Martin Maes continues what has been a great year so far after announcing today that he is now on the Red Bull athlete roster. With a win at the La Bresse downhill World Cup, a second place at the World Championships and back to back wins at the opening two rounds of the 2019 EWS season there was only a matter of time before Maes joined some of the other top mountain bikers on the Red Bull program.
NICA will dock points from a team and pull the rider out of competition if they are caught just holding any energy drinks in the venue. We all know that crap is just that "crap" but to be honest they are the only ones spending money regularly to support racing and race coverage. I wish Marlboro would step up and sell us something and put it in the hands of kids and young athletes with insta-followings. Just so we could have a better sport.
@trails801: love nica. love having my wheels glued to the ground as REAL bike riders should. I love being simply incapable of doing basic bike maneuvers involving pushing my hips back and tugging my handlebars. and boy do I sure hate energy drinks. I only drink the finest blood of whole foods employees who have only quenched their thirst with non-GMO coconut water their whole lives. The @unioncigaretteinternational Instagram page is a disgrace to the mountain biking world. The 50:01 crew could inspire America's youth to go out and hurt themselves. Ban them. Ban them ALL
-Sincerely a Concerned NICA parent who thinks their kid's spandex isn't tight enough
From the original article "The intention is to keep unbranded (UCI World Cup) bottles always available at the podium/hot seat for riders who have other partners whilst making Red Bull available."
@HankBizzle: Fair enough but in that same article it says this: "The ban, if put in place, would only allow riders to appear to be drinking either Red Bull or a drink from a Red Bull bottle."
It's too bad he wasn't able to get a nice belgian beer company to sponsor him. I am sure Stella Artois has deep pockets and the matching helmet could look amazing.
@Lorieng: The word "nice" must have a different meaning for this context in the UK than in NA... but I reckon a certain UK legend by the name of Steve Peat who enjoys his Stella!
Stella artois is not much better than molson.
I hope a Canadian guy can discover real Belgium beers as a Belgium guy can taste real Canadian beers. Two awesome beer countries, huge varieties but still so different.
@fautquecaswing: luckily we can easily find some nice Belgian beers like Leffe at local stores, and some bars have great selections. Stella is way better tasting than Molson brews IMO...but a racer would be rolling in $$$ with a Molson sponsorship!
@Lorieng: I was once at a punk gig and some old British punk geezer tried to take the piss out of me for drinking Stella. Told me I was posh/a rich bastard while he was drinking DB Double Brown. The worst common beer in the history of worst common beer.
@gunners1: haha its at every super market but i actually went on a beer trip to brugge in 2015 and discovered way more than stella. Got laughed at for asking for it and many proper places didnt sell it ????
@streetkvnt-kvlt: haha yea i think that guy doesn't know his beer. Don’t get me wrong I’d drink it, but there are loads more beers in Belgium of much higher quality. Duvel, la chuffe (cant remember how to spell it), trappist, zot loads more. Thats even if i can spell half of them
There's nae danger he's going be lift+ the trophy. Putting a pair of V's up to everyone else. And this bru-is not even 32 yet. Who NOS where he will go next
what is the RB program, and what do you get besides a cool helmet and a requirement to wear those daft hats for every waking minute of your life from now on? boatloads of cash i assume?
Money (potentially a lot), enhanced athlete support for training camps/medical etc., better support for media/content creation and probably a big one is RB seems to go for long-term relationships with their athletes. You don't see them dropping people after a year or two.
@gramboh: interesting that redbull doesn't drop their athletes except in F1 - if you don't perform there you are gone faster then any other team on the grid.
@onemind123: I’m not 100% familiar with formula one but isn’t that a case where they own a racing team? If you are talking about driver changes I think that’s probably handled a bit differently that individual athlete sponsorships.
Smart pick, look out rest of the field, Martin does not have to prove much or progress much, he has the fitness and is already up to WC speed in two genres.
Or taking a great opportunity to be financially stable and continue to excel as a professional athlete in a sport with limited financing? Demonizing people who take energy drink sponsorship is ridiculous, they have every right to want to make enough to be able to be stable just on their cycling career. This isn't major league sports, these athletes need all the sponsors they can get.
How so? Care to elaborate? Energy drinks may not be the healthiest thing for a person, but is an alcohol sponsorship ok? Worse? Better? How about an oil and gas company? Mtb is not a sport where you get paid a lifetimes worth of money in a short period, it is a short career, and it pays poorly. Take your pedestal and climb it somewhere else.
101 Comments
-Sincerely a Concerned NICA parent who thinks their kid's spandex isn't tight enough
Hence my comment...
Relax, I'm stirring. Sorry, it took my mind straight to my favourite Trump meme.
youtu.be/u0wj38qTtFU
Good news. \m/
Post a Comment
Join Pinkbike Login