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mr. popular
summer
mr. popular Why does everyone (all of a sudden) hate Aaron Gwin?! words: Ric McLaughlin / @RicMcLaughlin Of course, we don’t all hate Aaron Gwin but his popularity
lead some to accuse him of simply being ‘boring’. The sad
seems to have shot downward with the same pace with
truth is that fans, as a tribe, can be a terribly fickle thing
which he once dominated the hillsides of Europe. Reading
and despite all the unseen hours in the gym, lonely road
the chat stream beside the live feed from the Vallnord
rides and endless days shuttling the Temecula hillside, the
World Cup, Gwin was harried from pillar to post. Amidst
crowd still demanded the candid notoriety and charisma of
the usual quandaries as to whether the feed was live or
a Steve Peat or a Cedric Gracia. But that wasn’t Aaron.
not there was a steady stream of abuse tumbling the
The move to Specialized was a noisy, messy one which
Californian’s way. From people saying simply that he
left Trek fuming and Specialized grinning. The off-load of
should put Specialized stickers on to his old Trek to just
Sam Hill to CRC/Nukeproof seemed like chip-wrappers
plain abuse.
compared to the arrival of the blue-eyed boy of American
“It’s because he used to dominate and came across as
DH at Morgan Hill.
arrogant,” one self-proclaimed ‘journo’ put it (obviously
But 2013’s form hasn’t matched that of the previous
not adhereing too tightly to the ‘detached observer’ roll).
season’s causing armchair pundits to quickly point to the
Others claimed that he’d gotten greedy with his big money
bike being anything but to his suiting by way of some
off-season move from Trek to the red ‘S’ which, at the time,
kind of cosmic karma. Gwin is, in their view, getting his
spawned various open letters and rumours of threatened
comeuppance for a fiscal-inspired change of employer and
legal proceedings.
for daring to be successful. Shame on him...
Let’s start with that. Firstly, when Gwin moved from Yeti
But should a back-to-back overall Champion not be entitled
Cycles to Trek back in 2010 it was roundly viewed as
to switch teams? Is it then surprising that he’s gone from
the natural order of things. Yeti, the small, passionate,
one large bike company’s payroll to anothers? Of course,
heritage-steaped Coloradans had taken the prodigious
no-one knows what is going on inside that custom-sprayed
talent as far as they could before the big boys came
Troy Lee D3 other than the man himself but surely simply
knocking. Legend has it that on winning his first World Cup
pointing to ‘the bike’ is too simplistic an excuse. In a
in Pietermaritzburg the following season, the first person
sport where tenths of a second are garnered via passing
Gwin rang was Yeti owner, Chris Conroy to thank him. That
between trees at 30mph, it might just be that the ‘problem’
season, he went on to become the first rider to win five
does indeed lie between the ears.
World Cups in a season and in the other two still remained
To return to the people pouring bile based on his past
on the podium.
successes, Gwin raised the bar. He came into the sport
His second season aboard Martin Whiteley’s Trek World
late and quickly established himself over 24 months as
Racing squad followed a similar suit with four wins in a
one of its most dominant ever figures. He alone pushed
row. The rainbow stripes of a World Champ still elude him
American DH racing back to its forefront and showed a
but it’s something he openly has little time for. To Gwin,
level of physical and mental strength which forced the long-
championships are won throughout the year, not on one
established elite to raise their respective games. Mountain
weekend.
biking is a professional sport and as a result to hate
Gwin’s domination was reminiscent of a young Sam Hill
someone for being the best defies the point of watching it.
and like a young Sam Hill, success and a quiet personality
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photo: keith valentine / @phunkt