Bex Baraona Off Yeti & Without 2024 Team
Bex Baraona announced on Instagram that she will not be racing for Yeti next year and does not have a new team lined up.
Baraona has taken the top of enduro by storm: her results over the last few years include two wins and several podiums at the world level, settling into fifth overall for the 2023 EDR World Cup season. This was her second year with Yeti and things looked promising for the future.
Still, the bike industry right now is in a state of extreme uncertainty and many riders are watching their contracts disappear, along with the futures they thought they had locked in.
Baraona shared the following on Instagram to announce the situation:
 | Well, it’s with a heap of different emotions, that I announce I won’t be racing on @yeticycles factory team next year, there is no contract for me next season as I didn’t meet their performance expectations. After sending out a million panic emails the last few weeks, it’s apparent that our industry is struggling and I’ve no idea if I’ll even be able to take the start line at World Cups next year. After receiving the news a few weeks ago, the initial shock still hasn’t faded like I was hoping it would, from World Cup winner to potential apprentice electrician in the same year! In a tricky situation just now but always been a firm believer that doors open and close and everything will come good! If anyone has any opportunities - message me! Uncertain times but you know I’ll be riding bikes and being silly in 2024. |
When we reached out for comment, especially about her plans for the future, she added:
| Currently hustling hard to make a unique team program alongside my fiancé and EDR racer, Chloe Taylor. It's by no means the year to be setting this type of thing up with relentless rejection emails, due to the state of the industry, but it's the situation I find myself in. I'm actually excited for what is next for me, other than figuring out how to pay my mortgage (haha), it's going to be great to have the flexibility and do more of what I love in 2024, you can expect to see a lot more from Gowaan and all the silly stuff we get up to over on that channel. Hopefully will get something sorted to be on that World Cup start line next year and stand on the box! Open for new partnerships, so hit me up if you have any ideas! |
She added that we may see her and Taylor lining up for some World Cup downhill races before too long.
When not racing, Baraona leads the Gowaan Gals alongside Martha Gill, putting on events, working on media projects, and just generally having a good time on bikes. We're glad to see that she will keep putting energy in that direction.
Yeti emphasized the company's support of women's mountain biking when asked for comment and wished Baraona the best:
| We have a lot of respect for Bex and hope she has continued success racing along with her meaningful work with Gowaan Girls. Her 2-year contract was up and even with renewal discussions starting in July we were unable to come to terms moving forward. It’s that simple. While we understand the disappointment, Yeti Cycles will continue to invest in women riders and have long history of supporting some of the best in the women sport including Juli Furtado, Missy Giove, Marla Streb, Tara Llanes, Jill Kintner, and current Yeti riders Kate Lawrence and Robin Goomes. |
It's surprising to see a rider with this much success without a team. We hope, for her sake and for the sake of the racing world in general, that she can get something new lined up soon.
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But I'll be a jerk and say that "not getting your contract renewed" and "getting dropped" are different things. It reads that she was hoping for a contract renewal and it didn't happen. That's different than if a sponsor exercised some termination clause to find a convenient reason to end a sponsorship mid-contract.
I'll also say that race results and getting sponsored are not some linear connection. Bike/parts/clothing/etc. companies need to be able to forecast that the sponsorship costs are less than the projected increase in profit (not just sales) due to the sponsorship to make the investment worthwhile.
And let's consider that each bike that Yeti sells only contributes a small margin towards their discretionary spending, let's say it's only $1k per bike (I bet it's much less than that). Now how many bikes does Yeti have to sell to support a sponsored racer?
In the article she said “figuring out how to pay her mortgage” so here is a salary of say us$30k plus bikes plus racing travel and accomodation plus training travel plus mechanic… so $90-100k per rider?
Go be an electrician, it is a good trade that pays well
Another bonus, you actually know how to do shit. LOL youtu.be/RcoGzT9QrTI?si=4fyAXq9TemU3dTpi
Thanks to all the other sparkies that chimed in too @marionmtblt @chacou @bigmeatpete420 (lol) @meathooker
If youre smart, dedicated, work hard, you'll be rewarded quickly.
