Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
  • Chris Ball on leaving the UCI and Enduro
  • chakaping
    Free Member

    Very interesting interview here.

    So he did quite because the UCI couldn’t be bothered with Enduro – and looks like he’s cooking something up independently now.

    andyrm
    Free Member

    Good lad. CB and Enrico from SuperEnduro are all the format needs.

    Enrico has the sponsors, infrastructure and a proven model.

    Chris Ball has global contacts in all the hot ride spots.

    The UCI are rapidly becoming more and more irrelevant IMO.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    Part of me thinks Enduro would be better off outside of UCI governance and part of me can see the case for including it and lending a bit of legitimacy to it as a sport…

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    MSP
    Full Member

    I think there is a strong case for all mountain biking breaking away from the UCI and going it’s own way.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Hoping he’ll end up with some involvement with British Cycling, since they don’t have much of a clue about enduro.

    scruff
    Free Member

    Its a shame DH1 never got going.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    There has always been talk of DH making a break away from the UCI (DH1 etc), but I think that is about it will ever be, just talk, I don’t think DH would benefit from going it alone really it needs the UCI’s organisation and logistics to work as an international level competition, and XC is happy enough under UCI control so where’s the real benefit to breaking away?

    you could perhaps accuse them of lacking vision but I think the UCI will only take note of Enduro if it becomes a big enough entity to have the sort of commercial scope they want in any discipline they are going to promote TBH.
    Just look at 4X to see just how this pans out, lack of commercial interest = lack of UCI interest.

    of course if Enduro develops into a large and well supported discipline independent of the UCI I doubt there would be much support for then submitting to UCI governance, so in short Enduro ends up as an independent self governed sport essentially unrecognized by the UCI… which could make the UCI seem a tad irrelevant, but it all comes down to that ‘if’

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    I disagree, look at the funds and experience that red bull has now, ye reckon they could manage to organise some sort of dh breakaway? I think so.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    Redbull will chuck sponsorship and provide coverage for all sorts of things but running and governing a sport like DH on an international level is far more complex than what they want to do I’d imagine…

    There’s more to running a DH WC series than pointing cameras at it and handing out fizzy ADHD juice. The current set up isn’t actually all that bad when you look at it.

    The real shame is that change in favour of Enduro couldn’t be managed from within the UCI…

    MSP
    Full Member

    Just look at 4X to see just how this pans out, lack of commercial interest = lack of UCI interest.

    Dropping 4x was a big mistake, it should have been a massive seller, the uci just don’t know how to grow potential, they screwed up the live streaming rights for the downhill as well, red bull stepped in and saved the day. It is nothing but luck that the UCI hasn’t overseen the demise of gravity riding as a worldwide competition this year.

    lucien
    Full Member

    Good point MSP, 4X type racing in any sport is a great crowd pleaser / spectator event – just look at XC skiing, border cross, ski cross, BMX – all events that are growing and attracting sponsorship / riders and plenty of races. UCI have definitely missed the plot on dropping 4X… 🙄

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Redbull will chuck sponsorship and provide coverage for all sorts of things but running and governing a sport like DH on an international level is far more complex than what they want to do I’d imagine…

    There’s more to running a DH WC series than pointing cameras at it and handing out fizzy ADHD juice. The current set up isn’t actually all that bad when you look at it.

    The real shame is that change in favour of Enduro couldn’t be managed from within the UCI…

    Agree with you on this. And while I’m grateful for the free coverage, I’m not sure Red Bull have improved the coverage at all.

    Far fewer riders are now getting shown – which must piss their sponsors off. The women’s racing coverage is a truncated mess, usually full of glitches. And the shorter overall coverage time means we don’t get the interesting interviews Warner used to do while the first two-thirds of the field was racing.

    But that’s a bit of a tangent. If Redbull or another firm got involved in enduro it wouled surely be as a title sponsor – with an independent organisation actually running the events anyway?

    MSP
    Full Member

    Agree with you on this. And while I’m grateful for the free coverage, I’m not sure Red Bull have improved the coverage at all.

    It was the UCI that gave freecaster the boot, sold the rights to some non existent outfit (rocky roads?) then Red Bull stepped in at the last minute just to ensure anything was broadcast. I can’t recall the exact details but it was just another complete farce overseen by the UCI.

    atlaz
    Free Member

    It was the UCI that gave freecaster the boot, sold the rights to some non existent outfit (rocky roads?) then Red Bull stepped in at the last minute just to ensure anything was broadcast. I can’t recall the exact details but it was just another complete farce overseen by the UCI.

    It’s a little 2+2 = 5 but close. RockyRoads was sold the title sponsorship rights, not media rights. Freecaster were offered the media rights at a much increased rate to the previous year and declined to go into it. RockyRoads were never going to provide streaming media (unless someone else made it). Yes, there was a lot of dodgy stuff but it was all around the title sponsorship.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Yeah I thought the UCI jacked the price up beyond Freecaster’s means, leaving it in limbo until Red Bull confirmed.

    Thinking about enduro though, it’d be much harder to film and would lack the focus and drama that you get in a lot of the WC DH races – so I can’t see Red Bull being that interested.

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