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just starting to prep data/lists for vital fantasy world cup. after going through the lists, here are some random preliminary numbers 233 downhill riders registered on teams across all classes 48 women 185 men 25 aussies 19 canadians 37 french 44 brits 21 kiwis 30 #USDH rippers commencal has 5 diff teams with a total of 27 riders! - muc-off 6, les orres 6, ICstudio 7, schwalbe 3, Dorval Commencal 5

Few broad (highly speculative) thoughts as it pertains to Santa Cruz. First, I think its a bit of a fool's errand to say a brand is no longer "core" because they've grown or a more affluent buyer all of a sudden has taken interest. Yeah, maybe its a little bit of a sell-out type of thing to see 52 year old dentists driving Sprinter vans owning your product, but my Brother in Christ, this is capitalism. To a degree this is the point. To add, the entire company is owned by a multinational conglomerate. So any thoughts of "soul" or...

Is Ryders father Randy Lawrence? The pro moto super trainer. Makes sense to see Todd Schumlick leave then. Dad's got it sorted. He's also handy on a bike.

As @sevenz just pointed out, thinking Ryder....

Ryder Lawrence is highly likely to be one of them

PisgahGnar wins

Red Hair, Red Bike, your move now Steber 😎

We’d like to think we are as sophisticated as Scully, but in reality this is us

The truth is out there

Well that’s a coincidence, because every time someone posts something even remotely interesting in this thread, I hear the X-Files theme song in my head…

https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-trails/how-a-small-new-york-town-attra… Some very interesting tidbits in this article... 1. They signed a 3-year deal with Warner Brothers/Discovery to host world cups. 2. This Lake Placid, NY venue says Warner Brothers/Discovery REACHED OUT OT THEM to host the event. Which is interesting as we have been discussing and know, PART of the reason there aren't more rounds outside Europe is that venues are not bidding. You can't have a World Cup race in Vail, CO if they don't bid for the race. However, this information, flips that on it's head a little bit. Saying that WB/D was actively pursuing the venue...

Thank you very much for your support and kind words!

Funny. I almost started a very similar thread. Just so we are clear, I tried to distill Bruni's rant into one hypothesis. Please clean this up if I'm wrong... Hypothesis: If you cut the field to a more elite group you will be able to put on a better race with better TV qualities which will amount to higher dollar sponsors for those at the top. Listening to Bruni walk us through his logic I have to say, I do not agree. I've heard similar things for more than 2 decades, and it doesn't seem to me that this is...

Agree, more people still have issues with Richy Rude and Jared Graves failing a drug test in 2018 than BK who is currently hooking up with a 19 year old staff member who was under age when he first became her boss.