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Teamrobot: Youth Minister and rolemodel for troubled teens............... Me: what’s dat som kinda joke? can he still bunnyhop a garbage can?

Great article, Eddie. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this all been done on purpose with the express intent of killing privateer racing? For their broadcast Red Bull wants recognizable names (top athletes only), lots of jumps and high speed for video (machine-built trails as opposed to technical, roots, etc), and close race times (smooth and fast instead of slow and tech). A few years ago, a top WC athlete and RB rider told me that RB was considering going to top-40 only with no qualifier so that the WC circuit was like a closed-off reality TV show for...

And thank you, Eddie, for raising the topic for discussion!

Brines and Eddie are right- this ain't a new problem at all. I speak from personal experience in the late 90's when I ate an extremely hard to get $600 on a plane ticket I couldn't use to travel to Italy, Slovenia, and France for 3 WC DH races. Why couldn't I go? Because my UCI points had expired a few days before the races. I wasn't gonna rack up my credit card for the trip if I couldn't race. I called Martin Whiteley, who was the UCI guy who handled such things at the time, and asked him if...

This argument has been alive since NORBA Nationals went the way of the dodo bird. Eddie is right, and hopefully someone with a voice as big as his can change things. I'm not holding my breath however. As nice as it is to see the UCI involved from an accolade standpoint, it'd sure be great of a non-Olympic sport just went their own direction. It'd take Red Bull and/or a pile of cash for riders to pull this off, but it'd sure be a good thing for the sport.

I’m sure BAe and RR could turn half a million hubs if they asked... Ps just make everything in black for 6 months or stop the slow colours and use the tanks for more black parts.

Yes Sir! Yes i do. I thank him every day for my fond memories of having an honest President.