We Surveyed 152 of the World's Best Pro Mountain Bikers - Welcome to Pinkbike's State of the Sport Survey 2023
In the first half of 2021, we conducted our first state of the sport survey. The survey was made with the intention of shedding light on various issues within the pro field of mountain biking and letting riders advocate for themselves, albeit it anonymously, for what they should change - and perhaps what should stay the same.
For the first survey, some of the revelations were startling, and it largely painted a bleak picture within the context of pay and financial security. Half of the riders didn't feel they would be adequately supported if they were to suffer a significant injury and around 25% of the entire pro field earned between 0 and 5,000 USD per year across the disciplines. We also learned that XC riders tend to be looked after better financially, and downhill riders far, far worse.
The timing of the survey was well placed during a worldwide bicycle boom, and we were curious this year to see how the effects of unprecedented growth trickled down to pro contracts in the following seasons, if at all.
That's not to say that the second survey was conducted in the exact same manner. Whilst we want to track the results over the coming years, we also felt that changing the eligibility criteria of riders surveyed from a strong overall finish in either the 2019 or 2020 season to being a top-ranked rider in the singular 2022 season. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, when putting together the first survey the overall rankings were harder to interpret, as lots of riders chose not to make it over during the covid affected 2020 season. Secondly, when taking this into account, it also transpired that looking at the overall rankings and results across the disciplines, riders outside of the selection group were less likely to participate in all the full compliment of rounds for their chosen discipline. This took the total amount of responses down from just under two hundred to just over 150.
Lastly, we conducted this survey because we genuinely care. At Pinkbike, we love racing and just want to do our best to support the World Cup and high-profile athletes on their journey by giving them a platform.
Who was surveyed?
Any rider that satisfied the criteria was invited to take part. Of course, being invited and responding are two separate things but we are very happy with the completion rate and grateful to the riders who took the time to do it.
If you're wondering how many Sessions you could you buy with Vergier's wage, or whether Aaron Gwin is a bazillionaire you're sadly going to be left disappointed - this survey was taken anonymously. This allowed riders to be as open and honest as possible in their responses and gave us broader insights into the trends that affect the overall health of the sport.
Of the 152 riders who responded to the survey, 58.6% were male and 41.4% were female. The majority of riders were from Europe (59.2%), with 25% from North America, 11.8% from Oceania, 2.6% from South America and 1.3% from Asia. There was an even split between EWS and XC riders at 32.2% of the overall responses each coming from those two disciplines. 27% were from Downhill riders and the remaining responses were from a mix of slopestyle, freeride and media athletes.
Within that, there is a mix of juniors and elite riders from right across the board. From the results, we can tell that there are more than a few World Cup winners taking part in this year's survey, as well as riders still waiting for that big first W.
Why did we do the survey?
We’ve drawn this up primarily because we love competition and we believe that having more information can only make the sport better for racers and the fans who enjoy it too. Without a broad, elevated view of the sport, we're unlikely to truly understand the issues that may be at play. Surveys such as this aren’t uncommon in other sports, and we hope that this one adds to the conversations to make the sport more transparent, equitable, and enjoyable for everyone.
The survey contained 7 sections all of which contained a variety of different questions. The areas we focussed on were:
- Media and Filming
- Home Country Support
- Remuneration
- Physical and Mental Health Support
- Opportunities and Equality
- Racing Regulations
- Women's Specific Section
Limitations
There are some clear limitations to this survey. First, by limiting it to the top individuals there's a selection bias towards the highest-ranking riders. While these riders will generally have the biggest impact on the racing scene, it does ignore the swathes of racers that sit just below them in the rankings, but might well still race full-time,
Second, it wasn't a mandatory survey, so it may skew toward respondents dissatisfied with the status quo.
Third, we are relying on riders being honest in the survey. The survey was taken anonymously and we have no way of knowing with what level of bias, if any at all, the riders answered the questions with. That said, we have taken their responses in good faith.
What's next?
Over the next week, we'll be releasing the results of the survey with deep dives into the most interesting results, followed by a data dump at the end of the week that will allow you to dig into the numbers for yourself.
This will be an annual project that will allow us to track changes year over year. This snapshot of the sport on its own has produced some interesting insights but regularly revisiting these same topics will allow us to track the evolution of the sport over time.
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"Over the next week, we'll be releasing the results of the survey with deep dives into the most interesting results"
This is exactly how the field tests are introduced. They tell you which bikes they tested, how they were tested. And then they present results in individual videos for each bike, one per day.
-Group rides are a waste of time
-Mountain bikes are expensive
-Headsets are for more than just steering
/ˈklikbāt/
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noun
noun: clickbait; noun: click bait
(on the internet) content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page.
@Compositepro: we're the virtually free icing on the bottom
And it is clear that it's so good that you can ride it down a WC DH track while writing notes! Looking forward to the upcoming GD2 video @mikelevy
It was a “welcome “ article; like when you show up for a wedding and get your first drink. Relax, there’s more on the way.
The introduction was a fine piece of internetual diatribe, and one that you could indeed stick to the refrigerator door with a couple of souvenir magnets from your last visit to Fort William to impress friends and colleagues. We'll give you nine riding buddies out of ten for the effort.
So when, oh when, will the actual survey be posted, dear Sir?
"Over the next week, we'll be releasing the results of the survey with deep dives into the most interesting results, followed by a data dump at the end of the week that will allow you to dig into the numbers for yourself."
They will still be writing some of the content and posted a primer so you keep an eye out for it. Call it inline site advertising if you want.
Go ride your bike while you wait.
Job 1 of product delivery is to set and meet expectations, whether it’s McDoo or Michelin Star.
