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I just mentioned this is about the wild card riders or lower positioned riders who have either no sponsors or are flow (so free bikes/parts/gear but no contract) and maybe some dudes with TINY contracts and basically NO bargaining power/leverage to ask for a better contract. Like if these dudes even have a contract at all, it could be as low as 1-2k a month. My understanding is not only is not every event like this but not every CRANKWORX is actually run the way Rotorua is. The travel expenses are pretty gnarly for non aus/nz riders, and if there's...

I think, to steer the convo better, lets really really really not compare slopestyle bicycle riding to the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, F1, literally anything that absolutely dwarfs our disciplines COMBINED in terms of money power. I don't even know why these points are being brought up. Rogatkin is doing fine. The RIDERS collectively bargained and the top earners effectively took a PAY CUT to stand up for the wild cards and riders less likely to earn any money due to final position. I'm sure they don't give a flying fuck if the eventual pay comes from the city, red...

Your single anecdotal experience w a union does not counter the weight of evidence. The slopestyle riders are collectively organizing to negotiate their compensation. That makes them, you guessed it, a union. I'm not here to convince you unions are good for riders, I am here to support the riders and their collective bargaining.

Good God. Your TLDR fails on ever level. It isn't even succinct. Here is how you do a TLDR. TLDR, unions raise wages in every industry and they do so by threatening to withhold labor, or withholding it and demonstrating the value of their labor in its absence. The weight of evidence in the economic field is clear on this. Unions raise wages. https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/130/631/1898/5824627?login=false

The point is you don't do it alone numbnuts. You negotiate as a block to reduce the asymmetry of power between employees and employers. And this action came after months of negotiation, it didn't happen overnight. Go look at every industry where there are unions and take note that the union members are better paid and compensated than their non union counterparts. If you like being underpaid, cool, keep sucking up that capitalist kool-aid, but I am proud of the riders for standing up for themselves and pushing their employer for better pay and conditions.

Compensation is negotiation between employers and employees. Employees banding together to negotiate for better compensation is "how markets work", corporate bootlicker.

Fuck all these corporate apologist telling riders they should be greatful for what they get. That they arent irreplacable. That they arent worth more. Fuck all that noise. Get paid lads. Godspeed.

Good on you guys. #solidarity 🤙🏻

Because it's not been posted in here yet, here's the statement from the riders: Dear fans and supporters of Slopestyle. As you will have heard, we, as the full field of male Slopestyle riders at Crankworx Rotorua, have made a joint, but very tough, decision to not take part in official competition tomorrow. But we will be at the event in full support of the girls as they make history, with the first ever female Diamond Slopestyle event. We will also be riding the McGazza train and out there for our fans. Today has been a tough day and there...

That latest statement clears up a few things for me for sure - I can see where they are coming from now, I just really hope this doesn’t negatively impact the women’s event today!

Dude, I think you are projecting one event with one person onto an entire group. We all know how that goes. I’ve been lucky enough to meet many many pro riders in my life and all of them have been nothing but incredibly nice. I’m sorry one rider may have laughed at you, but that certainly doesn’t mean they are all ‘mean girls’ or that in reality even that individual is. Also claiming race results as a reason why someone should be nice to you isn’t the flex you think it is.

Again, I love how everyone is quick to blame the riders. We don’t have any of the info. It is just as likely Crankworx promised them certain conditions for the event this year and then once the riders were there, did not follow through assuming they would just ride. Why is the burden on the riders and not on Crankworx? Crankworx has the resources.

This is a terrible take. Both the riders AND Crankworx have acknowledged that talks have been going on for months with no progress. Sometimes you have to utilize the only leverage you have, in this case not showing up to the start line. This clearly wasn’t a hasty decision. Crankworx could have solved this more easily than the riders, why do people blame them and not Crankworx? Also anyone criticizing the athletes in favor of a non-human organization are so wrong and a demonstrate a microcosm of a bigger issue causing major strife in the world right now. Someone else...

When you look at how much revenue the large MTB companies make and how much they pay out in sponsorship and endorsement etc etc to all pros in the sport (DH XC Slooestyle) it's very very sad. A lot of the larger component companies are around the 500m revenue a year. This is a massive industry, why aren't the pros getting paid.

Totally agree with you Mitch. Thank you for your first hand input. I made an account just for this topic alone. These guys are risking EVERYTHING to do what they do and they shouldn't be forced into a state of poverty if they're good enough to be dropping into some of the biggest events in this sport. I hope redbull and crankworx see this thread and I hope a collaboration can be had to make a change for these premier athletes so they can have a sense of security to continue doing what they love. That's the only way we'll...

I’m with Noah, thanks for popping in Chubey and thanks for all the fun times we had at CWX CO!!

Sitting out the event does nothing to help the top guys. If anything it’s a big hinderance in a world where many contracts are bonus based. It can hopefully do something to better things for the rest of the field. for those comparing to dh that’s the main difference. The loic Bruno’s and Greg Minaars of the sport aren’t sitting out to help the guys who are fighting for a top 30.

Love hearing the firsthand experience Chubey, you rock.

Hard to force an event into paying for something that's been paid and budgeted for a year. We had this issue with redbull at rampage 2014 when Redbull told us they owned our helmet camera footage.... The event almost didn't happen over it. It was crazy, We owned the camera, we hit record, we paid for our diggers, we built the line, we risked injury to ride said line, yet RB would own the footage... I think we got to use the footage for person promotion, not sponsor use. and they "Scrapped" up a 1000 bucks each for it. But...

I never really had a trip paid for by an event, The FMB mandates accommodations and breakfast. Rampage now pays 7500, but to be honest that covers your expenses for the event if your from north America, and some if you're from off continent The rest you're on your own. Only exemptions to that where events in China, those they covered everything, and paid well. As the organizers saw it more as a marketing exercises than an event. And the Nissan Qashqi events in 2008 where i got 1500 euros travel support.