All

Just thinking aloud here. In the beginning of the little podcast, Gwin mentions Mikey (Delesalle?) flew down to test. So, can we expect more announcements/riders on the extended Frameworks family? Any juniors on Frameworks Racing, this year? Future Frameworks will (presumably) continue?

biggest team surprise of the silly season for sure IMO. plus 2-3 year contract sounds more like a serious mission and not the last dance… REALLY STOKED!!! 🤩

I'm not even from the USA and I'm stoked as hell for this!

As much as I and other people have joked about this, I really did not see this coming. Merica F Yeah!

Gwin to Frameworks lets gooooooo!

Holy shit I did NOT see that coming.

Aaron Gwin on Frameworks is official. We have some cool pics from test camp and exclusive interviews with Gwin, Neko, and Aaron's mechanic, James McAllister here - https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/aaron-gwin-joins-frameworks-racing-tr… #USDH

Personally I find Dakotah a heck of a lot easier to relate to than someone like Jackson. Just a hard working dude from a similar part of the same country as me, also with questionable hair styles, that has overcome some adversity and doesn't mind getting his hands dirty at home. Nothing against Jackson, but his story is so far out of my realm that its just... not very interesting.

Yes. The teams are often their own entities that partner with the brands, not full internal factory style. Specialized is an Amurkan brand and their team is super French. Canyon is a German brand with a tres French team as well. Norco is a Canadian brand and hmm let’s call their team South African and American with some Canadian thrown in (?) I’m hyped to hear BC on B Practice Podcast. I imagine he’ll have some violin segment or an insect report or something way out there…he’s so rad!

Yeah but the DH Factory team has been driven by Patrice Afflatet (plus Flo Payet and other French guys) for years.

The unspoken assumption here is that we should be rooting for athletes on the basis of their accomplishments, but that’s not at all how sports fandom works. Just rooting for the guy who you think will win isn’t fandom, it’s gambling without money. Dak’s the homie and I’ll be cheering for him even if he’s DFL.

Also not American. I really started to follow Dak after hearing him on the pod and getting the behind the scenes look at the World Cup circus. I'm way more interested in those details than I am in the highly polished WB stuff. Same reason I liked Moi Moi, Wyn and Ed.

His contributions to the B-Practice podcast are probably a big reason that Vital favors him (Just like people here love Jesse M. because he actually posts in the forum periodically). It makes them feel like they're "one of your own." Shocking... do good PR things that expand your audience and let people get to know you... and you increase your fan base and marketability. I think people really appreciate his perspective, combined with Tanner and Jason, on the races and racing in general. It's one of the more interesting podcasts to me. On top of that, his journey over the...

Personally, I'm not American, so that doesn't play into it at all. Winning doesn't make you likeable. Dak presents as a nice guy and people like that. Having a bit of a unique set up could also play into it, but I think it's mostly just the nice guy thing. People also love an underdog and a comeback story, so everyone's been cheering him on as he's steadily improving after his injuries last year.

Dak said on the new pod that he was gonna troll us with a bike in the background that Frida will be riding this year. So Frida will be on AG's setup this year it looks like. Not surprising considering they're friends and she spent a lot of time in the pits with them last season. It will be cool to see what she can do with some more support. She's been on the cusp a lot over the last few years and with less stress of logistics (although maybe a lot of PHD stress still) she might be able...

Spy shots of the new Syncros DH cockpit for Dak!

Looks like he’s still got the monster bars on the new bike!