Aaron Gwin to Join Crestline as Rider & Part-Owner for 2024 – Full Interview – Pinkbike Podcast #226

When the UCI team list was released for the upcoming season, there were many answers to be found about who will be riding what. One inclusion that didn’t reveal any details, however, was Aaron Gwin’s name under his eponymous racing team. What bikes were they riding? What would this team look like? And will Gwin himself be lining up at World Cups this year or be confined to the commentary box as he rehabilitates from an arm injury sustained early last season?

We now have all the details. In short, the bikes will be from Crestline, but don’t go thinking this is a standard sponsorship deal. It will run far deeper, with Gwin taking part ownership in the brand that was founded a mere couple of years ago. Although not their first outing at World Cups, the RS 205 VHP frame was raced under Sam Blenkinsop last year, this does feel like a big step up for a brand that is still so relatively young. In an interesting twist, this isn’t a standard multi-year sponsorship deal, and Gwin will be coming on as a partner as an owner of the business at Crestline.

Gwin will be joined by Canadian racers Seth Sherlock and Mikey Delesalle. The team will race 2024 UCI downhill World Cups, World Championships, and select National races.

Aaron made time for us during a very busy team camp. While it might sometimes seem to be all glitz and glamour in mountain biking, I love the fact that we’re still raw enough to sometimes be about propping up a laptop in short-term accommodation as you pack in as much preparation and planning as you can, and answering questions honestly that fans of the sport will likely want to know about. I’m thankful that even as mountain biking becomes more pro the level of access athletes and team owners are prepared to grant media is so great, and it personally only makes me love mountain biking and World Cup racing even more.

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Aaron Gwyn thank you for coming on the pink bike podcast now this is quite exciting because you are at a test Camp you’re literally you know getting ready for the season as we speak and although it’s quite late and even people testing you know checking out the UCI team list

Will have seen you registered they don’t know what bike you’ll be riding I don’t know what bike you’ll be riding it’s all very exciting so pH what are your plans what will you be riding as we go into this 2024 season Yeah man so it’s been

Um it’s been a journey for sure I guess for starters this offseason has been um yeah it’s been different than pretty much any other offseason I’ve ever had I think um I think just at the point of my career that I’m at and the things that

I’m kind of hoping to do in the future um we have the bike park here at Windrock now that we’re running and we’ve been putting a lot of time into that um we’ve got the race team I’ve had a race program for about seven years now

But I’m kind of running it under my own name now which has been uh exciting and we can kind of dig into all those details and then um yeah actually am adding a bike brand to my list of businesses now too so I’m partnered as

An owner and the uh the new bike brand and so yeah because of that like the deals just taken more time like I was really kind of patiently going about trying to find the right fit um kind of moving forward for the rest of my career

And then once I’m retired as well so uh yeah the bike brand I’ll be riding for is Crestline bicycles um I’m super excited it’s been it’s been kind of crazy like different than maybe some people would would expect or think um but really like I said it’s been a different Journey this

Offseason I’ve been trying to really find um good alignment more than anything and I think longterm for me I’ve always wanted to start my own bike company um I thought about it a few times and um you you know so this is basically just yeah like I said there’s

A lot of alignment between myself and the guys running that thing um and I feel like it’s a perfect fit for everybody and so I kind of get to be a part of that now and how does this differ from your setup within intense because that was

More than just racing right yep yeah so intense was um they basically I was hired to be like one of their Factory Riders but to also manage their Factory race team for them so the race program intense Factory racing the last five years was owned operated and managed by

Myself and my team that I put together so intense was you know per se like the uh the title sponsor of the program and we ran that whole team so um I’ve kind of been doing that for a long time like even back with YT Martin technically

Owned that program but I kind of put it all together so we’ve just been sort of inching that way you know for a long long time now so um yeah not much has really changed now with Gwen racing that’ll just be you know it’s really the

Name but a lot of the staff and a lot of the people are staying the same there are some changes but um yeah it’s kind of a continuance of what we’ve been doing just kind of under my own name now and are you able to shed you know

You talk about buying into this Crest line project what’s that going to look like in terms of how Crest line is structured are you going to hold some sort of position within the company are you kind of like a more of like a silent partner that happens to race the bikes

If you see what I mean no so I’m not buying in um basically the goal there is to be equal parts partner with uh tro and mark the other two owners so we’ll each own a third of the company as the goal moving forward and there’s a clear

Path for me to basically get there um and so yeah that’s kind of where we’re at man we’re just we’re all in this thing together and uh yeah just excited we got already a lot of plans and a lot of things we’re talking about but um

