Am still hanging to see where & what Gwin's up to for the 2016 season. Rumours aside, it's awfully quiet over in his camp & there's certainly mixed messages from Specialized's digital representation of their athletes. Let's face it- if you had a 2015 MTB World Cup Champion in your stable (one of the best riders in mtb history, who is incidentally also your classic God-fearing all-American golden child), then you'd surely have them represented in your regularly updated hallmark "iamspecialized" webpage, no? After all it is Specialized key digital vehicle for promoting their performance & lifestyle brand message.
Even on the Gwin digital front, he's typically very good at hash-tagging as per the same official line as done by Specialized's own social media releases. Every race photo pre-10wks ago from the 2015 season were pretty methodically hash-tagged by Aaron with either #iamspecialized or indicate an official Specialized image release with @iamspecialized_mtb etc, yet all post-season images (the last 9wks) from the 2015 WC rounds or ones showing his bikes are either untagged altogether or have one or two #specializedracing aka shlepp-punter hash-tag. If you were to compare 2015's with his 2014 off-season social media movements then there's a very noticeable difference. He's still tagging his other sponsors where relevant, yet not Specialized. Doesn't miss a beat giving KTM & @ktmusa a shout-out though...just saying.
As much as people say that hell's got a greater chance of freezing over, I'm still holding onto my call last off-season that he'd leave Specialized to form/head up a small but dominant co-sponsored KTM/MTB manufacturer team (my Fantasy Land speculation back then was YT, as a way for the bike company to set foot into WC sphere with a gun/iconic rider).
Maybe he won't. Maybe he'll form his own team with Trek, who f%#king knows (he'd say God obviously), but there are certainly a few good indicators to suggest there's rumblings of change happening & he won't be part of the official Team Specialized for 2016. One door opening for arguably "the greatest" mtber in history (Jared) while two doors close at Specialized for a sole-discipline champion & hooked-up competitive moto nut (who's self-determined & negotiated unique component sponsors outside of the standard Specialized line & has proven he wins on almost any credible high-performance DH bike) & an understated female European champion in her twilight?