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Action_Man

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  1. My memories of the race: Was a great idea and should have had long term potential if it were managed and implemented properly; that goes for the on the ground organisational logistics, proper road management, etc. as well as sponsorship management with Cell C... All the RSA pro teams messed up badly by not chasing House on stage 1. House had an exceptionally strong team mate who almost single handedly enabled him to hold onto his leaders jersey throughout the week (Jonathan Tiernan-Locke) who went to team Sky & tested positive shortly thereafter. Stage 2 was a complete disaster on too many levels to mention in a post. I had a very hard crash on stage 2 in the resulting chaos. I'd found myself without a contract when the World Tour team who I'd signed a 2 year contract with lost their title sponsor & laid off all riders & staff on 15 December which was too late to find a decent pro contract elsewhere in Europe as all the other teams were already full. I had just signed a contract with a local team, DCM. I won SA Champs for them early in the season and by the time we raced "Tour of South Africa" none of the riders on the team had been paid any portion of their salaries. Nor a month later when we won Tour of Boland. Nor the rest of the year for that matter.... Found some images of my jersey after the crash, the resulting road rash later on on my way to winning the queen stage that finished up Old Hellshoogte pass. Final thoughts - it's very sad that we don't have a proper early season stage race that attracts international teams and big name riders the way that the old Giro del Capo did. That event was well ahead of the likes of Tour Down Under that now occupy the early season racing slots. European teams would far prefer to come to RSA, it's substantially cheaper for them as well as not having to deal with long haul flights and time zone changes.
  2. You said "Did a bit of searching on Pro mtbers salary ranges, seems the majority of the field will earn anything between $150K - $300k a year". I'm not sure where you found those figures, and I can assure you both I and the riders wish they were true! Cyclists are some of the most grossly underpaid sportsmen & women in professional sports. I can't comment on DHI because I don't know the riders or their agents well enough to pass an opinion. On XCO, XCM or even road for that matter, I'm happy to weigh in because I have been in the sport for many years and I do know what I'm talking about. I'm at the events, I'm friends with a number of the riders, I speak to team owners, & I speak to the rider's management agents on a regular basis. There are a small handful of male riders in XCO who get paid north of $150k per year, certainly none who aren't regularly finishing inside the top 10 with occasional podiums. Further back than 10th and you're looking at $75k-$100k, falling off rapidly from that outside of the top 30 - 40. The women get paid less than the men. In XCO there are maximum 5 men & 3 women who earn $300k plus when including endorsements from the likes of Redbull, etc. Then right at the top you get someone like Nino who is earning north of $1million. CXM riders are paid far less, there is far less money in XCM than XCO, the same reason XCO riders get paid less money than the road cyclists - there's less money in XCO than there is in road cycling. Road rider's salaries also have a lot more depth because there is teamwork involved and the teams need good domestiques to form a strong team. In XCO that is not the case, you have winners / podium finishers, then everyone else who is just filling up the numbers. If one is outside of the top 25-30 places in XCO, you'd be lucky to earn $40k per year. Outside of top 40, you're falling off quickly after that. There are many riders racing at World Cups who are having to work at least part time jobs or still live with their parents into their mid to late 20's in order to pursue their racing dreams. XCM is even worse, far worse in fact. If you go look at a startlist of an XCM World Championships you will see many riders you've never even heard of, good riders, riders who finish in the top 20 or even top 10 at a World Championship. Why do you think that is? Their federations manage to scrape together some funding to sent them there, but they certainly can't afford to come do an event like the Cape Epic, much as they would love to. It's too expensive for their sponsors or for their federations to fund, so they don't come. Back to XCO, in my opinion, Discovery/Warner bro's needs to improve on coverage slightly further back in the XCO races to give the riders in at least 10th - 20th or even up to 30th position a bit more coverage throughout the race, even if it's a split screen image every now and then. It's the only way to encourage more sponsorship depth and feasibility for athletes trying to make it in the sport. The reality is that all +- 80 men and women who line up on a World Cup XCO start line are phenomenal athletes in the top small percentile of people in the world, both physiologically & psychologically. They all deserve to earn a decent wage and get a bit of coverage for what they put themselves through and the show they provide for the spectators, let alone the risks they take while redlining it down technical terrain.
  3. You're joking right? Where did you pull this badly skewed information from? Don't trust a quick "Google search", rather speak to people inside the sport who know what's really going on if you'd like to get an idea of real world figures.
  4. https://www.treadmtb.co.za/how-candice-lill-confidently-claimed-a-world-champs-medal/
  5. We were tight on staff trying to look after all the Saffa men as well as the women. Because the women started a full 30mins behind the mens race as well as racing the same distance as the men, things became very spread out across 4 x WP's / Tech Zones. We certainly didn't have a spare staff member to send up to the top of (or even half way to the top the final climb) to give a time split. It was inaccessible by vehicle, so a dedicated person would have had to ride / hike there well in advance & stay there. Mona did have that advantage with 10 staff members out on course for her and Alan. We had a race plan that Candice executed on to perfection from start to finish. Mona almost got it wrong by going a bit too hard between T3 & T4, but she held on for a well deserved win. Maybe things would have been different if the race was an extra 5km, but there are no comments in the results sheet
  6. Ate Rory Southerland for the win, or the Comm for nearly taking me out in the process
  7. It happens, comms are only human, sometimes they make mistakes...
  8. 3500 Euros for a World Cup win. 10000 Euros if you win the overall title on points at the end of the season
  9. It's a good thing I don't rely on "Google" for my information Otherwise I too would believe that the top XCO riders are earning 500k Euro per year, let alone performance "endorsement incentives" that come close to boot. If only! In a nutshell, yes, it's damaging to his bottom dollar, but more importantly, just damaging to the sport in general
  10. "all the potential prize money" ? Out of interest, what do you think a World Cup win is worth in terms of prize money?
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