Bird Dog
If you missed the PR release on all the major MTB websites such as “the website formerly known as Pinkbike” or VitalMTB, then let me fill you in on a little news. I’m a fully backed Michelin MTB athlete as of last week. Full factory, boys and girls. I’m talking green skittles only in the dressing room and nothing short of Evian water.
Bird ain’t as young as he used to be, but I’m still young enough to smoke most of you fools down the side of a big ass hill. Sure, I’ve had a few hip surgeries recently, but Michelin was looking for a fine tuned athlete to represent their new e-bike tires and it just so happens that I now excel on pedal assisted bikes. Per my contract I would also like to say that the new E-WILD tire offers optimal grip with its lateral and central rubbers designed to optimize motricity, even on climbs, and transmit the bike’s full power.
Going uphill fast is for losers anyways. Michelin obviously sought me out for my downhill prowess, as was obvious after Michelin Super Exec, Randy Richardson, submitted this quote:
“We wanted Brent on the team not because we are friends, but because of his championship level skills.”
Boom! There you have it. Straight from the source!
They originally approached me prior to the Downhill World (cough, State) Championships in South Carolina a few years ago. It was my first professional race and I was in the middle of a spectacular run absolutely crushing my partner Wes “Chilidog” Williams (who was not in the Pro class) before I crashed. Hard. Like, really hard. Luckily I’m made mostly of that same rare metal that the Wolverine is made out of and I didn’t sustain any serious injuries.
However, Michelin being the leader in the space that they are, didn’t want to make any snap decisions. They kept their eye on me until recently when I got the phone call asking if I wanted to be one of their factory team riders for 2022. Seeing as I don’t have any other sponsors and have never actually been sponsored, I calmly jumped at the opportunity.
GASGAS is also considering offering me a deal, but we haven’t come to any sort of final agreement yet. And by “offering me a deal” I mean I’ve been begging them to let me ride one their new e-bikes for months and they’ve barely returned my calls. Maybe once they realize I’m a Michelin athlete they’ll change their mind.
See you on the trails. And I’m sure Michelin will want me posting, blogging, vlogging, etc. per our contract agreement so be on the lookout for some amazing MTB content coming your way soon.
