2024 TEAM RUMORS

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/2023-racing-talk?page=26#comment-35…

Cheers for the link.

iirc, Wolfe was on the PB podcast talking about moving more into team management. Presume that’s why he’s done with the racing, not the team closing down. \o/

Courtesy of the latest Making Up The Numbers podcast…

Vali leaving Trek to go “back” to another team… YT perhaps?

Jess Blewitt already signed to a new team (GT folding)… maybe Propain?

Ronan Dunne leaving Nukeproof… Commencal? Mondraker (not MS Mondraker, that team is also folding)?

Dak’s contract is up for renewal… staying with Intense? Get that coin brother.

Gonzalo on Scott with Dean leaving?

More good riders than rides in 2024?

Could most of this have to do with Specialized and Trek running around the entire US (and I assume other countries) & buying out independent dealerships across the entire landscape, essentially shutting out their competitors who sold through those independents?

I know almost every single one of those companies listed above were on the same independent dealer floor as Specialized but now have NO dealers to sell through.  To elevate their market share, all of these brands would either have to partner store with brand new interested independents or literally open their own corporate stores to compete.  

Statement from Devinci regarding not having an EDR team in 2024:

"Mountain bike racing has always resonated deeply in our roots here at Devinci. It's easy to say that every one of us here are strong racing fans. We've been part of the Enduro World Series and what it has become since the early days, and as the sport evolves, so does Devinci. The last few months at Devinci have been filled with amazing stories, new products, a fresh brand identity, with new values & vision.

After careful consideration, in alignment with our evolving vision, we have decided not to field a team for the Enduro World Cup in 2024. This decision was not taken lightly, and it reflects a shift in our focus towards different aspects of our brand and the mountain biking community.

Our commitment to the sport of mountain biking remains unwavering, and we will always continue to support riders, ambassadors, grassroots racing, and the broader mountain biking community in various ways. This includes our dedication to producing bikes here in Canada that empower riders of all levels to quench their thirst for freedom.

While we won't be participating in the Enduro World Cup in 2024, we are really excited about the future and the opportunities it holds, including an important announcement coming in only a few weeks’ time. We look forward to continuing to share more about our ‘We Make Riders’ vision and the exciting upcoming developments.

We want to express our gratitude to the riders, fans, and partners who have supported us throughout our journey in the Enduro World Series, and the Enduro World Cup. Your passion and dedication to the sport will continue to inspire us."

So the announcement will be another skinny electric moped.

What if it has less to do with cash flow and more that 2025 there will be no EDR/EWS, only the E-EDR as per the rumor?

These teams are just getting out because they don't see the point in continuing a dead series and the coverage has been crap. Marketing and publicity is just as important so they are not seeing any ROI if there is no coverage. 

I'd like to see a candid interview with Chris Ball to try understand some of their decisions, because from the outside it certainly looks like they are trying to destroy it. Remember the "double header" round? You wouldn't even have known there was an enduro race that weekend the coverage was so poor, and this was supposed to be his baby...

i just don‘t understand why they (ESO/UCI) would discontinue normal EDR/EWS racing and only support e-bike racing… no one watches/reads that sh*t!!! and no one‘s gonna buy one of those bikes someone won a race on it no one ever heard about it.

makes zero sense to me marketingwise.

For the record, e-bike racing is a joke. And I own an e-mtb.

I am also not aware of that rumour. Is that insider/forum consent? Considering the lack of depth the e-edr field had the last years I highly doubt it.

I also would like to hear Chris Ball and his view on it. For what it's worth, he was the guy who created the EWS (now EDR, so why would he destroy it. I saw the double-, or multiple-headers as a good thing but it hasn't delivered. So maybe this was a mistake. Or maybe DH just takes so much focus of him and the team that edr is just left behind.

I mean, he got the chance to push DH racing so he better put all into it. Wheter we like the direction or not, he certainly had an input.

