All

Izabela Yankova out w/ head injury. Crappy way to start the season but glad she' (and the big S) are taking it seriously

Alran brothers on commencal mucoff

Stack Norton. 😂 If that doesn’t become the name of these completely hypothetical handle bars, I quit.

Stak Norton

You got downvoted because it was mentioned ~20 times before you posted

He already pushed the forks through and cleaned the truck out of spacers. Just. Need. A. Little. Higher. Front. End.

Heard the main reason Dak signed with mondraker is cause they are making him a signature handlebar, with 65mm rise and a crossbar.

It's officially official - Dak has joined Mondraker Factory Racing. Video interview and podcast are live now. We recorded this last week, so we will have to cover #frecklegate in the next podcast haha

The admittedly unclear implication was that “we” derailed the thread and I neither endorsed unsanctioned trails nor demonized them. I just gave us a new place to argue about it. I am keenly aware of and sensitive to the potential for unsanctioned trails to impact legal access. I more took issue with the term eco-crimes and the idea that these trails cause any more meaningful damage than legal trails which seemed a bit extreme in the grand scheme of the late capitalist human shitshow. I will say that the original sin of American MTB occurred in a place where to...

Sir, this is a Wendy’s… On another note, I hope frecklegate gets discussed on a future B Practice Podcast.

I second the outside sponsors support. Go back 15-20 years plus and there were quite a few teams sponsored by car brands. GT/Chevrolet, Giant/Toyota, Trek/VW, Mondraker/Suburu, Kona/Ford Focus to name a few. Plus the MTB World Cup series being sponsored by Nissan and Mercedes in the past as well. Kinda surprised it isn't kinda still a thing, as teams and riders all need wheels to move around. Maybe motor brands don't see the value of sponsoring a sport that's unfamiliar to a lot of people and athletes they've never heard of.....something that's quite apparent this side of the pond. Unless...

Also, update on #frecklegate. He's playing hard to get.

This deserves its own thread, but unless you are looking at the contract first hand, take everything with a grain of salt. I've negotiated on behalf of a handful of professional athletes in adjacent sports as an "agent" (LOL) and I've also watched people flat lie about what they were making to feel better about themselves. I get it. Its a topic riddled with insecurity. While I'd wager there are more athletes making $100-200K+ than most think (I'm including influencer types and freeriders in this), its a terrible career choice in every sense of the word "choice". If I was...

was just sent this by rogue racing TM, not sure if old news. rogue and GT this year

When you think about the fact that he's pulling $400k without factory support, it makes you wonder what kind of budget the factory teams are working with. I don't think anyone on the Framesworks team is making more than $100k, and I'd highly doubt anyone is making more than $80k. If we suppose the salary mix is $50k-$100k, with Saurez, Whitley and Neko averaging $75k, thats $225k, plus Asa at say, $50k, and a mechanic at $50k, we're only leaving $75k for travel expenses and event fees. Even that seems kinda low. Especially as they are paying a crew to...

I imagine that the $400k goes pretty quick when you consider all the flights, hotels, food, transportation rentals, entry fees, etc. Then there are salaries paid to a lot more than just the riders, there's the mechanics and manager too. Back in 2022 it was $12,000 for team entry, but I'm not sure if that includes costs for each event or not. If I had to guess, they probably spend somewhere close to $8k-$10k per event, not including salaries.

Something I learned this year was how difficult the timing is - a few things I never considered. Not all of a rider's sponsors line up to end on the same date. Can't takea pic in your new TL kit if Alpine was doing your old and you are still under contract for them...so multiply that my all the support a team has for the existing and new riders. Then, once all that is finally squared, the logistics of an announcement have to match up...got to plan the photo, video, place...hope it's not raining etc. Here is a big one...