Martin Maes Announced as Red Bull Athlete

 He is planning to shift to DH in two to three years... so it makes sense, interview YouTube.

 @chribi: Yeah, all the retired Enudro Pros aiming for DH...

 NICA will dock points from a team and pull the rider out of competition if they are caught just holding any energy drinks in the venue. We all know that crap is just that "crap" but to be honest they are the only ones spending money regularly to support racing and race coverage. I wish Marlboro would step up and sell us something and put it in the hands of kids and young athletes with insta-followings. Just so we could have a better sport.

 @trails801: love nica. love having my wheels glued to the ground as REAL bike riders should. I love being simply incapable of doing basic bike maneuvers involving pushing my hips back and tugging my handlebars. and boy do I sure hate energy drinks. I only drink the finest blood of whole foods employees who have only quenched their thirst with non-GMO coconut water their whole lives. The @unioncigaretteinternational Instagram page is a disgrace to the mountain biking world. The 50:01 crew could inspire America's youth to go out and hurt themselves. Ban them. Ban them ALL

-Sincerely a Concerned NICA parent who thinks their kid's spandex isn't tight enough

 @xyzHero: Let's hope Sam Hill retires from Enduro ;-)

 Was it concerning all drinks or only energy drinks? What about red wine sponsors?

 *fewer

 @fautquecaswing: all "podium drinks"

 @fautquecaswing: Even water has to be in a Redbull branded bottle...

 @millsr4: I think I read that UCI glasses would also be at disposal

 @millsr4: They said there would be UCI branded bottles for athletes that were sponsored by other brands.

 From the original article "The intention is to keep unbranded (UCI World Cup) bottles always available at the podium/hot seat for riders who have other partners whilst making Red Bull available."

 @HankBizzle: Fair enough but in that same article it says this: "The ban, if put in place, would only allow riders to appear to be drinking either Red Bull or a drink from a Red Bull bottle."

Hence my comment...

 @millsr4: I read elsewhere it's only redbull if branded. Cleanskin wine bottle AOK.

 @kit-nz: Don't call him that!!

Relax, I'm stirring. Sorry, it took my mind straight to my favourite Trump meme.

 @Karlos97: I'm channelling Stanis. Someone showed me this and I thought it was hilarious.

youtu.be/u0wj38qTtFU

 I thought you said a nice beer....stella is NOT a nice beer. Its a common beer ????

 @Lorieng: common beers can be nice. Granted many of them aren’t, but some of them are decent enough

 @Lorieng: The word "nice" must have a different meaning for this context in the UK than in NA... but I reckon a certain UK legend by the name of Steve Peat who enjoys his Stella!

 Duchesse de Bourgogne or a Rodenbach Gran Cru would have been nice...

 Stella artois is not much better than molson. I hope a Canadian guy can discover real Belgium beers as a Belgium guy can taste real Canadian beers. Two awesome beer countries, huge varieties but still so different.

 We have 1000+ brands of beer, picking the right name shouldn't be a problem ????

 @fautquecaswing: luckily we can easily find some nice Belgian beers like Leffe at local stores, and some bars have great selections. Stella is way better tasting than Molson brews IMO...but a racer would be rolling in $$$ with a Molson sponsorship!

 Surely any Stella advertising would be done on a wife beater.

 @Lorieng: I was once at a punk gig and some old British punk geezer tried to take the piss out of me for drinking Stella. Told me I was posh/a rich bastard while he was drinking DB Double Brown. The worst common beer in the history of worst common beer.

 Step 13: Become a beer snob

 @Lorieng: because they have it all over the front of Sainsburys all over the UK.

 Too bad duvel didn't snap him up. You offer see the riders drinking it after races

 @mudsavage: love a duvel! Amazing beer

 @gunners1: haha its at every super market but i actually went on a beer trip to brugge in 2015 and discovered way more than stella. Got laughed at for asking for it and many proper places didnt sell it ????

 @gunners1: btw it keep putting ???? At the end of my post from where i had an emoji. It isnt meant to look passive aggressive mate haha

 @streetkvnt-kvlt: haha yea i think that guy doesn't know his beer. Don’t get me wrong I’d drink it, but there are loads more beers in Belgium of much higher quality. Duvel, la chuffe (cant remember how to spell it), trappist, zot loads more. Thats even if i can spell half of them

 @mudsavage:

 Its takes a Monster of a run to beat him.

 @Boardlife69: Martin is the real Guru!

 @cool3: He started the season with a Bang

 Four hour energy to match his we would need to do a line of speed

 He is the king of the mountain dew to his drink

 There's nae danger he's going be lift+ the trophy. Putting a pair of V's up to everyone else. And this bru-is not even 32 yet. Who NOS where he will go next

 Have to keep a Tab on him, he may Jolt right up to the top.

 Plus one for Jolt Cola@GOrtho:

 Congrats Martin!

 Well Rach Atherton went up in one of the red bull fighter jets a few months/years back so it seems you also get cool days out thrown into the mix!

 Yes, they are a large financial sponsor for top riders (Which is a great thing!)

 Money (potentially a lot), enhanced athlete support for training camps/medical etc., better support for media/content creation and probably a big one is RB seems to go for long-term relationships with their athletes. You don't see them dropping people after a year or two.

 Extra media attention, perhaps making him even more appealing to other sponsorship opportunities as in return?

 All the super cool fantastic nutritional delicious performance enhancing cutting energy drinks one could ever dream of!

 @gramboh: interesting that redbull doesn't drop their athletes except in F1 - if you don't perform there you are gone faster then any other team on the grid.

 @onemind123: I’m not 100% familiar with formula one but isn’t that a case where they own a racing team? If you are talking about driver changes I think that’s probably handled a bit differently that individual athlete sponsorships.

 @onemind123: Helmut Marko is the reason for that. Red Bull is not involved in the day-to-day operations of RBR or STR

 I forget what it's called but you can push the mechanism forward which pulls the goggles away from your face and lets them clear if they're steamed up

 Yes, I forget the name of them but they essentially lift the goggle away from your face to prevent steaming up. Lots of the mx enduro guys use them

 they are called Airflaps

 @frei: Thats the one

 @jamessmurthwaite: Airflaps !

 That’s a sh*t thing to say mate, you don’t know what you’re talking about