Racing Rumour: 2022 EWS Champ Jesse Melamed Leaving Rocky Mountain for Canyon?
For many racing fans, the year is split into two halves: race season and silly season, with the latter holding them over with semi-informed speculation and left-field guesses until spring arrives. We've already had one big move, though; Pauline Ferrand Prévot, AKA the Champion of Everything in 2022, signed with Ineos Grenadiers in October, and rumour has it that there's another champion moving on from their current team...
Multiple well-connected sources have all but confirmed, which means it's not confirmed at all, that Jesse Melamed will be leaving his long-term home at Rocky Mountain to ride Canyon's 170mm-travel Strive for the German brand's CLLCTV Enduro Team. Melamed battled Richie Rude for much of the 2022 Enduro World Series, and the Canadian eventually took the overall title with a steady performance at the last round of the year in Loudenvielle, France, that saw him come out ahead of the only racer capable of staging a late-season upset.
I reached out to Jesse about the rumour that he's signed for Canyon and here's what he had to say:
 | As it stands I’m a proud ambassador for Rocky Mountain and we’ve been together for a long time. You’ll know if that changes. Also, the rumours I heard had me going to Norco. |
Melamed has raced for Rocky Mountain for a literal decade, an incredibly long commitment in a world where we often see athletes changing their bike sponsor every other season so, if the rumour is true, it'll be interesting to see how the current EWS champion adapts to a new team and bike. If you listened to my conversation with Jesse earlier this year about bike set-up and data acquisition kit, you'd know that he's a cerebral rider who spends a lot of time and effort developing his race bike to work best for him. Suppose we do see him aboard a Strive in 2023. In that case, it'll likely have RockShox suspension rather than the Fox goodies he's used since forever, as well as Canyon's Shapeshifter system that alters the bike's geometry and kinematics at the push of a button.
THE PINKBIKE PODCAST // EPISODE 135 - JESSE MELAMED ON DATA ACQUISITION, TRAINING FOR ENDUROS, & EWS DOPING
July 21st, 2022
Winning a 13-minute-long EWS stage is no joke.
What about the rest of the Rocky Mountain Race Face Team which consists of fellow Canadians Rémi Gauvin and Andréane Lanthier Nadeau? We've reached out to Rocky but they declined to comment at this point.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
www.linkedin.com/posts/alex-cogger-013194a_i-believe-in-a-world-of-product-development-activity-6993969848758243328-IVDl
Fits the rumors that new yt enduro want moi moi.
subtle.
excellent.
K.I.S.= Keep It Stupid
@JesseMelamed, wish you the best of luck on whatever bike you’re piloting next year (though would prefer it to be Rocky or Norco)
The same with moimoitv if Jack go off Canyon
He's going to trek
Why would they cancel they’re at the top of the game right now
Although I love to see guys and girls chasing their dreams and making more money, it is sad to see direct-to-consumer brands taking such a big bite of the culture. Their media is wild (especially commencal), the paychecks are lucrative, but it feels so impersonal. These brands do nothing but take a bite out of your LBS sales, and do very little to engage with communities on a grassroots level. I understand the appeal in well-made bikes at an "affordable" price point but something about these D2C brands with zero community incentives snapping up the best riders we all look up to makes me a little sad.
Do you want to ship off your bike every time you have a problem? On a trip and broke a derailleur hanger? Too bad, there's no more shops.
I know a guy who bought a $20,000 Canyon Speedmax, he's currently on his 3rd warranty frame.
But hey, if SuperBerm HI-WAY™ (bench cut to IMBA standards) is your preferred style of riding, then yes let's say screw the LBS and let the big players take over.
Norco offers something similar, but they ship to your nearest dealer, A.K.A an LBS. I can see brands pivoting to that model instead, as they don't have to build an entirely new network, just use the existing one.
I've also lived places where there are only one or two shops and have the classic "I work in a bike shop and know what you want to ride better than you do" and have flat out refused to order the bike or parts I want. This was years ago, before supply was any kind of issue. Same thing happened with my mom last year. She just wanted a run of the mill, Trek hybrid bike for cruising around the city and the shop simply told her "we don't sell those and won't bring any in". Again, not a supply thing. Every shop around here had tons in different colours and sizes. We ended up buying from a shop where I live and I delivered it to her.
Those shops need to die.
Haha jks
But a good question would be from when ( and until when) have the current contracts Jessie and Jack. That would give an answer as to when we can expect specifics.
They both still have the names of their teams next to their names on instagram so the contracts did not end after the season.