Madison Saracen Factory Race Team to cease racing at the end of 2024

In surprise news that would have been pretty unthinkable a few years back, but is now almost no surprise at all, Madison Saracen Factory Race Team has …

By stwhannah

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Madison Saracen Factory Race Team to cease racing at the end of 2024

That’s sad news……..

I do wonder how many other will pull out at the end of the season though.

Does anyone know how many DH rounds the UCI/WB are planning next year then?

Very sad news indeed.

 

@dirkpitt74

11 not including the World Champs.

Yes it’s a proper shame, but i’m really pleased they’re keeping the youth development team alive as that’s been fantastic seeing the levels of professionalism at the races.

Unfortunately I think this might be the first of a fair few announcements like this .

11 rounds is quite a jump from this year with only 1 round outside Europe.

I can see the ambition from Warner bros / ESO to make the sport more elite and you’ve got to start somewhere I suppose but if half the teams have to drop out or cut half their riders to be able to afford the season that can’t be a good thing for the sport.

The current format doesn’t help , being outside the top 30 or top 10 for the women  means no TV coverage for the team . There are a few relatively big names this year who haven’t made it to the last day yet and it’s a big investment for little to no return for the smaller teams .

Sad news, and I don’t think they’ll be the last……whether DH, EDR or XC.

Warner/ESO made too many changes too quickly, to put their own stamp on the series, and it’s having consequences.

MTB racing has been the poor relation for far too long, whether lack of big outside sponsors, decent coverage from mainstream cycling media, etc

I understand the move to ESO, but coverage stuck behind a paywall doesn’t seem to have brought much difference/ improvement, has it? Can’t help the teams/ sponsors at all.

In the long term, the MTB World Cup needs more rounds, but it needs to grow reasonably and allow teams to continue to compete.

I can see the ambition from Warner bros / ESO to make the sport more elite money 

FTFY. Sad for the sport but I for one am glad Warner are reaping what they sowed, not that they’ll really care, sigh…

Oh they care alright, just not about the same things as your hardcore race fan.

They care about developing an elite global race series, but that means any team running domestic/continental budgets aren’t going to have enough wedge without serious external funding.

In most cases that will mean wiping the slate clean and building from a development setup.

They care about developing a franchise that will attract paying viewers, paying teams and advertisers, which really ain’t working out.

Totally understand the cutting of number in the elite, but there also needs to be some kind of second tier series in place for teams like this. Without this how will they fill elites when the current crop retire? Not much room for many juniors coming up to allow them to find their feet in the senior ranks.

Looks like it could be more than 11 rounds.

Found this earlier:

Below are the provisional events of the EDR, XCM, and DH MTB World Cup.

DH World Cup – May 3-4
EDR World Cup – May 10-11
DH and EDR World Cup – May 17-18
XCM World Cup – May 23-25*
EDR World Cup – May 31-June 1
DH and EDR World Cup – June 6-8*
DH World Cup – June 13-15*
DH World Cup – June 20-22*
EDR World Cup – June 28-29
DH and EDR World Cup – July 5-6
DH and EDR World Cup – July 19-20
DH World Cup – July 25-27*
DH World Cup – August 1-3
EDR and XCM World Cup – August 16-17
DH, EDR, and XCM World Cup – August 22-24*
DH World Cup – August 29-31*
DH World Cup – September 27-28
DH World Cup – October 3-5*
DH and XCM World Cup – October 10-12*

From HERE – not sure how accurate it is, but my maths puts it at 14!!

Max commencal is saying 15 round the globe. I guess one of the downsides of having a World Cup that actually goes outside of Europe is it does get much more expensive to compete. Privateers will really struggle if it’s truly global. It’s an impossible square to fit into a round hole

They care about developing a franchise that will attract paying viewers, paying teams and advertisers, which really ain’t working out.

Isn’t it?

Totally agree that its crap if you are a 30-60th rider, or a company who is sponsoring them.

But for a viewer, aside from the absence of RW on the mike, it is objectively better than the red bull era.

Guess we’ll see in a few years. It’s very possible I’ve got it dead wrong.

to answer the question about 2nd tier, the word in the paddocks is that they’re buying/merging IXS as a 2nd tier race series and feeder class for Elite. How true that is, i’m not sure.

I think Saracen is a uk-only brand (might be wrong) and (despite owning one) I never see them in the wild. Trying to spread the cost of a dh team over such a small number of bikes (especially those at the better-value end of the market) is always going to be tough

11 rounds is quite a jump from this year with only 1 round outside Europe.

I think I read that the riders were keen to have more rounds, and I can understand why they’d want that, but the downside to that is teams need a much bigger budget, and there are few brands big enough (after the last couple of years, and Olympic year) with pockets that deep. How much to run a team with a decent chance of a podium? $250-300,000 I’d guess.

There does seem like there a gap for a mid tier DH series, and as hard as it is to say, it’s probs where the privateers should be.

ayjaydoubleyou

But for a viewer, aside from the absence of RW on the mike, it is objectively better than the red bull era.

I like the track marker posts but that’s about it.  The programme is inferior and the rate of change they’re trying to introduce is going to break the sport.  Putting the coverage behind a paywall at the same time as increasing costs for everyone, doesn’t allow the audience building that is required for the teams to sell themselves as mobile bill boards and bring in money through sponsorship. Mountainbike racing has largely been run on an industry backed basis for many years and the industry simply cannot support “F1 on bikes” on it’s own.

Who are they expecting to pick up the mantle of creating these feeder series they talk of because sure as shit the UCI aren’t going to do it.

But for a viewer, aside from the absence of RW on the mike, it is objectively better than the red bull era.

Is it?

Semi-finals are crap, and we don’t get to see them

All the race coverage was in one place, not spread across multiple platforms

The Red Bull app was far easier to navigate

It was free to watch

The riders are vocal in how much they hate the new format

$250-300,000

and the rest. An interview with Kathy from the syndicate said it was $1m back when peaty was still racing. It won’t have gone down

Privateers will really struggle if it’s truly global. It’s an impossible square to fit into a round hole

I don’t really see this as a problem. Having more rounds outside Europe just makes it easier for privateers in other parts of the world to do a world cup.

@chrismac

Maxcommencemal is not Max Commencal, but the 15 round rumour is something I’ve also heard from people close to a very elite team.

But for a viewer, aside from the absence of RW on the mike, it is objectively better than the red bull era.

No – they’ve made it confusing with Quali then Semi finals, then the race.

The coverage is arguably worse – cutting commentary on live runs for interviews, no rider start lists during the coverage to remind you who’s coming up & what order. For some reason not having a woman co-commentator for the women’s race.

I don’t really see this as a problem. Having more rounds outside Europe just makes it easier for privateers in other parts of the world to do a world cup.

I’m not sure that’s true. It will be easier for people to do one or 2 rounds but more expensive for anyone wanting to do the whole series wherever they come from as there will be more flights

I’ve heard a rumour that UCI Elite team entry fee for next season is a significant increase over the current €11k (single discipline), and that the standard team entry fee is over double the current €5k.

Not sure what the individual rider entry fee is, but guessing way more than the current €150 per race…..

Looks like UCI & WB are trying to make it like F1…….