Damien Oton Joins Revamped 2020 Orbea Fox Enduro Team
PRESS RELEASE: Orbea
Damian Oton will join Slovenian Vid Persak as an experienced leader of the new-look team. The Frenchman, two-time EWS winner and three-time runner-up overall in the competition, will be one to follow in 2020.
 | It’s been a tough year with the broken back and scaphoid injury, but I’m very motivated now and can’t wait to start.” |
Damien has been part of just one team after becoming a professional Enduro rider in 2014. “I’ve had some awesome years in my previous team - what I am today is partly thanks to that as well. I needed some extra motivation for the new season, which I have now by joining Orbea. Plus, there are several aspects that I like about the brand, like its proximity to the Pyrenees where I live, and also the way they operate. Different to the rest”, Damien adds.
| I want to take the Rallon to its first podium in one of the EWS races.” |
Racing alongside Oton, Vid Persak continues his progression and we’ll have to keep a close eye on him this season, especially in his home country of Slovenia where finished fifth in the 2018 EWS stop.
| FOX is excited partner with Orbea on their enhanced EWS team for 2020. FOX is committed to making the fastest suspension on earth and it is going to be a big year for our Enduro product range. This is a new team and a lot of changes for Damien Oton but we have total confidence in him, just as he has total confidence in the Race Face wheels he has been racing on for years. Race Face is stoked to join the team as wheel, cockpit, clothing and protection partner. |
New Orbea National Team
Another new development this season is the creation of a national team to complement the EWS squad. Gabriel Torralba, a five-time Spanish Enduro Champion who has been in the Orbea family from the start in 2018, and Edgar Carballo, a member of the Spanish team in the Enduro World Series Trophy of Nations will compete in the European Enduro Series and the Spanish National Enduro Championship.
MENTIONS: @orbea / @foxfactory / @raceface / @Maxxis / @fizik / @Galfer / @crankbrothers / @vaude / @oneup
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-all of the most effective and prolific trail builders seem to be men.
-the people who highmark when it comes to speed, amplitude and whats possible on a bike seem to be men.
-most of the people who pour sweat and blood from a young age, continually, for decades, to be the best cycling athletes possible, tend to be men (with a few outlying exceptions, i recognize theres a few really hard core woman)
its broadly accepted that to have an elite level of mastery of a skill you must have 10,000 hours of practice/experience at it. ironically lots of the woman racing pro just jump in there with seemingly far far less than 10k hours, i believe because for the most part the pro woman's field of mtb racing is just not generally stacked with high level competitors to such an extent where a woman can have success as a pro with far less than masterful skills.
it doest make sense that a field of athletes which is much smaller and much less competitive should be reveared the same way as a much larger and more intense field of athletes, unless that athlete is achieving truly amazing things.
for example at many races my intermediate skilled partner could often enter pro woman and take home a check just for showing up if there are only two other pro woman at a smallish race.
its obviously not that 10,000 hrs will make anyone the best, that was never the point, rather unarguably an illustration that it takes a lot of f*cking time to become great at something. Of course to be the very best you must also have genes and an environment which is conducive to helping you achieve greatness.
so ill ask again, how does it matter or help the sport to give an advantage of opportunity to a female who may or may not have put in an equal amount of hard work as a male athlete?
another way to illustrate it... look at the top 20 male competitiors, look at how small the time gaps are and how similarly they aggressively approach the course, the technicality of the lines they take and the power they put down; i think you will see that all of those people are quite close in their efforts and are exibiting outstaning athleticism. then look at the top 20 female competitors in the sport. the level of techniality in line choice lower (which isnt gender exclusive ability) and the finishing times and power lower. also there are bigger gaps in time, indicating that the competition is not as close and competitive.
The bike handling and fitness levels of someone like rachel atherton or other very top female competitors is much higher than that of the lesser competitors, the slower pro woman are much slower and less skilled, largely because they have not put the time and effort in to deserve to be the best.
so your solution to making women more competitive is to sponsor less of them?
Mountain biking is a fairly new sport. If people like you were to shape the sport, it would not be inclusive and would not grow. Sponsoring more women = helping women participate at the highest levels possible. That will lead to more role models and additional outreach to help reach a wider audience. That wider audience will include young women who may begin riding at a younger age and therefore will continue to elevate the bar for performance. It's quite simple, but evidently you're quite dense.
mountain biking has been around 40ish years. idk if i'd call that new.
to answer: It is not my prerogative to make woman more competitive, though i welcome it.
