Jared Graves has announced today that he is retiring from full-time racing. His final race was the Australian National Championships last weekend, where he won the short-track cross country race. After a total of fourteen years of racing for Yeti throughout his career, most recently on the Yeti / OneUp Pro Team, Graves will remain on the Colorado brand's bikes, but will transition from racer to Team Performance Coach.
| I’m stoked to go out on top and I’m excited for the next phase of my career with the Yeti crew.—Jared Graves |
During his long career, Graves won world championships in 4X and Enduro, earned a bronze medal in downhill at the World Championships, represented Australia in BMX in the 2008 Olympics, and has won a total of 10 elite Australian national titles across five disciplines. Graves is also a cancer survivor after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in October 2018 and publicly battled through chemo and radiation treatments.
| Jared’s work ethic and competitive drive are legendary, and we’re excited to have him continue to mentor our young racers and work with our product development team. He’s mentored some of the best in the sport – Richie Rude, Sam Willoughby, Kasper Woolley, and even a young Jack Moir, who raced for Yeti back in 2013, benefited from his wisdom.—Chris Conroy, Yeti’s CEO |
| Jared’s mentorship over the years has had an invaluable impact on my career, my riding, and who I am as a person. I remember looking up to him in the early days of my racing career, and to have had the opportunity to work so closely with him has been an honor. While I will sorely miss racing with him and watching him between the tape, I am eternally grateful for the lessons I’ve learned from him and the friendship we share.—Richie Rude |
Graves also worked with the Yeti engineering team to develop many of their bikes, including the 303 DH, 4X full-suspension, DJ, limited run BMX bike, SB66, SB6, and SB150.
| It’s almost impossible to overstate how much Grubby has influenced our program. He always knew what he needed to go faster and our engineering team was committed to make product to get him on the top of the box.”—Steve Hoogendoorn, Chief Technology Officer at Yeti |
| I owe my Career with Yeti to Jared. He trusted my skills and knowledge with his bikes from my first race with the team at the '09 World Champs in Canberra (which he won 4X). He has taught me things about bikes that I would never have learned otherwise. He’s become one of my closest mates, and I'm honoured to have worked with him for the past 13 years. I look forward to being a part of his career into the future as he continues with the Yeti Cycles team. Congratulations on an incredible career.—Shaun Hughes |
m.pinkbike.com/news/exclusive-richie-rude-and-jared-graves-failed-drug-test-at-ews-france.html
MTBer that gets done doping = great guy, you’ve got to look past it
Roadie that gets done doping = not so much
As much as I like him though, that one positive test really makes me question his wins. I don't doubt his work ethics. PED alone won't make you win races. But when only a few seconds can determine whether you stand on the top step of the podium or that lonely almost-but-not-fast-enough 4th place, PED usage may give that extra two or three seconds.
I sincerely want to believe that it was an honest mistake. A bad batch by his supplement sponsors. But, there will always be a tiny sliver of doubt about his racing performance.
At the end of the day, I am still a fan of Grubby. But maybe not as a racer anymore, just a mountain biker and human in general.
I will look no further than one Lance Armstrong……
You are giving me a laugh at your expense though so feel free to continue embarrassing yourself publicly and I will check back and comment if required or can be bothered to give you further time in my valuable day of doing not much.
When this happened, there were some comments from competitors to the effect of "It was only a matter of time". He'd been riding the line for a while with what he was taking, along with other EWS racers as well.
The "tainted supplement" defense doesn't carry any water (pardon the pun), especially with one of the substances involved here. And then falling on his sword for rude with the shared water bottle excuse... come on.
It's not quite Tyler's vanishing twin or Valv/Piti's dog, but it's still playing with fire.
That third place in the DH World's on a single-crown is still amazing.
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Look at the Roadie scene, if you remove all directeur sportifs, coaches and managers with a PED-tainted past or even bans there would be a lot of job openings. Acceptance of doping and continuing employment of proven dopers by race teams unfortunately is a big part of professional bike racing and professional sports in general.
That`s why I like people calling out dopers here and at every given chance, even against a benevolent and forgiving majority, because it raises awareness and maybe one day somebody with morals but under pressure when young and ambitious thinks twice about the possible lifelong public stigma and repercussions before taking PED.
And if you’re referring to Richie, then stating he is universally supported by riders after his positive test is ignorant.
Read the comments in any Graves/Rude article. Plenty of condemnation. So no need to woke troll everyone.
Nice job Outside/SM.
Congrats Jared on your "retirement." Something tells me he will still be out and about kickin ass and taken names!