rebranding. Team Garmin-Chipotle was never really shut down; they lost their title sponsors and became Team EF-Education EasyPost, but the team itself was never officially interrupted.
My predictions on the Intense Factory Racing situation:
-Dak to MS Intense
-Gwin sticks with remnants of IFR and does race. Frame sponsor for renamed IFR team also gets rentals at Windrock. Gwin looks for a new number 2 (to replace Dak) and finds there are a lot of options…
I really got to remember to use emojis. Was trying to be silly.
I'm gonna leave them off this post just for consistency.
I'm very on board with Dak to MS/intense
I'm half expecting the remainder of IFR joins with frame works as the glue for that team and it comes out Martin was the majority stakeholder and organizing force, with Gwin and intense having been minority stakeholders and managing the day to day/development sides. A frameworks based IFR will be based out of Windrock it makes sense now that Martin is officially attached. Breeden and Dak leaving opens up budget, frameworks easily replaces Intense as bike development and most of the other sponsors fill the gap of frameworks not having as much budget. With Seth Sherlock not having any announcements, I feel like he's still attached as well which can help develop both the DH and Enduro bikes with a DHI/EDR mix and Gwin, Neko and Asa taking on the bigger world cup scene.
I have zero connections on this so 1000% a guess
Edit: Seth just posted about things but its pretty unclear if he means he's leaving the team or that it's just not IFR anymore.
Yes, but Josh rides for Cannondale and Cannondale is owned by Pon. So it's in the family, kinda.
You're more concise than I. Thanks.
MS Racing is the only team in DH currently that maintains a singular brand identity that I can call off top of my head. The Specialized Gravity team is owned separate of Specialized even and were named differently in years prior.
I have high hopes for some mid-year shake ups in the DH sponsorship realm with Monster Energy putting some muscle behind the US series. Whoever their marketing guru is will hopefully feed Clay and company some other contacts looking to product market to gravity.
I've already noticed a few corporate brands slipping DH/Enduro style riding clips into their lifestyle ads online, which went away for quite a while.
Do we have any precedent for former Red Bull Helmets turning into Monster Helmets?
It seems like the contract issues surrounding such a move would be pretty tough even for someone like Aaron Gwin.
Unless he maintains a sort of distant but still mutually beneficial relationship to such a team, it's highly unlikely we'll see Gwin own a Monster Energy team.
I also highly doubt MS is going to take on an American in Norton, and an MS Intense team is dumb unless Gwin puts his team on Frameworks.
It would also seem unlikely that Gwin and Dak would give up a bike they developed and could get for cheap, or even get paid something to ride, to go to Frameworks, which was developed by other riders at cost to those riders, and likely would cost the team a pretty penny.
I still put my bets on Gwin rebranding his team but staying with Intense, Dak stayin with Gwin, and maybe picking up some other USA based riders to do the Monster Energy US Downhill season.
Or Gwin retires and then I have no guesses.
Gonçalo Bandeira seems to be riding a trek, he announced that he'd share big news for 2024, his sister has been riding a trek and i've never seen her riding it, seems new too. Any thoughts?
The latest Downtime podcast features Laurent Delorme of Pure Agency (Specialized Gravity) if you want to hear some of the details in how that team has evolved over the years and how Specialized tried to pick up Bruni and wound up with Laurent's entire team instead.
https://www.downtimepodcast.com/laurent-delorme/
Fair enough and good point.
There's also a fun tidbit about Danny's dad costing him a ride with Laurent a while back...
I didn’t get that feeling at all. He said he wants to race next year period.
Funny, I just finished listening to it and came on here to say the same thing!
I don't think anyone has pointed this out yet:
YT has dropped a bunch of their influence-thletes,
the thought is to pay for Vali,
Could it also be for Mr. Bomba and Party Boi?
I dont believe enduro is going away anytime soon, even if it looses it's WB-Disc viewership.
The fact is the bulk of us riders are on bikes which we pedal up and down. Given that thought it
would, to me, make sense to still have a presence in enduro for YT.
Bring on the YT MOB SQUAD!! Live life unblazzed!
MS Intense seems to be happening and could be beneficial for all sides. The signs are there, the throwback Markus Stöckl on black M1 Insta post etc. My bet is on Intense becoming a frame sponsor for MS and running their US-based youth program, that Jeff was talking about. Could Gwin be running the frame that he developed and is finally good with different financial backing? Why not?
Dak was linked to Mondraker here is this thread, as in ”the new Mondraker factory team”. Interesting he runs that DJ bike, though... Regarding Mondraker, as far as I know they are also distributing SRAM in Spain (or at least they used to), so maybe the new team will be on SRAM and RockShox?
You know what makes me smile? The fact that we all know that pro racers, team managers, company people and a ton of other people in-the-know are watching us here and I'm sure they're having a laugh every now and then, regarding what we think we know. But this is another incarnation of the passion for the sport, so I guess nobody actually minds. P.S.: Hello Jesse!
Mx
He did say he wanted to race, I just got the impression it wasn’t going to be WCs but I could be way wrong and I hope I am. I live watching Gwin race his bike. Fortune enough to meet and say hi the last couple years, hopefully again this year
That's been the fun part all along 😂 at least our silly season is in the offseason instead of mid season like F1. Imagine everything happening publicly in season. Boring.
If Gwin is not on an intense I could possibly see him on a Frameworks frame . I can't see him wanting to develop another frame from the ground up as my guess is he's probably got 1 or maybe 2 years of racing left and if he wants to be competitive he probably hasn't got the time to waste half a season riding something that doesn't work for him . Frameworks would be a lot easier for him to get something , at least geometry wise and to a lesser extent suspension, that would work for him .
Danny Hart to take Sam Hills spot on Nukeproof .......no word yet that nukeproof racing is a victim of the chain reaction troubles and they took Sam Hill on at a similar stage in his career, could be a good fit . I hope Danny gets a ride but if he's basically going to self fund a season it would be interesting to see what equipment he chooses to use .
There are a few other examples:
FMD Racing owned by Tony Seagrave and has moved from a few frame and component sponsors over the time
Atherton's run their own show with Dan Brown managing the team. Starting on Commencal, moving sponsors and now their own bikes.
UR Team Racing owned by Fab Cousinie has moved frame sponsors periodically.
Union owned by Joe Bowman from Steel City Media.
Team Riding Addiction owned by Thibaut and Gaétan Ruffin started off as a privateer program in in 2010 and is now one of the largest teams (Commencal Muc-off) in the pits.
Maybe he was looking on mobile?
Yea.. Dak if you are reading still. Send us a sign. Post more pit bike track updates.
Also, did anyone see Aarons comment to Dak in his post. "Will miss you brotha"
Uh... Aaron trolling? Or they are splitting ways?
Post a reply to: 2024 TEAM RUMORS