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Between the lines of your post is an unfortunate reality about Danny — the most memorable thing he will ever do in his career was over a decade ago, and is in fact largely about Rob Warner’s announcing, not Danny himself. As an aging racer with diminishing results, anything he can do (aside from coming back with another 2011-World-Champs-style performance or multiple World Cup wins) is going to be overshadowed by *that run.* Sponsors don’t really get to cash in on that retroactively, either. It was done on a Giant, and always will have been done on a Giant. With...

probably best to wait to let the juniors race it out next year, leave the bench racing for the established elites who have a true track record at the top tier of racing, no?

Think they were only intended to last a few seasons, self-described as a "talent incubator". The goal was to get some up-and-comers, document their rise, and get them on factory race teams. Despite the level of publicity garnered, PBR seems a relatively low-budget team. Cathro seems pretty done racing and Aimi has proved herself for a factory ride. T-bo just dropped a solo edit with no mention of the team, think he's marketing himself as a jack-of-all-trades racer, someone who can do style, freeride, & speed. If they're back next season I'd expect the roster to look pretty different, still...

I'm putting fifty dollars on her joining Unior-Sinter

My thought is that those who had their contracts expire this year are having a tough time reconciling their worth against others who signed at peak market insanity. In all likelihood, Bex and Danny fall into this camp. They won’t be able to secure a ride if they are expecting the same salary as someone, on par with their results and marketability, who signed in 2022, say. They will need to make concessions which may hurt the ego but will be the way, going forward.

You have to look where Danny's value is thses days. He brought a worldwide audience to Saracen and legitamacy to Cube. Given he is a 2x World Champ he does'nt come cheap (and multi year contracts). For an established brand/large team he's not adding a lot unless he's on the podium (great to have the seasoned vet to guide the young guns but thats a luxury in these times). For a smaller brand/team he is simply too expensive. Danny is very independantly minded so putting together his own deal ( like Brendan) sounds like the solution but that is a...

While I agree they might not be the best brand of bike out there, WCDH overall winner Matt Walker and junior World Champion Jordan Williams might disagree with your opinion of what a rider can achieve on Saracen bikes.

Is PBR folding? I hadn't seen that.

na, I think they'll have no choice but to move EDR away from the XCO/DHI races and do something else with it. EDR format needs to adapt to the venues, not the other way around. And I think Ball and the rest at ESO know that deep down. So I'm guessing EDR will remain a world cup event up to 2030, but probably be sent off into mass participation obscurity with marathon XC, where we see it at some venues that have DH and XC but not all. Looks to me like the EWS required a lot of effort from...

I wonder if they regret those statements about growing EDR (or EWS as it was at the time) and improving coverage. To my mind it doesn't do too much for their perceived integrity and I find it hardly surprising that people might not believe they have DH's best interests at heart. The complete shitshow that was the AMA with Chris ball on the other site did nothing to help with that in my opinion.

I don’t think anyone is saying people shouldn’t be allowed to race because of being quiet off the track. I think the argument might be that they shouldn’t demand as large of a (or any?) salary if they’re quiet and aren’t increasing brand awareness or selling product. My 2 cents is being a full-time paid athlete these days requires some level of demonstrated increase in product sales or brand awareness. If you just want to race and not influence too, then lots of brands can offer discounted, or free, products if you have good results and you will need a...

There were 7 different winners in 8 races this year. DH is not short of "podium threats", and not just podium threats "on their day". Ultimately, Cube have the figures to know if it was working out or not. If it was I imagine they would have re-signed him at the end of this initial 3 year deal. For the avoidance of doubt, no, I do not think the 2023 World Cup winners, World Cup Overall winner and World Champion you mentioned should retire because you think they are "quiet", nor should the other riders you mentioned. Edit: All this...

To piggyback on this, and correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Danny’s dad have something to do with his contracts and negotiations and was noted as someone who was particularly difficult to work with? I don’t know if this is true now, but I seem to remember reading that back when he was on Madison.

Continuing the chat of Danny Hart, I'm also in the camp where he doesn't really come across as much of a "personality" to me, but also not someone who's had particularly great results over the past year. I have a feeling some companies are also just taking a harder look at which riders are really driving sales. I know Danny's history, but how many riders realistically are going to be watching him and wanting to copy his setup or style? Looking at EDR, it's the same if you look at what used to be the Canyon team. I imagine a...

Not to mention George Madley on Madison Saracen as a first year WC Junior

Kerry works for Bikeflights now. After Kona fired all the riders and team managers in June Bikeflights was nice enough to give Kerry a wrapped sprinter. They want him to actually enjoy bike racing in 2024, and they will be covering all his domestic travel and racing(he just has to be the face of Bikeflights and the events he heads to). His priority for race bikes next year are a superduper light FS bike for stage racing- and real CX bikes. Big ups to Bikeflights for supporting atheletes doing what they love.

RE Spomer's thought that maybe Canyon opening budget for XC since it's an Olympic year: -Don't think this is the case. They're not currently hiring new racers for just this year. That cake and budget is already baked. Big money signings (to get people on their roster for Olympics) would have taken place 1-2 years in the past and salaries would randomly increase this year because it's the Olympics.

Sadly it's probably un-likely. Less and less brands are really making dedicated CX bikes anymore. And if they are, they're not updating them/developing them/getting them under 'pros' racing CX. Couple this with the decline of CX racing, it all adds up. Regarding Kerry himself, this could be a death nail to his pro cycling career as it's going to be tough to find sponsorship in the US at this point. That said, he's got lots of visibility, good results and a following, so maybe some brand will give him a paid ambassador/racer deal.

They're twins. One of them is going to be on Muc-Off, the other will be on another Commencal team. This is idle speculation, but I'd put money on Till riding for Muc-Off and Max joining Estaque, Frix & Co.

Funny, I just went to the Kona site to see if they had any CX bikes on close out. Just some super long gravel machines, I feel bad for Kenny having to race CX on those turds! Hopefully he finds a sponsor with a more "viable" cross bike to race on.