Yeah like I said I think for me like it’s been I mean I’ve had such a fun and cool career um and I’ve been fortunate to ride for some of the absolute best bike brands in the industry and work with so many cool people and I think

Over the years I’ve obviously learned a lot and gained a lot of experience and um I don’t know I always have looked at it I’m like man if I could do this myself and I didn’t have you know any rules or guidelines I needed to work

Around like how would I do this or how would I start a bike brand or you know whatever so I’ve even been to the factories in China and Taiwan like years ago and done some research and like just kind of always considered it it was just

Really hard to do while I was in the middle of like chasing Champions championships and stuff um but that’s ultimately like what I’ve always wanted to do we had chatted about it a little bit with intents on the ownership stuff I know a lot of people think that I had

Ownership there um we definitely talked about it but you know was kind of waiting to see if it was going to be the right fit down the road um and we ended up going different directions there with which you know worked out well for me

And kind of just what I want to do in the future like I said I think I’ve been working under like a traditional sponsorship model for so many years you know and you renegotiate these contracts every two or three years and you’re just kind of in this like revolving door and

It’s was like man I really want to like find a home and build something that’s that’s mine or I’m a part of it long term you know you put all this time and effort it’s hard to be switching every couple of years so um yeah man it just

Worked out really well um you know I was thinking about starting my own thing again also talked to quite a few Brands this offseason just like work looking for the right fit and the the right alignment going forward and kind of um yeah chatting with tro and a lot at

Crestline like we really just hit it off and I think we have a very similar Visions to kind of what we want to do in the future and kind of how he views things and how I view things so it just uh yeah it was kind of crazy how it all

Came together but we kind of just got to a point where it was like man like why don’t why don’t we do this together and so it worked out really cool that way so uh yeah that’s what’s up so reading between the lines it sounds like sort of a you know stake in

Ownership almost equity in the company for sponsorship would that be how it worked like you know there’s no point is that is that kind of no I mean the sponsorship and the team thing is honestly kind of separate like I committed to running my race program probably three months ago like we had

Secured enough funding our co-sponsors and stuff I really wanted to kind of support a couple of these Seth and Mikey specifically the other two younger rers that are on my program um obviously is a little bit of a more challenging year financially for a lot of bike brands and

Um you know so I would have loved to keep Dakota and some of the boys on the program as well but with budgets and how things were moving they had some really good deals kind of come at them that they needed to make a decision on in a

Couple of weeks and I knew I was kind of getting into this uh transition period where I was kind of looking for something a little more unique that I you know if I was able to find it I knew it was going to take more than a couple

Weeks to lock something down um and so yeah I just I really wanted to to continue you know to go racing to keep a lot of the base of our our staff and our people we’ve built the last you know five six years um and support these kids

And so it was like all right let’s you know lock in the team get everything we need and then basically had co-sponsors and everything on board and then just been kind of looking for the right partner on the frame side so um I was open to a couple different opportunities

And different things and we spoke with quite a few Brands I’m fortunate to still be pretty close to a lot of Brands I’ve ridden for in the past and even Brands I haven’t so kind of kicked it around with a few people and and was just looking for the right fit and um

You know but ultimately I was I was hoping for something like this definitely wasn’t going to force it um so that’s why the announcement has come late like I wasn’t trying to hold off for dramatic effect or anything it was just just it was like I just want to

Find the right fit and I was in the fortunate position to not need to be in a hurry to lock a frame brand in you know we didn’t need the funding um at this point thankfully I’m pretty tight with a lot of the tight brand so if I

Say hey guys I just need race frames they’ll send them to me so um it was really just like I said just trying to find the right fit longterm if it was possible and I was just willing to be pretty patient and methodical to see if

That worked out and um yeah it ended up working out and we got a a long-term plan so yeah with Crestline like basically I’ll just come in as an owner straight away um I’ll run the race program as well my race team um will all be on Crestline bikes um but it’s kind

Of you know I’m running that segment of the business along with you know being a partner now with those guys like it’ll basically be us making all the decisions on everything we want to be you know do moving forward so um really the bigger thing there like I said like the team is

Is a piece of it but it wasn’t why we did the deal we did the deal because you know I think we’re going to be great Partners moving forward and kind of managing this this bike brand in the future and all the things that that will look

Like and with you know some Racers want to remove the complications to organize themselves and I think for many individuals that’s one of the main laws about going to a bigger more established team there’s probably a sweet spot though a trade-off where it’s like you know having the bike you want to ride

And having the influence you want within that company that supports you whilst also not having it be so impactful that it can distract you from your racing how do you feel that balance is going to be for you this season and yeah I mean it’ll be it’s never easy I mean I

