Video: Max Fredrikkson Interviews Anton Thelander About Why He Quit Being a Pro MTBer by maxfredrikssonpage

23 Comments

turnercj65 (Mar 20, 2020 at 19:37)

Always smooth and good style Anton! Hope to see you back in the sport in some form.

dirtbagluvin (Mar 21, 2020 at 9:01)

I thoroughly enjoyed your video, especially as a physical therapist and a rider who has sustained significant injuries as well. The mental side of physical recovery is huge. And general maintenance of mental health is likely as important if not more important than going to the gym and doing some Burpee’s. I’ve always appreciated Ryan Leech’s approach to balancing bikes and mental health. I would reach out to him if you feel inclined. Big ups to all of you out there who have recovered and are recovering from a significant injury that keeps you off the bike. I hope we have much more dialogue in the future around mental health and mountain biking

Ardenjacoby FL (Mar 20, 2020 at 19:24)

Thanks PB for keeping me occupied!

lalientoxc (Mar 21, 2020 at 3:57)

Mr. Cleanlander they used to call him. I was surprised to see he fell of tbh but now I see that when it comes down to it there’s a lot more in play

dr-fishy-noooo (Mar 21, 2020 at 0:18)

I often wonder when the risk vs reward begin to pay off for pro mtbers.
Love my riding but do it as a profession? No thanks.

aljoburr (Mar 21, 2020 at 3:28)

Would be nice to get payed for riding a bike, But does take the fun out of it?
Having ridden 2 world championships, but did not have any sponsors to help fund & continue to race at that level

McArdle FL (Mar 21, 2020 at 4:49)

No but the training and commitments to events you don’t feel passionate about does

MikeGruhler (Mar 21, 2020 at 7:28)

Having listened to some action sport athlete interviews recently being pro doesn't mean they get paid to ride for a living. If you want to make a proper living as a rider you have to work hard for it, putting in the time off the bike is what they get paid for. Riding is the benefit of working hard at promotion and marketing, the better you can market and promote your sponsors and yourself the more earning potential you'll have....or something like that. Just stoked the new generations have this kind of information and insight at there fingertips, but first remember it's called work for a reason.

aljoburr (Mar 22, 2020 at 4:46)

@MikeGruhler: Yes I agree with what your saying, but back in early 90s to get sponsorship, was more about traveling to competitions or living in right location, now you can promote sponsors from any location, but now is even more difficult as more competitive
So takes a lot of commitment to get in the situation where it can be enjoyable!

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DigRenno (Mar 21, 2020 at 16:49)

Anton said he started slowing down on pushing himself because of injuries and stuff.... but Cam Zink has a list of injuries longer than most any pro mountain biker and he’s slowed down a little but he still competes at a few events... so why did Anton seem to quit completely? And (Jakub Venzel) got off of FMB for a while but then got back on, why didn’t Anton? Anthony Messere stays about in the middle of the Crankworx Slopestyle events... so??????

Benjahoobitz (Mar 21, 2020 at 18:52)

Everyone's different, man.

WAKIdesigns (Mar 22, 2020 at 1:41)

DigRenno - Huh, mate you better show us the standards you are living up to if that’s your approach. Hwhy oh hwhy don’t we see a pic of you sending massive sends? I have kids, fulltime job, write tons of sht, design a ht, and send big World Cup jumps, what’s your excuse?

AWDxTY (Mar 22, 2020 at 7:50)

Anton didn't quit due to injury, he quit because of the constant push from his sponsors and himself to place much higher than he was. Like Waki said, whats your excuse?

Also, Messere has barely made it into crankworx events in recent history. He also lives in mountain biking mecca, and not frozen ass Sweden. Not someone I would use as a comparison.

DigRenno (Mar 22, 2020 at 8:22)

@AWDxTY: ok so Martin Soderstrom had his big ankle injuries in Crankworx Joyride and he had to fight to stay in the competitions and slowly switched over to something with less tricks, Speed and Style and a few video edits here and there.... it’s like Anton just wiped his name off of everything, while Martin is still in the background! So?????

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jflb (Mar 20, 2020 at 20:17)

Tell us how you really feel Anton?
Got tired of kissing some marketing guys ass for some free t-shirts in one of the most dangerous jobs out there?
Meanwhile everybody seems to be affording 10,000 dollar bikes but where’s the money?
I know where the money is.
The chicks have it.
They deserve it though. I know me and my bro’s only ride because of the chicks.

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yurtletheturtle (Mar 20, 2020 at 20:29)

Grow up man. I am proud of of companies like Rocky, Ibis, Trek... that actually support women. More support = more women in sport.

slayerdegnar (Mar 20, 2020 at 20:57)

All those women's slope style events eh? Get bent.

chyu (Mar 20, 2020 at 20:59)

Maybe he doesn't like to be called cleanlander. sounds like a curse to me as an expectation to always land cleanly

j-t-g FL (Mar 20, 2020 at 21:09)

Y'all getting baited, methinks

jflb (Mar 20, 2020 at 22:16)

@henricksen:
Women don’t go riding because of support pal. They go riding because it’s fun. It’s just taken them a while to realize it’s the kind of fun they want to be having. It was totally natural.
It wasn’t because of women specific bikes. Or support. It was timing, word of mouth, and bikes just got better for everybody. It’s all good.
The was a bunch of men hiring women to wast a ton of everybody’s money to build different bikes for people who are actually very similar. Have you ever noticed we all have hands feet and asses of various shapes and sizes regardless of gender? It’s almost like a better variety of grips pedals and seats was all we ever needed.
But instead we got more skus, less profit, more waste, more environmental degradation and more bullshit.
I lied the money didn’t actually go to the chicks. The companies just wasted most of it being misguided business people.
The rest of it went to the groms.,
Anton ain’t getting paid because of the groms.
And e bikes.
Plus Richie Schleys still getting a lot of it.

lifeofloon (Mar 21, 2020 at 10:34)

Ah, the Pinkbike incel at his finest. It must really suck to have an ego so fragile you can't accept that there are plenty of female riders that can and will ride circles around you while having much better social skills than you that you feel the need to attack them and take it on so personally.

jflb (Mar 21, 2020 at 12:30)

@lifeofloon:
No man. It does not suck to have nice girls riding around me in circles. It’s why I’m here. I already said that.
It does suck to know that Anton has to go get a real job and bike shops are closing etc. because bike people have raised the prices of their crap by massive amounts while still not allowing anyone the chance to profit because they’ve blown all their money to make up some stories about how they’ve made biking accessible to women and all the other crap that falls in a similar category. That’s what I’m attacking, not women. But you’re not here for talking sense are you. You’re just another stone hucker in the group aren’t you? Probably don’t even know that every part of your bike is grinding itself to death. And there are no chicks riding circles around you.
:-)

MikeGruhler (Mar 21, 2020 at 14:20)

@lifeofloon: Below threshold is a "No Virtue" zone. lol There obviously trolling...but with an idea that is kind of interesting when you actually understand the point there trying to get across, it absolutely smells of a long term industry person or someone who has to much time on there hands.