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With Trek's announcement today, it looks like #2 "Gwin back to Trek" fantasies have come to an end. Perhaps being a part owner of another bike company was a deal breaker. All eyes on you Dan Atherton.

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.

Please let it be Brage..

Honestly, a GREAT move for Orbea. I don’t hear them mentioned when people talk about bikes that do well in “gravity” uses. This is the path forward to change that. This is great marketing during a time other brands are drastically cutting their marketing back. Also, being an employee-owned company is awesome. I hope the result of all this for Orbea is some awesome bikes and a bunch of wins, including a Women’s World Cup Overall. Consider that an official prediction from a guy who knows not-that-much about DH racing.

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/what-going-thibault-daprela Back to rumors.

Ghosting Sam Hill? They’re gonna be kicking themselves after he wins that easy Tasmania Hardline race by 25 seconds.

For those playing along at home, here’s where we stand with the most ridiculous rumors so far… #3 - Phoebe Gale off FMD, going to Reece Wilson’s new AON team, after being prominently featured in the Orbea FMD press release. #2 - Aaron Gwin back to mentor the kids on lower budget Trek Factory after becoming a partner in Crestline bikes last year. #1 - Old man Dan Atherton returning to stomp $$$ DH podiums on a prototype belt drive after his most recent 57th at a 2018 Crankworx stop. There’s a few others close to the top 3, but...

I watched crankworks only to see blenki riding 😁

I get what you’re saying, but I gotta think there’s no way Orbea is dropping Tahnee money and her riding a bike that isn’t an Orbea. Besides, @dantecusolito was talking specifically about them buying prototype frames from another brand. Selling prototype anything is a BIG old no-no. This would create a huge rift with the brand and could introduce some major liability issues. Athletes typically have to sign additional waivers and NDAs when working on prototype projects if it’s not already written into their initial contract. Orbea has a lot of engineering and manufacturing capabilities, they’ll have something ready.

If a select few riders in the men’s field are earning enough to drive €150k+ cars and flying to races in private jets then they’re likely earning close to 7 figures. In 2025 I’d expect Vali to match this. If you want World Cup wins and rainbow stripes for your brand she’s as close as you’ll get to a guaranteed result.

IIRC she said, even though 100k was a good amount of money, the top male riders still make 3 times as much as the female riders and complained a little bit about the injustice in dh mountain biking. That´s why I´m guessing a top male rider (and Kolb is a top male rider) won´t make much less than Vali.

It would be criminal if Vali is on 100k. I would expect her base salary to be 3-4x that at least.

Maybe the real Tech Rumors and Innovation were the friends we made along the way.

2025 Southwest Regional Gravity Champs Series at Bootleg dates announced.

I knew this was coming with Anna 's season last year. Mixed feelings- really stoked for Anna, sad that one more privateer team is going away. All the best to Anna and Abby next year!

You can rip on their English translation skills all you want, but I'll wager it's a helluvalot better than your Mandarin. Their derailleur architecture looks more aligned to Sunrace's RDM series, just with a battery pack and servo rather than a pulley and housing stop.

It's only knockoff if it comes from China. Otherwise its just sparkling IP theft.

I wasn’t asking a question. Hence the “!” at the end. Was poking the “destroy China and all of her kind”gang 😉 The volume of negs speaks er volumes though 😅

BY burned by Sram? What does this relate to? FWIW, when we were discussing how simple it is to make a wirless conversion, it's not THAT easy. Easy in principle as you need some kind of motor/actuator pushing the interface of the post, some electronics to do the communication, a remote and some way for the two to communicate. What that means is you need to handle the mechanics of the actuator. A motor, some geartrain, something to press the thing in the post. You need a battery and some way to charge it. Some control electronics to talk to...

The rest of the Telum vids just went public on their yt.