2026 Team Rumors

Bet you feel silly now

I’m sure he’s good but so is your average jeanshorts  whistler kid. It’s a joke I’m glad this dude is getting his paychecks and free brakes but I always laugh at style of marketing like this partnership is actually gonna do anything to change the brand

Marketing is interesting.

Some of it is literally ONLY for brand/product awareness. It's an important part of creating a brand. It doesn't matter how good a product is if no one knows about it.

Additionally, lots of folks in the world are the sort of folks who believe everything their brain tells them. Those folks also tend to buy the things that they think of first.

If those people see a specific name come up 5 times more often than other names (perhaps because a YouTuber is posting a lot, has their videos get recommended a lot, and talks a lot about a product) they'll say to themselves "everyone is talking about [that name] so I bet it's good." They'll buy that brand's product when they need a product like that because they believe everything their brain says to them. It's also why WBD and the World Cup event locations require so many repetitions of the location name in the broadcast. It works. They know it's annoying. The repetition brings in more "top of mind" dollars than it turns away "I'm annoyed by this and refuse" dollars.

Other marketing speaks to features or to brand ideals or to lifestyle/culture or to a million other things. A good marketing team will focus on the ones that move the needle for their brand towards their brand's goals.

If a brand is under-recognized and has good products, hiring an ambassador who is very visible and loud is a great step for them. If a brand is well-known and wants to position themselves as "better" than others to the sorts of folks (often older) who have more disposable income, pulling a former big name out of the shadows and onto a team is a great step. If it's good enough for a legend then it's good enough for you, a discerning, smart, fast, handsome, virile, holder of at least two KOMs.

Leatt looks to be joining Nukeproof Axess as title sponsor of their rave team, and hopefully their race team as well: 
 

Hilarious. Hopefully their social media manager reads the Vital Forums.

Its micro marketing and not meant to be a global marketing campaign i would guess. Clearly doesnt move the needle as much as lets say sponsoring an athlete like vali, but will probably also just cost a fraction. I have no clue, but could be that trp doesnt sell as good in germany, hence give a guy from germany a couple of the brakes and he might help sales there. This guy is well known around here, but not only because he does youtube. I have seen him doing comunity stuff like shaping dirtjumps in free acces areas with local kids, then cheering for the kids when they ride stuff. I think that is great and i can imagine that it can help the brand. Who wouldnt be stocked if the local hero would get help from the industrie so he can keep doing the thing that make him the local hero.

What’s weird is this tiny little corner of the internet sort of proves its own argument regarding Sam Hill. 

He may be, results wise, past it; but there’s still plenty of fans who love him and are interested in who is (or isn’t) sponsoring him even if that is limited to 2 races a year and a few instagram photos. Trading on past performance rather than current social media savvy, yes, but a right he has imo 100% earned. 

There is going to be a point where the support tapers off and he gets forgotten but he’s not there yet. If anything the people who were his core fan base 15 years ago are now the rich late 40s to 50s group who think nothing of dropping 10k+ on a wonder bike. 

Yep. Exactly this (like I mentioned in my marketing spiel above).

Sam Hill is no more or less valid of a brand ambassador than a German Youtuber who puts out a high volume of stuff. They speak to different audiences and carry different intentions. Both have their places and can be utilized by brands to speak to specific sorts of audiences.

Matt Jones isn't selling many Marin Quakes to 55-year-old gravel guys just like Christopher Blevins isn't going to sell Tailwind high carb fuel to 17-year-olds riding Whistler on clapped out downhill bikes.

Know your audience. Figure out how to speak to them. Erase the reason(s) why they're not buying your product.

dude what are you doing? 

Sam Hill! Pick another target!

dear american, not every discussion is a culture fight where you either are for or against something...

You sure about that?  Seems like you are making a culture fight out of a discussion that has nothing to do with anything with the us.  One might think you’re American yourself.

fans would love a Sam Hill good bye tour.  Hope monster and mondy get him out there a bit more the coming years.

Hey.
I am the team manager of DragonSpeed DH.
Happy to answer your questions :-)

How is the mood in the team regarding Daprelas allegations and departure from other teams in recent seasons?

do you feel comfortable having younger female racers around someone with SA accusations?

Trying to write a less aggressive version of the question above, regarding allegations about Thibault:

As far as I know, he has not been convicted of any wrongdoing, but the matter is not exactly settled. Assuming the team is not self-funded, the sponsors probably have more interest in this issue than the team manager. So even if the team manager is convinced Thibault has done nothing wrong, and will not do anything further in the future to damage the reputation of himself or the team or the sponsors who support him, there must have been discussion with sponsors on this issue?

Have any sponsors made any special provisions regarding any future fallout from the allegations? Have any potential sponsors said 'no' to sponsoring a team he is on? Has he proven to be a liability during sponsor negotiations? Or have things mostly settled out in that realm for the time being?

