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Posted
1 hour ago, OVERDRIVE said:

Problems soon emerged though, with staff and rider salaries delayed just two months after NextHash had joined the team. While he expresses his disappointment at the situation though, Ryder makes clear that he doesn't believe NextHash intentionally signed a contract with the team in order to deceive them. 

“I don’t believe people intentionally sign contracts because they want to be dishonest or they don’t want to pay. I don’t believe it.

 

“I don’t believe anybody’s like that – I mean, I’ve never come across anybody like that.”

 

And Therein Douglas, lies the rub. You're too trusting. There are many narcissistic people out there with ego's larger than their ability and sucker the naive along for the ride. You got taken for one of those rides as have many of us. Pick yourself up and ride again

Posted
58 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

What in the actual **** is going on. Just finished reading this and am totally speechless…

I truly feel for Doug and I know many know him personally (I do not) and in business many make mistakes. It’s for the reason the buyers from an oil rig who want to buy an S-Works having never seen it for a birthday gift, there are still many falling for that today. Many don’t understand cryptocurrency, but lots understand real currency, and if that real currency is not in the bank then it’s ghost currency. 
 

Painful lesson. 

Posted

 

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:
48 minutes ago, OVERDRIVE said:

What in the actual **** is going on. Just finished reading this and am totally speechless…

I truly feel for Doug and I know many know him personally (I do not) and in business many make mistakes. It’s for the reason the buyers from an oil rig who want to buy an S-Works having never seen it for a birthday gift, there are still many falling for that today. Many don’t understand cryptocurrency, but lots understand real currency, and if that real currency is not in the bank then it’s ghost currency. 
 

Painful lesson. 

This is truly a most remarkable read and terrifying at best- reads like a Zondo commission report. 

Posted
22 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

This is also 1 side to the story. There is always 2.

 

NOooooooo John, Don't go down the results rabbit hole please. You'll get shot at with touchy feely stuff like 

its for the children

sponsors don't want a return on investment,... They only want to wipe away the tears of Africa

 

etc

However it is undeniable that this NextScam crowd looked dodgy from the start

Posted

This isnt to do with results and yes for sure NextHash were questionable from the start. They dont even have a website for starters but many years ago Lafevre signed a deal on a napkin in restaurant that turned out to be a scam also so this is not new in any type of environment like this but I suppose desperate times calls for desperate measures. 

Posted
1 minute ago, J Wakefield said:

This isnt to do with results and yes for sure NextHash were questionable from the start. They dont even have a website for starters but many years ago Lafevre signed a deal on a napkin in restaurant that turned out to be a scam also so this is not new in any type of environment like this but I suppose desperate times calls for desperate measures. 

J, having read everything please share your thoughts. Think your insight into what happened would be cool to hear/read. If you have a free sec? 

Posted
1 hour ago, J Wakefield said:

This isnt to do with results and yes for sure NextHash were questionable from the start. They dont even have a website for starters but many years ago Lafevre signed a deal on a napkin in restaurant that turned out to be a scam also so this is not new in any type of environment like this but I suppose desperate times calls for desperate measures. 

what I got from this saga and this article in particular.

a) a lot of sponsors were approached to fund the team in (2021 and 2022 particularly).

b) doug is a damn good salesman

c) qhubeka had some good results over the years, but were disappointing most of the time

d) the "africa's team" honeymoon wouldn't last forever

e) the pandemic thing

 

Because of C, DR had to go buy some results with riders who had pedigree and the team stopped becoming "african" as far as the roster went. D fell away too. Because of C and D, all the sponsors in A said "thanks, but not this time".

So we come back to the question over signing up with NextHash on the eve of the TdF. Clearly he didn't have many other viable options so he was kind of backed into a corner. They could have said no, and kept on trying for 2022. Maybe NextHash and everything that went with it just scared prospective future sponsors away from the team - we'll never know.

We'll also never know how much the covid thing stuffed it all up, and how good DR is really at selling a dream.

Maybe it's all moot, the way pro cycling is structured it just doesn't make financial sense to have an 'african' team on the World Tour. DR might have just spent north of ~$50m over a few years proving that, for what gain? A few riders with deals in mainly support roles now scattered across a few world teams. I know it's not as sexy, but throwing some money at events in the africa tour, a continental feeder team or two with decent structures and a base or two in europe and you might see a few more stars emerging.

instead we get to talk about 4000 donated commuter bikes in 2021. With a budget of ~$5m you could have put 25 000 bikes into kid's lives at a cost of $200 each. but it's not as sexy as champagne parties on the french riviera

image.png.77f961f4b0b4fde9c97f6a8ac31d3a29.png

 

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