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FWIW I'm quite excited at the thought of a race in South Korea and I may well attend. Putting that aside your sentiment is easy to understand (for me at least) when we live in a world where Saudi Arabia has just won the bid to host the 2029 Asian WINTER Games and F1 races are held under floodlights because it's too hot to race that location during the day. $$$$ is increasingly all that matters, everything else is secondary. Especially common sense (we need to change that expression, it becomes less common by the hour). I see WBD trying...

us-centricity is an issue, not attacking you at all. You'll be surprised on how thriving MTB is in Indonesia or Malaysia (to name powerful less known markets).. but people just dont know.. Even Philippines is a HUGE market & scene, but has way more issues and is less developed and not likely an MTB market to be heard of in the west that often. Did you know Intense factory racing has now an Indonesian lady in the roster ? Yes, that american brand.. Some moves to new venues are a combination of economic power, readiness and market strategy.. I would...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung

There is a growing scene here. While things were regressing about 12-15 years ago, the last 7+ have seen major growth. We went from zero bike parks to five (two government-funded), loads of trail centers, a few "official," but most not so official, and government-funded pump tracks. The number of riders has been increasing, yet the mountain bike race scene has been dying. But that's more of an issue with event organizers seeing gran fondos as exponentially more profitable. Riders would love to have a proper race series again, rather than just a few events a year, and this is...

Lou Ferguson to stay on Intense for 2 more years.

Pretty sure that’s for the logistical part of the team. Peaty is more the performance side and isnt booking flights etc.

I will be intereted to see how quick teams will be to drop riders if they have an off season once points no longer belong soley to the racers. Some teams will def stay pretty loyal to racers, but I can absolutely see some teams under presure being quicker to cut racers in order to replace with an up and coming racer.

Well it looks like Yeti have a open slot in their roster now!

Here is the official retirement announcement from Camille Balanche - what an incredible career she has had, stepping into the sport so late (only a couple of years after picking up her first bike!), and achieving what she did is no mean feat. Congrats on the career Camille, all the best for the next steps!

True.. also Bienve and Stark in Freeride, Fedko in Slopestyle. That team is stacked. Certainly among the best lineup of riders overall at the moment. But also kind of serves to show how messed up the bike industry is right now. Great ambassadors, great bikes, very reasonable pricing, still struggling

Wow! An actual ad for the position. I hope Peaty stays on the circuit in some way.

I would be surprised if most of the YT team doesnt get picked up elsewhere, very solid riders with strong support, obviously Texi is retiring Kasper Wooley will probably struggle due to his persistant injuries, but Oisin, Andreas, Moi Moi and Vali will get a ride somewhere. Its the freeriders and slopestyle riders that get really boned out of YT closing, good luck finding free bikes for those people.

Not to mention Jack Moir, whose popularity seems to be almost single-handedly keeping EDR alive and who can still win races. I think silly season might have just got a lot sillier.

Sure sounds like YT is pulling the plug on its race program, for the second time.

I think it’s almost safe to say that the YT mob in its current form is not going to exist next year. Ric hinting at a turbulent team situation multiple times in today’s broadcast. Vali, Andi and Oisin all very popular riders - male riders maybe not constant podium contenders but very popular with social media and fans, which might be just as valuable. Exciting to see where they end up.

Plenty of teams would happily drop a rider or two to make space for her with the current focus on team points. I'm sure Trek would be more than happy to take her back, seeing how their season is going.

Don't spectators at most DH races take the lift to the top and then walk back down the track? The Rock Shox truck at Crankworx had no issues with space. In fact, looks like it could fit a lot more trucks no problem. Most big team trucks are in Europe anyways, so lack of space is likely a non-issue.

i don't have any numbers but la bresse in '08 was mostly packed on both sides of the track, the lower you went the deeper the crowd was standing. similar thing in les gets or lourdes, not so much in loudenville though i just don't see the same amount of people lining the 1199 in the steeps on the upper track. maybe in the lower woods and the open field, but not where it is really steep 2011 la bresse had not so good weather, but there was still a huge crowd, just look at them during fabien barel's run...

Delivering the kind of journalism we need. Echoing the above statement, love seeing this comradery and likely shit talking each other's set ups. "Yours sounds like a bucket of bolts" "Well, yours sounds like a shopping cart and goes squish squish squish"