2012 World cup team rumours....(NOW 2013)
- Thread starter zacapp
- Start date
Let's be fair almost every rider in the top 10 and even some guys in the top 20 are capable of winning a WC, we only have results to look at and regardless of how it could have ended up it didn't, crashing and consistency is just as important than all out speed. Sam has had issues the last few season with injuries he has Also had a pretty busy time obviously with the family and he pretty much revamped the demo.
Sam is still a top rider and can still smash out wins no doubt. But potential and ability is only as good as your results. I could be the fastest rider in Australia. It if I crash every race, have no consistency and finish top 15, I can only be called a top 15 rider.
There are areas like all out speed where Sam is still a top 5 rider. But overall is the big picture.
I'd love to see gwin on demo to see how he goes on that bike, gwin obviously has found a perfect bike for him at trek so I couldn't imagine he would go over. It would be awesome for Troy though. I could see minnaar coming over, he has been with santacruz for so long, had success and to be honest it seems the v10 glory days are getting a bit behind now, maybe his looking for a new challenge or a more competive bike for next season.
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dirt lover
Likes Bikes and Dirt
He has been getting fairly consistant podiums for years now plus with multiple WC wins since it went carbon. Also he did just win world champs on it. So maybe would be wanting a new challenge but you can't say it's glory days are behind it.
I recall seeing Ropelato showing his 2013 jersey off with and it had a big green "M" and a big red "S" on it but maybe that was when he filled in last year.
Minaar to Honda, Palmer to Specialized, Peat to Orange.
In all seriousness, what about Steve Smith on Specialized?
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dirt lover
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Would he want to leave them after having his best ever season though? Plus a huge win for himself and the team at the final round so that'd have to mean that the team wouldn't mind putting a bit more into the program to continue their success. I can't see him leaving for the moment when things are working for him. That being said other changes like Sam from Ironhorse to Speciliazed occurred when they were still going well for better wages.I recall seeing Ropelato showing his 2013 jersey off with and it had a big green "M" and a big red "S" on it but maybe that was when he filled in last year.
Minaar to Honda, Palmer to Specialized, Peat to Orange.
In all seriousness, what about Steve Smith on Specialized?
heavyp
You heard it here first
not a rumour but incase you don't have instagram
http://www.chainreactionhub.com/mtb/582-sam-hill-on-team-crc-nukeproof-the-pictures-so-far
http://www.chainreactionhub.com/mtb/582-sam-hill-on-team-crc-nukeproof-the-pictures-so-far
Isildur
The Real Pedant
Wow, that'd be pretty funny... Not so much of a run on cheap Demo's now eh?
I reckon Gwin will still be with Trek, given the support they've given him over the last few years. Also that he re-signed with them for another 3 years back in August. Although, I guess Specialized could have bought out that contract and signed him?
Definitely an interesting off-season! One of the most turbulent I can remember
I reckon Gwin will still be with Trek, given the support they've given him over the last few years. Also that he re-signed with them for another 3 years back in August. Although, I guess Specialized could have bought out that contract and signed him?
Definitely an interesting off-season! One of the most turbulent I can remember
Downhill_Only
Likes Dirt
Stevie isn't going anywhere!!!
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Isildur
The Real Pedant
Looks legit I guess...
http://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-...-Brosnan-Team-Up-With-Specialized-in-2013,705
http://www.bikemag.com/news/news-specialized-gwins-him-over/
Wow, didn't really see that coming... Specialized must have a pretty large cash account at the moment!
Looks like it was another thing that wasn't particularly meant to hit for a little while, but some sites couldn't handle an NDA and posted it anyway
http://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-...-Brosnan-Team-Up-With-Specialized-in-2013,705
http://www.bikemag.com/news/news-specialized-gwins-him-over/
Wow, didn't really see that coming... Specialized must have a pretty large cash account at the moment!
Looks like it was another thing that wasn't particularly meant to hit for a little while, but some sites couldn't handle an NDA and posted it anyway
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Downhill_Only
Likes Dirt
Looks that way! Cause about a month ago he signed with Trek for another 3 years.....http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Aaron-Gwin-on-Trek-for-3-More-Years.html They must have a massive bank account to buy him out of his contract.
Does this mean GWIN will be on Blackbox program soon?
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Isildur
The Real Pedant
Downhill_Only
Likes Dirt
Interesting!
