Dakotah Norton, Ronan Dunne & Ryan Pinkerton Form Mondraker Factory Racing
Update: January 24
The final rider announcement for the new Mondraker team is here and it is Dakotah Norton who takes up the last place on the 2024 roster.
 | Dakotah Norton is the third and last signing for Mondraker Factory Racing for 2024. He’s a two-time USA National DH Champion and has 5 World Cup DH podiums to his name. He started racing MotoX when he was 4, BMX when he was 15 and DH when he was 22. In 2023 he contested almost all of the World Cup DH finals and he made the podium twice. Welcome to Mondraker, Dak! |
Update: January 22
In the second rider announcement for the new Mondraker team, Rónán Dunne has been revealed as the next rider joining the roster.
| Rónán Dunne is Irish, which explains the accents on the vowels of his first name. When he was little, he got bored of blowing up motorbike engines so made the move to mountain biking when he was 13. Three-time National Champion, podiums in the World Cup and 12th overall in World Cup DH in 2023 in only his 3rd season of World Cup racing! Welcome to Mondraker, Rónán! |
Update: January 18
In the first of three rider announcements, Mondraker has revealed that 2023 Junior overall World Cup winner Ryan Pinkerton will be joining the team.
| Ryan Pinkerton already has 4 US National DH Championships under his belt despite being just 18, and he finished 1st in the Junior category in the World Cup overall last year. He credits a lot of that to his mentor Brian Lopes. Ryan is the first rider signing for the Mondraker Factory Racing team. Welcome to Mondraker, Ryan! |
Original Article
After a decade of supporting MS-Mondraker, Mondraker announced in December that they were stepping away from the team. Now, Mondraker has announced the creation of their first factory DH race team with Mondraker Factory Racing. They say that this is "a 100% Mondraker project featuring some of the best riders in the world."
Mondraker Factory Racing will be made up of three riders who will be supported by nine staff members. Mondraker will be introducing the three riders successively on January 18th, 22nd and 24th and we will update this article as soon as the three riders are unveiled.
| This is a very exciting time for both Mondraker and the team. Having the chance to grow a project like this from scratch with the brand I grew up racing on is a dream come true. What’s more, I couldn’t be more stoked about the riders we’ve signed and the team behind them we’ve created. Everyone just gelled from the get-go and we’re loving the passion for racing that Mondraker brings to the table. We’re also impatient to translate all the development that comes from competition to the production line and make it all worthwhile for the brand. |
Mondraker Factory Racing will have the support of Shimano for drivetrain and brakes, Fox Racing Shox for suspension, Alpinestars for kit, E*thirteen for wheels, Maxxis for tires, X-Sauce for oils, maintenance and cleaning product, and Ergon for grips and saddles.
Mondraker says that Mondraker Factory Racing will also have the backing of the Engineering and Prototypes Department at Mondraker as well as support from the factory.
| We’re setting out on a new stage in competition with Mondraker Factory Racing. There’s no denying our passion for racing has always been inseparable from our roots as a brand. We’ve always aimed to develop the best tech available, taking it to the absolute limit on some of the toughest race tracks in the world, so it was inevitable that we ended up where we are, with the Mondraker Factory Racing team, because we just knew that we wanted a structure with all the resources of the factory behind it to best serve the needs and potential of some of the best riders in the world. Simply put, we want Mondraker to be back at the top of world class downhill racing. It’s a huge step in our history as a brand, making history in the Formula 1 of mountain biking. |
Mondraker Factory Racing support team:
- Team Manager: Jorge García.
- Race Engineer: Pablo Guillem.
- Mechanic #1: Mark Maurissen.
- Mechanic #2: Sergio Agulló.
- Mechanic #3: Ernest Adalid.
- Driver: Pablo Irigoyen.
- Physio: Adrià Baró.
- Photography: Kike Abelleira.
- Video: Louis Citadelle.
Mondraker won their first World Cup in Maribor in 2009 with Fabien Barel, and took the triple win in the Val di Sole World Champs in 2016 with Danny Hart, Laurie Greenland and Florent Payet and we look forward to seeing the team in action at the first World Cup in Fort William come May.
Learn more at: mondraker.com
Instagram: @mondraker.factory.racing
Facebook: mondraker.factory.racing
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Oh, do f*ck off Mondraker marketing team - you really don't need to milk it that much. You're turning a really positive story into an annoyance. Most of us know who it is anyway.
Stop being ageist.
I would date her too, probably everyone here would
People meet they're SOs at work all the time. As far as I know BK isn't manipulating or abusing Jenna, and I don't think you have any evidence of that occuring
Kind of like how men no longer approach women (romantically) in public, out of fear of potential consequences, which just leaves everybody with these shitty dating apps
Go cry into your BK Sport hoodie.