If it were my directive, then i would give them the same advice any sponsor would give any athlete:
Be outstanding, be personable, bring formidable results to the table, tell and show your potential sponsor how you will improve the sport and their brand, output social content that is garners positive attention, have lots of follwerers, win or place consistently at a high level of competition... something like that.
that is an insulting innacurate conjecture to say " If people like you were to shape the sport, it would not be inclusive and would not grow" that is grossly untrue. I myself have built and maintain many many miles of trail for the public, most of which accommodate a broad range of rider skill levels. I have tenderly coached many bike maintenance classes with all sorts of people, i have assisted in empowering many woman by to have safe and useful bicycles. i have carefully introduced many females and males to the sports and life of cycling and mountain biking. i am a political and direct action advocate for cycling and pedestrian access and work to make the world safer and more navigable for us all.
i do not see how or believe that propping up a token female athlete and sponsoring woman will increase their personal greatness, the sports as a whole, or achievement of females in athletics broadly.
To be the best, to prove that females are every bit as bad ass, or to make the sport bettter it should come from the heart and efforts of that athlete, if a female wants to be a pro mtb athlete then they should come with the skills, tenacity and preparedness to do so. if they do that, then they will be held in high regard and recieve the support that is earned.
i have nothing against sponsoring less than elite - or elite female athletes. i understand that young woman can use more role models, but whos to say that woman can not have men as role models or vica versa. also the best roll model is always going to be someone who worked hard and did well to achieve greatness, rather than someone who was given a spot at the top level of support because they have a certain set of genitalia. I am not suggesting opressing opportunity for woman. rather holding all people to the same expectation of earned credibility.
if we just say "oh well we need to have a woman on the team, lets give this (lesser) competitor a spot on the bus" that is not helping the sport, it is watering it down; what if there was someone who tries harder, acheives more and does more to give back to the sport and to be a strong role model who is displaced by giving that spot to a less well to do athlete/ advocate , wouldn't that be a disservice to the sport?
it'd be best to give credit and opportunity to those who work the hardest and achieve the most regardless of their gender; that is gender equality. EQUALITY OF OUTCOME IS INFERIOR TO EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY.
Really i don't have a lot of thanks or admeration for a lot of racers regarless of sex. Sure some are exeptional people and do a lot to make the sport and world a better place and inspire us with their mad skills and energy, but for the most part they are flying around the world emmiting huge amounts of greenhouse gasses while filming edits blowing up othe peoples spots. there are racers shops and brands who dig trails and are advocates but generally its not the bike shops or the industry that makes mountain biking o the world better. The people who advocate for trail access, build trail, inspire others to ride respectfully and live humbly and ride a bike instead of driving are the real hero's of the sport.
in my opinion the mainstream popularization of the sport has done little to make it better. it has fostered a generation of riders who are egotistical, lazy lift kids, who think that trying to skid and blow up every corner is whats up, consumerist who feel they need new shit all the time, whos affluence and ego sends them drunkenly carriening up roads in the Tundra daddy bought them. Back before mtb was so hip there werent all these duechebags cutting out roots, and obsticles, straightening out technical corners and abusing other peoples trails, mtbing has largley lost the homey respect that was the norm before duechebags in pit viper sunglasses and tld kit became the norm.
Also, you misspelled revered
Again, i'm not saying woman shouldn't be sponsored.
@klerrik said "No female riders.. I'd love to see more investment in women riders to help with the progression of the sport."
i argued that spots at the top shouldnt be held for for those of a particular sex, but granted to those who are most exemplary.
Also, i disagree that the point is to make young ladies think that there is a spot at the top waiting for them.
If that's not a confirmation of the new 38, I don't know what it is.
It would be my life's work to salt his water, drop red peper flakes in his soda, spray oil on the toilet seat, saran wrap his rebound & compression adjusters, put short zip ties at the base of his spokes that would slide out the spokes during a run to make moto sounds, put jingle bells down inside his frame, pine tar on his levers....anything to just see him annoyed.
This...is my brain.
“pool of unsigned riders wanted to thank him for being such a pro. His impact on their group is tremendous”
Damien has been showing interest for the bike for a long time, i'm happy for him that he can now ride it (and gutted for Tlap who was kicked out to make room)