Get experience in commercial, residential, and industrial, it do a world of good. Getting experience with renovations is a huge asset as well.
Or, move to Canada, and I'll give you a job as a plumber
Of course ultimately one doesn't want to end up trading their time for money for too long..so u buy existing biz/make investments.
Does a nice job and finishes on time,
Goes on IG fuming: they fired me! I'm out of work!
Looks like DH is going the same route as EDR anyway. I'm certainly not paying $20 a month for the Discovery+ "sports package" to watch DH races.
Enduro is really awesome for the bike community since it is basically a racing format for people who want to also climb but don't want to assume all the risk and commitment of going mach chicken on a DH course. Plus, you can use your trail bike to race Enduro and don't need a bike that is only suitable for shuttles and chairlifts. It has mass appeal for the average or better rider in terms of participation. However, that doesn't mean that it is going to do well in terms of viewership, unfortunately.
If she was a sparky in Oz atm, she'd prob be able to buy a full factory level Yeti, and race a full season, and still have enough to buy a Ranger Raptor and pay the mortgage, probably a jetski and a dirt bike as well for some cross training...
I really like Bex, I hope she picks something up, and has fun. Realistically end of next year is likely the end of ERD as it stands anyway, so she's better off finding something else to do this year with bikes, and get ahead of the influx of unemployed riders next year...
All that being said, I hope she can continue to chase her dream and find a way to make it work. That’s a pretty defining thing for young adults.
Bex also has a mechanical engineering degree. She’ll figure something out.
Racing EDR seems awful anyways, repetitive courses, zero broadcast, just more of a sideshow to the main shows. Small field at that.
That, and the Women's champ is riding a brand that according to reviewers shouldn't be as competitive as she makes it, which makes everyone else's results look worse.
Remember kids, you have 2 options; rely on somebody else for your paycheck or create your own. If you rely on someone else, then remember the number one rule: be irreplaceable.
Correct. And even if your employer IS to blame, understand that the best thing you can do personally is refrain from lighting the bridge on fire. Other people are watching. That's just the way the world works.
There's a whole pile of money to be made out there but if you choose to do it in pro women's enduro MTB it's gonna be tough even in the best of times.
I wish her luck. She can do better in life anyway.
It’s also important to acknowledge this is a VERY hard time for the industry and when companies like Ibis are canning their whole programs it’s likely a big reason yeti didn’t renew her contract.
And with everyone in the same boat, gotta put your best foot forward.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-p9SIKs1K8
Don’t reinforce the power imbalance, it’s bad enough already.
Do you expect an infinite contract length, that a sponsorship shouldn’t be based entirely on circumstance at any given point of renewal?
Plenty of riders are out of deals this year, most recognise its due to new and very real financial constraints.
This is even more moronic to do because in her case "poor performance" just factually isn't true, and to an employee (of any sort) thats a dirty insult especially if you're really trying to do your best. I'm sure she's bitter because of that and I understand it. Some companies are actually ran (or represented) by a*sholes and not calling out that shit is a disservice to everyone else.
She had a two year contract, the contract ended and was not renewed, as has happened to many riders such as Danny Hart, Matt Studdard and many more.
The contracts over, the industry and enduro race scene are in a complete mess, should they continue to support her out of charity?
No one has a right to get paid to do a hobby for a living. Companies all want a return on investment. Would my company keep me on the books if I failed to deliver the thing they were paying me for according to them and the contract of employment? Of course not. It's all about the bottom line. Who cares about the EWS since Sam Hill stopped winning? I don't even know who won the senior men's class this year and that's the only class that matters in any race series.
I wonder how many people could name the top five in elite men and women, and junior men and women off the top of their heads.
