Thx for weighing in.
I'm not a tin foil hat guy I understand that ebikers want to participate and I get the supply and demand thing.
I participated in and organized regional racing that a few EWS Elite Racers cut there teeth in. And I can say it's all grassroots - riders for riders. Then I see someone like Anneke Beerten getting 4th out of 5 in EBike world championships and I can't believe she does it because she passionately races eBikes. And then FIM organizing and broadcasting a race then UCI jumping the bandwagon. So it appears that people responsible for marketing budgets see great opportunities there.
Maybe it's the fear of being late to the show like you said. And I understand that there is a market. But I'm still intrigued if it's really so much bigger, more lucrative or less fought over that they tend to put it there.
E.g. Bosch is huge compared to specialized, but is the money for marketing ebike racing really that much bigger than the big Ss? Or is it because of Bosch having a different viewing angle by descending from outside the bike world?

This has been asked on this other site and it's a very valid question:
Is there a natural demand or push for it? And I'd really like to know the opinion of an industry insider.. @eric @stik
I've been lying awake puzzling about the same thing last night.
I haven't seen or heard of a local ebike race pop up anywhere. But that happens in every sport people are passionate about. But there have been WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS last year in EBike racing, where 5 people finished in the women's class!!!!?????

I don´t see aluminum bikes on their website.

I don't want to be impolite or rude, but do you really see it as the same when someone chooses the elctrification not by circumstances but by deliberate picking the advantages of elctric-motor-assistence over a regular mtb? To me that is not only about attitude and culture but about benefits. I can ride faster to the trails, i don´t have time for hourlong climbs to get fun descents, i can do multiple laps in the same time, i can go further uphill, i can go steeper, i can ride different uphilltrails, etc. To me that is most logically a different sport. That goes far beyond snowboarder vs. skiers or xc vs. trail. To me that is playing volleyball with a balloon. It changes the game in the most literal meaning. Think of ski touring with selfcrawling skies. Or climbing with exoskeletons. I dont mind that you or anyone rides ebikes. I appreciate it for various reasons, that I already stated here. I just think everybody has to consider the effects it has, due to it´s different nature. Because how we both have to train, prepare, plan and spend our riding varies from one another. We can adapt so we could share a ride together. But we wouldn´t do that if we were on our own or amongst peers. I still think we are on the same side concerning the landaccess topic, awareness and acceptance of bikeriders on hikingtrails. And I still feel attached to you beeing a mountainbiker. The motor doesn´t change that. I also think we are more in the same culture then snowboarders and skiers would ever agree ;-)

Currently the "German Association of Alpinism" short DAV (https://www.alpenverein.de/) issued a position paper on eBikes. The DAV has over 1,3 million members and is basically a association of hikers and climbers and also Mountainbikers, that takes care of Trail maintenance (hiking and climbing trails) and built and runs alpine cottages and shelter-huts in the alps.

Their paper states that they plan to restrain access and power supply to eBikes on their infrastructure (huts). Their point being that eBikes bring loads of untrained and possibly unskilled bikeriders to alpine heights that they think those don't belong to.
Because of lack of training an experience.

Personally I have seen eBikes and top of mountains that cost me a lot of effort to climb up and fell under the described category, but as I experienced it, they stayed on fire roads only. I don't think that that is a big problem, because on those roads cars also drive regularly up and down. It's a benefit for the operators of these alpine "taverns" as potential consumers but it shows the degree of touristification these alpine regions have seen.

The bigger question here is - and I think thats the elephant in the room when comparing mtb and emtb, but not solely - should there be a limitation as to who should and how much physical ability one has to have to be tolerated in nature that is generally used as recreational zone.

For an opinion post and one of the more relevant mountainbikesites, and you being a journalist, this article is surprisingly biased. I've been drawn by your headline because I recently had a conversation where my point was just that. E-Mountainbiking is just not the same as traditional biking. Therefore it's a different sport. My point was, that you can't generally share a ride between the two because the physical difference and intend of use of it's owners would be to big.
However I've seen and experienced the exception. Sometimes weird - him being soaking wet and out of breathe, while she was hardly sweating. Sometimes awkward, riding "with" someone who overtakes you and does laps wile you do one and is still "riding together" with your group and chatting in between breaks. And also sometimes not even noticeable when a couple weaker riders just blended in.