And if there have been issues because of these allegations, what do you feel he brings to the team that makes it worth the trade-off?

Swiss guy recommends not picking a side? 
🤔 …very interesting… 🤔 

This is VitalMTB forums. We recognize Sam as one Hill to die on. All these heroes deserve a paycheck for life from the bike industry. Step off!

Waiting for the announcement of him being dropped any minute now... 

No problem, I didn't take your message as aggressive.
I have to say I was expecting more "sporting" questions, like who is DragonSpeed, why a sportscars racing team is coming to DH, what are our goals etc.

Regarding Thibaut, we discussed about this  with him and the partners. You can imagine I am not the only one to be convinced and to decide. We chose the riders together, and the partners are happy with all of our 4 riders, including Thibaut. We had no potential sponsor that said "no" because  he is on. 

Thibaut brings performance, I think we all know that. He showed what he can do. He also has a great experience, which for a team coming to DH is very important, including on the technical aspect. On our side, I think we can also bring our own knowledge, experience on various topics. Technical of course, but not only.

To be honest, it was not the plan to have 4 French riders, but at the end, we have two experienced Elite riders, one man junior & one woman junior with interesting skills for the future. And we are happy to help Léo and Zoé to get a chance in WC.

With Thibaut on your team, most people aren’t going to care about why you made the move to bike racing. A lot of people are going to assume the worst about you, your team and your sponsors. This topic comes up every time he’s mentioned. It’s no coincidence that this was the only real question for you about the team. 

Who’s the 24/7 chaperone for Zoe? What’s the plan for keeping her feeling safe? An unsettled racer is just going to get hurt out on the track. 

@sspomer isn't there another thread for this exhausting debate?

The staff will be the "chaperone", we have other women is the crew too. Zoé is feeling safe and she is safe. No question about that.

Again, I am happy to answer about the project itself.

I'll bite I suppose since you're willing to answer. Let's hear some background on the team, the auto connection, your goals, why get into DH MTB and not some other sport? How do you think navigating the new team process will be? 

Also how long did you research Daprela before deciding he was your guy? 

4 French DH riders (even not initially planned this way) and a French team manager with background in US motor racing, but living in the Alps. Tell us a bit more about building this team please. 

(Be carefull, some Vital members may think this team looks too French 🤣)

Unreal that this guy is still in the sport

@AnthoMisterK 

Regarding this team being "too French:"

What's the team's preference in the hard cheese vs soft cheese debate?

Is the butter and cheese budget higher than the bike lube/cleaner/sealant budget?

Um doing Hardline is about the most pro biker thing you can do.

DragonSpeed is doing sportscar/endurance racing since about 15 years. 24 Hours of Mans (1 class win), 24 Hours of Daytona (3 class wins) and other major races (+ 3 participations at Indy 500). European Champion in Prototype, doint World Endurance Championship, last year runner-up in GT Pro (USA) with a Ferrari, this year with a new Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Why MTB DH. The team principal (former pro driver) and myself, we are passionnate about MTB DH first (I did at low level when I was younger). Then, of course, all the technical aspects - suspension, brakes, tires... - and all the development ongoing. This is something we like, very interesting at the moment with some crossover, common partners (Michelin for us). Then, in motorsport, you have two problems : something they call "balance of performance" (basically if you are too good, they remove some horsepower, add some weight etc.) and cray budget. 
We feel that if you do the job in MTB DH, you can get the result you deserve. And even if budgets are increasing, you can still help some young talent(s). In motorsport, it's less and less the case.

We were talking since several of months with Thibaut. We met a few times during the past season. We had a look at riders earlier than that, make research, analysis etc. like we do in motorsport. We had various options, but Thibaut and Antoine were in our first list. There were some American too but we were not able to make it because of timing mainly.

This is why we did not want too many French riders at the beginning. The team is American : the team principal, Elton Julian, is American/Ecuadorian. We have a workshop in Concord (North Carolina), with the GT racing cars, two trucks etc. Team also has one workshop in Barcelona, which is our base when we race in Europe, also with some race cars, truck, tools.

DS always had this international culture : in the crew we have some Portuguese OR Brazilian engineers, Portuguese, Spanish or English mechanics etc. Yes I am French and living in the Alps between races, but they often say that I am the less French of all the French lol.
For MTB crew, we will have one engineer already with WC experience, same for the mechanics. Coach is a former MTB DH rider. Will have a physio too.

:-) 
Well, has a French, I can only say that the best cheese is French and near my hometown.
Budget wise, full focus on material, components. I mean, we will not have a mega hospitality in Season 1 or the most beautiful set up of the paddock. We want to do things in the good way but it's performance/sporting first. Again like we do in motorsport : we are not the biggest team, but last year we fought with Corvette factory team, beat Porsche, BMW factory teams etc. 
Dont get me wrong, I am not saying we will bit the factory MTB DH teams. But we always built project with win in our mind.