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“In our opinion, the future of mountain biking innovation lies in gearbox technology“ … Zerode would make sense. However, as far as I know, Shimano is one of their biggest sponsors... so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
Remi on spesh. Ok - but no chance they’re paying him to travel around the world to get 30th on a circuit with zero coverage. I’m not being mean here - just truth. Same with Blenki - guy was cooked (results -wise) 3-4 years ago. There’s zero chance anyone picks him up to race wc dh. On a similar note, Lucas Cruz - has he ever had a result? And Norco is taking him to all the WCs? Again, not being mean - just facts. I think he has a family connection at Norco but there’s no way anyone’s expecting or paying him to get top 20s. There’s a bunch of guys who are never going to race another wc dh. Mark Wallace probably among them unfortunately. We are one are done (WeRDone?) making bikes and done racing. I can’t see a team that picks him up. It’s an ugly world out there.
Kind of what i was thinking reading their post about leaving Intense but getting into gear boxes. Interesting.
Saw quite a few comments on the other website linking AK66 (unreal nickname) to the YT Mob, has anybody heard anything that would verify this?
Kolb to the mob
https://youtu.be/o7OA0Xu-uqs
You can't mistake that moustache anywhere. Confirmed.
So I guess I don’t understand the new rules Or confused. I thought it was only teams with points not privateers, that rider points go to the teams to compete in that top 15 or 20 whatever it is and then the wildcard spots. Glad to see there is still a path for privateers to enter worldcups.
How is that video 3 days old and less than 100 views
It's unlisted. Someone must have just leaked the private link.
It's unlisted, which means it's only viewable if you have a direct link to it. It will not show up in search or reccs.
Edit - PisgahGnar beat me to it
Blenki is super ripped for his age, probably in better physical condition than a lot of others currently racing. On the right program/support i believe he could be competitive.
Lucas has had mixed results according to Roots n Rain , he was out all last year with a broken leg. Norco might still have him under contract and buying him out and finding another rider within budget maybe wasn’t feasible.
In a rare (positive) enduro team rumour, pretty sure Tristan Botterham is going to the Simplon team.
Where did u pick up that rumor? I was super stoked when the news came out that he is going to be on a factory program. Tristan killed it the last few years!
Danny does seem to have some pretty decent self-awareness. He used to have an adversarial relationship with Wyn, but he flipped the script and now I love their interactions.
video is private unfortunately.
Really makes you appreciate what Neko is doing on Frameworks with team buitl on pretty much obvious reasons, results.
Angel
Anna
Asa
It;s a really team. Everyone of them will get results - real results. It is not a marketing team, it's a race team.
Here's the official announcement from MS Racing, moving on from Intense: https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/filmsmith/blog/01/06/2025/entry/1292….
https://www.instagram.com/p/DEfnrvtOumV/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Yup looks like Tristan!
Such a good add next to Tarmo and Lars, underdog team for sure that can make those podiums.
So the rumor is that Ryder Lawrence is off the Intense team... anyone heard anything on where he's going to land? I'm assuming he will still ride Intense (due to his family's connection to the brand) but probably just his own program again? Maybe focus on the USDH stuff instead of the World Cup stuff? Would be cool to see some of the US brands like Intense put together some smaller domestic teams for USDH Pro Cups.
IIRC the word from Intense last year when they parted ways with Gwin was that Intense was going to focus on US racing.
Hopefully he choses 47
What's the deal with Andy and 47?
AK47…. The gun.
Atherton Bikes posted some gearbox bikes recently too, right? What if they supported two teams, one with traditional drivetrains and one with gearboxes?
So the real team rumors of the year are....
Intense, Atherton, Gamux and Zerode on gear boxes going for the belt drive crown? Did we have a gearbox thread going a few years ago or was that mixed in with something else when we used to get real tangent-y?
I'm a HUGE gearbox fan who'd love to see a MS-Zerode team but I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully, I'm very wrong and we get an awesome press release next week but Ali Quinn from Zerode addressed this last year. Financially, sponsoring MS wasn't really viable and their frame requirement was essentially an entire production batch. That's asking a lot for a smaller company like Zerode.
Maybe things are a bit different since they don't have the factory team to support this year, but based on how the industry is right now...
I think it's been fairly clear since warner bros took over that if you were outside the top 30 come contract time it was going to be hard for a race team to justify the cost of paying for someone who isn't consistently making finals and the live broadcast. If you look at MS racing , with the notable exception of EF winning in the rain in Les Gets did they provide a decent return for their sponsors ?
The riders would have known this and maybe that's what powered some of the negativity towards WB , and to be fair I don't blame them . It's a pretty good lifestyle to be forced to give up on .
There's a fairly long list of high profile riders who maybe aren't as high up the results sheet as they used to be and it will be interesting to see how brands choose to spend their marketing budget , do you continue funding someone like mark Wallace or Blenki or Brook to turn up to world cups and hope he makes a finals or at least gets in vital raw , how much is that worth to a brand compared to taking a risk on a super fast 18 year old who won't automatically have that fan recognition and I suppose , social media following.
I do hope we'll see smaller teams start to form for the Continental series and those series get the attention they should. With the exception of the Americas series, which is an insane amount of traveling spread over an entire year, the Euro and Oceania series look pretty doable for smaller teams and brands with former WC and up and coming riders to tackle. I hope they are also steamed in some capacity.
Red bull only broadcasted the top 30 as well so you can’t say it’s a warner brothers thing.
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