Breaking News: Brian Cookson Voted In As New UCI President

 Went right to the comments to find out if this guy was good or bad for mtbing... really glad to hear it's the former. DEMOCRACY, FUCK YEAH!

 It was about time that that corrupt dictator McQuaid is replaced by some one better that cares about mtb,that McQuaid has destroyed our sport with to many dumb rules like taking out 4x etc & had way to many roadie influences that the UCI doesn't gave a shit about mountain biking in general.

I hope this guy restores the damage being done by McQuaid in our sport,this news is a good step in the right direction for the future of mountain biking.

 HECK YES. I dont know all that much about the guy but I do know that he is better than McQuaid and there WILL be change!

 Hopefully more like a representative republic!

 He's a great guy who loves cycling unlike that corrupt politician McQuaid

 If he's good as good as you guys say he is, hopefully he'll treat all disciplines of cycling as equals.

 Did anybody else imagine Si's comment in his voice or was it just me....

 Great hope he brings more cycling events to the uk bring back xc dalby Forrest xc and more mtb events

 Holy shit this is good...

 "Best interests of the many"

We're talking about bicycles here, not an apocalyptic survival situation, lol.

But your opinion is valid, I just don't really agree, whatever. Not tryna start an internet flame war.

 Maybe he can open up the current WC to more locations outside of Europe. It would be nice to see something on the West coast of Canada/America.

 THIS IS AWESOME, F#CK YES

" I'd absolutely love to have downhilling in the Olympics Games, but I think that's a long term project to be honest." -Brian Cookson

www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-presidential-candidate-cookson-talks-mountain-biking-part-1

 i like everything about mountain bike, except UCI and Olympics.

 Lets face it, DH is never going to make it to the olympics because it would be near impossible to create a world class DH track in 50% of the cities that host it...

 I hope this means a return to 4x at the world cup level, I really enjoyed watching 4x, almost as much as DH and was kinda irked when it was announced that 4x wouldn't be a world cup even anymore. This is good news that MTB will be an actual focus in the UCI instead of just road and XC!

 @cameronb3321 that is true, however they tend to have quite a large radius in which events are held. For instance in the Vancouver Olympics they held a large number of the Nordic events at whistler which is a 2 hour drive from Vancouver. Similarly in the Montreal Olympics they held the sailing in Kingston which is around 4 hours from Montreal. Im sure most country's would have something in that kind of radius. I suppose only time will tell!

 Or in places like South America or Asia- loads of potential!!!

 Can UCI please step in to RB Rampage and do something about those wooden features?

 Oh god, this may mean 4x is brought back with the DH season. This would make SO many of us happy as shit.

 Yeh but his answer was typically non-committal. At least he doesn't hate MTB, but honestly he has to cater to the masses and if you look at the number of active road riders and off roaders, which I haven't done, I bet we are a drop in the ocean and will continue to be treated as such.

Regarding DH in the olympics. He is right about the TV spectacle. DH is very exciting, DH skiing draws the viewers because of the same level of excitement. XC has never been cool for TV because it's too spread out. Speaking to a room full of non-MTB friends when we watched the 4X worlds in NZ together, they all thought that was a bit of a joke because they look like they're riding kids' bikes and it's over very quickly. DH is the most serious spectacle for the wider audience. I love 4X but my mates thought it was a joke. They thought DH was "f*ck me! Insane!" though. It needs to be in, but it would be easier to get it into the winter games location-wise.

I hope he seriously pushes a DH world cup with more stops that is truly a world cup, not just a European cup with a couple of other rounds. Japan has the Fujimi Panorama bikepark, China has at least two bikeparks now and a DH series which I believe is in its first your of running this year. HK has wicked trails and a good scene. There is a sick looking bikepark in Surabaya in Indo. Half of the elite men are from Aussie and NZ. There are tons of races in South America which I read about on Pinkbike. I think they should consider a fifteen round series, best ten results count, something like that.

 NZ, Aussie, Indonesia, Japan, China, Norway, UK, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, Andorra, Canada, USA, Saffa, Argentina, Chile, Colombia there you go that's 18 just off the top of my head. Sounds more like a real world championship doesn't it?

Best 12 results count to the championship, you can only count qualifying and race points from the same rounds.

