I like DJ. I think his value is beyond results for lifetime where 75% of the athletes have zero influencer chops but has he ever won money from a Grand Prix result?
If he just races every race in the series nothing really changes for him.
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I’m sure there will be a lot of sourness.
But to cassinonorth’s point, zero top 10 finishes means you’re not even scrapping for it and could win on a moonshot, you’re just not on the same playing field unfortunately, which doesn’t make for a great spectator sport.
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Let’s be honest, based on his results DJ did not deserve to make the cut this year. He needs to go back to the drawing board, revamp his diet to add 3 large pasture-raised eggs to his daily vegan diet (for better recovery), train smart this off-season, then hopefully get a wild card entry.
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While i enjoy some of DJs videos, and its too bad he got injured and missed races, the series really needs to try to get more people in there that can challenge keegans dominance. Cams rise this year was great compared to the keegan snooze series of years past. Hopefully DJ will be going for the wildcard slot
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I’m glad friend of the pod Hannah Otto made it again!
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Put me in the camp of - I like DJ and wish he was in. But, his results just didn’t warrant it. He even talked about it on one of the latest pods - they’re making it merit based and he bluntly said he didn’t deserve to be in on those grounds.
He’ll still be at all the events, hope he has a big bounce back year.
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Same on DJ. We all like him. Now he will get to focus on Unbound, which is the race he cares about the most and won’t have to deal with others like Chequamegon, unless he grabs a wildcard spot.
I’m curious whether Finsty applied or not. I assume so, and it looks like they just cut it off at the top 12 from 2025. But he is one of the few men that has ever won a GP event in the first four years of it. Really shocked to see him and Haley Smith out. But I guess neither of them has done much since the first year of the GP. Not good for the Trek Driftless team to lose half their riders from the GP though.
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Same. I definitely see how the selection trended towards results-based this year. Women’s roster was not a huge shocker except for Haley Smith, who by even her own admission, has struggled the last two seasons, but seems to be popping back on the pointy side once again so I hope she can grab a wildcard slot. Delighted to see Paige back as she had a good season going until injured by a driver. Men’s side definitely was more of a shake up with many of the “good ole boys” of years past not on the roster. DJ and Finsty didn’t have great seasons/results but shocked to see Cole Paton not make the cut (if he applied). Just goes to show how competitive the field is getting. Excited to see more challenges to the top spot and frankly some less-negative racing tactics towards the end of season races now they are offering bigger single race purses.
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Cole made it
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I wish they would increase the field size to 50 rather than 25. There are so many fast riders that didn’t make the cut and will be a bummer not having them in the series. Maybe have the $2500 payback for top 25 and nothing for 25-50. Could make the middle racing more interesting as well and maybe help with the negative racing. I don’t really see a downside to Lifetime by increasing the field size with no payout for 25-50.
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This is such a great idea. I’m sure they have a good reason for shrinking the field from 30 to 25, but I think it would bring much more visibility to the sport and provide more opportunities for growth if the pro fields were larger.
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I know they were trying to change things up a bit to ensure that riders stuck with the series all year. Historically, some riders would drop out once their season went sideways, so they added a small payment for all riders to help incentivize participating all year. $2500 isn’t much, but hopefully enough to offset travel costs for a couple late races that might otherwise be skipped. If they doubled the field size and paid all of them the $2500, it’s adding another $100k-ish for a bunch of riders that probably wouldn’t be too competitive. They could double the field size and just not pay the bottom half, but I think you’d end up making the late season no-shows even worse. The other factor is that adding 50 pros would take away 50 paid amateur spots at the events that have attendance caps (Leadville already extremely limited and tough to get into).
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I find it a little worrisome that they keep letting in riders based in Europe because those are the riders that tend to not actually do the entire series. Yes, there is a small incentive now to finish the series. But I’d imagine it costs a lot more than 2500 bucks to come over here for all the races from April to October. It looks really bad to only have 25 riders, but way worse imo to have only 19-20 finish the thing out.