And to the haters: there are things he changed that make DH racing better as a televisible and marketable product, that should in theory help the sport grow, from a spectator point of view. Field of 30 riders is enough screen time to watch the fastest racers and get ecited on a sunday afternoon, the course markers make it look way more proffessinal than plastic tape, the drone shots may not allow Cathro to analyse, but as a viewer you get a better feel of the whole track and it's length e.g. Yes, a privateer can less likely enter the big show. Who really cares except the privateers? It's the pinnacle of our sport. There should be other, more affordable races/race series to hone your racing skills.

unfortunately chris ball went MIA after the first checks from the UCI cleared. there where a whole lot of problems in DH and EDR this season people would love to hear his comment on it.

Lyle Hyslop no longer Greg’s mechanic…. What happened there? via ‘making up the numbers’ podcast 

Old news. Apparently pissed Minnaar off at world champs for not being prepared for rain. It's till unclear what was the actual issue that day.

When did you hear about it? 

That podcast is like a British tabloid newspaper 

After Worlds iirc: https://www.instagram.com/p/CwSOl3nMkJw/?hl=en

"Locked in for another year!" Means he still has a contract, does not necessarily mean that contract is for racing. Doesn't mean Rocky is sending anyone to races next year. Might just keep those under contract as influencers and maybe some edits. 

I sure hope you're right and I'm wrong, but with so many other companies quitting...? 

Also, what teams are left (as of now)? Going from memory: Yeti, trek, commencal, canyon[s], forbidden, pivot, lapierre... probably a lot more I'm not remembering. Idk, a lot of teams are quitting, but still a decent amount there. Enduro might not be dead yet, not completely anyhow... But if coverage continues as is...

From the rumors floating on the forums. the following teams/brands will not be racing Enduro World cups in '24

Trek, Devinci, Polygon, GT, Cannondale Ibis and Yeti (scaling down), 

Just something interesting from the ixs cup in verbier, in the u17 mens and womens category two kiwi juinors who will be racing world cups next year took the race by storm. Tyler Waite 2nd in u17 mens with some mistakes - he was fastest in qualis, Ellie Hulsebosch took the win in u17 womens for both qualis and finals. Those two are going to have a big impact in juinors next year. 

Keep in mind, some of those brands may show up co-branded with new sponsors.

At least I hope.  I don't race enduro, but I like the recap videos.

To the person saying Enduro is getting dumped in favor of e-bike racing, that's incorrect.  It's the opposite.  No fan interest in the e-moped races. Why do you think Carlson is leaving racing them?

Because he has a job where he doesn’t have to train his ass of and still involved🤷‍♂️

Rocky will release an updated altitude in spring, bet they keep the team running.

I think a lot of people are taking ESO and the UCI's claims that a 30 rider final and tighter times makes for a better fan experience at face value. I can see where they are coming from with these arguments, because they are basing them on other successful sports, but I don't think they're right. One of the most beautiful and compelling things about downhill racing is that there is no 'formula' for success. You can have the perfect bike, the best preparation, the most dialed team infrastructure, and still get beat by someone who just had the raw speed and commitment on the day. For example, Ronan Dunne (hopped up on 3 or 4 RedBulls, screaming at himself in the gate) beat Greg Minnaar in Snowshoe last year! Downhill doesn't have the same drama that motocross and F1 have because it doesn't have the same rivalries that come from head-to-head racing. But downhill does have the capacity to tell amazing underdog stories (Benoit's 10-year road to a WC win, Ronan's Snowshoe run, the Denim Destroyer getting top 10 in jeans). Going to an elite, F1-style, structure is going to take away that underdog, David vs. Goliath element from the story of downhill racing and I think that's a mistake. F1 is great. Motocross is great. But downhill is different and shouldn't be made to fit in those boxes.   

DH will go to 30 for men final, privateers won’t be there and who will complaining? Only privateers. You can’t have elite world level sport as a “participant sport” there has to be change and it’s coming whether you like it or not.

less riders means better and easier TV coverage. This sport now is only about one thing, TV.

same reason XC may not be a Olympic discipline after 28

same reason why EDR will be dropped. It can’t be made to work for TV. 
 

