New Chris Ball interview

Popcorn time. Has pinkbike seen this yet?

Not seen it on PB but it’s buried in a VitalMTB thread

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/The-Hub,2/UCI-grant-Discovery-WC-rights-from-2023-to-2030,11398?page=22

Is there any point in listening, or is it just more attempted justification for selling the sport down the river to the highest bidder?

And, of course, “I’m not able to share that information at the present time” with respect to anything in the future.

Rolls eyes.

Just read the Vital comments. Think that tells you all you need to know.

I was open minded about it but ‘m getting more cynical about the whole thing

Just read the Vital comments. Obviously that is unfiltered Internet angst, but brutal nonetheless.

I might listen just for the hell of it.

apologies who is he?

apologies who is he?

A warning lesson about what happens when corporate (particularly broadcast) interests butt up against the core goodness in a sport.

His whole shtick seems to be a MTB version of trickle-down economics. With him and his backers at the top, obvs.

ah thanks @fenderextender :-)

He’s a former racer who has done good things, initially, for the gravity side of the sport.

If I’m going to speculate, I think he has been overtaken by this growth and had a chance to cash out to a certain extent. He’s now done this is but has been kept on as a sort of rubber stamp for the big boys – and is trashing his reputation with the grassroots in the process. That’s my charitable version.

Very fair assessment fenderextender

If I were being charitable I’d say he probably heard what he wanted to from WB/Discovery and then potentially lost some battles about the direction of the sport.

Perhaps he’s doing his best with limited resources and spread very thinly, having bitten off way more than he can chew on the organisational front.

If I was being less charitable, I’d say he’s **** over enduro in order to get his hands on DH (and XC). And that he’s made a Faustian pact with an organisation which has no real interest in DH or enduro.

I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Alot of Enduro riders feel he has sold them out.

Was about to go off on a rant about how he sold out the sport, but the folks on the vital thread has done a solid job already.

He’s come a long way from this

p4pb247358.jpg (400×600) (pinkbike.org)

I do wonder if he actually believes what he is saying.  I’d like to think so.

However, whether he believes it or not, he’s in bed with an evil corporation that is seeking to squeeze whatever value it can out of a sport that has been growing both as a sport and as a culture for 30 years. And they will discard it when they think they’ve gotten all the juice out of it they’re going to get.

WBD put £6 million in ESOs bank account. He’ll sing whatever tune they tell him

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC437697/filing-history/MzM1MjQwNjM4NGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0