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Really? Think you'll find the top guys work with their sponsors on building / designing the fastest bikes.
They probably do, but that doesn't help them in the first season with a brand, does it? They ride what they're paid to ride. Unless a rider has several years with a brand then they won't be riding the bikes they designed.
Bikes isn't formula 1. Races are used as a way to sell the bikes the riders are using - There's no point in designing a race-winning bike if it looks gopping, because few people would buy the thing.
One other effect of the wheelsize debate is great deals on "new" 2013/14 26ers. Seems retailers can't get shot of them quick enough! Give the same pro £1500 to spend on a 26er and same again for any 2015 27.5/29er and I bet they'll do better on the 26er. Currently so much more bike for the money!
Its an interesting comment re. 'ride whatever the pros are riding'....i'm of the mindset that racing improves the breed so i do like to see concepts proven at the highest level in racing before trickling down to us mere mortals.
However there is the corporate/business angle too which as suggested above states that riders race whatever they're given in order to sell bikes.
That said, if a small manufacturer or privateer team could put some noses out of joint by racing on 26 inch wheels i'm sure they would....it would make headlines, please sponsors, sell bikes etc etc....Intense tried in vain to get a 29er downhill bike to be competitive on the world stage but it just wasnt good enough against the more agile 26 inch bikes of the time that had more travel in most cases but in smaller packages.
27.5 does make sense in DH terms anyway, you get a slight increase in wheel diameter to deal with small obstacles and to carry slightly more momentum than a 26 inch wheel but still get to keep the bike fairly compact and with the full 200mm+ of travel easy enough for designers to package into the frame even with slightly bigger 27.5 wheels.
I know Bryceland won on a 26 inch wheeled V10 early in the 2014 season but switched to the 27.5 bike for his second WC win later in the year....i believe Sam Hill also was late switching to 27.5 too and (i think?) took his first win of 2014 on 26 inch wheels too...but both have changed to bigger wheels now.
Interestingly Nukeproof dont have a 27.5 DH bike on sale to the public so its not like Sam Hill is being forced to ride a bigger wheeled DH bike in order to push sales of 27.5 Nukeproof DH bikes....and i also think Hill is one of the few who would tell a manufacturer to poke it if the new 27.5 bike was slower than the old 26 one and ask for his old bike back!...i reckon he rides the 27.5 Nukeproof because its faster...in DH anyway.
Bit of a rambling reply...i have both a 26 and a 27.5, the bigger wheeled bike is undoubtedly easier to ride but the 26 is more involved and fun....i reckon 26 will seesome kind of resurgence in the near future.
I always felt that 27.5 was about bringing in one standard to cover all rider heights because 29ers would not sell to shorter riders or those who need longer travel. Nevertheless I was very surprised to see the conclusions. I bet it put Giant's nose out of joint! Having said that, I bet Giant have a lot more money to throw at the research if they want to. However if they had already decided they wanted to sell just one wheelsize, then they wouldn't want to fund any research to contradict this plan. I'm not qualified to comment on whether or not the results are valid.
No particular experise claimed here, so this is just a 'follow the money' surmise type post.