- I respect the ranking but I think in many cases just having one athlete carrying a season doesn’t necessarily reflect truly. There is the ‘Keegan caveat’ though. If you’re winning everything big and the GOAT of the discipline. For example, I wouldn’t say BMC had a great year, Simon Pellaud had a great year. Semantics, I know.
2. Outside of Traka and Unbound, does winning races sell bikes? Not sure here - would be cool to see data points from brands.
3. Scott deserves even more credit IMO. As you mentioned, their YT series and coverage on Cam’s year alone was spectacular.
4. Did you include Mads WS in Specialized rankings? He cleaned up in Europe and won Euro Champs. Specialized really are the Nike of cycling.
Joe, I definitely agree with a lot of your points, it's a subject I don't think I'll ever have a clear answer for. Unless I can speak to all the athlete managers or get ahold of financial statements of all these companies, it really comes down to individual sentiments.
To answer some of your questions:
I tend to disagree a little bit on the "one athlete" not reflecting/affecting a brand's performance for the year. Gravel has traditionally been the sport of the privateer, and personalities/results do dominate attention from fans, at least in my experience. I think standout seasons from athletes like Cecily and Karo made significant impacts for Ventum and Rose. With out revealing too much, I know that has been the case for Ventum (I do need to note that they are the bike partner of the Grand Prix). I think Dylan Johnson is another example of how one person can carry the narrative for consumers. Lots of gravel bike consumers follow his word on bike specs and etc. So I think seeing good performances from one athlete can be more impactful than on the road.
The performance rankings definitely don't reflect the full picture (No way is Orbea outperforming Trek haha). I could have expanded on this a little more in the section where I highlighted more subjective factors.
I like the point on Scott, they really upped their visibility in gravel this year.
I didn't include Mads, mainly because of the races I selected. It's possible the results would change if I selected a lot more European races. This article is definitely skewed towards American perspectives.
I have a few thoughts here.
- I respect the ranking but I think in many cases just having one athlete carrying a season doesn’t necessarily reflect truly. There is the ‘Keegan caveat’ though. If you’re winning everything big and the GOAT of the discipline. For example, I wouldn’t say BMC had a great year, Simon Pellaud had a great year. Semantics, I know.
2. Outside of Traka and Unbound, does winning races sell bikes? Not sure here - would be cool to see data points from brands.
3. Scott deserves even more credit IMO. As you mentioned, their YT series and coverage on Cam’s year alone was spectacular.
4. Did you include Mads WS in Specialized rankings? He cleaned up in Europe and won Euro Champs. Specialized really are the Nike of cycling.
Joe, I definitely agree with a lot of your points, it's a subject I don't think I'll ever have a clear answer for. Unless I can speak to all the athlete managers or get ahold of financial statements of all these companies, it really comes down to individual sentiments.
To answer some of your questions:
I tend to disagree a little bit on the "one athlete" not reflecting/affecting a brand's performance for the year. Gravel has traditionally been the sport of the privateer, and personalities/results do dominate attention from fans, at least in my experience. I think standout seasons from athletes like Cecily and Karo made significant impacts for Ventum and Rose. With out revealing too much, I know that has been the case for Ventum (I do need to note that they are the bike partner of the Grand Prix). I think Dylan Johnson is another example of how one person can carry the narrative for consumers. Lots of gravel bike consumers follow his word on bike specs and etc. So I think seeing good performances from one athlete can be more impactful than on the road.
The performance rankings definitely don't reflect the full picture (No way is Orbea outperforming Trek haha). I could have expanded on this a little more in the section where I highlighted more subjective factors.
I like the point on Scott, they really upped their visibility in gravel this year.
I didn't include Mads, mainly because of the races I selected. It's possible the results would change if I selected a lot more European races. This article is definitely skewed towards American perspectives.
Thanks for commenting, I love the discussion!