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Reece Wilson can't win a Worldcup this year ?
Using my brain (dangerous I know)
Who has half a shot at winning a race on a belt, I'm thinking Charlie Hatton and Reece Wilson are the best bets if Atherton/Gamux thing is confirmed. Anyone I'm missing?
Statistically, most wins come from past winners, with majority not on belt bikes this year. Charlie won worlds, and I think Reece was snowshoe.
I really hope she is but I wouldn’t read into that training camp to much as I’ve seen the likes of Kriss Kyle, Matt jones and kade all of which don’t or won’t be racing world cups this year. Granted Matt and kade maybe doing hardline but kriss is definitely just there as a red bull athlete
If Racheal is racing, as its suggested above, it could be her any day she's on the line.
Also, and this is posting with absolutely zero knowledge of any of the following....with a lot of the season still to come, I wonder if any of the other bikes in development that haven't cracked the surface will be running something for a shot at it. There was a rumor a while ago posted about spec already having a very different DH bike than the one they were riding the last few years, what if they did a similar gear box bike just for a shot at the belt? Maybe Orbea? With that prize announced and multiple bikes in deployment by different teams, we could see anything
If Rachel is on the belt drive, I'd put my money on her.. Especially if she is already training..
oh yeah, how could I forget about her. Yeah high possibility for sure.
Loana Lecomte on BMC.
Selling prototypes to another team or anyone for that matter, is a really, really good way to ruin a relationship with your sponsor.
Not having a valid bike for your sponsored riders (one of which probably has a bigger following than the rest of Orbea MTB combined) to ride at in the disciplines they signed on to race is worse. Maybe the FMD name is worth more to Orbea than putting them on frankensteined e-bikes destined to underperform compared to the competition, and buys them more time to develop their own DH rig
I think he meant buying other teams stuff for sale..Paying for it rightfully. Then slapping a Orbea sticker on it like back in the late 90's when SO many teams bought Intense M1's. That stuff don't work now a days. You need your own brands bike if your Orbea.
I get what you’re saying, but I gotta think there’s no way Orbea is dropping Tahnee money and her riding a bike that isn’t an Orbea. Besides, @dantecusolito was talking specifically about them buying prototype frames from another brand. Selling prototype anything is a BIG old no-no. This would create a huge rift with the brand and could introduce some major liability issues. Athletes typically have to sign additional waivers and NDAs when working on prototype projects if it’s not already written into their initial contract.
Orbea has a lot of engineering and manufacturing capabilities, they’ll have something ready.
We just gonna forget that Maes took the underperforming Frankenstein-e-bike you mention to a 20th place finish at one of his only DH races this year?
can’t be that bad… can it?
Orbea is too big a company to not have something in the works (that isn’t just a wild sans battery/motor).
BUT, How funny would it be if Orbea did needed to use another brands frame for a bit and asked the team if they know anywhere the can get a bunch of Canyon DH frames to sticker up? 😄🤣
If you think a World Cup team like FMD are going to risk an entire season on some old prototype frames from canyon or specialized you have been smoking that crack again.
Enough about belts. My pants ain't falling down.
Trek is very much not spending what they had the previous years and coming in with only 3 younger riders is a bit risky with the new points system... But! What if they called up the father, the son and the Holy Gwin to come take their team to the promise land!
There's some chatter about there being a prototype session and we know Gwin loves to product develop.
And with an uptick in American soil races this year withe monster energy events having an American rider to possibly race those alongside world cups and get folks stoked on your new bike with captain America piloting the bike some easy marketing
Rumours baby!
Aaron just bought into Crestline bikes. Don't think he's going back to race for Trek at this point.
Also, Gwin would still want/command a large salary given his recent lack of results and Trek is clearly cutting costs where ever it can with it's race teams. So double no.
This is almost as good as Dan Atherton coming back to chase the belt cash bag.
Excellent try for the most ridiculous rumor award. I applaud you sir.
Dak was getting LIVELY on the B team podcast about not spilling beans on who the new Trek rider going to be. I didn't care, until I did.
Got to be someone close to Dak for him to care so much.....
Aaron finished 12th at Mt St Anne on a body, bike, and suspension parts he hadn’t had much time on after nearly two years off DH bikes because of injury. It was wet weather for the race and he had semi-finaled 7th so I think he very much has the speed and ability to return to top step with a solid off season of weights and bike time dialing everything in for his team. He said he wasn’t back 100% and had a lot to do to be where he wants and still pulled an incredible result. I don’t see any validity to Aaron ending Gwin Racing with Crestline but I can’t abide reading anything hinting at him not being capable of a top performance.*Disclaimer I might be the biggest Aaron fanboy there is.
His buddy he frequently is excited for on the podcast, Lachlan Stevens-McNabb.
True, but IIRC they already had him confirmed to Trek and then Dak had an additional (or two) people
Everyone should be excited for the new trek rider.
We didn’t talk about this on the podcast, but there’s a previous World Cup podium contender switching to enduro as well
Is Charlie Harrison coming back to world cups?
looks like Tuhoto is riding a Zerode
To add fuel to this fire, I would not be so sure Aaron will continue with Crestline bikes. Just because he recently bought in doesn’t mean he needs to stay with them. Trailhead chats I’ve had indicate a different team for him this season, but nothing confirmed, just some question marks as of earlier this winter.
Actuaaaaly, if you check aonracng on instagram profile they only follow 24 profiles, obvious ones like pb/vital/uci/gamux/manitou/hayes/ gates/reece/sleeper/... but there is also an interesting one in the form of "kdrajd", Slovenian club run by the same people who have been behind the Unior racing in all of its iterations since day 1. This is also a team Reece also used to be a part of. And considering mention of Uk-Switzerland-Slovenia rumors that makes a lot of sense.
yes, I read somewhere that the leftover from Unior-Sinter is part of the team
I think she is on a mission to win a World cup race once again, and snatch 100K in the process... It would be great to help with some house renovating expenses haha.
And I believe she will achieve it also
Any more news on Camille to Yeti?
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