The UCI let slip the updated rosters of the 2020 Downhill World Cup teams earlier this week and probably spoiled a few painstakingly plotted media release plans in the process. We've pored through it to bring you all the updates that are yet to be announced as well as the rosters of all the teams. Here's how it all shakes down after 4 months of rumours, hearsay and team moves:
Assault Racing
Simon Maurer, Sandra Rubesam
Assault Racing is a new all-German outfit that features Sandra Rubesam and Simon Maurer. It looks like Simon will be on a V10 after moving over from Banshee while Sandra will continue to ride for Nukeproof.
Canyon Collective Factory Team
Troy Brosnan, Mark Wallace, Kye A'Hern, Jakob Jewett, Jack Moir
Brosnan and Wallace will be joined by Kye A'Hern in elites this year as the young Aussie makes the step up from juniors. Jakob Jewett also joins the program as a first-year junior so will have two years learning the ropes with some strong support. There was a question mark hovering over Jack Moir who was listed by the UCI but not in the official team release but we now know he will be racing enduro full time with select downhill events as his schedule allows.
Commencal/Muc-Off By Riding Addiction
Amaury Pierron, Myriam Nicole, Remi Thirion, Thibaut Daprela, Thibaut Ruffin, Gaëtan Ruffin
The Tricolore troupe make no personnel changes for 2020 and it remains a formidable line-up. Pierron and Nicole will both be hunting overall titles and Rainbow Stripes while Daprela looks set to upset a fair few established riders as he takes a step up to elites. There has been a sponsor change here though as Muc Off come on board as joint title sponsor with Commencal. Tristan Lemire was also signed but is too young for World Cup racing this year. He could do some course sweeping though, as Finn Iles did when he was 15.
Continental Atherton
Rachel Atherton, Gee Atherton, Charlie Hatton, Mille Johnset, Dan Atherton
There's no change on the rider front for Atherton Bikes for 2020. Rachel Atherton will be looking to get back into the action after her Achilles snap and Gee will be pushing on to get back into the top 10 after a year outside it in 2019. Dan Atherton is listed as a rider here but he was last year too, so don't read too much into it.
Cube Global Squad Protected By Bliss
Phil Atwill, Gaetan Vige, Max Hartenstern
Atwill, Vige and Hartenstern line up once again in green and grey for Cube. It's safe to say all these riders will be looking for big improvements on last year after a season that saw them all mid-pack for most of the year.
Hope Technology
Adam Brayton, Melanie Chappaz
Hope sticks with Adam Brayton and Melanie Chappaz for another season on the World Cup circuit.
Kona Factory Team
Connor Fearon, Jackson Frew, Miranda Miller
Kona Factory bid farewell to Anthony Puolson but otherwise remains unchanged for 2020. Miranda Miller is listed here but she was last year too and we didn't see her make any World Cup appearances.
Miranda Factory Team
Goncalo Bandeira, Vasco Bica, Jose Borges, Silas Grandy, Tiago Ladeira, Emmanuel Pombo, Reis Nuno
The Miranda team grows hugely from three riders last year to seven this year. It's a mainly Portugese team but Germany's Silas Grandy is one of the riders coming on board this year to break it up a little.
Nina Hoffmann Racing
Nina Hoffmann, Erik Fickelscheer
We're still scratching our heads at how Nina didn't get a deal in the offseason after an incredible season as a privateer. She instead will be racing on her own team in 2020 alongside a new teammate Erik Fickelscheer. We've reached out to Nina for more information on her bikes, sponsors and goals for the year so we'll update you when we know more.
Norco BC Racing
Magnus Manson, Drew Mozell
There will be 2 Norco teams on the World Cup circuit this year as the Norco Factory Team are joined by the new Norco BC Racing team. Norco BC Racing will be supporting Magnus Manson, who moves on from the Canyon Collective, and junior Drew Mozell.
Norco Factory Team DH
Sam Blenkinsop, Henry Fitzgerald, Lucas Cruz, Elliot Jamieson
The Norco team grows as Canada's Lucas Cruz comes on board. Cruz picked up seven podiums as a junior and will have strong backing from Norco to help him make the difficult transition up to elite racing. The rest of the team remains unchanged with Sam Blenkinsop leading the three Canadians.
Santa Cruz Syndicate
Greg Minnaar, Loris Vergier, Luca Shaw
The tried and tested Syndicate stick to their guns in 2020 with the now-familiar line up of Shaw, Vergier and Minnaar unchanged since 2017.
