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Hattie Harden off Trek, teams willing to sign for DH but not EDR
There's some heavy stuff in there. You'd think it would be better to kick off the Continental Series (feeder series of events) a couple of years before making the World Cups more exclusive to give riders a chance to adjust to/prepare for the changes.
Blimey that's quite the read . Have I understood that right ? teams can have up to 10 riders but they can only enter 4 in the race ? If so I'd like to volunteer my services as the 10th rider , free bike and kit without the pressure of actually racing . The Scott Carson of mountain biking .
The reference to outside industry sponsorship in How teams get chosen leaves me uneasy , seems ripe for abuse .
Fastest turnaround of a podcast I’ve ever done, we only recorded this morning…
https://pod.co/making-up-the-numbers/racing-reform-rumours
We talk through the doc & then talk team rumours 🔥🔥🔥
Stoked to listen to this one!
It says "4 riders per event" which I read as 4 per discipline but I'm just guessing...
Just finished—best single DH podcast of all time. Cmon, has it all—more than makes up for BleepGate haha
The little games that spin off the changes in this plan are crazy.
Definitely changed my mind on 3-step podiums, I was wrong to accept them.
The riders own their points going into next year but the teams own them after that? Did I hear that or am I just stoned? That’s bananas if I heard that right.
So much to take in, can’t wait to read the discussions here!
Combined with informed team managers protected by NDAs, trickeration seems inevitable.
Four riders per category per event maximum is what I read in there.
Very interesting listening on the OTB podcast.
The consensus is that Andy Kolbs contract has been bought out by Trek , he seemed realy happy there (and they basically rescued his career) but when someone knocks on your door with a barrow load of money and your name on I guess it's hard to say no.
Orbea entering Wc dh with FMD seems to make sense too (even if they don't have a dh bike yet!!)
The WB Project '25 is not at all surprising, as they said on the Pod Wb want people who are waiting for the football to start to be able to watch it by mistake and not feel alienated by it.
The only shocking thing is why they are bothering to pretend to try and accomodate any existing format and not just going "20 elite teams of our choosing on a criteria only we know" -like it or lump it.
Well... "20 elite teams of our choosing" and all, how are the World Tour teams chosen/defined? I know that there was talk that if Jumbo Visma and Quick Step merge, they will not be adding another team to the lineup.
I find the emphasis on social media presence worrying. Racing should be about who's fastest, not who gets the most likes.
I think it's likely the Visma WT license was kept, and the Quick-Step license is sold to whoever has the money.......
Waaaaaaaaasup guuuuuuuuuuuuys,
It's me Matt Jones and I'm going to be racing a World Cup Downhill race.......but with 24" wheels, it's going to be so lit, i'm feeling very demuure hahahahahah I'm amazing...... but wait for it.......I'm driving there in my Lamborghini.......I know craaaaazy right.Smash that like button and please for the love of god I've got 5 kids to feed now, buy my merch.
I don’t think it’s surprising he crashes a lot. It’ll probably pass. Most fast guys seem to go through a checkers or wreckers phase - Luca went through that phase on syndicate. Amaury and thibault used to be that way. Dak is going through it.
Takes a long time to develop the consistency we see from Loic, Loris, and Troy. Amaury is a different rider after his major crash. He is much more composed and less loose.
The talk at the time was specifically that they would not be filling in the 'missing' spot. The deal fell through so all of it is moot, but goes to show that there is some arbitrary choosing going on there too. It's not 'X best teams by rider's world rankings' or something like that.
While there are team points and a team winner of the season, mtb is still very much an individual sort. Loic didn't need strong teammates to directly help him win races. Indirectly it can help, sharing setup ideas, finding lines, and general team atmosphere helps but it doesn't directly win races.
Road bike racing on the other hand is much more dependent on having a strong team of riders to be able to win races. Team tactics are a huge deal in road racing.
Orbea and FMD might make sense, but how happy are the riders? When canyons new bike has been pretty much amazing this year and then to jump in with orbea and start riding a modified e-bike? They must have something better almost ready than a modified wild to make this even make sense that Tahnee would wanna race with them.
Beggars can't be choosers. Options are slim.
Apologies if this has been posted, but if true there will be no DH WCs outside of Europe in 2025.
RIP MSA.
https://www.wideopenmountainbike.com/2024/09/could-this-be-the-uci-2025…
Went back to relisten to this, as I was sure they said Kolb to YT. Podcast seems to have disappeared from Spotify though.
My bad,you are right.........bad brain,bad brain.
Erice van Leuven in the Pivot pits in the Ed Bull media vidoe?
Ahhh yes, the Euro Cup. I hope Crankworx steps up and fills in the international gaps since it currently has a better spread than the actual world cup series.
I do kind of get it, getting into the US when you're not from Canada can be a nightmare, even just for an ESTA country. I've recently had a friend who was flying home to Aus detained at a Canadian airport after clearing US customs after their flight was cancelled last minute from Vancouver and re-routed through San Francisco because they had not been told they needed an ESTA even to get a connecting flight in the US in the chaos of trying to get to their flight. I can't imagine the hassle of getting a who team from various counties and backgrounds landed, and coming to NA for one race in Canada that doesn't even line up with Crankworx seems almost like a waste of time.
I listened to a podcast with Martin Maes a couple of months ago , might of been the pink bike one I think . He made is sound like when he signed for Orbea part of the deal that they would have a proper downhill bike for him within a couple of seasons and that the converted ebike was just a stop gap .
Probably support for NZ at World Champs.
She's racing too.
Don't forget come 2025 pretty much everyone needs ETIAS to enter pretty much every European country. Once again another thing that favors the European athletes. They don't have to fly across the glove to get to races which saves them tons of money in travel especially when they can go home a lot easier in the breaks. This schedule is just more proof they only want teams wity money who can pay for there non euro athletes to stay in Europe for large periods of time. Maybe the non European sponsors should stop giving money and see what happens. 😂
it did disappear.. wanted to listen to last part last night and boom.. nothing
Looks like it’s gone off Apple too - I can still listen via Pocketcasts, maybe give that a try.
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