What’s happening with the big teams and
what does it say about the future of top level racing?

Since the end of last season life has been a grim time for the many pro mtb
racers searching for a paid ride.
On the international scene Team GT and the Schwinn Factory team have been
all but disbanded by new owners Pacific; Specialized have canned their pro
team sponsorship and even top riders like Cadel Evans and Miguel Martinez
are abandoning dirt to seek their fortune on tarmac. Back home Team Raleigh,
became Team Diamondback and then no team at all, leaving top
riders Nick Craig and Barrie Clarke searching for sponsorship for the 2002
season.

Using the GT / Schwinn and Raleigh example you could easily jump to the
conclusion that racing is being abandoned by cost cutting, cash strapped companies but it’s not that simple. Specialized have dropped their MTB team and sponsorship of
the Festina road team, but they have increased the size of their BMX race
and display team. They’ve also just announced a deal that shrewdly puts
their complete equipment line under the Acqua & Sapone team of the pro
peloton’s most flamboyant exhibitionist, sprinter Mario Cippollini.
Giant have also just taken on sponsorship of the GT Airshow, Freestyle and
race BMX teams rather than pick up top GT downhiller Steve Peat. Even
Giant’s XC teams will increase their participation in festival events such
as the Red Bull 24hr and Coed-y-Brenin fat tyre festival rather than just
concentrating on pure racing results. Other continuing pro teams like World
DH champions Global, and Clif Bar’s new Luna Chix women’s team have a
mandate to be ambassadors of the sport and be involved in other issues rather than just
chasing podium positions. Team Animal have also announced an intention to concentrate on freeride photo opportunities rather than racing in 2002, obviously hoping to reap the
massive media exposure rewards of Rocky Mountain’s ‘hilariously-haired’ Fro riders.

Of course some companies are still reaping the rewards of team sponsorship.
Trek have seen huge benefits for their road bike reputation as
Lance Armstrong has ridden their OCLV
carbon bikes to three Tour De France victories. Paolo Pezzo and now Roland Green have pushed the MTB profile
of Gary Fisher and Trek back into the limelight. Orange have had a bumper
year with Global claiming individual and team World Championships and now have
Steve Peat riding ‘O-range’ bikes during 2002. Yet far more evocative for anyone
who was there, was seeing Ben Bardsley win the Red Bull Solo event in an
Orange team shirt, on a prototype Sub 3 both almost unrecognisable under the
grime and sweat of 24 hours of racing*. And you can bet that cost a fraction
of getting bikes under the Global superstars.

And that’s where the key lies. Like any sponsorship, it’s pointless spending
money on placing your logo if nobody is going to see it. Flick through any
magazine and the number of pro race shots is a fraction of what it was a few
years ago. Sponsors are now looking for riders with something more to offer than just
an inhuman V02 max level. Riders who will make their product appeal to end users.

If even the top racers can’t make a living anymore has XC racing lost any
chance of developing the next new breed? Has the attitude of
downhillers, screwing up so many events that organisers won’t put them on
anymore, made top-level downhilling extinct too? Is the future in travelling bands of biking ambassadors, stunt circuses or sponsored trails, festivals, challenge events or organisations like IMBA. Let us know what you think on the forum and you never know, we might even help change the future of bike companies involvement ourselves.

*before anyone gets smart yeah we know he wasn’t on the Sub 3 for the full
24 hrs, but that would have spoiled the image.