So troy on fox ?
What's the team going to be called ?
Is the team going to red bull, they are referring it to Specialized dh program, in the vital article.
dirt lover
Likes Bikes and Dirt
When pinkbike were asking Sean about the future of Monster-Energy Specilized he was saying that quite a few things were still up in the air so possibly only tyre sponsorship has been arranged yet and still confirming the bigger deals? eg SRAM or Shimano/Fox? Plus you'd assume that Gwin wouldn't give up his Redbull sponsorship so possibly it won't even be a Monster-Energy team this year.
rednightmare
Likes Dirt
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Isildur
The Real Pedant
Another one with some more before and after from Martin W...
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/omg-aaron-gwin-joins-specialized.html
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/omg-aaron-gwin-joins-specialized.html
heavyp
You heard it here first
On a day like yesterday we are reminded how blessedly small the world of mountain biking is. The announcement that Gwin has signed for Specialized, and not Trek as most people, including Trek, thought he would caused uproar. There were angry press releases talking about legal action, people denouncing Specialized as immoral and general confusion about what the hell a letter of intent actually is.
Stopping to take a look outside our little world the response to this calamitous news was resounding indifference. Here in the UK, the BBC website had nary a mention of the MTB drama, opting instead to give precedence to a lady who races around an oval on a fixed-wheel bike having a baby. The only mountain bike news in sight is the reporting on the genuinely tragic death of Burry Stander. What the BBC website also has is a whole section devoted to Formula One, a sport many of us here at Pinkbike are fans of. In that world, this kind of team jumping doesn't even raise an eyebrow. It's not unheard of for a team to buy a driver out from the middle of a contract, let alone after a mere letter of intent, a document holding the legal weight of a damp towel in the face of a well-funded legal team. Rumours fly about such letters, will the current champion, Sebastian Vettel, move to Ferrari at some unspecified point in the future? There's a whole legal soap opera behind the scenes and it's fun to watch and speculate on occasionally, but again, it's all part and parcel of the F1 race scene.
Would I as a mountain biker want to live in that world every day though? In a word, no. One of the things I like about mountain biking is that it's not a big, serious corporate sport. The very fact that this signing has generated so much debate is reassuring that our little world remains just that, little. Maybe this is an omen of a world to come for us. While it is nice to see our sport grow, can we keep that sense of community for just a bit longer, please?
There is another side to this small-town world, a negative one. Collectively we seem to forget that racing is a job and that companies want the best possible representatives for their products. Racers have short careers, a limited lifespan that could be cut short tomorrow by injury. In skateboarding they talk about The Window, the golden time between 19 and 24 when skaters can do great things. Even legends like Eric Koston today merely limp on in the shadow of his former self at his peak, brief months of other worldly brilliance they can now only imitate.
Gwin clearly saw a job he wanted more than the one he was being offered. Whether it was a financial, technical or moral decision, we may never know, but how many of us would truly walk away from a better job? It's his employer he left, not his family. If Specialized needed a lead rider and felt Gwin was the best possible ambassador for their products, why not take an opportunity to sign him? There's also an argument that Trek World Racing were foolish to tout his position on the team as solid before pen had touched paper. None of it matters at the end of the day, Trek will find someone else to lead their team this year, Gwin will ride a different bicycle and we will all continue to focus on the cursory instead of the meaningful. Why does the drama always take centre stage?
Look at a rider like Matti Lehikoinen. He's had the worst luck in mountain biking, the form he showed back in 2007 has never returned. Each time it looked like he was finding that pace, something brutal knocked him back down again. A friend ran into him pre-season testing in Spain last year, recovering from his latest stomach-churning crash. I'll never forget the creeping feeling of horror I felt as my friend described how Matti had to have an emergency tracheotomy to stop him drowning on his own blood there at the side of the race course. How he even got back to race a World Cup after that is nothing less than inspirational, yet no one is addressing that.
The brutal truth is that Lehikoinen never found that pace again. CRC wanted him to lead their team and he couldn't, he didn't. Simmonds and Smith both out-performed him. When it came time to choose their new lead rider, CRC made the decision that they needed someone who they were sure would be at the sharp end of the field, and Matti was dropped. In all the talk about Sam Hill moving over, I saw barely a comment about Matti, it seemed accepted as part and parcel of the reality of racing. Trek are a successful company and their racing program is strong and well-funded. They will deal with this and you'd be a fool to bet against seeing one of their riders on the top step of a podium before too long. So why is there more comment when they lose a rider than when a man who deserves our full respect loses his ride? It was just a job, right?