People will just read the stuff they want to comment in their head about it and generally live happier and mkre fulfilling lives. Not to mention more time to ride.
PB writers get also get cut some slack
If the article title had been "Coming Next Week: Pinkbike's State of the Sport Survey 2023" I imagine it would have all been positivity and excitement.
Well alright no, it's the comments section, it would still have been a dumpster fire. We would just have been fuming about something else.
They are like the hecklers at a sporting event. It's all they've got. Best to ignore them or they will succeed in making you as miserable as they are.
The article itself was a well-written primer for the survey, but I do think the title definitely gave the impression the survey was included. I more accurate title could lessen the feedback next time if you are hoping to avoid a repeat of this negative experience.
Keep up the good work!
[edit] Wrote too soon... I checked and the Beta filter is no longer there. But it seems to still work for me since I enabled it before it disappeared from the options? Weird stuff but I still don't see any of the Outside stuff.
For all the madness at the high-money-end of professional sports, it's easy to forget just how steep the odds are. Think of all those promising high school athletes who don't stand a chance getting into the college scholarship ranks despite all their talent and hard work. Think of all the college athletes who get hurt before they can go pro - and the much larger number who simply won't be drafted.
This tends to be pretty universal across lots of sports - even the ones we think of as providing tons of money. Soccer is probably the biggest sport worldwide both in terms of participation at the grass roots and in terms of professional money/opportunities. The chance of making a living as a soccer player, for each and every one of the highly talented hardworking development players worldwide, is still minuscule.
It's all money to make the sponsors money. I'd wager most money spent because of MTB sponsorship is from existing MTB fans - there's no non-participating affiliation spend. ie. it's just divvying up the existing mtb spend pie in their favour, and mtb is still a small sport in terms of $ to be made from fans and participants. Maybe if Coca Cola thought sponsoring an MTB team would make people buy more Coca Cola there'd be more money.
The largest sponsors want new markets/ non-participating followers. The soccer player Ronaldo for instance (bit of a prat in my opinion but very popular), moved to Al Nassr Football Club. Overnight instagram followers went from 800k to +10m. He'll contribute significantly towards the football's popularity in SA and brands affiliated with Al Nassr will benefit - but crucially only a small % of that spend will come from people who play football.
I've got a UK bias but insta followers Gee Atherton 500k, Danny Hart 200k, Rach Atheron 300k, Evie Richards 300k, Rob Warner 130k, Kriss kyle 440k, Danny Mac 2m. These are good insta-value too
We are of course in awe of everyone from Jolana Neff (475k) to Brage Vestavik (327k) but it's niche, and danger in itself doesn't make you money.
The other is the fashion/fad thing,where a sport may be fringe, but it's trendy and attractive. My main sport, windsurfing, went through that in the 80s; snowboarding had its moment of that; mountain biking sure did. That's usually when you've got a lifestyle/action sport that hits the public's attention - and all of a sudden you've got outside-the-industry sponsorship trying to leverage that buzz. And wouldn't you know it, for a while, that's a gravy train, and it leads to some truly well compensated top athletes getting rich (not Ronaldo or Messi rich, but still estate on the Maui North Shore rich), and lots of pros making a pretty good living. And then a few years later, when the fad has faded and the attention has moved on to the new hotness, that sport is still as awesome as ever, and the pros are still as amazing as ever - but you've now got a much smaller pie, and only the very top tier make any sort of nice living, and then you have a lot of people scraping by and eventually having to get a day job to pay the bills).
MTB does not have the mass appeal of soccer, or basketball, or American Football. It's more like ski racing, or professional sailboat racing - there's an industry there, there are a bunch of pros, and then there are a lot of people who are working awfully hard trying to live their dream for very little in compensation compared to their risks and sacrifices. We've seen fad phase gravytrain years - those aren't coming back. And it's unlikely these sports will truly grow to be the new soccer or basketball or what have you. But hopefully, the riders will get a better deal over time, finding ways to tap some of the awesomeness they're creating when they do their magic.
Reminds me of all the bitching on Redbull's coverage these last several years. Now we need to pay a subscription fee for that W.Cup coverage.
(Edit- In a good way!)
Outside should know that even the appearance of bias is a bad look...but they're fine with sleaze.
1) You have every right to release your survey findings as you see fit - PB commenters just like to have a tissy because they would rather flaunt their opinion than practice their bike skills.
2) I'm interested in learning about your findings. Will you be expanding on the questions you asked and more importantly, WHY you asked them?
3) I think it would be interesting to do this from the perspectives of Industry Insiders as well. People who have worked at multiple companies, or been at the same company for multiple years; people who have worked different roles throughout the industry; and those who offer unique perspectives of the industry (women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, low socio-economic status, etc.) The reason I say this is because they, like athletes, are people who watch day-in and day-out, the industrial machine. The "State of the Sport" is not just the outward facing programing experienced by the top athletes, it is also the experience of people working on product development, warranty support, sustainability, people and culture within a company, and even you fine folks of PB.
Just give us the results.
What we will also learn.. Having friends in powerful positions and sucking up gets you paid.
It's questionable to say it "pays influencers more than they deserve" when most of them don't get paid at all and a small minority who do, earn very little from within the industry. Influencers who do OK financially get their money from monetizing YouTube videos, i.e. out-of-industry ads. If you think someone like Remy earns too much (as if, lol), complain to Google LLC, not the bike brands because sure as hell the bike industry is not where he gets his main income from.
Nothing you said is based in reality and that's beside the fact you're in no position to say what other people "deserve" to earn. Influencer, racer or dentist, they earn whatever their services are worth to someone.