Hello everyone and welcome to the Pinkbike podcast. This week is the last interview out of the MSA interview series and it features a mechanics meeting with John Hall, Jim Bland and myself.

Between the three of us, we have varying amounts of experience on the World Cup circuit and we trade a few battle stories about some unexpected difficulties, some things that came very naturally, as well as the highs and lows

of living and working in the podcast.

So this week we've got a bit of a mechanics meeting because I wanted to talk about some of the behind the scenes aspects of downhill World Cup racing

that might not be appreciated by the average viewer, as well as kind of contrasting two different mechanics.

So to my left, we have Jim Band, who you work at the union team.

You also do a bit in the management. And it seems to be a team in the ascendancy.

That's correct, yeah. So I guess give a little bit of a background to the union.

So the union's kind of, it's quite special really because we're a non-profit team.

Actually registers as a charity with the, I guess the main goal of the team is to

get talent, capitalize on it, and then hopefully kind of like get the riders onto bigger

factory programs and yeah, kind of use their talent and get them what they deserve kind of thing.

So yeah, we're very open and yeah, the whole focus is on building potential, maximising young talent, and hopefully, yeah, given in the future everyone deserves.

And, I mean, I think it's going to be really interesting to talk, so you can probably say a car rattle past, because this will be your second season wrenching.

And it feels like this season is kind of things are, you're going to, let's face it,

I've had some great results.

I've been particularly stoked to see Olly Davis.

Really, because he's a fantastically talented rider.

I think he's the hardest property on the circuit of the minute.

Unlucky with some injuries, but he really let it all talk on the track, eh?

Oh, for sure. Like, no one, I think it was impossible to forecast what he's done this year.

Like, obviously he had some injuries and niggles last year, but yeah, he was almost, like,

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