14 Industry Supporters Invest in the Success of Enduro World Series 2014

Continental, Santa Cruz Bicycles, Shimano, Giant Bicycles, Specialized Bicycles, Canyon Bicycles, Mavic, SRAM, Cannondale, Cube Bicycles, Alpine Stars, Fox Racing Shox, Mucky Nutz, Dirty Selle San Marco - it reads like a who's who among bike brands, and it is.

But this line-up also represents the 2014 official supporters of the Enduro World Series.

Early adopters of a new crowd-funded model for professional mountain bike events, the 14 gold and silver supporters provide the backing for the Enduro Mountain Bike Association (EMBA) as it moves into the second year of hosting a seven part World Series that will get underway two weeks from now in Nevados de Chillan, Chile.

By foregoing traditional methods of event sponsorship, the EWS committed from the outset to a grassroots model.

"We offer no exclusive sponsorship packages and that allows each individual round to hold the full sponsorship rights to their own event," says EWS Managing Director, Chris Ball. "It's a crowd funded approach to international sport, and it was designed to be a sustainable ground-up funding model."

And it's working.

Thanks to the commitment and literal buy-in of Continental, Santa Cruz Bicycles, Shimano, Giant Bicycles, Specialized Bicycles, Canyon Bicycles, Mavic, SRAM, Cannondale, Cube Bicycles, Alpine Stars, Fox Racing Shox, Mucky Nutz, and Dirty Selle San Marco, whose direct investment in the organisation make them a key part of the series and its successess, Enduro World Series 2014 has been able to move into two new countries, Chile and the UK, and contribute 5% of ALL supportership income to the Overall Series prize money for Women
and Men to be awarded after the final round of the series.

"It's a very novel business model, at the professional level," says SRAM's Jeremiah Boobar, who serves on the EWS Advisory Board. "By being built, managed and funded by people and companies that are passionate about the success of this format of racing, EWS has set a direction the reflects the needs of participants with the support of the industry. This differs greatly from other disciplines where racing format, course design and technical regulations are determined by a third party who has to answer to the Olympic movement."

One year ago, with the first 19 official teams, 10 supporters and 220 members signed on, the Enduro World Series had the critical mass needed to launch.

"It was not hard to convince many in the industry to invest in getting the EWS off the ground," says Boobar. "I think we all saw the potential for what a world series could do for mountain biking. The expansion of the number of professional Enduro teams and athletes this offseason is a confirmation that everyone wants to be a part of the fun that has the industry buzzing. If there were doubters last year, they have changed their minds for 2014. I sincerely hope a broader portion of the industry sees the value and invests in the series for 2014 and beyond."

"These are the people who have committed to keeping the sport growing," says Ball. "We are grateful to the 26 teams, 14 supporters and over 350 individual members who are backing the Series and investing in the sport of enduro."

The Gold supporters for the 2014 Enduro World Series are: Continental, Santa Cruz Bicycles, Shimano, Giant Bicycles, Specialized Bicycles, Canyon Bicycles, Mavic, SRAM, Cannondale, Cube Bicycles, Alpine Stars and Fox Racing Shox.

Silver supporters are: Mucky Nutz and Dirty Selle San Marco

Individuals, too, can show their support by purchasing an EMBA membership. (Follow the links from http://www.enduroworldseries.com/about.php to https://ccnbikes.com/lk3/licenses/select-licensee/emba)