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Would be good for Kathy Sessler to be Greg’s new team manager for 2024 , any idea what she is up to now?

You make a great point here. Some core assumptions below but here's where it stacks from an ROI perspective for a brand I reckon: - Rider salary: 100k - Logistics, travel, accomodation: 30k - WC mechanic: 40k TOTAL: 170k cost Then let's assume 10% net margin at the bike brand in a "normal" year (gross margin less staff costs, taxes, VAT, shipping costs to dealer/distributors, warranty percentage "hold back" etc). To break even on their contract and so prove they're good value, the rider needs to demonstrate 1.7M of attributable (or at least anecdotally convincing) sales uplift vs standard. Just...

I think a key thing for riders who are out of contract at the moment is for them to be able to quantify their worth. if they think they should be on 100k a year then quantify it. Then a brand can actually see their value and if there is to be a return on the athlete. Teams are just sports marketing, as said before in times of recession and downturn of trade, marketing budget is first to be cut. simple business economics, hard luck for those riders who’s contracts expired in 23.

Between the lines of your post is an unfortunate reality about Danny — the most memorable thing he will ever do in his career was over a decade ago, and is in fact largely about Rob Warner’s announcing, not Danny himself. As an aging racer with diminishing results, anything he can do (aside from coming back with another 2011-World-Champs-style performance or multiple World Cup wins) is going to be overshadowed by *that run.* Sponsors don’t really get to cash in on that retroactively, either. It was done on a Giant, and always will have been done on a Giant. With...

Think they were only intended to last a few seasons, self-described as a "talent incubator". The goal was to get some up-and-comers, document their rise, and get them on factory race teams. Despite the level of publicity garnered, PBR seems a relatively low-budget team. Cathro seems pretty done racing and Aimi has proved herself for a factory ride. T-bo just dropped a solo edit with no mention of the team, think he's marketing himself as a jack-of-all-trades racer, someone who can do style, freeride, & speed. If they're back next season I'd expect the roster to look pretty different, still...

My thought is that those who had their contracts expire this year are having a tough time reconciling their worth against others who signed at peak market insanity. In all likelihood, Bex and Danny fall into this camp. They won’t be able to secure a ride if they are expecting the same salary as someone, on par with their results and marketability, who signed in 2022, say. They will need to make concessions which may hurt the ego but will be the way, going forward.

You have to look where Danny's value is thses days. He brought a worldwide audience to Saracen and legitamacy to Cube. Given he is a 2x World Champ he does'nt come cheap (and multi year contracts). For an established brand/large team he's not adding a lot unless he's on the podium (great to have the seasoned vet to guide the young guns but thats a luxury in these times). For a smaller brand/team he is simply too expensive. Danny is very independantly minded so putting together his own deal ( like Brendan) sounds like the solution but that is a...

Aimi Kenyon on a Trek in 2024, anyone else heard this?

While I agree they might not be the best brand of bike out there, WCDH overall winner Matt Walker and junior World Champion Jordan Williams might disagree with your opinion of what a rider can achieve on Saracen bikes.

Is PBR folding? I hadn't seen that.

I saw her story with the 100% camp (Reece and others from various teams) Made me hopeful she is getting another shot despite PBR "folding'

A scourge indeed. I'll add that, despite certain claims Danny Hart doesn't sell bikes, he's about the only reason I'd ever even consider a Cube. Now I've got zero reasons to consider one at all. Danny's still got better odds at winning a WC than most of the field. Very few racers ever mark themselves a career win, and most who win are repeat offenders.

That's all good and well but lets face some facts here - Cube bikes are junk (I worked closely with the brand at a distribution level), the kinematics were average at best and the frame failure rate we saw was out of control, more than 50% of carbon bikes sold came back with cracked frames and they were horrendously slow with turnaround time on replacement frames, always looking for excuses. Saracen is a walmart/whatever brand so no matter the caliber of the rider you'll never get results riding a piece of crap down the hill. Personality or not, Danny Hart...

I am convinced that real racers - and not influencers like Wibmer for example - do not need to be loud and colorfull on the web. If brands need this they should just ask the marketing and production team to make it work. Influencing is a full time job. It‘s a lot different from building strenght for a race season. but I see that it can be advantage. For the brand in form of exposer and for the rider as additional income. but these two are not necessarely linked and a fast racer can be a hero even if he...

I don’t think anyone is saying people shouldn’t be allowed to race because of being quiet off the track. I think the argument might be that they shouldn’t demand as large of a (or any?) salary if they’re quiet and aren’t increasing brand awareness or selling product. My 2 cents is being a full-time paid athlete these days requires some level of demonstrated increase in product sales or brand awareness. If you just want to race and not influence too, then lots of brands can offer discounted, or free, products if you have good results and you will need a...

So with that logic he should retire for been a quiet lad and had 1 average season. The guy is a top 10 rider and podium threat on his day. Did he not put that cube into second at Leogang last year and pretty sure it's their best ever result as a team. He's one of the most followed racers on insta and has as much followers if not more than a lot of the "influencers" so I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe some of his 230K followers are going to be watching him and wanting to copy his...

To piggyback on this, and correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Danny’s dad have something to do with his contracts and negotiations and was noted as someone who was particularly difficult to work with? I don’t know if this is true now, but I seem to remember reading that back when he was on Madison.

Continuing the chat of Danny Hart, I'm also in the camp where he doesn't really come across as much of a "personality" to me, but also not someone who's had particularly great results over the past year. I have a feeling some companies are also just taking a harder look at which riders are really driving sales. I know Danny's history, but how many riders realistically are going to be watching him and wanting to copy his setup or style? Looking at EDR, it's the same if you look at what used to be the Canyon team. I imagine a...

Kerry works for Bikeflights now. After Kona fired all the riders and team managers in June Bikeflights was nice enough to give Kerry a wrapped sprinter. They want him to actually enjoy bike racing in 2024, and they will be covering all his domestic travel and racing(he just has to be the face of Bikeflights and the events he heads to). His priority for race bikes next year are a superduper light FS bike for stage racing- and real CX bikes. Big ups to Bikeflights for supporting atheletes doing what they love.