All

yup, literally finally designed a frame that was appropriate for droppers longer than 150mm or whatever... and then disappeared i really miss the Ragley hardtails. everything they were doing was awesome tbh. I needed a non-boost front wheel a while ago and grabbed a Nukeproof one on sale. such a good value. their droppers as well. I don't even feel anybody has filled that gap in the market... those droppers were dirt cheap and were more reliable than most of the high end ones anyway

Thirion had a good year I think, Qualified constantly, always in the mix. Guy is OG as it gets (oldest besides Gwin?) and still a podium threat.

Damn I hope thats not true. Giant is such a boring brand and team.

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.

Giving up his spot to riders like Sam Gale when he could race himself tells you all you need to know about Wyn IMO.

There is a growing scene here. While things were regressing about 12-15 years ago, the last 7+ have seen major growth. We went from zero bike parks to five (two government-funded), loads of trail centers, a few "official," but most not so official, and government-funded pump tracks. The number of riders has been increasing, yet the mountain bike race scene has been dying. But that's more of an issue with event organizers seeing gran fondos as exponentially more profitable. Riders would love to have a proper race series again, rather than just a few events a year, and this is...

I hope not . Reece Wilson is an exciting rider to watch and was finding some form before injury, Monika Hrastnik has had a podium and Hattie has shown she has the pace and probably just needs more racing experience to put it all together. I would guess that you wouldn't put the effort into staring something like that then knock it on the head after a year .

Rumor here is that WB wanted $750000 for MSA to host in 2026 and previously the cost to host was significantly lower.

This would be so interesting. After your done can you unravel the ski/snowboard manufacturer web? In the snow world (bikes are very similar) I always found it so odd that companies try so hard to keep the factory that builds their boards secret. Very few, from the big players to the small core brands, make their own hardgoods. And similar to bikes, there are 10-15 (hard to tell because they are so opaque) factories across the world that make the boards for almost everyone. Some of these factories make awesome stuff, some are pretty terrible. If as a company you...

Just listening to the OTB podcast . Rumor from them is that the YT truck got repossessed and the team won't have the funds to make the north American rounds . Pretty rubbish situation all round .

Lou Ferguson to stay on Intense for 2 more years.

I get what you mean and it would be cool , but if I was in a position to choose from a few offers I'd be staying well away from anyone who was using YT as an example of how they'd want to run their program 😁 It's a shame as it's not the people who ride for the team or work in the pits fault but YT do seem to have a way of ending up leaving riders in the lurch a bit .

A spot will be open on Yetis DH team as Camille Balanche announced her retirement after this year.

I recall an interview with Vali several years ago saying she had an offer from her “favourite team” but it would have required her to leave Sram/RS, so she turned it down and rode for the Rockshox Trek team. Since then she’s won 3 World Cup overalls and 3 World Champs so I can’t imagine this team wouldn’t still be interested and make room. I wonder if it’s Commencal Muc Off - Myriam is getting older and it makes sense given they were on Fox at the time she signed with Trek. The connection with Cecile makes sense as well...

Teams own the points, not riders. This was one of the issues brought up (that I wholeheartedly agree with) when this system was introduced. What happens when a team folds? I hope there’s a mechanism in place for a logical solution to this but I doubt it. WBD doesn’t want deadbeat teams, they’ll be fine letting someone else figure it out for them. YT Mob would be on their 3rd strike now?—deadbeat status in my book. Riders blew it not fighting this one harder. Teams, too, honestly. It diminishes the true stars of the sport. Shameful, and shoots the whole...

Stoked for the Whistler race. It's been a long time coming. The track is amazing. With a bit (actually quite a bit) more excavating of access roads and adjusting of the rescue plans, I'm sure they could do the race without the heli. The access roads this year were already better than last year. I've spent a lot of time in that forest, and currently, it would be quite the epic to carry out an injured rider from the middle of the course. Also, the B Zone is mostly non existant. That's two large, but manageble projects that will also...

In this current format of team/rider eligibility, no chance of locals racing year one. IF someone is inspired and has deep enough pockets to go get some UCI points, then maybe in year three, a slim chance at year two. There's little to no support for local riders. I'd put my money on one of two local juniors if they hit the gym and move abroad to train and collect points since they've both already outgrown the local parks. If it were ten years ago, there were two riders who'd be able to line up in Pro. One, Park Jun...

Finally we all got what we wanted... the chance to complain about how a proper ‘world series’ prices out smaller teams and privateers.

Vali’s post race interview was very negative. Even caught Gwin and the host lady by surprise. She said the summer break could not have gone worse and mentioned the team situation. Their truck was not in Les Gets. Clearly a lot more going on than we see, and none of it good.