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You mean to tell me that we were this close to having a Loris-Jordi reunion, and now it’s gone?!?! That’s criminal!

I actually can't imagine a better, potentially-reachable goal, than getting rid of a rear derailleur. It's been discussed for ages, but seeing it tested consistently for the last few years, makes me wonder if they aren't "getting closer"? Not having a potential race-ending derailleur break, or chain break is a very significant advantage if all other things are equal. Being able to bash through any course with extended rock gardens would mean seconds of advantage in a 3 minute run.

Fair, but on the other hand, how many runs were lost by less than a couple seconds that could have been made up if the bike had a lower center of gravity and less unsprung mass to get hung up on square edge hits.

Any1 else thinks a lot of credit for Gates push into MTB should go to the Chris Sugai as he is now employed there and knows the mtb world pretty well (he was also talking in one of the videos)?

I wonder if there isn't (hidden), or there might be, a SRAM gearbox

Strange for a team to do promo shoot with a new rider, who is the current DH World Champ, and not have them in rainbow stripes. Not even sleeves or cuffs.

UCI isn't paying squat for the purse. Gates is the MVP here. good marketing for them I guess. It's been awesome to see teams gearing up to go after it. But it's sad that they can't win prize money like that just for... winning a race.

i think it's partially the team sponsors, and partially a lot of the bigger companies (trek, spesh, SC, etc) have so much OEM business with sram/shimano it might preclude them from developing a frame around a gearbox. i think the OEM aspect is less of an issue with the small to medium sized builders.

I think there's a bit of both. Gates wants to break into the market so they are doing so via the prize purse. But just because the big teams aren't following suit doesn't mean itsa gimick and all about the money. Some of these larger teams are funded and supported by SRAM and Shimano. They might not be able to rock the boat that hard to try something that is a bit unproven. Switching would require new frames and disrupting long time partnerships. Gearbox's have pros and cons, but until they are put to the test, no one knows which...

Gates is, in every sense of the term a ‘very wealthy co-sponsor’ it’s a literal multi-billion dollar company…. The €100k prize fund is literally a drop in the ocean for them.

I have a marketing email from Muc-Off announcing a World Champ was joining the team hit my inbox just on 90 mins ago.... Wasn't Loris, but. Some dude on a motorbike instead. Lame.

I reckon it’s Kade Edwards

Just giving a shout out to the moderators here. That guy……

Interesting to see MS and Intense both on Gates seeing as they just split. Originally I thought that was the reason they split(MS wanting to race a belt/gearbox) but I guess there was something else.

Two new Colombians and an Italian. https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/filmsmith/blog/01/15/2025/entry/1295…

he‘s also becomin a dad soon and had a lot of bad injuries lately… priorities and focus can change. wish him all the best for the future

I would love to see Izabela joining the gravity team but I’m still not sure if she can train after that horrible car crash that she had.

As Izabela isn't mentioned in the Gen-S lineup, it might be her transitioning to the gravity team?

In their instagram comment responses Specialized gravity seem to be hinting that this is not a complete team and they may announce a woman after all. Thoughts?