Hi Headshot, Clearly I have insulted you in some way, and I apologize. But in reply to your message: It's not what I'm suggesting, I'm just rehashing and supporting what other people in the industry are already saying. Yes, the riders are underpaid. With the exception of Greg and Gwin who have very shrewd agents who negotiate their contracts, the average rider earns between 30 000 USD and 50 000 USD. (Endorsements and image rights excluded.) Given that these riders have fairly short careers, and are the best in the world at what they do, they are underpaid. The top guys might earn 300 000 USD ++, but it is still not much compared to what road cyclists earn. The majority of road cyclists' salaries are paid by the corporate sponsors. Not by Specialized or Trek, which are small companies compared to Sky or Movistar. Here is a Pinkbike link on this issue: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/pinkbike-poll-how-much-should-a-top-dh-racer-be-paid-2015.html The most interesting comment on this poll /article is from one of the sponsors: Troy Lee Designs troyleedesigns PLUS (Nov 19, 2015 at 17:44) Just some food for thought and let you fill in the blanks. Fort William estimated to sell 30k tickets to people to come watch DH racing, in the middle of friggin nowhere. Anaheim stadium sells out SX at about 45k (I'd say thats a good average of all the SX stadium sizes), in one of the largest metropolitan areas of the world (so-cal)....Sea Otter gets an estimated 40k people to pay to see some bike stuff, so, both have a great following, we know that. Live streaming from Redbull of the DH world cup is some of the highest rated/viewed action sports on the network, we are not at liberty to share the actual numbers, but, they are more than the highest viewed MX event, which is Redbull straight rhythm, and don't even talk about Rampage, as that breaks all records...but; While DH and slope events get massive coverage for the sport, they are few and far between-There are 17 Supercross events, 12 Outdoor MX, 1 live televised Monster Energy Cup, Live Straight rhythm, those moto guys almost have a full year of racing for the fans...heck thats just in america! throw in MX GP's in europe and you have so much exposure for those athletes, compared to bike. So, we as a brand are involved deeply in both industries; Bike and Moto, we love both, it seems Bike has bigger 'hits', just less of them? There are ONLY 7 world cups a year, that makes it really difficult to get year long exposure with those great numbers that the live events DO provide us with. The beauty in this though, is it creates a lot of video content from the bike athletes, to keep you satisfied all year, that is often more enjoyable to watch than a race run-moto doesn't get these cool video projects, they never have time! The big moto brands are also backed by a bigger corporate engine, KTM, Honda, Yamaha, Kawisaki, Suzuki have much higher revenue streams than bicycle companies, and race bikes are their halo product, with large budgets grandfathered in over the years. I think we'd be better served comparing apples to apples, and thats bicycle road racing to mountain biking-with road racers making millions, and there is no MTBer making millions, that is odd eh? They basically echo what Brendon Fairclough (a rider who could appreciate it himself) said in this article: https://dirtmountainbike.com/news/brendan-fairclough-leads-calls-world-cups-cut-30-riders.html I'm not supporting "dumb down" racing. I want to see more (not the whole run) of the best riders' race runs, and I'd like to see it more often, on gnarlier tracks. How is that a bad thing? The "average viewer" is that part of the TV watching population that just does not even own a bicycle. Or owns a bicycle but have never even heard of Greg Minnaar. If you get them to start following the sport, corporate sponsors will follow. Millions of people who does not own a road bike watch the Tour de France. Given, the Tour is over a hundred years old, but still. Would you prefer it if only some MTB'ers watch the sport, and not see it grow? And finally, you are quite active on Pinkbike and should remember the whole furore around how little the Red Bull Rampage athletes earn. Most of the riders fund themselves and make a financial loss when competing in that event. How is that good for the future of the sport? BTW, I never said the race was a snore fest: I said it was a damb squib: a situation or event which is much less impressive than expected. And it was, given the hype before the race. Have a great weekend!