Welcome back to RECON, the email delivering your weekly MTB news in < 5 min.

Is throwing massive whips a right of passage for the best young MTB talent?

At the McGazza Fest, Camden Rutherford showed he’s following in the footsteps of legends like Jackson Goldstone and Finn Iles.

Keep your eyes on this future star.

On Today’s Shred:

• 🍿 MTB vs. WBD

• 📉 Annie Ford Sets World Record

• 🥶 What Is Steez, Seriously?

AROUND THE MOUNTAIN

🌵 Freeride Fiesta Went Off

Johny Salido is a top athlete but his legacy may lie in being the biggest promoter of MTB in Mexico. His Freeride Fiesta Edition 2025 had the world’s best riders show up to his XXL jumps. The vibe was unmatchable and legends of the sport gave their best: Szymon Godziek won the best line category and Bienvenido Aguado ruled the best trick competition again. Watch Sam Pilgrim’s gnarly video about the event here.

📽️ New MTB Movie Dropping Sunday

Grab your popcorn because the steezy film crew from SLEEPER CO might be back with another masterpiece. After successful documentaries covering athletes like Reece Wilson, this new documentary covers the incredible comebacks of Amaury Pierron and Myriam Nicole. Tune in on Feb 2.

🇺🇸 Kaidan Ingersoll Joins Monster Energy

The new superstar of US slopestyle has a bag of tricks we’ve only seen from the likes of Emil Johannson. With such a successful 2024 season, it was only natural Kaidan stepped up his sponsorship game with one of the blue-chip energy drink brands. It’s great to see another US trick master on the rise after Nicholi Rogatkin proved Europe can be conquered by a yankee.

📸 Photo Of The Week: 2025 McGazza Fest Dream Jam

RACING

📺 The MTB Streaming Wars

If Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav ever thought to increase his security detail, the outrage from MTB fans this week may be the perfect reason.

🤬 Why Is Everyone Angry?

Warner Bros. Discovery announced this week its moving its coverage of the UCI World Series from Eurosport to TNT Sports in both the U.K. and Ireland starting February 28.

As a result, Discovery+ subscription costs will rise significantly—from £6.99 to £30.99 per month for access to the TNT Sports add on. Racing fans will see a roughly 400% price increase for the season, now costing £216.9, compared to just £48.93 in 2024.

🤓 A Quick History Lesson

Emotions have always run high in the wake of broadcast changes to professional mountain biking.

When Red Bull acquired the rights from Freecaster in 2012, fans were terrified their beloved sport would lose its raw, punk rock energy to the ambitions of a multi-billon dollar company.

⚡️ The Opposite Happened

Red Bull ended up transforming the sport in a way fans loved.

• Providing free, high-quality live streams

• Keeping legendary announcer Rob Warner

• Using innovative camera angles and on-bike footage

• Building better MTB storytelling and athlete profiles

🤑 But then WBD took over in 2023

If mountain bikers were upset about an industry brand like Red Bull picking up broadcast rights, now imagine the reaction to an outsider like WBD.

If you also consider how WBD made several unpopular moves out the gate, you’ll understand why this recent price hike has fans seething.

1. No More Free Streaming: Red Bull’s coverage was free for everyone, while WBD put races behind a paywall. Fans criticized the move as a blatant money grab, reducing the growth potential of MTB.

2. The Loss of Rob Warner: Rob Warner was the voice of mountain biking. His chaotic, no-filter commentary made every race feel electric. When WBD took over, they didn’t bring him back.

3. Worse Production: Fans hated the first few broadcasts. There were missing camera angles, poor replays, and awkward pacing. While some of these things were improved, many still consider it a step down from Red Bull.

🙋‍♂️ RECON’s Take

WBD is adding insult to injury with the price increases imposed on the UK and Ireland. It looks like the company is taking advantage of passionate racing fans who WBD thinks will pay no matter what.

At the end of the day, the free market means one company’s mistakes are another’s opportunity. Red Bull is rumored to be transforming Hardline into a full-on series while Monster Energy’s Pro Downhill series is attracting talent with bigger prize money.

So will enough fans protest by cancelling their subscriptions to force change? We can’t predict where downhill MTB is going but we can promise you one thing.

If the startup idea we’re launch soon here at RECON works out, we’ll buy the rights one day and make the broadcasts free again.

RECORDS

🎖 Annie Ford Breaks New World Record

Annie Ford is absolutely insane, but for all the right reasons.

On January 20th, the Aussie shredder just broke the world record for the most vertical descent on a mountain bike in 24 hours, descending 182,831 feet or 34.6 miles on her Santa Cruz V10 at Coronet Peak Bike Park in New Zealand.

🙋‍♀️ Who Is Annie Ford?