Um you know I’ve done this a few times now so it’s not my first time and uh and um but I think for me like because I’ve done it a few times I know that if I have the right team and the right engineers and the right you know people

Are motivated that we can make a winning bike you know I don’t I don’t want to sound over the top but that’s that’s not that difficult anymore you know I feel like I have the right group of people even now like I have you know Devon my

Engineer that was with us at intense and um you know a whole bunch of other people so if I want to make a fast World Cup winning bike and I don’t have a bunch of rules put around what that needs to look like that that’s pretty

Easy for me to do at this point um so it was more it was a little less about the bike directly this contract and more about like I keep saying finding the right alignment with a company like somewhere where I feel like I can really work for years and years

And we can really build something that that doesn’t need to turn over every couple of years um that was more important obviously the bike is important um I haven’t actually ridden the bike yet because my elbow is still healing so I’ve been back on the bike

Now off and on for a few months but it had a couple complications with it that I’ve just had to really be very patient with my rehab and kind of do things slower than I would like to but I mean overall I’m on schedule for what the

Doctors say I should be but I always hop that it would go faster but um anyway so I’ve been back on the bike really the last week is the first time I’ve been able to ride without a lot of pain and I’ve just been riding my trail bike and

Slowly building up so uh Seth flew out here about a week ago my teammate um and he’s been testing and r the bike a bunch and he really likes it and we’re already looking into you know we got a lot of different options and things to test

Through so we’re going to start doing that here in the next couple of days U Mike’s actually flying in tonight as well um so yeah we’re we’re really going to get busy now we just kind of uh yeah been waiting for everything to come together so um yeah man I’m excited the

Bike is um definitely looks really cool and the way it went together is like probably the cleanest nicest bike to put together and the way it looks that I’ve ever had like the thing is sweet like really cool um it’s super light like it’s very well done and

I think that’s talking to troit and at Crest line it was I think that’s where a lot of the alignment was it’s not like hey can we just pump out you know 50,000 bikes a year and do all this stuff you know I mean we’re definitely planning to

Grow and expand into a lot of areas in the future but um it’s like whatever we do we just we want to do it right we want it to be quality we want people to be really happy with the bikes they get um have great customer service like just

Kind of we’re aligned on a lot of those things so um anyways yeah it’s a crazy one man very different than you know things I’ve done in the past but because of my elbow and just the circumstances it kind of was was what it was so um but

I’m stoked dude I’m I’m excited for a long future with the brand and to be able to to you know be an owner in it and actually um participate at that level is kind of like a dream come true for me and you mentioned and to be fair the

Track record would back you up that your ability to develop a fast sort of not just bike but a fast program you know all the things come together it’s not just the frame there’s so many contributing factors that have to meld together to contribute towards that um you’ve been around obviously working

With other teams but also embedded with a scene where let’s face it you do hear things you hear the gossip you hear the rumor mill what do you think is the biggest inhibitor to a lot of Brands Mak a fast bike because people throw a lot

Of money at it and not everyone ends up doing it you know you do hear rumors of people not getting on with a bike maybe even across a whole team no one really liking the bike yeah for sure yeah It’s Tricky it’s um um I mean even with intense like it

It wasn’t easy it wasn’t like we got there in a year I mean we had some setbacks like we had big delays with Co I had a couple injuries along the way that slowed it down um and we kind of got to a point where you know I really

Needed an engineer that was going to be able to take the feedback I was giving and and put that into what we were looking for and so when Devon came on board I feel like it really helped fill a couple of those gaps as well um but

Yeah I mean it’s just it’s it’s not easy but I think at this point especially really I feel like working with intense like we were so thorough in the way we went through things to get to that finalized race bike that any gaps I had left in kind of learning I felt like

We figured them out with that bike and so now I think um yeah you just you know you have a solid group I kind of know where like numbers and you know kinematics and certain things like where that range is pretty good so um but yeah

I mean it’s tough you got to work around a lot of things right like fortunately at intense like we could run basically like I got Jeff to just say Okay build whatever bike you want and whatever one we can get dialed in the quickest like

You and Devon and me like just go for it and so we had kind of no parameters but with a lot of Brands you know they’re like they have a certain suspension platform or a certain marketing thing they’re trying to push or they’ve spent a bunch of money on some new technology

Or some which maybe you know sometimes is more marketing than function you know because you you don’t want to just build the exact same thing that everybody else has building so you go like oh let’s try to do it a little different this way um but sometimes you can back yourself into

A corner by doing that as well you know maybe it’s not the easiest to set up or you know the best functioning bike so there’s a lot of different um I I guess like reasons why sometimes that could be difficult I guess I mean I think if we