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The intent isn’t to fund their season, but to make the math a little more reasonable for the folks who aren’t competitive in the overall. They only have to do 3 races to get the $2500, so I expect we’ll still see drop off at the end of the season for folks who are out of the running. Maybe there is a rule that you have to participate in the last race or something, I haven’t seen anything like that.
And I agree that it’s been a bigger issue with the EU folks, but LT is trying to make the series more competitive and that means more international riders. US riders with aspirations to be in the Grand Prix are more likely to attend even if they aren’t part of the series (and hope they can make their case for next year or get a wild card spot).
Time will tell whether they get the desired results or not. Trying to get riders to participate all year is kind of at odds with bringing in more talent. The more talented riders (especially if international) are probably more likely to bail on the series if they aren’t in contention. Would we rather have more US riders who complete the series or more talented international riders who are more likely to bail early in the year? I’m not sure, but I know this year has been a lot more interesting (at least on the men’s side) with the influx of more international riders.
“$2,500 for every athlete who completes the full LTGP season (minimum 3 finishes) Beyond 10th place”
That’s something I did not notice, the 3 finishes thing. How in the world is 3 finishes considered completing the full season? They take best 5 of 6 races for your points and everyone has to at least START Big Sugar.
I’m not sure either on the question of do we want as much talent as possible or people that are dedicated to doing it. I suppose faster people is better though. Just wish they would see it through regardless.
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That seems to be the direction Lifetime has picked to grow the Grand Prix. I wonder how much the last four years being 1-2 bunch sprint orders & flat tires away from a 4x winning couple plays into it.
They really hit it good with the competition on the men’s side this season, a lot of that is from the international field. It definitely seems like they cut some of the bigger athletes that are finishing 10-20th. However I’m not sure how much that will help grow their US race series. It’ll be interesting to see what Alex, Dylan and Russell do this season and beyond. Is the GP big enough to support pros that don’t make the series, or will they only show up to Unbound. Will a fresher group of athletes bring more sponsors and make a bigger impact on “gravel” as a sport. Will the U23 side of things develop the sport or just turn into a dead end for the kids who compete at a high level without winning regularly just like the road and XCO programs that most of the current LTGP athletes went through.
Time will tell, I only follow it through podcasts that are interesting independent from results. The four way marking for a sprint finish wasn’t a great story, but DJ begging amateurs for a wheel is great content.
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I like the idea of if a non LTGP rider finishes in a points spot, those points are gone. Makes the math harder, but also incentive to keep non GP riders behind you.
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That would be awesome. I feel like this would be especially noticeable on the men’s side as there is a deeper field of solid non-GP riders that could grab a win or at least a podium spot. I get tired of watching guys go up the road and the LTGP boys just sit up because “such and such” is not in the series. Make for some more exciting racing with moves being covered, especially at the end of the season where riders just sit and wait for the marked boys to make or cover a move. It would be difficult to “weight" these end of season races more than early but I think offering some solid prize money for the Sugars would perhaps incentivize riders to fight for a win/top result vs “just having to finish before x rider to maintain my points in the GP” and settling for like 9th or something because the rider you were tied with flatted out. I know that is racing sometimes but it can be so boring zzz…
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I like that idea too. They need to be forced to race ANYONE that is at a race. It’s as annoying as racing only your age group at a big event. Just race everybody and then see how it shakes out at the end.
I did a little work yesterday to dig up the winner’s on the men’s and women’s side for the entirety of the GP because I was thinking about how few men have won races. There have been 25 races in the four years of the series. Only 9 men have won a race and only 2 of those were from outside the GP. Keegan, Bradyn, Finsty, Alexey, Lachlan, Cam, and Beers have won at least once, all from the GP. Only Ivar Slik and Toby (before he was in) have won one of these races from outside. Obviously, lots of outside the series riders do well at Unbound, like last year. But when it has come to winning them, the women’s side has way more variation.
There have been 15 women’s winners in those 25 races and 9 of them are from outside the GP. Unbound has been won from someone outside 3 of the 4 years and the women have just had way more pop-in racers like Haley Batten, Savilia, Kate Courtney, Kasia over the years.
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