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Well, plus potentially mondraker, Norco and frameworks.
But if i was him, i would go to les orres where he knows the bike. Plus this team will be in focus next season.
I would guess that Daprela is at the moment relativley cheap to get for a top10 rider. He could also fit to scott as a french rider. Will be ineresting where he ends up.
When do teams announce the riders usually? In december?
Dylan to Les orres feels like it makes the most sense. I’d imagine with Vali joining, that team is gonna get a real bump in budget this year, so won’t feel like a huge step backwards. He’s used to the bike, and the commencal guys really seem to like him. He’s still posting a lot on n his commencal trail bike, which could mean nothing, but if he was moving over to a new bike he might be less inclined to do that.
As it should be. Things have been far too serious the last few years.
Confirmed on the weekend
Osin lachie Davis earnest and Walker all on a team
A fast U.K. rider on a North Korean / Russian proof bike
Could this also be Melamed moving on from Canyon (barel being team own and a frenchie).... and will Nukeproof be a British run team?
Dylan Stark and Eric Fedko have both announced they've re-signed contracts with YT. Wonder who else they are going to re-sign? Will the MOB be resurrected? Will they have a race team and if they do, do they keep their points or do they have to start from scratch?
Not surprising for them to pick up some easy riders who don't require much structure other than a small pay checks and some frames or bikes. You could have 20 riders out there posting about your stuff to a huge audience for a quarter the cost of what it takes to run the mob.
If the Mob does come back, it'll likely be small with up and coming riders who need something as I'm sure top riders will be wary unless they're getting paid a 3 year contract upfront going forward.
Saudis buying WBD? WBD just sent me the $3k invoice for filming Vital RAWs this year (I figured they forgot), so maybe they're getting ducks in a row.
You gotta pay to produce the best marketing content they have? That seems a bit backwards.
How desperate to sign with a company whose future is extremely questionable and stopped paying riders this year before end of the year ?
Getting there ducks in a row and I’ve used in as they don’t see any ROI?
When is the contract with WBD until? 2027?
You heard it here first, and it will get downvoted but WBD won’t have dh or xc on it when the contract expires in year 202/6/7/8.
I mean... the chance of getting some support is better than no support at all. I also have a feeling that Dylan and Erik were given reassurances from someone (probably not YT USA... probably Flossmann) gave them assurances that they would keep them on. Neither of them ever posted any kind of departure and neither of them, as far as I remember, ever took the YT Industries support tag out of their instagram profiles.
Not surprised with Fedko, since he's German, but Dylan was pretty tight with the YT USA crew, who appear to be not loving Markus at the moment judging from the comment sections.
Stark was outright defending Markus in comments on pinkbike posts about YT shutting down. I can't imagine he'd be motivated to do so if he fully got the rug swept from under him right after having his first child. So yeah I hope they do right by Stark, as it seems they are.
Ultimately I'm still just waiting for more stories from former employees and team riders. I mean maybe we don't need to, given the Gwin scenario was forever ago. But it would be nice to separate the 'he made a mistake' narrative from the 'he screwed everyone along the way' narrative. The truth being, likely, somewhere in between I guess (shrugs)
2030
Maybe if Saudis buy it the riders can get some LIV golf kind of money.
Ok back to reality 😂
The boss breaking his own rules not posting this in the WBD thread🧵 😋
One of those stories should include a group photo with a "WE ARE (FORMERLY) YT" sign.
we were YT... but now we're O.G. (old grifters)
texi still on (or re-signed with) YT
People lose jobs, investors taking a bath, people ordering bikes that never arrive, riders without a team etc
the audacity to call people keyboard warriors is wild lmao. YT literally FUCKED OVER countless people but sure, call us keyboard warriors.
There have been a few almost losses the last two years who at least tried or were open about what was happening, and come back swinging like Rocky, Kona, Nukeproof. They have all come back in someway and people celebrated them coming back because of the way they handled it. Revel as well, although they were a bit tougher with customer support.
Then there are YT and Pole. If two brands stayed dead because of the way they handled their customers and riders very publicly, I don't think a lot of people who cry about it.
I think keyboard warriors wanted to see YT burn after this to burn Markus. Twice have they burned riders at the top of the game. They burned customers. Why would we want to be oh yeah they are back? All the good karma that they had built up over the years?
I wonder if that's going to sink them in the end this time around.
I really hope anyone signing up fresh with YT is careful.
You'd sure as hell be wanting to get paid up front!
Three times. There was Gwin. Couple years later they cut Dak and Davey Boy at the end of the season, closed their race team, only to immediately start the mob. And now this.
More 2026 Team Rumors, less talk about YT shenanigans.
I heard a rumor that YT Shenanigans was going to replace the YT Mob.
after texi's retirement from racing the money has to come from somewhere... so why not from being a YT-shill ?! 🙄
how do people live without a backbone?
at least now we know who's the only MOB-rider who got paid 😉
Not a rumor. Danke
I certainly wasn't at all optimistic for Nukeproof's future when I heard that Mike Ashley of all people bought CR/Wiggle. It's good to see it back and not consigned to the Sports Direct dumpster like many other brands he's got his mitts on over the years.
Anyway, back on track....
Dak and Blewitt to Scott. Sorry for lack of puns and cryptic doodles.
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