Look back you know what was it 10 years ago when that four bar painton expired in North America and people went from telling you that their non4 bar system was the absolute best and how many of those Brands will quick to migrate I think that payant can play a big role in

That as well yeah for sure the bike this Crest line you know to the Keen Observer there will be obviously some some distinctions but to the more casual one has got a similar silhouette the intense most notably with that that idler yeah do you think the idler thing’s gone it’s

You know it’s both Lally gone up and down super high idlers a couple of years ago they’re coming down even common coming to like a more mid mid height idler um how important do you think that is do you think it’s a race specific thing do you think it’s a rider specific

Thing and in your testing with intense did you find it to be faster yeah we I don’t know that there’s a magic answer to anything I think it’s really having like a well-rounded setup something at least for me like I like bikes that kind of do everything well I

Don’t like to back myself into a corner by making a bike that you know like will just smash through bumps crazy but it’s like got a really rearward axle path and it’s hard to turn and hard to do that like I kind of like to I usually land in

The middle on kind of everything because I feel like when you’re racing you you need a bike that’s going to be able to do everything pretty good and then you as a rider need to just maximize those strengths and and make the most out of

It um so yeah I mean the thing that’s interesting with the CR line and I’m really excited is I never felt like we really got a hold of that VPP um suspension platform with intense we kind of we went down the road a little bit and I just wasn’t familiar with it at

The time and I felt like we weren’t we were kind of in a place where it was like hey you can make a whole new bike or we can keep messing with this one and we never I mean really with intense when it started off it was more of a sizing

Issue at the beginning um and then we had some issues with the kinematic and then we r at the same time is when the wheel sizes were changing to the mullet wheels and so we were like prototyping with that and then we had Co and then I

Had crashes and so it was like it was just really hard to like we never got a chance to really maximize that suspension platform for what I wanted and we got to a point where it was like okay I know this other one works I know

We can get there pretty quick like let’s just do that um so with the crest line it’s a vpv platform just like the int was but I feel like the kinematics and everything chatting with the engineers and where those numbers are it’s it’s all really close to kind of where I feel

Like I would like to be um and like you said with the idler pulley the axle path and some of those things like it’s it’s not a crazy rearward axle path like a lot of bikes um you know the intense was sort of basically just rearward enough

Where you needed the The Idler pulley if you if you you know if we would have went just a little bit a little less on the axle path we wouldn’t have probably needed it so I think the crest line Falls like pretty close to that so um

I’m excited man I mean now it’s since it’s kind of my my deal we can do whatever we want with that thing and so um we’ve got a good team of Engineers um the geost starting point and the kinematics a lot of that actually is pretty funny like uh Nico malali helped

A lot with the kinematics on the crest line with troen um so like when Nico before he left intense we went out and bought basically like a bunch of the top bikes because I before we decided what we wanted to do with intents as far as where we wanted to go with that

Suspension system in the future um I just wanted to ride everything and see what was what so we were still at that time where mix wheel sizes was kind of becoming the new thing so not every brand had a production mixed wheel size bike out yet even though their Factory

Teams were on one um so I really wanted get a Santa Cruz but they didn’t have any and we tried so because of that you know we rode the specialized and the track and the commona and a bunch of these other bikes so I actually um I

Knew Nico was going to go start his own thing and we’ve always been really tight and I was like hey dude if I’m going to go buy all these bikes because I want to know kind of like really do a deep dive here not that any one of them are are

Perfect and especially in stock form like a lot of times the race bikes are a little different but we spent a bunch of time actually here at Windrock testing um all those bikes and we both kind of came to the same conclusions on what we wanted and the direction we wanted to go

So when he started Frameworks he started putting those kenx and Geo into those bikes and when I moved forward with intense with those other two bikes I basically did something pretty similar but with those bikes so Nico was kind of a big help with Troon and and figuring

Out the kinematics and the Geo and everything for this Crestline downhill bike so it kind of funny like it’s uh the same feedback kind of went into this bike as into what we were doing so it’s it’s actually pretty close compared to where a lot of things would start I

Think and you mentioned kinematics a couple of times and sort of settling on the attributes that you would want anyway what what do those attributes look like are you after to Something in time particularly Progressive sort of middle of the road or D I say quite

Linear um I think it depends like every bike’s going to react a little different especially with um you know what what type of um uh pivot like setup like whether it’s a VPP or four bar six bar whatever they’re all you know like you can run the same kinematics but they’re always

Going to feel a little different depending on what bike you’re on um there’s also some other factors that kind of can change some of those things as well um but really like I think for me with the kinematics I think I found a setup that’s a little bit more linear

