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I think 10 seconds per pole would be fine, but I’d still be fine with just assigning 30th place to anyone that misses a pole. With what these riders go through to qualify now days, getting 0 points at the end of the weekend is nuts. Especially with how few factory spots there are now days and how much a riders overall standings could play into a contract. If you drop in and make it to the finish line you should get 30 points or whatever. Also think the hiking back up thing is just dumb and dangerous. What happens...

I’d prefer a free broadcast from the other energy drink company than monster paying eso/wbd to add nothing to the table.

All I know is I haven't watched races live in a couple years since stupid subscriptions were part of the need to watch 8 whole short races over the span of 4 months. This junk is going to kill wc dh long-term.I have found myself slowly losing interest over it.

The sport needs to move away from endemic only sponsors etc.. so one team per frame brand just makes no sense. Why stop a team or brand who want to run a development and a-team program?

Its almost a month into the new year. Gotta be quicker then that!

Good point! However it’s also completely immaterial considering the context of what we are discussing. The big point here is KTM bicycles and e bikes have no connection to Pierer Mobility. We are going to make lots of these kinds of mistakes in this thread. It’s a fun discussion with lots of painting with broad strokes and running a little loose. I don’t have time to triple check every source I use. That said I’m always happy to have more eyeballs jump in to steer toward truth and am happy to say “whoops I was wrong” (which I am here!)...

IIRC KTM MTB is a separate company with a licensing agreement? I'm not sure where the E-MTB portfolio lands though, as there are KTM e-bikes as well as Husqvarna and GasGas e-bikes, the latter 2 maybe being part of the powersports / Pierrer group. Reddit (not an authoritative source of course) mentions this which lines up with my assumption: KTM motorcycles and KTM bicycles are not the same. A different bike manufacturer bought the rights to the name KTM for bicycles. However the brands Husqvarna, GasGas and Felt do belong to KTM the motorcycle company. KTM bicycles is its own...

Top comment from the other site pretty well sums up my thoughts on everything (exclusive of the last sentence, I’ll probably still watch because I’m an absolute mug)… ‘WBD keeps saying these changes are good for the sport, but I’ve never been less excited for a new season of World Cup. I have no plans to watch.’

Long live The Union. A fraction of the budget and a bigger stack of results than so many high-dollar teams out there. Their absence tells the story of things to come.

Not surprising but damn, what a loss for the sport!

Was kinda thinking that myself.. If the budget has been cut back and the established players don't want to take a pay cut, you sign some young up and comers who are willing to sign for less or find someone who is experienced but on the downside of the career that can help mentor the young guns and contribute to bike development..

No offense to the new riders, but Trek's strategy appears to be switching to lower-cost riders for 2025.