It’s by no means official according to Specialized, but a little bit of Facebook stalking on our part found this very touching and enthusiastic (and definitive-sounding) farewell from Pure Agency, who publicise the goings on of the gravity team, to long-time sponsors SRAM and Rockshox.
The statement says:
“Team Specialized Gravity wish you all the best for the new Year !
We really want to thank SRAM MTB and RockShox for their perfect support during these last years. More than a brand, we met great people, and some of them became friends. Al Tino ,you’re the man. Guys under the Sram pit, you offered us some great support !
Thank you also to One Industries and SixSixOne, with Seb Raymond and Gareth Critcher, that support the Team with great looking gears. We will always remember the Kit for the Worlds in Andorra : that was mint.
This is the end of a great story, but stay tune the 10th of January 2017 for the big news…”
Here’s was the link on BookFace though it was taken down recently. See below for more news –
So no more Rockshox. It would make sense that the team will take advantage of Specialized’s close ties with Ohlins forks. And a little further wandering the web shows up this photo of Loic Bruni taken by a pal doing ‘testing’ – and that’s certainly not a Rockshox. (And, given the #smithoptics hashtag, it’s odd that no one’s running Smith goggles, but that’s another story)
And this shot of Loic’s Demo from the side, even shot into the sunset has set the Instagrammers ablaze with conjecture.
So it sounds like it’s all change over at the Other Big S – and we’ll wait and see what the news is next week.
Given that the ‘offending’ Facebook page was taken down, it’s fair to say that where there’s smoke, there’s fire and we’re looking forward to the promised announcement tomorrow about what’s happening with Team Specialized and its sponsorship for 2017