 I really don't like that misconception that UCI should do this and that. It happens like in Champery, but in general someone has to do a great job making a track and make lots of lobbying to attract UCI to make an event there. UCI has no obligation to any of us. Ithas obligations to cooperate with local and national cycling organisations. So sorry - if you want a World Cup in Colombia, you got to go there build a track, get lots of money from sponsors and authorities to pay UCI for organizing their part of the event. There is nothing else to say: U want something? Then get your ass to work to get it.

 The UCI should encourage every national federation to host a WC race. I'm not saying anyone should do anything they aren't already doing from an organisational standpoint. Big events already exist, I've seen them on this website. For example the Lisbon urban DH, or the Valparaiso (sp?). The only difference would be they would be UCI sanctioned and points count towards the world cup overall. It would be up to the teams and riders to decide which ones they are going to do. Of course, the standard of tracks and organisation would vary at the local level, but all the UCI would be responsible for would be the timing. How hard can that be?

It seems to me a lot of places would love to hold a world cup race, but they can't or won't pay the UCI for the privilege. That suggests the fee is too high.

In fact, f*ck it, why do they even have to go to do the timing? Let the local organisers do their thing. It's not as if the UCI are the only people with a stopwatch is it? A series of independent events like the FMB world tour, but for DH. It just needs the UCI to pit their name on it and it's a goer!

 The fee for hosting world champs is over 1mln Euro

 Exactly. And how much of that covers their costs?

 I don't know and don't care unless I will have to find that money one day. I just feel that I am not in position of demanding stuff as I do next to nothing for the MTB common world

 Don't take it the wrong way champ. I'm not demanding anything. I am merely making a suggestion as to how they could justify the tag "World Cup" without costs escalating.

 www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-presidential-candidate-cookson-talks-mountain-biking-part-1
'Tell us about your mountain biking background'
'I have a mountain bike'

 yes please, it seems like all the pro downhillers are asking for more races. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I hate waiting and waiting for the next world cup race

 2 a month, every month at least would be awesome! I hate waiting from now til next season, seems like forever, but when that time comes its awesome! At least theres rampage commin up! YEAH

 Bit late for that but hey maybe 2015!

 The UCI aren't the sole dictators of how many races get held. The teams and competitors play a huge role. If they don't have the money to travel to more then what's the point? As more money makes its way into the sport, we'll get more races. Patience.

 No it won't, even with Cookson in charge the UCI and 'that' rule that comes into force in January should stay well away...

 For UCI even to be a part of the existing enduro races they need to bring something to the table and not just taking(money, regulations etc).

If UCI decide to start a series of their own, I call for boycott, the EWS guys has worked hard and done a damn good job!

They can not enforce that rule with success and they know it. Start to behave and I might give UCI a chance but they got a lot to prove, they just f*cked things up so bad.

 EWS and UCI have got to be able to collaborate somehow - cant the UCI just contract out all the enduro stuff to the EWS guys and just label it UCI, with money and points to the winners?

 Why?

 @Cuban B, you don't collaborate with the UCI, they tell you how it's going to be and you pay them for the privilege. That might change now, but it won't change instantly. If the UCI gets into Enduro it will push for standardisation, that's bad. The sport/movement has grown so fast because it takes in all kinds of places and formats, pretty much anywhere that can hold a race can hold an Enduro race and they can skew the idea to fit the local infrastructure. The UCI will start telling people that their event/venue/series 'isn't' Enduro because X Y Z and that will instantly stunt the sport, never good.

 Yeah... I see what you're saying...

 This is worth reading. Hopeful, indeed.

www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-presidential-candidate-cookson-talks-mountain-biking-part-1

 I kind of feel the same way about USA Cycling. It's like they put mountain biking on the back burner and push all their support and money towards road. We're just a filler for the gaps. It even seems as CX gets more love than us sometimes. But at the same time, there's been a lot of grassroot events for mtbiking and it's really exciting. Damn if you do and damn if you don't.

 Good riddance.