The real question isn’t who is Annie Ford but rather who is she not?

A marine biologist, surfer, climate activist, and mountain biker–Anne is known for wild feats that raise awareness for causes she believes in.

For example, Annie rode 1800 miles on her full suspension mountain bike from Mexico to Whistler last year, which helped her raise $35,000 for organizations working to stop offshore drilling projects.

😬 The New Record

This wasn’t the first time Annie broke the world record for the longest vertical descent as she set the record with a descent of 137,000 feet in 2023.

But Annie’s most recent attempt smashed her previous run by nearly 50,000 feet, showing her insane commitment this time around.

After finishing, Annie had raised over $35,000 for reforestation in New Zealand and donations are still open if you’re feeling inspired.

📋 More Wild MTB Records

• Longest jump on a MTB: In 2018 Fabio Wibmer jumped 141 foot / 43 meters in the snow on his Specialized Demo - a new world record

• Backwheel action on speed: NWD-legend Bobby Root achieved a speed of 138.56 km/h (86.1 mph) on the rear wheel at Palmdale, California in 2001

• Flipping for miles: Tom Isted did the longest mountain bike dirt-to-dirt backflip in 2023. With 120ft or 37 meters he managed to beat Cam Zink’s record!

• Frontie record on dirt: The Spanish madman Bienvenido Aguado landed a 100ft frontflip on the biggest dirt jump at DarkFEST 2021.

🙋‍♂️ RECON’s Take

For some, chasing world records are a way to stroke the ego. But Annie proves they’re a tool to drive awareness and raise money for a good cause. These kind of all-out feats combined with a charitable mission are core to the culture of mountain biking. Can’t wait to see what Annie sets her mind to next.

CULTURE

💦 The History Of Steez

You hear it all the time from mountain bikers to skateboarders to surfers all the way to hip hop stars.

Steez feels like the word that connects action sports enthusiasts from all disciplines and unites them around a shared understanding.

But we wanted to find out where the word “Steez” actually comes from.

📚 The History

The Urban Dictionary states Steez as “plain old style with eaze”.

It originated from 1980s hip-hop culture used to describe rappers that effortlessly flow through their music.

But somewhere in the early 2000s, action sports picked this word up and absolutely ran with it. it first popped up in skateboarding but has since made its way into every action sports vertical.

🤣 So What Is It?

Steez could be anywhere from how you dress to how you perform in your respective sport.

There’s levels to it too–like with slow technical steez to fast huck and pray situations.

Steez is a very broad word, but as a good rule of thumb, someone is Steezy if they have that natural talent and flow.

You know it when you see it…

So now that you know what Steez is, forward this newsletter to someone with no steez and see if they’re steezy enough to read RECON and find out you dissed them.

RIDING SCHOOL

🤫 Your Bike Is Too Noisy

This section of our newsletter is written by MTB education app Mastery, founded by Justin Rausch (@OneMTB) where we bring you the advice of pro riders to sharpen your skills out there.

There is nothing more annoying than a noisy bike…

There’s something about the sound of a brand new bike—just the sound of your tires rolling and the buzz of the hubs.

But after a few rides, that perfect sound fades.

Suddenly, you're hearing chain slap, loose cables, and the creak of aging bearings. To help you bring back that fresh, quiet ride, we’ve put together three tips to silence your bike and get it back to its sweet, new-bike sound.

Chainstay Protector

• Chain slap is one of the main contributors to noise on your mountainbike, adding a chain protector can help dampen this

• VHS Tape is one of the best options for aftermarket noise damping chainstay protectors

Cable Management

• Cables slapping around makes more noise than you would think, tiding up your cables will make a world of difference.

• You can use zip ties to group close cables together, preventing them from slapping each other.

Grease Your Bearings

• A creaky headset can be noisy and lead to bigger problems down the line.

• Regularly greasing your headset, bottom bracket, and pivots on a regular basis will make a world of difference.

With Mastery, you can learn MTB skills from the pros. If you haven’t yet, be sure to join their waitlist—it's the perfect way to level up your riding.

🎥 Video Of The Week

This video documents the making of Matt Macduff's 2024 X games Part.

🎧 Podcast Of The Week

Matt Jones interviews MTB stars in a hot tub. No explanation needed.

📊 Last Week’s Poll

Rachel commented on our IG post about this saying her joints aren’t quit up to the task.

👇 More Headlines and Hits

This Ex Pro Mountain Biker Built A Viral MTB Newsletter

A Bike Park But With Magic Carpets

The Ups And Downs Of Finn Iles Career

9Point8 Launches Inverted Pedals

This newsletter is written with ❤️ every week by Nic Bean, Michael Sikand, Marc Brodesser, and Justin Rausch