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In his defense, getting paid for any amount of time vs not getting paid sounds pretty good even if leaves you in a position where you're somewhat unsure.

Blimey is it this time already

Sometimes the best ideas are really quite simple. This isn’t a revolutionary idea, other sports have done it before (though we have built in a few new ideas). For the cost of a single beer at the pub we can deliver people an epic broadcast while aligning athlete pay with the success of the event. We’ve built the event model using in depth research and have market tested pricing- this isn’t a flash in the pan idea.

We will be rolling out our rider list in the next week or so. We have a core group of top athletes already locked in. We’ve had overwhelming interest from top riders, so are re calibrating the final few spots to squeeze in some big and probably a little unexpected names.

To be clear, we’ve never paid a hosting fee for the Hardline event to Red Bull- instead we have invested heavily in the venue to facilitate the event each year, and have run the sport, safety, and venue aspects of the event for Red Bull. Our new event releases today. Once it does, it will be obvious that we’ve decided to go in a new direction. We’ve done this because we’ve been brewing this idea for a long time, and it’s time to let us see the light of day.

Posted this before, posting again... The old EWS points and event qualifier structure was a great example of a transparent, feasible ladder for talented and motivated riders to climb into the elite field. EWS points were earned at sanctioned local, regional and national level events each with their own points tier and value table. I remember on the website from 2018-2020 there were pages and pages of races you could earn points. An EWS license was about 30USD to get an account and start earning. It seemed that race organizers were welcomed with fair terms to have their races sanctioned...

This is honestly shocking. WBD is a private, for-profit company. If they decide Enduro isn't profitable enough to broadcast, fine. That's their business. But why does a private broadcaster have a say in whether an entire cycling discipline gets a World Cup? The UCI is a governing body. Its job is to organize, protect and develop cycling for its members, not decide which disciplines survive based on the ROI of a commercial partner. And one of the most important jobs of a governing body is to provide a consistent pathway through the sport. Local racing → regional racing → nationals...

Charlie Murray had similar sentiments to others with regards to a future series in his most recent appearance on the downtime podcast. Link up all the Trans events, maybe MegaAvalanche and Mountain of Hell and one or two larger Domestic Enduro style events of different formats, ensuring both single and multi day races feature (Maydena's Enduro Jam jumps to mind). Let the YouTube / Vlog style content run for the first year or two as the series finds it feet then slowly start to feed in some investment on coverage and the likes. I used to pour all over the...

Not to be that guy that responds twice, but I often wondered if and how attention spans and social media played into the demise of the enduro format as well. I remember a decade ago long form photography essays and longer recap videos were the norm and celebrated, I think people's ability to appreciate that kind of content has significantly waned. Obviously that's far from the whole story but I wonder about how it played into it.

@jessemelamed got any insights for us?👀

posting a question i heard it in a text thread - WBD signed an 8-year deal w/ UCI in 2022. how does ditching one of the events before the contract is up work? is it breach of contract? does someone get paid out? are they vague b/c they're sorting those details out?

It's an unbelievably vague press release. My first thought was that they were trying to sugarcoat "We're killing the series forever" in positive-sounding corporate-speak, but on second read it's kind of wishy washy and undefined, like maybe the UCI is exploring ways to offload the series to another organizer or multiple organizers, which is what it was all along until Chris Ball sold it to the UCI. Back in the day, the EWS was mostly a collection of events that were already taking place independent of the UCI, like the SuperEnduro series in Italy or Crankworx Whistler. After rereading it...