 I read the interview and his manifesto and he doesn't appear to know much about mtb. Just kept referring back to road. Which is how the UCI has always been. DH particularly needs to be run by racers, not technocrats the same way snowboarders broke away com FIS

 its because the USAC nationals director doesnt ride bikes........... hes a beach volleyball player............lol

 heisenberg cooking meth for the dopers

 that dude would be good for mtb given his preferred desert locale

 Stevie...we have to cook

 Yeah Downhill, Bitch!!

 McQuaid (f*cking a*shole) was purely and utterly a giant booger in the face of cycling...the worst part about this last election is that he still had massive backup from smaller federations to retain his position as president...death to all those corrupt politicians !!!

 Let's hope someone has the balls to investigate and prosecute his ass now that he's out.

 no si, thats not how the internet works. angry mob, angry mob. but seriously. if i am to believe that everything is going to be all good now that one dubious person has been replaced by another more respected person. then i'm an idiot. Pat McQuaid can not be blamed for everything wrong with the uci as if he was what were the other 42 people who voted him in doing. he is not some all powerful dictator, just someone who didn't do enough for the benefit of the sport rather than the organisation. the UCI have got caught up trying to advance the organisation to be bigger and better that they forgot what they were there to help cycling it seems to me. i'm not saying this isn't good news, because it is. but its only a step in the right direction.

 President Kamacho!

 ok i agree, and also i think UCI is retarded, its something like european union, the old weft. action sports should be apart from UCI and olympic games, should be rival, and do different, big and better.

 you mean dictatorship. I don't think the UCI used communism as an economic guiding principle or MTB would have gotten just as much money as road.

 Dh will never been in the olympics. Logistically it is a nightmare because they have to find and or build a dh trail close to the hosting city. In some cases yes the host city is close enough for a dh event but use Atlanta in 96 for example; where the hell are they going to race dh in Atlanta area? Enduro on the other hand has a much better potential for the olympics logistically speaking that is.

 Uhhhh, they're building urban DH courses in Mexico right now for an upcoming race that brings riders from all over the world. So why can't they do that again in any host city the Olympics would be in? Also, why can't DH and Enduro BOTH be in the Olympics? I'm not understanding the either/or conflict going on in your statement. The Olympics would bring global exposure (and support, just because they're such rad sports) to both Enduro and DH... How is that a bad thing?

 ^^ That was in reply to @highstreet.

 Ambatt has a very good point here... Can I also point out, as another example, that they have whitewater kayaking and canoeing in the Olympics... If you can build a river with a white water course, you can make a DH course happen! It may not be a World Cup level course, but hey, it would be a course. And how much fun to be the trail builders that get to design and engineer something like that?!

 @aaoliver: leave the MTB in mountains. If you want artificial touch in MTB, go to XC eliminator race.

 Who said anything about there being no mountains? There are always mountains somewhere. Name me a country that would be a potential Olympic host that doesn't have any mountains?

 Who is hosting: country or town?

 A lot of the Ski events for Vancouver 2010 were held in Whistler, 2 hours+ away, for London 2012 had football in Glasgow, 7 hours away, XC was an hour and a half from the Olympic Park, and sailing was over three hours away. Just because the city isn't on a mountain doesn't mean that Downhill or Enduro could be at the Olympics.

 SRAM spec and trek? Anyone know how much if the global bike market $% they hold?

 we don't need dh in the olympics. we just need people to realise the olympics are a load of crap and far too overrated. At some point, nation states began to equate olympic success with national prestige so that every sport has to hitch itself to the movement. Keep DH out of the olympics! Where would the track have been last year? fort bill? Olympics is gay

 fingerbangextreme(great name by the way) knows EXACTLLY what time it is.

dh don't need the olympics.

 Guys, downhill in the Olympics means exposure; exposure means money -- money for teams and R&D and more rad movies and contests and growth of the sport. It means more new blood, healthier old blood and tons of progression. It means sponsors for racing and contests... Ya gotta look at the big picture here.

 i agree - great name fbe

 DH doesn't need be in the Olimpics, is better to have better coverage during the whole circuit that just 2 weeks every 4 years, Olimpics now are just a bunch of companies that invest in show the brands like McDonalds, etc (why that brand has to sponsorship the healthy food of the athletes if the 24hr food in the street is a crap?, I never found a logical answer). What the DH, Enduro, XC, 4X is better coverage of events during each circuit and in the whole year by the major channels (RedBull has been doing a great job online with it), but by TV will be a jump to the space for the space. I always ask myself why there are 20 sport channels in satellite or cable and all just showing baseball, football, basketball, just ball games, and surfing, mountain biking even the X games are just sporadic and sometimes in delay, what the sport need is involve one or two of these channels inside the tours (I know it take money) but with more exposure it will become a real boom, not just 2 weeks each 4 years, it's what I think we need. Cheers dudes!