WC DH is the spectacle of MTB racing, its a watchable format and the top women absolutely kill it - enduro is properly shite for the spectator in comparison.
It's reasonable to hold businesses accountable for how they treat employees (or contractors). We clearly don't know all of the facts, but I for one choose to believe the rider, not the faceless industry.
The endless thanking of teams when they leave is fatiguing. It’s a contract and it ended, this endless gratitude is dumb and fake.
The hiring manager can choose whether or not you've given a good return on investment, and whether or not there is a business case to keep you on.
Finishing fifth in a sideshow event with seven competitive people isn't any great achievement, but that said she has still been incredibly lucky to have had the chance to live the dream for at least two years. Try being a 50 year old man and getting a pro contract. It won't happen because no one cares about old people racing. Terribly ageist but also factually accurate. I'm almost 50 and it doesn't bother me to know that no one cares who the fastest 50 year old man is. For some reason it's ok to be ageist but not ok to be "sexist" in dismissing the achievements of some average bike riders who happen to be female.
The bottom line is, no one cares about a fringe category in a fringe format of a fringe sport. Hence, no contract renewal.
They state themselves they are receiving endless ejection emails from companies being approached for help in 2024.
Not renewing a contract isn’t a ‘cut’ - if you were a contractor in any field you would never expect to be re hired especially if you know business has gone to absolute shit.
Could it be anything to do with an industry in financial turmoil and them deciding the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to support her won’t generate sufficient income to pay back in sales?
I also said nothing about womens sport not developing but to get investment you need a healthy industry to support that and one willing to not get a return while they see if things grow - that’s not now and the honest truth is at the moment female enduro riders don’t sell bikes, neither do the men particularly.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable assume that she’s reflecting what she was told in good faith. I read your comment with a bit of indignation. If it’s there, I feel it is misplaced. If it’s not, apologies. That’s one of the liabilities of online comment sections.
There is some indignation there, I think parting ways with an snarky emoji when the company has paid your wages to ride a bike for two years is a bit shit, say thanks for the opportunity it’s unfortunate we couldn’t agree terms to continue working together in light of current industry trouble.
All I'm saying is, you either play their game, or figure it out on your own. But the worst thing you can do is NOT play their game, and still try to appeal to them.
Take care of yourself, because nobody else will.
All of that said - I think it's reasonable of Yeti to run their business as they see fit and control costs to stay in business and give it their best shot at thriving. She held a luxury position and didn't achieve results that guaranteed that position wouldn't be terminated.
She says herself there has been nothing but rejection emails from companies being asked for help in 2024, I imagine this story wouldn’t even be a story if brand B had picked up where Yeti left off.
Or put differently, classic management move is to go for the maximum bonuses they can even if it will be bad for company in the longer run and when it gets bad (because they f*cked up) they will reduce costs (aka fire people) not to get fired (cause they f*cked up).
Shits hit the fan - sponsoring riders is expensive if you have essential bills to pay.
I do think the big teams are under-represented in the women's field, but whilst EDR coverage is so poor it must be hard for teams to justify the expense.
Recognizing pretty darn early on that I've never had the DNA to be a pro athlete (some do and they should pursue that) but snowboarding 50 days a year and riding a ton all summer on my fancy bike is well worth the cost of jockeying my desk now that I'm in middle age. (at least for me and we are all different for sure).
With no promo or TV coverage, they are killing the competitive sport, while there's more Enduro bikes than ever....
Maybe WE like Real Enduro aventures and youtubers showcasing amazing Enduro trips, rather than watch a weird competition in a bikepark.... Just saying...
Also European\usa recession is vers Real, Not many can afford yetis at the moment...
I don't ride DH but ill watch it. I only own Enduro bikes though. it just isn't a good spectator sport. Hope she finds something though, reading the words "other than figuring out how to pay my mortgage" terrifies me...
focus on academia, get a degree, work past time and go racing the other half. you wont become the next living legend, but you are at least financially independent and free of stress. at that point, sponsorship is just a bonus.