I think is it it’s it’s more consistent through the stroke um it was something at intense I think that YT was like that too didn’t even specialize before where bikes were getting really Progressive um and if you do that in some ways at least what we were finding is like it’s really

Hard to get the bike to hold up kind of at the top part of the travel like it’ll really like end deep it’ll it’ll support really well but you kind of find at least for us like this setup where it’s it’s really hard to get the bike to have

Enough hold like mid stroke support so when you push into the bike to to pump it or to make it turn or get in and out of Corners that like you’ve really got that platform to push on so it doesn’t feel like the bike’s really wallowy and

Soft um if it’s a super Progressive bike a lot of times it’s like softer through that first half of the stroke and then when it finally does ramp up like it really ramps up like deep in the travel so for us you end up like stiffening the

Bike like so much to get that mid-stroke support but then it’s just like unreal to try to hang on to like deep in the stroke so I mean I think like I said there’s a there’s a range of like acceptability there’s not like one number that just works all the time you

Know your shock tunes and so many other variables go into that um but yeah as far as like kinematics go I think like and that’s one thing cool about this cres line is we already have like a bunch of different links and we’re making some more stuff so we got a lot

Of options that we can tweak that thing um but I’ve kind of found that I I’ve kind of started to lean more towards like a more linear setup I think especially when um like you said with with a race bike where you do need so much mid-stroke progressivity people often assume that

Enables you to go faster and it does but you can also feel like you’re in free fall which which which can be no good um back in the day you were famed I think especially when you’re on track perhaps or even actually the specialized deal as well for having an ultra hard setup

Especially in the fork um Rob Warner would always be shouting about it it was visibly looked so stiff is that something you’ve persevered with do you run a stiffer Fork compared to other people of the same weight of you as as you think um yeah I’d say I’m probably

Like I’m probably still on the stiffer side with how I run things but not like I used to be really like the suspension uh performance and technology and all that has gotten so much better in the last 15 years I felt like when when I was racing like on track for example

Back in like 2011 and 12 like we were on a 26in wheel bike like they were quite a bit smaller like even frame sizewise than what we’re racing now and the suspension and the frame technology like everything about it was just not as good

As it is now so for me to hit stuff as hard as I felt like I needed to hit it and not slow down I basically just had to make the bike like really stiff it was hard to hang on to like if you were doing bike park laps you would be

Miserable but for a World Cup race bike if you just wanted to slam into stuff and not slow down for me like and get the bike to maintain geometry and not be pitching and Diving and the Steep stuff when you’re hitting big holes um I just

Ended up going really stiff it was a really fast setup even though it was it was tough to hang on to but nowadays like the suspension works so much better the bikes work a lot better the wheel sizes are big like everything kind of goes to where like you don’t have to run

It that stiff um and the the that’s just way more tunable like everything you can run something that’s going to have like really good Small Bump sensitivity but still have good hold up deep in the travel so um I think that was like back then I remembered it was like a lot of

Guys were like oh I just want it to be like really Supple in the bump so they’d run like a softer setup but then it had like no hold up down deep and for me I was like I’ll skip around on top I just need the thing to slam into walls real

Fast so I just made it stiff but thankfully these days yeah you don’t have to go so extreme to get the bike to hold up um as we look into this season obviously mentioned this uh continuing issue with your elbow also it sounds like you’re very much thinking big big picture with this

Quest line project will you be having a run at some races particularly something like will Champs those kind of one-off races and also how’s that going to interact with the commitments you might have to discover will he be commentating again yeah so we’re kind of um again man

Like I just shout out to all the people that are supporting us and and giving me the freedom to kind of do what I what I want to do but yeah my plan is to come back to racing as soon as I’m 100% like fast and strong and healthy um so we’ll

See like I was it’s been hard dude I’ve never been off the bike this long like it’s been I think eight months now um and I’m like kind of cruising around on a trail bike now and like for the first time not having a lot of pain when I

Ride so that’s been really exciting cuz I usually I ride my bike almost every day and I love it so being off the bike for eight months has been I mean we’ve been busy for sure but it’s it’s been hard I’ve missed it a lot um but I just

Want to be smart you know I don’t want to make it worse I want that thing to heal so I don’t have issues down the road and so just trying to be patient but yeah so my plan is to come back to racing as soon as I’m basically 100% so

If that’s you know first World Cup um sweet if it’s a few rounds in sweet we got a good Gap uh before World Champ so my my goal for a few I don’t know the last four months or so is to been like really make a good push for World champs

This year and um so that would have me on the bike you know or basically up to speed around the beginning of July and I’d probably do like US national champs and crank Works Whistler and as much racing as I can hopefully a World Cup or

