2025 Team Rumors

so scott confirmed

Looks like he will be riding renthal bars and stem, Shimano brakes and he will have a bike with headset tourism. Also looks like the frame is blue  

Remi off rocky 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQM077PVkB/?igsh=MTF4OXM3MWVyNHJ0Yw==

Rocky is off Rocky. 

Or Orbea, they love to inflict that on people too!
And the Wild that the DH bike is based on is cable tourism hell.

Heard today that Martin Maes is super nervous about his future as he doesnt really know how fmd team works and he doesnt really have a choice

Norco announcement coming Jan2 according to their socials if I read it right lol 

Pivot?

Well it's 8.25am January 1 in Sydney, I have a belting hangover. Expecting to see 300 post with new signings, rumours confirmed, ratboy to ride a 3 shocked cannondale.

Instead we get Sam Hill riding for his local shop.

back to bed

That headtube belongs to Commencal Meta/Tempo

Happy new year!

Edit: I should really refresh before posting

Remi Gauvin off Rocky Mountain, not too surprising given their recent financial woes. 

Remy Metailler no longer with Camelbak and ethirteen. He’s technically not on a team but brands must get more value out of (pro) influencers then most racers? 

Milway Performance Products is about 20 mins from there, this shot is in Digbeth, so presumably shot while headed into the area for beers

Benoît trolling us..

With the arrival of 2025 and big changes underway, here's a quick look back at how team and rider numbers have evolved over the years.

All data pulled from the UCI website (https://www.uci.org/riders/mountain-bike-riders-teams/1V5hGPnEvXzbIqkjU…).

The number of teams peaked in 2023 with a total of 184 (128 standard, 56 elite). 2024 saw the second highest number of teams on record with 163 (112 standard, 51 elite). The bike bubble bursting was already beginning to have an effect going into the 2024 season, even with the upcoming Olympic games.

The growth in teams from 2021 (119 teams) to 2023 (184 teams) likely drove UCI/WBD to start thinking about major changes to the series. Had that growth continued, the events would be impossible to run. Too many teams that need pit space, too many riders on track, etc. The growth in elite teams from 2022 (30 elite teams) to 2023 (56 elite teams) was a likely indicator that team fees could be pushed much higher.

The home countries listed for teams has remained roughly consistent over the last 5-6 years, hovering between 27 and 29 countries.

The data gets more interesting when you look at the registered disciplines.

2017 was the high water mark for XC (97 teams) which then saw steady declines until 2021 (73 teams) when the trend began to reverse. 2024 brought XC back to 2016 levels with 90 teams, likely driven by the Olympics. It's surprising that 2017 did not see a reduction in XC teams after the 2016 Rio games. We most certainly will not see that same trend in 2025.

DH hit a low point in 2018 (34 teams) with growth peaking in 2023 with 59 teams.

2021 brought the introduction of XCM (marathon) followed by EDR and EDR-E in 2023. The UCI does not track EDR/EDR-E teams prior to 2023.

Only XC saw team growth in 2024 (again, likely because of the Olympics), with all other disciplines declining.

The UCI rider data is a little misleading as each rider can only be associated with one discipline, even if they actually race multiple. For some riders, that discipline isn't their primary one (for instance Ed Masters is listed as a DH rider rather than EDR).

Rider numbers grew dramatically from 2005 to a peak in 2012, after which the sport saw slow but steady declines until 2019. There were likely many factors driving this, one of which likely being a stagnant broadcast package from RedBull. Hard to make an accurate analysis without viewer numbers, but it's not really surprising the UCI was ready to go in a different direction.

Growth exploded from 2019 to 2023, with total UCI team riders peaking in 2023 with 871 riders across all disciplines. 

Again, the growth from 2019 (506 riders) to 2023 (871 riders) likely forced UCI/WBD to make some dramatic changes that would reduce the number of participants.

The numbers also show that the reduced focus (both from a sponsorship and coverage perspective) on EDR was already having an impact in 2024. EDR riders dropped from 105 in 2023 to 80 in 2024.

With the announced team changes by UCI/WBD and the ongoing turmoil in the bike business, I suspect we're going to see significant further team and rider declines in 2025.

Well, the buzz was that he was going to lead the return of  Foes  to racing. That would have been pretty cool. 

Have a look at the chain and the rear link, looks like a demo with the shop name on it 

Ollie Davis to TFR

Who? 

The Stay On Your Bike podcast mentioned how the Foes team headed up by Nigel Page almost became a thing and then crumbled. Seemed like a long shot to begin with but it would have been so cool.

I see no more Foes in Sam's List, That seemed short lived... They got something cooking with specialized?

On marzochi? 

That's the stock shock/color for the Session 8. Likely just got a stock Session 8 for early season/at home stuff and they'll get the full team bikes/color's once they start testing. 

I’m not hating, but Sam Hill is 39 years old. Hasn't it been more than a decade since he won a UCI DH? Why are we talking about what his program is when everyone is cutting budgets?

#flatpedalswinsmedals

because

Same name and branding looks similar, but the old Demo 8 and Sam wheeling out what looks to be a Stumpy 15 in the video and the fact that Empire Cycles are S-Works and Specialized dealer pretty much confirms Sam is back on the big S.