You’re basically a Nazi. Age Nazi and relationship Nazi. I doubt you’ve ever even had a relationship of any kind with a female other than your mother with views like yours. Two people choosing to do what they want is not inappropriate.
If the relationship goes sour she can quit the team and get a job. They’re basically living the holiday life anyway. She gets to help him spend his trust fund and spend a few years travelling. It’s not an internship at the WHO for cripes sake.
Some will have strong views and opinions regard BK but that story will get it's airtime in due course so let's try to stick to the main topic.
Let's keep it mondraker. Voice your BK issues on his YouTube/other media or try reaching out to him yourself perhaps?
Acting like a bunch of toffs in Westminster squabbling on here won't resolve it and it dilutes the great conversations about, you guessed it.... Mondraker.
Smile.
The term child means different things in different contexts, it has no singular definition. In a context like this the young person is vulnerable due to an imbalanced power dynamic, and would be seen as a child until 21.
This means, if there is a relationship which I don't know as I don't follow BK at all, she is legally unable to consent to this relationship. This includes anything of a sexual nature, meaning that if anything sexual did occur, again I don't know if it did or not, it would be classed as statutory rape. I'm not saying this is what has happened, that's just how such a thing would be regarded in British law
There is a criminal offence in British law of 'sexual activity with a child over the age of 16" for situations like the one I've described for this reason - yes the age of consent is 16, but not in situations where the definition of child extends beyond 16.
In situations where a power imbalance has formed from an adult working with a child there are so many ways in which the child is vulnerable and can be manipulated, whether deliberately or otherwise, and this is grooming. The law does not imply malice on the part of the adult, it is there to protect vulnerable children. The relationship can only be seen as having full legal consent if there is a solid 5 year gap in contact to ensure no grooming has taken place.
I see people go to prison for anywhere from 5 years and up for this quite frequently.
Again, I don't follow BK at all, I have no idea what the situation is and I'm not saying anything untoward has happened, I'm just trying to clear up a few things about how the law regards children, vulnerable people, and relationships with people in positions of power. Clearly some industries have more robust safeguarding procedures than others and things always slip through the net, but inform yourself and ask yourself if you're ok with what you're seeing.
Also, if your way of approaching women might nowadays lead to "consequences", I'm pretty sure your style of approach is the issue here and has actually never been cool, at least from the women's point of view. Smart, polite approaches are still very much appreciated as they have always been. Nothing really has changed, except the visibility of poor behaviour by some men. There never should have been any "blurred lines" in romance.
"There never should have been any "blurred lines" in romance.”
This creates a sterile world devoid of flirtation. People are imperfect, and any society lacking rigid courting norms requires a pretty wide degree of latitude for behavior. Not everything has to be the most negative version of events.
Things were so much simpler when marriages were arranged...
I also don’t follow BK or this girl. Never heard of her to be honest. I also have a 16 year old daughter myself and probably wouldn’t want her dating her manager or a grown ass man like this.
The reason I got into this debate is to point out the prejudice in the comments. No one would dare state that BK is too ethnic or too Jewish or whatever, but apparently too old is fine. Do these bigots have any idea how difficult it is to find a job, for example, when one is 50 years old? The amount of age based prejudice we see in western society is frankly unacceptable and yet it goes unnoticed and unpunished.
I am for freedom also. The right of two people who are legally classed as adults to pursue a relationship of any kind with whomever they like.
And yet, we are presented with comments using the work “ick” which I’ve personally never come across until reading this thread, but I can guess what it means and the type of person who uses it (probably someone who hasn’t learned to construct full sentences yet).
The fact is that in life and relationships a lot of weird shit goes on. There comes a point when we have to accept that our children are no longer children and they have to be left to fend for themselves and be free to make decisions they will later regret. We’ve all done it.
It is no surprise that with attitudes like the ones in these comments that there are so many man babies around these days still living at home getting cooked for and having their mothers wash their clothes.
All I would say is, BK is a human over 18. The girl is a human over 18. Both classed as adults as far as I can see (but please do post a link to specific info on the purported 21 thing if it’s true). No one deserves to be picked apart in the comments like this! Just keep your opinions to yourself at least until you have enough experience of life to pass qualified comment. Thanks in advance.
- i suggest talking to jenna Shes awesome
I don’t know which part of the law you work in, but as a frontline practitioner I can tell you this relationship has no imbalance of power that would interest the police, no more than
She isn't even one of the three kiwi girls who were on the podium at Fort Bill!
But that's besides the point; he's her boss, she's a team rider, so there will be unavoidable conflicts of interest.
(Mondraker, not PB)
Marketing team proceeds to build interest and story
‘F* off’
Everything points to what @souknaysh posted
-Fanboy
For those people: Mondraker isn’t taking Danny Hart, or Brook or Blenky or Angel or Vali Holl or Aaron Gwin.
This team is Dak, Dunne and Pinkerton. For better or worse, that’s the team.
Oooo.
Pinky and Ronan.