Two at least before that and then um you know see if I can go win that race would be would be awesome it’s an Andora this year it’s probably my favorite track or one of my favorite tracks um and then I’ll finish off the season from there so

Um yeah plan is just to race as soon as I’m I’m back up to speed and feeling good and then um yeah I’m chatting with Warner Brothers on the commentating stuff right now and the plan on that is to probably if I miss any of the World

Cups I’ll be commentating at those and then we’ll probably work on some TV stuff um even at the races I am racing as well so uh super excited about that like I don’t feel like I’m done racing like I want to keep keep pushing at it

But I do enjoy the commentating as well so if I’m you know I want to be at the team supporting or at the races supporting my team um regardless and if I’m there and I can’t race I’d love to do the commentating so that’s the

Plan how do you feel I mean we see Mana go to this sort of re rejuvenated Manar potentially going on to this Norco deal you’re you know still wanting to you know talking about winning World Champ do you care about the whole goat debate does that mean anything

To um I mean I I’d probably be lying if I said no right I’m pretty competitive so um no I wouldn’t say if I was to keep racing it’s not because I want to win more races than Greg I think I I love riding my bike I love racing and I felt

Like it was really hard to sit on the sidelines last year because I felt really good coming into the season like I had a good year before for that um I felt like we were in a good place with the bike and the equipment last year I

Felt physically like better than I ever had coming into a year um and then just went out like on my third practice run and missed the whole year so it was hard man like I the whole plan was to try to you know be back to winning races and

Win that World Cup overall title and maybe World Champs last year like that was the goal so um yeah I mean the hunger to do that is is definitely still there um I wouldn’t say it would be trying to to Chase Greg’s record but if

Uh if I was able to beat it I definitely wouldn’t be mad about it so and did you feel coming back in that really strong 2022 results did you feel somewhat maybe Vindicated I felt that like there was a sort of an idea about you know you were really really pushing

On with um YT and then moving too intense and then developing the bike and it was kind of like you know sort of like does he still have it you know that sort of um commentary was floating about um you know people often forget that you know

You might be a bike racer for some of your life you’re a human for all of your life and all your live long days you know um did that weigh on your mind at all and did you feel Vindicated kind of getting towards the sharp end again um I

Would say like I was just I was just happy because I know the work that I put in and I feel like um you know people don’t see all the stuff going behind the scenes like man it was a it was a very challenging you know 3 four years there

Before you know I had that good season and you know a better season in 22 like the types of injuries I had how random they were where I felt like there was like literally nothing I could have done like come up over a blind rise and

There’s a huge loose Rock in the track and you land straight on it and have a huge crash like first practice run you’re like man like I couldn’t have done anything better or different to avoid that it was just one of those things that happened um I had some parts

Failures I had you know just weird stuff happening in it I felt like the whole time I had the Speed like I hadn’t changed um you know I battled through some bike stuff for sure like setup wise trying to be comfortable and then like I said with Co and the injuries and

Everything kind of compounding like I just never had a chance to like put more than a few months together without some sort of setback um so I think for me like I I never lost hope like I always know like if I’m comfortable and I’m fit

Like I can compete for wins um it’s not easy to have both of those things come together you know at that level a lot of things need to go right but I still feel like I could do that for you know five more years if I wanted to you know

That’s just my belief so I wouldn’t say I felt Vindicated because it wasn’t about trying to do it for anybody else but myself you know I just really I love the feeling of being comfortable and being on a downhill track and being able to like ride that pace and compete for

Wins like that’s that’s always been everything for me when I go racing so it was more just just really fun to be able to to start doing that again and I felt like the best was yet to come and uh we weren’t able to quite get there with the

Injury but we’ll see what happens in the future when you turned up to W up racing there are a lot of people who’ve been plugging at World Cups for years and maybe having the sort of conversations that you and I are having now when I’m comfortable when I’m happy I know I can

Deliver and then you turn up and you make winning Look So Easy what’s it did did it feel easy at the time winning all those races so early um it never feels easy it’s always been hard you know I think and as I’ve gotten older I I appreciate it more

Because I know like man you’re winning a lot of races for a lot of years and I would have never said It felt easy it was just the Gap was different back then I think the sport has just elevated so much um I mean back then it was just

Like yeah if I had my best run like nobody’s going to touch me and I’m probably going to put a big gap in everybody now it’s like if you’re G to put eight seconds into somebody like it’s going to be unless there’s a very unique situation with weather or

Something like I don’t know that that’s happening um so just the the depth of the field now like has just risen so crazy so um and there’s so many people I feel like that are capable of kind of running that speed you still do have those top couple of guys that kind of

