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As for Europe, we are getting the Ranger Raptor besides having the Ranger for years. How is that not marketable to the DH crowd?
Though, personally, i'd be much more partial to a Focus RS Estate. With a tow hitch for a bike carrier of course
So what is this about Gwin on an Intense frame fitted with Hope parts purchased from ebay UK? Gee, I wonder if they at least gave him free shipping.
Rob Warner being there means there isn't any team relations to be had.
As for the Athertons to Marin, I find it really had to believe that they will 1) have the budget for such a large operation, having no recent DH or even high ranking Enduro team. They only have a few individuals with their own sponsors and contacts. And 2) go to a team without a downhill bike. The closest thing they have is a wolf ridge and that is on the complete opposite end of the downhill demon spectrum.
Anyway, I would love if this was the case and see Gee and Rachel come into the season and do some real damage. Rachel is Rachel, but Gee was looking damn good at the end of the year after all the injuries and I feel like he can be in podium mix. Be great if he was all pissed with the "no one believed in me" mentality because none of the big brands would give him a shot.
...back to Schwinn??
The Athertons are a perfect opportunity for a company to enter the market.
They have development capabilities, offer an established team structure, a well known name, a dominant female rider and a male rider with more accomplishments than most on the circuit who showed signs of strength towards the end of the season.
As for a bike, apparently Marin and Polygon are connected. They also use the same suspension layout, so Marin riders using a XSquxxxonetwothreeDH would be perfectly reasonable from a marketing standpoint. Casuals just wouldn´t care. I don´t know what kind of money Marin is able to throw at the project, but they sure could throw together a dh-frame design based on the Polygon easily
Depending on the offers the Athertons had on the table this might have simply been the best one available, given they surely are one of the more expensive teams but there were lots and lots of top tier riders available this season and many teams chose to go factory team and drop the external team management. So they could have just fallen victim to the big names taking matters into their own hands and stacking their rosters, leaving not much room for a complete package like Atherton Racing.
At some point any company has to make a first step. Marin being a non factor now doesn´t mean they don´t have the resources or desire to enter the circuit at all. I´m sure at some point a company like Marin (or whoever owns them and Polygon) is done simply offering low end product and not getting recognition from the market and wants to make a big splash. Enter Atherton Racing.
A Big Welcome to a New Orbea Enduro Team
The Orbea Enduro Team project started out in January 2018. It was our return to the Enduro World Series following the Orbea Enduro Crew. It’s been almost a year since our return to top enduro competition and we’ve learned a lot.
This goes along with our nature that just won’t let us settle for second best, that makes us always strive for improvement and evolve in everything we do. It’s a part of our day to day and our philosophy at all levels.
As the result of all this, the team will debut a revamped structure in 2019, which will give us a more powerful Orbea Enduro Team, with more ambitious goals. The changes will be felt on an athletic level and in terms of communications and product development.
New Team Manager
On the one hand, we’ve added a trusted person to the management team who has already formed part of the Orbea family for a number of years. He’s an experienced and recognized competitor in different categories of MTB who also has a long history of leading rally, enduro and DH teams.
This person is none other than Primož Štrancar, from Slovenia, where enduro has a long tradition. He brings more than two decades of experience in many different facets of MTB. He arrives on the team to replace Julien Brugeas, whom we would like to thank for his hard work over the years. We wish him well in this new stage of his life.
Simply put, Primož believes in dedication, commitment and honesty. These are values that served well him during his cycling career to become national DH champion, national XCO champion on several occasions, and international and Olympic XCO rider and the first World Enduro Master’s Champion in the EWS.
As a coach, he has served as head coach for different countries with XCO and DH teams, also earning international accolades. As if this were not enough, he is a qualified physical education instructor specialized in the training of cyclists. He definitely brings to the table a great deal of added value to promote the qualities of our riders.
A diamond in the rough
Our riders will have a new teammate in 2019.He’s a young 22-year-old talent from Slovenia, and reigning enduro champ in this country for the past four years. As a matter of fact, he competed in the 2018 EWS and came away with a fifth place finish as the best result in one of the rounds. His name is Vid Peršak, and he's a force to be reckoned with.
With this addition, we now have a number of riders who come from or live in different countries with a long enduro tradition. Thomas Lapeyrie represents the French side of the Alps, Gabriel Torralba hails from the peninsular side of the Pyrenees and Becky Cook comes from the small Island of Wight; near New Forest National Park.
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