xBARx

The entire premise of this is quite silly. No one contests that a belt drive is more efficient than a chain drive. Belts suffer mostly from the fact that they can't be used on a derailleur and are forced into a gearbox design. Since gearboxes are so much less efficient than derailleurs the advantages of the belt are not great enough to overcome the efficiency issues that the gearbox adds in. To add to the irrelevance of the whole challenge, their point would be better proven in a more pedal heavy discipline such as XC or enduro. By winning an XC race you could prove that the belt systems can be as efficient or better than a traditional derailleur system. An enduro win may prove that a gearbox and belt system is more reliable and consistent due to less dropped chains or smashed derailleurs. If they wanted to sell me on this style of system I would want to see an enduro racer ride all the EWS races without changing any of the relevant drivetrain components between events. Show me that a single belt and gearbox can survive the entirety of an EWS season with no replacement parts. That would make me interested. A downhill race proves very little.