Scott Downhill Factory
Marine Cabirou, Brendan Fairclough, Dean Lucas, Florent Payet, Louis Gaillet
Scott are another team that haven't made any changes going into 2020. It's not hugely surprising as 2019 was the first year they formed and yet they were already winning races on a brand new bike. If it ain't broke...
Specialized Gravity
Loic Bruni, Finn Iles, Christopher Grice
After finally winning his first World Cup title, Loic Bruni heads into the 2020 season with a target on his back. Finn Iles will be hoping to add consistency to his evident pace and will probably be taking the boardwalks at Lenzerheide a bit easier this year too! The new addition to the team is Christopher Grice, a young American racer entering his first year racing juniors.
Teamproject.ch
Basil Weber, Lutz Weber, Myles Weber
A web of intrigue surrounds Teamproject.ch as four Webers make up the team but only three are related. Basil and Myles are brothers, with pops Tom the team manager. Lutz Weber is also part of the team but the name is just a coincidence. Which member of the team will do the best this year? We can confidently say it will be... Weber.
Trek Factory Racing DH
Reece Wilson, Charlie Harrison, Kade Edwards, Ethan Shandro
After a strong showing in their first year, including a podium on home soil for Charlie Harrison, the Trek team goes into 2020 unchanged. It's still super young and packed full of potential.
Unior Devinci Factory Racing
Daktoah Norton, Jure Zabjek, Georgia Astle, Keegan Wright, Patrick Laffey
Unior Devinci says farewell to Kirk McDowall but welcomes Patrick Laffey and Georgia Astle to the team.
p.s. I've been known to eat a family size bucket of KFC to myself on occasion. With absolute no shame.
Miranda raced Les Gets last year. Finished 10th if I recall.
m.pinkbike.com/news/final-results-les-gets-world-cup-dh-2019.html
So he'll definitely be at the races
She might be a Pinkbike favourite, but imho she needs to get a bit more consistent to get picked up by a factory team. But you're 100% correct on the fact that the women are very poorly represented in the factory teams.
Not wrong and may even be part of the reason BUT what you are saying does also apply to Tracy Hannah and she´s one of the most well known female riders on the circuit.
I guess the truth is somewhere in there though.
The Syndicate may be interested, but they seem to really try to stick with their riders through thick and thin and having one promising season may not persuade the decision makers to jump the gun that quickly. It is a pretty elite squad after all and it may not be wise to water that branding down by adding a promising up and comer.
Also getting on the Syndicate would mean jumping into racing full time and especially as a german you really wanna have all your stuff in order because if it doesn´t work out for you, you´re pretty much done in the workforce. Future employers might very well hold this brief detour in racing against you, so she may very well just wanna make sure she is capable of staying on the circuit through results and not on popularity alone.
Really interesting thought. However, i would think that this only applies if you actually want to work on US soil. Otherwise we would have heard about this by now from other sports and teams and also it shouldn´t be too hard to set up a company branch in the athletes home country to make things happen. But as far as i have seen from other competitive scenes, the problem mostly emerges about an athlete physically entering the US to perform there. I would also suspect that there are special regulations in place for athletes as i have heard on numerous occasions that´s why so many e-sports pros would like to be officially recognized as athletes as that would make things a lot easier for them as they are atm more like private contractors or something along those lines and therefore often times get declined last minute to attend their respective leagues.
If someone has some inside knowledge it would be great to hear more about the possibility of this!
Hmmm... interesting indeed.
So if the athlete has to be an employee of the team, that means the same should be true for any roadbike teams. Maybe there is more information to be found there.
They never seem too interested in getting anywhere. Yes, they had Danny Hart at some point, but he wasn´t doing well back then and it seemed like there was no real team structure in place, just him doing his own thing. Apparently not too much has changed since then and they seem content with having a steady presence along with some media coverage.
- Sup Giant? Retire much? Have they just sunk all their marketing cash into LIV athletes? The DH team is effectively dead.
- Norco, we all wanna see Blenki crush a win, or at least some podiums. The bike is clearly worthy....should they have spent some cash on adding a new rider with immediete podium potential..like Brannigan , Moir , or Joe Smith? or perhap one of the podium contending women Veronika Widdman or Nina Hoffman. Clearly, Norco has the cash and the bike to race the bigtime. ah anyway, would love to see that fancy Norco on some podiums.
Team Krispy Kreme Donut King would be epic