End up winning consistent but um I mean even last year we had Like A Different World Cup winner every single race except Jackson won too and then um with World Champs I can’t remember who won that but I mean it was basically a different Charlie but yeah so different

Race you know winner every race so it’s just the the depth of speed and talent is just bigger and better than it’s ever been and like everybody is on a full program now like they’re all fit they’re all fast they all have good bikes for the most part it’s like it’s just more

Competitive now which is great as a fan and a little harder as a Razer um as a team manager and someone that has run you know a couple of years of running programs so I’m getting a bit of a hissing I don’t know if can you

Hear it at all is there like a whne on your end I don’t hear anything here I it’s maybe me oh wait if you got hit I’m sure it’s fine um I’ll go into again so as someone that’s been running programs for a couple of years has that

Role of sort of you know picking Riders selecting Riders if you had a blank checkbook and weren’t interested so much in Rider development who would be the riders that you would pick you know if you could sign any one Rider from the male Elite and female Elite which three

Widers would you think would be the best investment to go win races this year H that’s a tricky one you’re putting me in an awkward spot too because I’m friends with a lot of those guys I would say um just to keep it simple if I would have

Had if I had the access to money a little sooner in the offseason I would have kept Dakota well we’ll just say that Dakota and I were really we had a really good time riding and working together um and it was really cool to see him find some

Consistency in his speed like he has so much skill and Talent on a bike so to be able to start putting those other little pieces together and and kind of start believing in himself that he could just do that every weekend um it was really

Fun it sucked to be off the bike last year not racing but to be able to spend a bit more time with him and the other boys on our team and and to see the success was was really fun and uh I know we were both pretty bummed to not be

Able to keep doing that this year so yeah if I had a if I had a contract maybe I’d just buy him out of his contract and um and in the female Elites um female Elites um trying to think um I mean dude like if you’re if you’re looking for results

Like it’s really hard to go against Valley right now I think she’s so strong and she’s young and I honestly feel like she’s still got some progression left I think there’s still some areas there like I think there’s a good chance she’s going to just keep getting better um so

Yeah I mean that would that would probably be like if I had to pick pick a female Rider I mean a bunch of them are awesome like I really love Nina’s like Vibe and attitude and like her energy and like personality and everything like every time I see her I feel like she’s

Smiling and she’d just be somebody really fun to be around um like dude yeah I don’t know like just pick Rachel they’re all like amazing so and then there’s some new Junior rers coming up too some of those junior girls are ripping so yeah we’ll see um through the season you you know

Rumors swirled as I mean this is probably the silliest season to date it feels like it’s had a bit of everything um is that something that you ever keep an eye on in terms of do you care what people think is happening and also as someone that’s hunting down deals it

Must be kind of strange to hear oh no if they get if x is going to say say it was Crest line that means I’m not going to Crest line am I going to give any Credence to that is that something you ever consider um no not really I’m uh I

Know a lot of people now and uh both Brands and Riders so I usually know where everybody’s going to end up three or four months half the time before it’s announced um sometime sooner I mean a few of the athletes call me to help me you know to help them figure out their

Deals sometimes so um I’m usually pretty pretty clued into to what’s happening and uh and I I kind of just like laugh at it because a lot of people be very sure about certain things happening and uh like it’s 100% done deal I heard it and whatever and you’re like man you are

Way off but it’s uh it’s it’s cool I think it’s fun like it makes it exciting like I’m a huge fan of motocross as well and um as much as it’s cool to see a rider like be with a brand forever and like you know if it ends up working long

Term I think it’s really cool but it’s also pretty cool to see people just like pop onto the track with like a different color bike and like different gear and a different team like it it keeps it fun every year so um I think it’s cool you

Know I follow some of the forms a little bit Loosely uh my wife will she gets a kick out of reading stuff sometimes but um yeah for the most part I’m I’m usually pretty clued in on what’s Happening before most people know yeah it’s weird we have a rule at

Pink bike where if you meet a pro Rider on the New Deal like you can’t obviously you would never say if you go for a group ride with if me and you went riding and you rocked up on a Crestline hadn’t announced it yet that’s not fair

Game Whistler bike Q that’s kind of different but you know what I mean um what’s the craziest room you’ve ever seen about you where you’re going over the years oh dude um there’s been some really good ones I’m kind of drawing a blank now on what they’ve been

Um oh man I know that there’s a c my wife if she was here would probably yell it at me but um I I don’t remember but I know there’s been some good ones like everything from like KTM Motorcycles to like I don’t know you I remember KTM

That was a huge one a whole thing I was convinced yeah there’s a lot of people like even now that like think that I’m an owner of intents and they say it like it’s fact and I never was like we had chatted about it earlier and I think I

