Jordan Williams Joins Specialized Gravity Racing
After parting ways with Madison Saracen at the end of last season, the rumors have been confirmed - Jordan Williams will be racing for the Specialized Gravity team as he moves into the elite ranks.
The British racer is the current DH Junior World Champion, and has five Junior World Cup DH victories to his name. Williams joins Loic Bruni and Finn Iles on Specialized Gravity to create a formidable trio - expect all three riders to be podium threats when racing kicks off on June 9th in Lenzerheide.
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That rooster is Jordan Williams. It's a metaphor.
Yes, yes and yes again! Every major brand should have at least one female elite rider on the team or fully supported. Maybe they'll get Izabela Yankova to join the first team, she is done with junior, I think and she would be a very worthy addition.
To wit to who?
It should be mandatory for all teams to support a racer in Elite Men, Elite Women, junior men, junior women.
I don’t think I can think of any downsides to that being a requirement.
Yeah, I’d like that a lot actually.
I think representation matters, I think it matters a lot.
I think providing opportunities, and pathways for underrepresented people is important. I think that once those opportunities are more widely available, the union women, and elite women’s field will fill right up.
Some of the most determined, focused, and hard working athletes I work with are young women. I think they would flourish, and become incredible ambassadors for the sport, their team, and their teammates.
I think it would be amazing!
The sport is growing in some places but if you look at North America and Europe, growth comes from selling bikes to more and more women and girls. So It is not promoting diversity, it is promoting a form of equality between gender and at a ratio of one woman for three men we are very far from it. Let's call it a first step in representation. Besides Junior women are absolut badasses
Speaking of diversity I would love for more people from different backgrounds to get a chance to contest at world cup level events, riders from South America deserve more than a shot at urban downhill events... Riders from other places need to get a shot so that the sports gets bigger.
Also I really hope this is the last year that a so called WC calendar is that old-world-centric... Without Australia involved it would not even qualify as WC series with most other sport federations.
So yeah, a junior for each of the Factory teams, i approve of that lots
So he means forced to, not encouraged to.
None of that takes away from it being an idea that I would fully support.
Yes, that’s what I’d like to see
But I don't think that forcing teams to have juniors or women on their team is the way to go, I would like to see more incentives for them to do so. I think the easiest way is to make the Team Competition more worthwhile for those teams who want to pursue it. It was actually a pretty good battle between Muc Off and the Syndicate last year, with Dorval close behind, and all those teams had a mix of riders. The points for the team competition are stacked against juniors and women and don't reflect the competitiveness of those classes now. What if you awarded bonus points to the juniors based on their scratch placing?
In F1 the Constructor's trophy is highly valued (due to the big paycheque that comes with it) and I'd like to see that more in DH. That way teams would realize the value of having more classes represented and support more riders, but wouldn't be forced to if they couldn't.
That is the whole point of an organization….
Pushing for change in an organization can feel uncomfortable, but that shouldn’t mean that we dont
Remember, a race team isn’t necessarily part of the sponsors organization, and they have different interests.
Norco dirt series for instance isn’t an organization run by Norco, Norco is simply the title sponsor.
I believe, and I could be wrong, but I think Canyon Collective is a race team owned by the Seagrave family, Canyon being their title sponsor. The team, and the company do not necessarily have the same interests, so won’t always choose the same path for the way they do things. It’s a symbiotic relationship, as they both help one another in different ways.
Not sure I left a lot of room for misunderstanding, but glad you were able to clear it up
There are still rules, and considerations, whether by the organization, or the sponsor on whom they choose to put on a team.
While there might be enough silly rules, I don’t think this would be silly at all.
There’s rules in place for everything we do, not sure why this idea is scary to some.
Currently not a rule, but something that I think would be great.
Why do you disagree with that?
If there were more supported female juniors and elites, do you think that would increase interest in the sport among those groups?
I’m willing to bet, athletes like Tahnee, Vali, Camille, ALN, etc are an excellent ROI, but it does depend on who that ROI is for. A longer term approach would lead you to believe that the growth isn’t going to come from 20 bike companies trying desperately to sell to the 50%, the growth, is likely in the markets that aren’t tapped yet.
I wonder if the race teams that have a more inclusive roster, are teams where the manufacture has more input into who is on the team, and they are willing to ensure they are supporting juniors, and female athletes. That might be a good indicator as to where the actual ROI is.
Another question,
Do you think roofing companies would implement strict safety standards amongst their employees if it wasn’t heavily regulated by government agencies?
But seriously, why is it so important to you that more women get into mountain biking?
That isn't to say they shouldn't, but if women are generally less into DH MTB than men, well, so what? Maybe they're into other things they find worthwhile?
I think if you ask most women who do mountain bike, they find it incredibly intimidating. Part of that intimidation comes from a lack of representation. When people don’t see people similar to them selves doing thi GX, they have a belief that maybe it’s not for them, they feel excluded, they feel things, that me as a white male has prolly never really experienced.
I have a daughter, a wife, female friends, and athletes that I coach, and I wouldn’t want for them to feel that way.
If I said it was an idea for DH, I might have misspoke, I think it’s a good idea across all disciplines of competing cycling that is governed by the UCI, I’d like to seeXC teams ensure they’re supporting all 4 of those classes.
That’d be pretty friggin cool.
You wrote you think you know how most women would answer a hypothetical question and are advocating rules based on that, well, that sounds like sketchy thinking. But, feel free to carry on; I'll leave you to it.
Not just for women, I think that all the teams should support juniors as well.
Not sure why any of that bothers you
Standards are slipping, Pinkbike...
At Andorra, Jordan's time was good enough for 2nd in Elite's, he actually bumped Loic and Finn down. Based only on times Spesh would have had three guys on the podium.
At MSA Jordan would have been on the box with Finn, and in Lourdes Finn and Loic both podiumed. From memory Loic and Finn both missed races in 2022. I think you're right the biggest obstacle to getting three on the podium may not be their speed but the ability to have them all start.
PB is also not likely to post rumours of their own team, I’m not sure that benefit anyone.
PB is not an wholly independent news source, they have their own interests.
It’s all marketing, nothing more
Or potentially paints PB in a poor way.
Again PB is not a news site, but an entity that exists to entertain, and make money
Stoked for Jordan, congrats mate! YEEHAAWWW!!!! \m/