Rio track a motorsport manager setup4/25/2024 So if there are ambassadors or different people out there that give you more coverage, at some stage as a brand and as a company and as a business, you need to ask yourself, is it worthwhile? Is it worthwhile having a cross-country team, a downhill team, a race team out there doing nothing because they can't? It's not that they don't want to, but we cannot do the traditional way of marketing. How much longer will you rely on something that is purely tied to events if no events are happening? Okay, in the bike industry, we're doing well, at least we can pay some of the salaries. I know for a fact, there's a lot of guys up and down the results sheet whose sponsors went, "You know what, this isn't worth the money for us."Īs a team, as a team manager, sooner or later you have to justify what you do. With the pandemic, with no events and no racing, I think there was quite a sharp focus for brands on where they're getting other value from their riders. Once you get into the King cage there are no gifts. If you have a rider that has both, that has the drive and has the talent, you're going to have a winner. There's a lot of kids out there with great, great talent, but I think drive almost takes you farther than the talent alone because you're working. It all comes down to dedication, to the drive. I always say you have athletes, they could be top athletes if they changed their mindset. It's not just riding your bike, you have to go to the gym, you have to have a nutrition, you have to become an athlete at the highest level to get to the top step of the podium. You have to work your ass off and that starts with everything. You don't earn that podium by just having talent anymore. You have to work hard to get into the top 10, into the top five, or even on the top podium. I really would like to grow our athletes when they sign up for us and give them the best tools and toys to become better. If it's on the performance side for certain riders, if it's on the media side, whatever it is. To me, it's important that we, as a company, if there are certain areas where they lack, come in and help them. There are only a few out there who really have it all. I went through all of it and I know what it takes to become a proper athlete that ticks all the boxes. As a global company, we always look for the one rider that ticks the most boxes, right? I have been working with the downhill team, the enduro team, with triathletes. To me, an athlete needs more than just the one talent. I'm very sad that we weren't able to keep some of the riders we had on the team, but there are reasons why we couldn't keep them. You're racing against other people, but also against the clock so it is very exciting. Cross country is an athletic, athletic sport. Yeah, this year I am taking over the cross-country team again. So, you're back running the Specialized factory XC team. This is a long interview, but Benno's candid answers offer a rare insight into the politics, dynamics and forces at play behind the scenes of elite mountain bike racing. We caught up with Benno after their first team camp of the year to ask about what he is looking for in an athlete, what was behind some of the behind team changes of the last few years and how the future looks for mountain bike racing as a whole. For 2021, he is back at the helm of Specialized Factory Racing XC team as they reboot their whole programme with a clutch of young, talented racers. From triathletes to freeriders, Loic Bruni to Peter Sagan, he has worked with a veritable who's who of the bicycle racing world. But to me it's important to support the people, even when they're not doing so well.įrom a truck driver who didn't know how to put pedals on a bike to overseeing a global racing programme, Benno Willeit has been at the heart of Specialized's racing programmes for more than a decade. Every brand wants to support someone that's out there winning all the time, no question.
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