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Sometimes a name change is just a sponsor change, but sometimes it's an ownership change. You have to dig into it a tiny bit. Team Sky wasn't just a sponsor change. The team was sold to the owner of Ineos. Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe is a situation where Red Bull came in as a sponsor for Bora-Hansgrohe and then became a majority owner in the team. There's a bunch of partial ownership going on in the road tour. Team Visma has a lot of hypenated name changes that also turned out to be ownership stakes becoming title sponsors.
This hasn't existed in mountain biking till now, since the holding of status is coming into effect for 2026. Based on the current standings, I could see Rogue Racing having their name hyphenated by a brand wanting a consistent spot at the races.
Do you remember the name off the podcast?
They may have a team they sponsor in Spain, too... Also, there are 2 US riders on the Mondraker WC DH team.. Perhaps hoping to increase their US market share by sponsoring them?
There might be a 15 percent reason why a Spanish company might be rethinking it's USA based business 😁
Daks a great rider and has made an impressive comeback but to play devil's advocate and assuming it's contract renewal time at Mondraker , Pinky looks like he could crack on and is still young and Dunne has won you 2 world cups so you'd probably want to keep them , so do you re sign Dak or do you look at those junior results and think blimey those kids are fast let's get one of those guys on a 5 year contract.
I'd imagine it's a question a lot of team managers are asking themselves at the moment. Do you stick with the guy who is late 20s who maybe qualified for 75 % of finals and 10th would be a good result or do you try and sign one of these youngsters with a fearless attitude and bags of raw speed . People have been talking about a changing of the guard for a few years now but that world champs podium really shows it and it will only get more so next year I think .
Mondraker is pushing into the US market. They opened a US based HQ in Boulder last year and stacked their team with US and global talent to reach the US market.
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/announcements/2024/01/11/mondraker-expa…
I think Dak is capable of a lot more than a 10th. Especially if he gets to stay on that Mondraker.
But I agree Ronan is due a big raise and pinky is gonna be pretty cheap compared to Dak. No idea where mondraker is financially at the moment. But for any team looking for a no1 or no 2 rider who is podium proven And win capable. Dak would be on the top of plenty of people’s list. And if mondraker can afford it I’d think keeping the gang together and bringing in a true first year junior would be the way to go.
This is where the secondary ‘intangibles’ of being a ‘professional’ come in.
Dak also has personality, a story, and some magnetism. Things that make him a good ambassador for your company beyond just results.
Sure, some of the young guns are wicked fast, but outside of Asa, we really know nothing about them or who they are. The Alran’s aren’t drawing me into to Commencal the same way Dak might to Mondraker.
At the end of the day you need good (enough) results but as long as that threshold is met, other things matter too.
I guess my argument is, even a top 10 Dak (known entity) for the next two years is worth more than taking a chance on promising but ultimately unknown fast junior (both in actual elite results and ability to have an engaging public personality). If you could guarantee either for the junior the math might change.
Also Dak, will rise again!
Totally agree on him being a good ambassador for the sport and his sponsors and I wasn't referring to Dak when I was talking about top ten riders . A fit Dak is a podium guy and if your on the podium then you can win , but there are 10 other guys like that and probably another 5 next year from juniors moving up , it's what makes the sport so exciting at the moment and the choices that teams make and what they see as valuable for their team interesting.
I think we’re in general agreement. And I was just using Dak as one example.
I guess I’m just trying to make a general argument for why a team might keep a top 10-20 established rider over gambling on a wicked fast junior.
I think a lot of companies have been adjusting plans given things over the past 8 months.
I think keeping the team together would be good for Mondraker.. Dak seems to be trending upwards on his recovery, Pinky just won the US National Championship, and Ronan is picking up his pace.. Adding a junior or a woman would be a good choice. But, there maybe some big names becoming available soon..
Yeah , I'd imagine the YT situation has a few team managers 2nd guessing their plans for next year .
I really hope Dak stays, he is such a likable guy. He is the first person I look for in the results. I do worry about it though because as much as I like him, if I was looking at it from a management perspective he would be the one to go if one needed to. This should have been his year imo and the moto thing killed it. I have to imagine that the management wasn’t stoked about a serious injury coming from a hobby.
There was rumour of Mondraker switching over to full sram rockshox after testing the waters with the brakes this year. Would that be enough to get Vali interested? I guess she’d have to reconsider her deal with sweet protection. Could Mondraker even afford her?
There isn’t really a jr available that’s an upgrade though. Asa is with frameworks for a couple more years, Max C isn’t going to let the Alran brothers walk after they’ve been coming up through the Commencal program. I imagine Yeti will keep Tyler Waite and could afford him with Cami retiring. That really just leaves Oli Clark and he’s with MS and no sign he’s going elsewhere. Those 5 have been the most consistent at showing they will step and be a threat to qualify next year. There’s been glimpses from other juniors throughout the season but nobody else as really shown the consistency.
A large chunk of the elite field cross trains with moto in the offseason so can’t classify it as hobby in this case
I would not say Dak's Moto is a hobby. I believe it is a essential training tool for him that he finds fun too. If he got hurt RACING Moto I would think things would be slightly different.
I think wherever she ends up, she’ll be communicating mostly in French.
Now we're cooking ! Vali to relaunch sunn chipie 😁
Vali’s contract was reported to be among the biggest ever, man or woman. She deserves every last cent of it. Carry on.
Not that many French options. Commencal seems most likely with their bottomless racing budget. Specialized could do with a top female rider but not sure the full specialized package would suit Vali so well. Scott (I know they’re Swiss) have had their own financial difficulties in the not so distant past.
I would have thought Canyon would be a good looking option for Vali? They must have some leftover budget after dropping all their B teams.
The linked article was dated Jan 11 2024. Quite a lot has changed since then from what I've seen.
Maybe Peugeot are coming back to MTB! 🤣
My hunch is Vali goes to Mondraker or Commencal Les Orres (she's coached by the Ravenels).
Other options are less likely but possible. No matter what it'll have to be a Sram team.
BK needs to find some serious funding to get Vali so he can a WC team next year that isn’t dependent on wild cards 😂
If it's anything like this year he's probably quite relaxed. Have any teams not made it in to a WC round?
I don’t want to do the homework but I would sure say it looks that way when Gwins team was not a wildcard every round and another team was. So when Gwins team was a wild card someone was out. That would tell me not every team makes every round.
Points stay with teams now. So even if he picked her up it would do fuck all.
Which I know this horse is dead, buried and rotting by now, but it’s so dumb that it’s switching to teams holding points. Professional sports is such a “what have you done for me lately” industry. This now takes all power out of riders hands and pits it on the person writing the contract.
Having a high profile rider does much more than “fuck all” for a team. Any squad with Vali Höll, 4-in-a-row World Champ, will get a wildcard invite.
I just don’t know how she’s gonna get paid.
Do teams get points for Urbam races? That would benefit BK. Plus, he and Jenna can do small races like that one in Malysia that they did.
Yeah he got a whole point for winning. 😮
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