MTB-News: Surprisingly, the reigning Downhill World Cup Champion Aaron Gwin and his team Specialized announced today that they will not renew the current contract and will go their separate ways in the coming season. The sticking point was probably the money – Specialized was not willing to meet the salary expectations of the American.
It wasn't necessarily love at first sight. When Aaron Gwin switched from Trek to Specialized in 2013 as the reigning World Cup winner, expectations were high. But neither 2013 nor 2014 were the years of the exceptionally talented downhill racer. After two seasons there was only a meager World Cup success - that was not enough compared to expectations. But in 2015 the much-cited knot finally burst: Aaron Gwin sped down the downhill slopes like he did in his prime. He won the decisive race in Leogang under unbelievable conditions: a few seconds after the start, the chain on his Specialized demo broke. Gwin rode it all or nothing, winning the race and the World Cup.
So why the decision now not to extend the contract? The corresponding press release states that both sides had agreed not to draw up a new working paper for Gwin. "In a perfect world, we really wanted to move on together and to a large extent that feeling was mutual. However, anyone who has ever worked in sports marketing or had to make decisions for the benefit of a company knows that this is rarely as easy as it looks on the outside." describes Gavin Noble Specialized's decision.
The reason why it didn't work out after 2015 with Gwin and Specialized can already be read from this somewhat cryptic statement. The driver clears his last doubts in an interview with the US portal pinkbike: "It wasn't about whether we wanted to continue working together. It was more about my ideas of what I should be worth to the company. It's quite normal for professional athletes in any field to change teams or equipment suppliers from time to time - not because they don't want to continue together, but because these ideas about the worth of the athlete differ. For me it was like this: I said where I see my current market value – the team had different views on this. There's no need to get emotional or angry here – it was a simple disagreement.”
The bottom line is that Aaron Gwin, reigning Downhill World Cup Champion, is looking for a new team for the coming season. He still wraps the cloak of silence about his future plans. But we will certainly soon find out where the US boy will go.