Aaron Gwin and Matti Lehikoinen are two sides of the same coin: one riding high on record-breaking form, the other slowly slipping from view, weighed down by the screws, plates and strips that rebuilt his broken body. If we can easily accept the harsh realities Matti and riders like him face, we should understand why Gwin is making the most of his fragile moments at the top of our sport.
Stopping to take a look outside our little world the response to this calamitous news was resounding indifference. Here in the UK, the BBC website had nary a mention of the MTB drama, opting instead to give precedence to a lady who races around an oval on a fixed-wheel bike having a baby. The only mountain bike news in sight is the reporting on the genuinely tragic death of Burry Stander. What the BBC website also has is a whole section devoted to Formula One, a sport many of us here at Pinkbike are fans of. In that world, this kind of team jumping doesn't even raise an eyebrow. It's not unheard of for a team to buy a driver out from the middle of a contract, let alone after a mere letter of intent, a document holding the legal weight of a damp towel in the face of a well-funded legal team. Rumours fly about such letters, will the current champion, Sebastian Vettel, move to Ferrari at some unspecified point in the future? There's a whole legal soap opera behind the scenes and it's fun to watch and speculate on occasionally, but again, it's all part and parcel of the F1 race scene.
Would I as a mountain biker want to live in that world every day though? In a word, no. One of the things I like about mountain biking is that it's not a big, serious corporate sport. The very fact that this signing has generated so much debate is reassuring that our little world remains just that, little. Maybe this is an omen of a world to come for us. While it is nice to see our sport grow, can we keep that sense of community for just a bit longer, please?
There is another side to this small-town world, a negative one. Collectively we seem to forget that racing is a job and that companies want the best possible representatives for their products. Racers have short careers, a limited lifespan that could be cut short tomorrow by injury. In skateboarding they talk about The Window, the golden time between 19 and 24 when skaters can do great things. Even legends like Eric Koston today merely limp on in the shadow of his former self at his peak, brief months of other worldly brilliance they can now only imitate.
Gwin clearly saw a job he wanted more than the one he was being offered. Whether it was a financial, technical or moral decision, we may never know, but how many of us would truly walk away from a better job? It's his employer he left, not his family. If Specialized needed a lead rider and felt Gwin was the best possible ambassador for their products, why not take an opportunity to sign him? There's also an argument that Trek World Racing were foolish to tout his position on the team as solid before pen had touched paper. None of it matters at the end of the day, Trek will find someone else to lead their team this year, Gwin will ride a different bicycle and we will all continue to focus on the cursory instead of the meaningful. Why does the drama always take centre stage?
Look at a rider like Matti Lehikoinen. He's had the worst luck in mountain biking, the form he showed back in 2007 has never returned. Each time it looked like he was finding that pace, something brutal knocked him back down again. A friend ran into him pre-season testing in Spain last year, recovering from his latest stomach-churning crash. I'll never forget the creeping feeling of horror I felt as my friend described how Matti had to have an emergency tracheotomy to stop him drowning on his own blood there at the side of the race course. How he even got back to race a World Cup after that is nothing less than inspirational, yet no one is addressing that.
The brutal truth is that Lehikoinen never found that pace again. CRC wanted him to lead their team and he couldn't, he didn't. Simmonds and Smith both out-performed him. When it came time to choose their new lead rider, CRC made the decision that they needed someone who they were sure would be at the sharp end of the field, and Matti was dropped. In all the talk about Sam Hill moving over, I saw barely a comment about Matti, it seemed accepted as part and parcel of the reality of racing. Trek are a successful company and their racing program is strong and well-funded. They will deal with this and you'd be a fool to bet against seeing one of their riders on the top step of a podium before too long. So why is there more comment when they lose a rider than when a man who deserves our full respect loses his ride? It was just a job, right?
Aaron Gwin and Matti Lehikoinen are two sides of the same coin: one riding high on record-breaking form, the other slowly slipping from view, weighed down by the screws, plates and strips that rebuilt his broken body. If we can easily accept the harsh realities Matti and riders like him face, we should understand why Gwin is making the most of his fragile moments at the top of our sport.
