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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!

Was sweatin’ a bit after I posted that screenshot and thought for sure there was no way it could be read. I should have known better 😂 Dak and Jess are officially on Scott DH Factory. We recorded a pod with Dak last week, you can listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts, and read the team press release here - https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/dakotah-norton-jess-blewitt-join-scot…

IRC jesse never trolled but made an unintentional mistake with that post/pic. trolling would‘ve been if he didn‘t go to canyon IMO.

Remy Meier Smith and Ryan Griffith both no longer list Pivot Factory Racing in their instagram bios. Ryan Griffith looks like he's on a Chromag Monk in his story.

It's still the Scott curse any anyone who joins Scott immediately performs worse.

If he’s at home then he’s not at the Scott team camp.

If Dak goes to Scott, they better make him one of those stupid integrated stem / bar combos with 75 mm rise. And then run the brake cables through it just to stay on message.

" Today we are here to talk about Dak food streams for 2026. Dak is going to be frying for Fruitworks Raisins with New Muesli . A true American cream team that is almost too good to be true ..."

Copilot is just a dressed up Clippy