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I went from an enduro die hard fan when EWS started back in the day, to barely checking results or coverage around 2024. Some of it is personal, when EWS started out, I had met a lot of the French pros at local/regional/national races, it was easy to root for your local teenager: Nicolai, Cure, Dailly, Tordo and the legends Barel and Vouilloz. Little by little they started to retire or get hurt and not perform quite as well, these days I only recognise a handful of the names in the top 10. Hate to bring up a sour subject...

the issues started with adding the e bike category and the very poorly done “televised” stage. They no longer had the resources for the longer racing formats of old. The racing took a back seat to a series no one was interested in and a product no one was watching. And the riders, media, and fan’s noticed. By the time they dropped the e-bike category and went back to focusing on putting on the best race possible, they had already taken on dh/xc for at least a couple seasons. So now again their resources are divided. In fact now it’s...

He saw the writing on the wall before last season started. Knew no teams were going to sign riders going forward for good salaries. He was 'forced' into retirement. If YT offered him another $250k/yr for 3 more years, he'd still continue racing. Just like all these guys and gals that are 'retiring'. ...totally understandable that they don't want to grind and want to 'move on' with their lives when they're only being offered tiny salaries or bro hookups. But that's all that's on the table anymore for Enduro.

Jacks announcement took a few of us by surprise last night. It's sad that one of the best riders in the world, arguably the most charismatic too is unable to secure a ride for next year and in some ways, coerced into retirement. I hope he finds a role somewhere, he would be a fantastic "face" of a company. The content would be top level. Jack is majorly responsible for MTB in Australia spreading so far, his influence on youngsters and his personal approach to grassroots racing that I have seen first hand is commendable. He truly is one of...

We’re not about to rehash the “why enduro failed at the world cup level” discussion are we?

Such a massive blow to the discipline to have Jack and Jesse both leave. I hate today it but this could be the nail in the coffin for enduro racing at a worlds level

1. Vali and Gracey are neck and neck all year. My CDN heart wants Gracey to win, but Vali doesn't fold and wins again. 2. It's not even close. Jackson smokes the field. 3. Very few new bikes are sold. Tell me how you convince a guy with a 22 Hightower (just an example), that a new bike is going to change his world.

1. Loic wins the overall 2. Vali goes undefeated 3. e-bike hate will increase 4. The new demo will be made into an e-bike version - the 2 chain mechanism will be swapped for a new motor from Spec. 5. Bikes wont change much 6. Gates still pushes the nonsense purse to no avail 7. Reece Wilson will do something even more weird with his bike and still not make it through in Q1.

So surprised NPC doesn't know that Daprela is riding for a new team.

I’m down with the 120/130 stuff but I really want to see brands move away from flex stay and back into higher performing suspension designs on these short travel bikes. It’s interesting that Giant explicitly called out other flex stay bikes having excessive flex in their stays and I think there is something to that. The short travel bikes can be incredible but I just hope 2026 finds them freed from the XC limitations…

Sam Reynolds is off AON Racing.

1. More brands make radial tyres (got a sneak peak at a Specialized Cannibal radial) 2. 32in xc/trail bikes come out (Scott is already ready to go) 3. 32in xc bike wins a worldcup 4. Asa vs Jackson vs Loic for the title in Elite, Vali wins easily this year on Commencal 5. More 1000w ebikes with DJI or equivalent motors

what was the rumor about jess? yeti would be a nice fit since they‘ve a spot to fill after cami.

- 32" will happen - More brands will release radial-ish tires - Gravel suspension gets real/more adoption (and as a result tire widths get narrower, at least for racing) World Cup Enduro dies - RIP

Biking will continue to be a lot of fun and selling bikes will still be pretty dang rough in the woods and streets.

You forgot to sugarcoat the honesty for the forum