Step 1: Steal all the underwear
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit
That's you.
Bet you don’t need far off a million quid or more to fund a season like you just suggested.
And WTF are Yeti's performance expectations...I mean she got 5th overall, that's pretty amazing I'd think....many brands would love for a top 10, let alone a top 5.
Good time to be a buyer, bad time to be a manufacturer, or someone who depends on manufacturers for their livelihood.
If you haven't already, listen to the Roller Door Podcast with Joe Graney. I was shocked how open he was with stuff.
If you stand on a podium, you will be in the media, even if you don’t do any personal marketing. However, there’s certainly going to be a lot more value to a sponsor when you’re constantly putting out media in between those podiums. Athletes who don’t know this or don’t leverage this are the ones living under rocks.
This is not a bash on Bex. I don’t follow EDR. I deleted my Instagram and FB apps. I watch and read almost everything that is posted on Pinkbike, but I’ve never heard of Bex. In regards to this article, is that a coincidence or a correlation? Idk.
Don’t get too into the emotive writing from Bex’s end - Yeti state the contract was up and they chose not to renew - e.g. let’s say you let 10 people go - not paying 10 riders / staff say $40k a year and you have $400k left to pay for those groupsets you over ordered that land from SRAM next week, that simple.
Things are tight - HLC just fired 50 staff in the US and Canada and closed two warehouses, shit is hitting the fan in many areas and brutal truth is you need to cut what doesn’t help sell and in this case a calculation was made.
Much more of this to come, I guarantee it.
a top 5 in womens is probably top 50 or 100 in men.
(Just like to be very clear im not hating on womens sports in anyway shape or form)
Yeti had a top 5 racer. EDR is known by many. It might not be the biggest driver of sales but it’s something. For a company that’s “race bred” or whatever you’d think they’d want to hold onto that.
Also laughable to back up their actions with the ol’ “we love women’s racing.” Might as well drop a “I have lots of black friends” in there while they’re at it.
That being said, your comment resonates with a larger issue in MTB racing, there simply isn't any money in it, for anyone, right now. A Football team owner gets money for simply having a team. TV and league sponsorship money gets distributed to the teams. As far as I can tell no pro MTB team gets money simply for showing up at a UCI event. In fact the UCI rules dictate how much money will go to the event holder and how much will go to the UCI, there is nothing that goes to teams except the winnings from the actual race.
Average attendance for home
games: 76,000+
Average viewership: Couldnt find it. The range varies greatly. The Green Bay game against NY Giants in London had 5+ million viewers. A few weeks later against the Dallas Cowboys it was 29,000,000+.
Superbowl viewership for 2022: 112 million
Superbowl viewership for 2023: 115 million.
How many people watch EDR racing? Anyone work at Discovery?
The thing I was trying to point out is (for example) I love bikes, my life has always revolves around them, I have a pretty solid knowledge of what’s going on across multiple disciplines, I watch and read most things bikes related, and I run a small bike repair business in Bellingham WA. Even as someone “heavily involved in” and “close to” the industry as a whole, the name “Bex” doesn’t ring any bells for me. So, how might a newcomer to the sport know such a name? This concept would apply to loads of athletes. As an athlete, you are your own marketing company for your sponsors. Your value to the sponsor is directly tied to their return on investing in you. Successfully navigating this as an athlete is simply very difficult to do in a niche category in a niche discipline of a niche sport. When budgets are cut, these are the ones that go. If a contract doesn’t renew, there’s lots of reasons, but overall, for-profit bike companies are not charities.
It’s nothing against Bex. She’ll be fine! She’ll keep riding, keep racing, and it sounds like she’ll come up with ways to make it happen. That’s what you gotta do in life.
Racing bikes professionally is a job and a contract isn’t infinite.
Here you are trying to win attention points on the internet while she's out there winning the overall twice like a boss
Get a life Jr
Do us all a favor and stfu next time