Maybe had mentioned that in an interview and so people kind of jumped on that but um yeah it’s it’s funny like the things that not just even sponsorship stuff like certain things that fans are like oh yeah that happened and you’re like man that never happened or not like that

But that’s a power of the old social media yeah it can run rampant um we know that these are different times for the bike industry um how much has that affected putting this program together think do you think for you do you think if somebody you know let’s face it Crest

Line they make some really interesting bikes I think they have a lot of people’s curiosity but they probably weren’t the first name to think of when thinking Aaron gwiin New World Cup brand um how how different has that process been this year what’s your kind of temperature take on where the bike

Industry is at currently um I don’t really I mean I know it’s it’s a tough time for a lot of bikes right and I’m I’m sensitive to that and aware of that I think it’s just a um and I hope it’s just kind of a a natural implication of the last

Couple years we’ve gone through I mean with Co to have a surge in bikes like that but then have the supply chain shortages and like the long lead times and everything like and everybody was trying to get outside and buy bikes so it to me it’s like logical like I I feel

Like for me I’m like yeah I would have guessed that that would have happened like it’s not like that it’s not logical that that level of bike cells would just continue and continue and continue and you go from having no bikes and selling everything to like okay eventually these

Are all going to show up and everybody’s like back to work now and the world’s like back to normal and literally everybody has a brand new bike so it’s like it’s probably going to be a few years before they starty to buy another bike so um you know I I feel like

I’m I’m interested to see what happens in the you know first few quarters of this year like through the spring and summer to see kind of it seems like things are you know in the the aftermarket world and certain things with certain parts and companies I work

With starting to turn around a little bit again um so I I hope for everybody that it’s turning around and I feel like it it will I think cycling is you know mountain biking is bigger than it’s ever been there’s so many people riding um I

Think it’s just a you know a lot of people bought brand new bikes a couple years ago so I think it’s going to be a little bit of time till they’re ready to buy them again so um yeah I don’t I don’t feel too freaked out about it um

But obviously I’m in a different position than some of the brands are and what will these Crestline bikes be equipped with will it be the normal mix of fox e13 Etc um yeah we’ll see I mean right now like tren’s the way he’s approached is like he just wants to make

Really quality bikes and put the best parts on them like right now there’s not a bunch of different options of part kits available um they usually just stack them with one kit which is usually a really high-end kit um they literally only make ebikes and they did a limited

Run of 50 downhill bikes so you can’t even buy the downhill bike right now um we’ll change that in the future for sure but um yeah it’s kind of funny I mean I I’ll get some hate for it but it’s like if I could only have two bikes in my

Arsenal I’d have an ebike and a downo bike CU I think people think I’m joking when I say I just really like going downhill and I don’t love to Pedal but I really love to go downhill and I don’t really love to Pedal so eiks and

Downhills for me dude are like the most fun so I I thought that was funny we both kind of got a kick out of it I was like yeah and troyan’s like I don’t know I made an ebike and a downhill bike because those are the bikes I like to

Ride the best so like we just we want to make really fun bikes that we love and share them with other people so um we’ll definitely be expanding the L the the lineup in the future and we’re already chatting about what that’s going to look

Like um and we’re kind of open to to working with whoever on the parts you know side of things we just want to work with with great Brands and and spec really good products so if you have those things lined up um then sure you

Know we’re not going to kind of um rule anything out really yeah I think for you know a certain section of the consumer having the ability to buy a race replica almost can be really really valuable in terms of grin racing sponsors apart from Quest line who else will be featuring

This year uh we’re still finalizing a couple of those deals but more or less it should be pretty much all the sponsors that I’ve had last year there’ll be a couple small little tweaks um but I’ve been fortunate to be with a lot of these brands for for quite a

While um so we’ll be working with a lot of the same Brands amazing well thanks for filling Us in on the details it sounds like you got a lot on very very very busy man and thanks again for coming on the pink bike podcast and best

Of luck not only with the season but also your arm it must be so frustrating and it be great to get up riding regular I’m sure yeah appreciate it man yeah it’s doing all right I got like full range of motion back which I’m super excited about and finally starting to

Ride painfree which is I can’t tell you how happy that makes me so we’re uh we’re on the right track excited I’ll probably get on the downhill bike uh probably in a few days actually I’ll go do a couple cruisers on an easier track and to start going through the process

And yeah like I said plan is to come back as soon as I’m fit and healthy but um yeah we got a lot of cool projects going on and plan to be at all the races and be heavily involved in a lot of different areas of the sport so excited

Man thanks for the time amazing thanks Ain see You