TV coverage, views and advert revenues this is what CB has made this sport all about. 
 

In an interview with Dean Lucas, Josh Carlson stated there are millions and millions of new viewers to mountain biking. That sounds highly unlikely to me and I'm not sure how they would know unless they have access to RB's viewing figures that have never been released to the public. 

I'm sure they would defend what they're doing to the sport and claim it's for the best, but then again making bold unsubstantiated claims seems to be their MO.

Yeah why can't everyone stop complaining and just allow their selves to be crushed under wheels of capital? 

If there was millions of new viewers in dh at least some of them would be commenting here, pinkbike, YouTube, etc.  search engines work pretty damn well.  I haven’t seen any.  But I have seen countless comments of lifetime fans of the sports who have stopped watching.  And if they cut semis and keep the rider count for finals at 15/30 I may find a way to watch but I’m not going to pay for gcn or discovery plus or whatever app it’s on.  And I would hope for the sake of the future of the sport the riders seriously consider boycotting the series.  (I’d even be fine if they only broadcast full runs for the top 30 and did one minute splits and a post race highlights package for everyone else).  
 

dh, enduro, and even xc are all participant sports.  The vast majority of viewers have all participated racing at some level or personally know someone racing they are tuning in to cheer for.  But to think you need to prioritize tv package in a sport with nearly zero outside sponsors, almost zero fans who haven’t raced a mtb, and only mild enthusiasm among those who actively do is just a ridiculous line of thinking. That doesn’t even go into the negative effect it’s going to have on venues who are going to see far less income from participants and fans alike.

Well Carlson has announcing contracts for next year getting floated his way so maybe he's just saying what the companies offering him a job are telling him, which could be real data or utter TV publicity hype machine marketing guy making up stuff.

The nonsense about condensing the sport to a tiny viewership in a little bitty time slot on TV makes ZERO sense.
Right now, Peacock is pumping out a MotoCross, SuperCross or SMX race weekly with two 4 Hour live broadcasts.  
And I don't think there are tons glued to the live broadcast because of it.

But with my Roku, I'm watching virtually every single second of coverage over the next week to catch it all.

THAT is what I want from my DH race.  I want to watch it all. Don't decide to cut out riders on me b/c YOU think they're boring.  I want to see the stories develop and you've already committed your camera crew to the event for the day.  Show me.

I want to forward to the part of SX practice 2020 where, (after devastating injury) Shane McElrath finally makes his 450SX debut at Round 7 after coming off his 2nd 250SX title and busts out hot lap after hot lap and then BOOM...slots into 8th fastest qualifier. Let me fast forward to Deegan's debut practice.

In DH, let me SEE ALL OF FRIDA'S run. Dump Semi-Finals. Let me see 60 people from ALL OVER THE WORLD take a shot at their one run of glory on race day.  
Let my eyes see the story of a guy from Jamaica floundering this week & embarrassing himself, but then next week catching on to what a final is like.  SHOW ME HIS LAST 5 RESULTS while he's in the gate.  Tell me if he's trending up or down.
If I want to skip him to get to rider 40, fine.  But I don't.  

I want stories.  I want backdrops.  I want that building tension of speed that grows and grows over a 2 1/2-3 hour finale with weather changes, track issues and a complete mix of tragedy & triumph.

But video it all. Don't stuff my sport in a time slot for you. 

The ONE good thing that technology added on GCN was that I logged on and it asked me to "join live or watch from the start".
That was awesome.   I got to start the race, skip a few things and by the time it's all said and done, the final 10 riders are unfolding live for me and I'm texting a buddy I know is awake.

Isn't there already a thread for "Here's what I think of the UCI and ESO" around here? 

To get back on topic, I'm in talks with Pepto Bismol Racing for the 2024 season

I could see these new rules and economic issues resulting in more "barebones" teams popping up. Skip the huge custom-semi, the PT's, the professional chefs, the line scouts, etc. We'll handle the UCI stuff, put up a couple of branded pop-up tents and you figure out the rest.