 Agreed...keep DH out of the Olympics. For starters, olympic tracks would end up being overly-manicured "showcases" optimized for viewing, not racing. Look at the last olympic XC course for an example. Also you can bet that there will be A LOT more pedaling and less gravity focus, because host cities will never be chosen based on the availability of vertical drop nearby (they already have to do this for winter games). Who cares if the sport gets additional exposure, if it has to sell out to McDonalds, Martha Stewart, and Coca Cola to get it.

 You can't put downhill in the Olympics. Winters games are always near mountain. But not the summer games, which are in capital cities. And I'm pretty sure some countries haven't mountain at all.

 ^ what Eneite said. It's not going to happen.

 Y'all are thinking small picture here; what you don't see is that the Olympics (with a 'Y') is the largest sports showcase platform in the world. It has the highest viewership of any sporting festival on earth and is a global affair. What better way to bring new blood and new cash in? And who the hell cares if it's from McDonald's or Martha Stewart or Home Depot? What, you're all purists as to where YOUR money comes from? I didn't think so. It's money and, believe it or not, the bike industry doesn't run on unicorn sparkles... It takes money. In case you all have forgotten, some of largest companies in cycling are Asian. Those companies see the Olympics as the pinnacle showcase opportunity for a sport, and those same companies have an interest in funding cycling disciplines with the mentality of progression, not a supporting a bunch of overgrown children with a chip on their shoulder. I'm NOT saying that our sole focus should be the Olympics. Hell no. I'm simply saying that vying for a spot in the Olympics is smart. There will ALWAYS be other series, other races and other events that hold way more legitimate weight than the Olympics (duh!); however, for the growth and betterment of an entire sport, it means pursuing every avenue for exposure. Are the Olympics corrupt? Damn straight they are. However, is boycotting them smart? Absolutely not. And smart is what will grow this sport into what it deserves to be. Accepting the status quo as 'perfectly fine coverage' will only end up burning us.

 Aaaand I get neg propped, yet again, because I use my brain to encourage long-term vision for our beloved sport instead of squabbling over wheel sizes. Whoops. Sorry about that, fellas.

 Ambatt.. Shit, I meant to props you on this and on my iPhone I accidentally hit the "down props"... Ugggg. Anyway, I totally agree with you, and you make the most logical and intelligent argument on this thread. Olympics doesn't mean selling out.. I point to whitewater kayaking. Does anyone thing whitewater kayakers (in my opinion the gnarliest most terrifying ballsiest life threatening dangerous sport in the world) are a bunch of sell outs? Hahaha. No way! DH in the Olympics would be rad for the sport. Also, what's wrong with making cycling in the Olympics exciting to watch? Introduce new people to the sport and make them excited to watch mountain biking. I mean, no offense to XC, but I watched the entire Olympics from the couch last year while I was broken and even as an avid cyclist I had a hard time making it through watching the whole XC race. DH is a great spectator sport (why we all like watching the WCs) and that should be leveraged to progress the sport further. Props!

 DH in the Olympic means a lot more kids will get funding and support, they can race to live, not vice versa. Series will get bigger with further investment and exposure (10 rounds a year + Crankworx + Worlds would be decent I think) More investment means more potential sponsors, and more riders and more trail building, more bike parks, less c*nty forestry commissions.. It's only a good thing. And those moaning about the location and lack of hills in a city, London had events in Glasgow, Vancouver had events in Whistler. Location isn't a problem.

 that was intense

 drivereight nails it. don't matter who the puppet is, the uci will be pulling its strings. uci are full on douches.

 Wait, YOU have a crystal ball?!? Mine is still on back order! Damn.

Give the guy a chance, for god's sake. Over the last 16 years, he's turned Britain into a cycling MONSTER of a nation.