I don't own an emb but an EBike which I use as a vehicle of transport not leisure. My experience with an emb is also limited. But as an advocate for Trail-legalization, spokesman for Trail-initiatives I try to find an unbiased opinion.

So far that is:
- I don't think there's a difference in landuse and don't get the excluding arguments. If all, ebikers go more often down the same route in the same time as mtbers would. So if you admit to damage being made by ebikes that doesn't make a good point for mtbs either. Where I live mtbing is generally forbidden on trails and fire roads. Public land is little and also forbidden. So here we fight the same battle.
- Ebikes bring more people to "the trails". Point. Generally spoken that's a good thing because it's more people and attention for the sport. For the trails it means not only more but also different use, since the limiting factor how steep uphill you can go has been shifted. I see that this can be a problem. But it's also a new possibility of outdoor recreation especially in alpine countries.
- The classic consumer here (Austria, Europe) is 40+ to 60 and hasn't thought about mtb king before. I think it's a market that gets saturated quickly, but it's huge. As for the "classic" beginner mtber, there will be the money topic, and topic of pureness. As is with BMX, and skateboarding. Entry level to mtbing is already quite high compared to other sports. To ebikes even more, so I don't see embs outgrowing mtbs.
- I've heard pros (voulloiz cough cough) and friends speaking about the benefits of training with an emb, and I dispise it. I can't help it, it's deep in my stomach and it's a hard one to overcome by logic. In competition, e.g. training at enduro races its even cheating in my book.
- If I had one, I for sure would use the benefits, like being able to squeeze in a lap before or after work. But I also do like to suffer. Having both would be a luxury I can't (and don't want to) afford. There are concepts that reduce the added power and therefor weight, which could make me rethink. But I also like to keep it simple, and stay true to myself.

So yes - a different sport - but none that should be fought from our side. Live and let live.

If you made it that far, please let me know your point.

Hmm, I used and bought it for a enduro stage race this summer. 29°Celcius in the shadow summer. 1800m of altitude climbing. I was thankful for the half shell option (though they didn't execute the rulebook - lol) While on the stages racing, when hitting the pedals hard there is definitely a "hemmed in feeling" which probably is what the reviewer described. I never felt like I ran out of air though when breathing heavily and translated it to "wearing a no compromise full face lid". It be interesting to have direct comparison to say a tld stage, which offers the same amount of face protection.
I'd also be interested in a comparison to Leatt's model, which looks similar, but costs way less.

I can confirm the wobbliness when worn as a half shell. It feels like it sits on top of your head rather then around it, weight wise if that makes any sense. In my opinion it's very breathable though. The chinbar is really a pain in the a** to mount and to release it the obs are to small - the criticism here is spot on. I also would prefer a non magnetic chin band - less risk of pinching yourself when used single handed which I do regularly.

First - thx vital, thx Boris, thx Sven, thx Dan and all the others taking the effort to document every race weekend beginning from Pit setup, to track walk, to training to qualies to race. I soak everything up - if I have time - starting from Wednesday, eagerly waiting an updating your site on my phone. Also having kids and a job sometimes it's Sunday evening and I haven't seen anything - but still I'd like to have the build up. So reading the result in a headline why would I bother visit your awesome Slideshow anymore? Therefore you'd loose 3-4 clicks on articles by me. Recently the German website mtb-news.de has a great format with direct links to the men+woman replays as well as links to every article of that race weekend without a spoiler headline. (just Google "snowshoe 2019 Worldcup dh replay" on the site e. g.) Thats how I search every replay, which is strangely not as straightforward as you'd think just because I want to get that exact link and not a spoiler . Now that said site is my new goto at least for replays - maybe you should check that out.

How did they qualify? 4 racers finishing in the women's. Wtf? Regardless of E, I don't think any sport with a 4racer deep field should have world championships. Men's with 40 isn't a lot neither. This is forced by the industry. I can't help it. Why, why do we do that. Please ignore it.