For the best part of 30 years, Will Longden has been involved in downhill racing. Starting as top rider himself, he progressed on to managing the Madison Saracen team when he hung up his number board. A team manager for the last decade, he’s one of the most experienced people in the sport.

At the end of the 2024 season, the elite Madison Saracen team will disband, and riders and staff move onto pastures new. Among them some heavy-hitting names. Matt Walker is the current British DH champion, George Madley is the Junior national champ, and Greg Williamson won the British title back in 2022, as well as finishing 19th overall in the World Cup standings this year, despite missing the end of the season due to injury.

I sat down with Williamson and Longden at Fort William for one last interview with the team, to ascertain what they think about the current state of DH, and how they’d like to see it develop in the future.

On the rocks: Not the metaphor the Madison Saracen Team deserves after punching above its weight on the World Cup circuit for many years.

The past few years has seen massive changes in both the format, schedule and coverage of downhill mountain biking on the world stage. Once a staple of Red Bull TV, it’s now mostly behind a paywall with Warner Bros. Discovery taking over the helm.

Gone is the excitement of Rob Warner and Elliott Jackson, both replaced by a fresh presenting team courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery. But, what do riders and team managers think of the changes?

“Warner Bros. want to make it more professional, and to add more rounds,” replied Longden. “And this is something that teams have genuinely been asking for. It’s just it has all come at a difficult time for a lot of industries, you know, in cycling and outside of it. So it’s difficult to look at it and say, “I wouldn’t do that, because it hasn’t worked for me.”

Williamson was more blunt in his assessment of the coverage.

“I don’t think it’s as good as it was. It shows moments of brilliance and moments when I’m bored watching, honestly. It’s hard not to look past having Rob and Elliot – they were great commentators.

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed, is that they’re not taking things from other sports that work. For example, in between runs, they could just do a quick round-up on what happened or provide a bit more knowledge.

“Because that’s what people need. That’s why people watch all the vlogs on YouTube now, because they get the behind the scenes. You don’t get that with the coverage.”

Saracen’s Myst has been the team’s bike for nearly a decade.

Perhaps something in a similar style to Formula 1’s Ted’s Notebook would work well with the accessibility of the ‘paddock’ in DH, where a presenter gets inside the team setups. And even, something like the popular Netflix series, “Drive to Survive” could do wonders for DH with the right amount of access. Longden agrees that core fans will want something more than they’re currently getting from Discovery+.

“I think more and more of that [Netflix] will come in. And it needs to, because at the moment, I mean, I’m nearly 50, I find social media really boring. Now, I think maybe it’s rose-tinted specs, but in the 90s, there were real characters in the sport, you know.

“And I look at social media now, and they could all interchange. You could put different names to each profile, and I wouldn’t really know the difference. They’re all in the gym, telling you what they’re eating, at the top of the downhill, or they’re all going to do a track walk.

Will Longden has been team manager for over a decade, and has 30 years experience in the sport

“And it’s the stuff that they have to do as athletes now. But for me, maybe because I’ve done it a long time, I find it quite boring. I don’t see those individual characters, and I also don’t see people get behind the scenes and talk to riders and get some genuine opinions, rather than the standard answers.

“I think that those core fans will love to get involved with that, and I think that they’ll feel like a part of it again.”

The ever-growing distance between fans and the races isn’t the only barrier being felt in the sport. When asked what he’d like to see change in the sport, Williamson answered “good communication.”

“I’d like to just see good communication between the organisation and the teams and riders, because just now we just don’t have it. I think it would just put everyone at ease a lot more. But for some reason there’s friction. It’s hard to explain. When really, I feel like we could all collaborate so well and bring the sport up together.”

Greg Williamson finished 19th overall in the World Cup Series this year

Part of the friction may come from the organisers changing things without rider input. The formats for example – with the introduction (and now reportedly the removal) of semi-finals. This is, however, something that Williamson agrees with.

“We’ve been wanting to get rid of semis since they began. They kind of threw it on us, and to be honest, no one really wanted it. It’s just extra danger.

“The whole point of it was it was going to be televised, and it was the first year, but it wasn’t the second year. So it was like, what’s the point? Simple as that. So you’re just needlessly putting yourself on the line for points and not really getting much gain.”

Longden agrees that the new structure will benefit riders as well as the teams investing in their racers over the full weekend.

“I think that is the right decision. We’ve seen situations where we’ve had injured riders come into the start of it the previous year, so they didn’t have any protection. So if they have any problem, they haven’t got two opportunities to get in.

They could be out immediately, and you haven’t even got a racer in the finals on race day. So it’s quite a big investment, gambling on that. I think it’s better without the protection, because you’ve now got two opportunities to qualify, and then you’re into the final and that is something that I totally agree with. That’s a good way to go.”

Greg in his Scottish colours at the World Champs in Andorra.

When it comes to other changes to the format and races, it’s common to hear riders asking for more technical stuff to ride. But with TV coverage almost masking how difficult and how steep the courses are, does it put on a good enough show to warrant it to the audience?

“It’s a really difficult thing to show; how steep it is, how fast they go and how difficult what they’re doing is,” added Longden. “A lot of times people will go and ride a track, like Fort William, and an intermediate expert rider would get down and enjoy it, no problem.

“But if you said, right, see if you can do that in under four minutes or under five minutes. Then, the technicality comes into it from the speed you’ve got to do it in. And when you think the guys are doing it averaging 40-50kph. It’s not exaggerating to say it’s potentially life or death. So it’s conveying that to a new audience that don’t ride bikes.”

Williamson agrees he would prefer to see more technical tracks, but recognises the limitations these have on the coverage.

“There needs to be a mix. They are trying to shorten the tracks, so you can get more coverage for the viewers. But we still want to have a good range of technical stuff that’s not pushing the limits, so that it’s completely wide open. It can’t happen every race or it would be too inconsistent, but some people love that. Some people don’t.

“I definitely prefer it a bit more technical, because that’s where the gaps are to be made. But it does come with its sacrifices, like there’s that inconsistency of making it down. Especially when it rains. Like in Loudenvielle, the track was amazing.”

Greg hits the stumps section in Leogang.

Longden concurred with riders wanting more technical tracks, but looking at it from a perspective of getting more people interested in the sport, is short and fast the way to go?

“I think generally the tracks that we ride now aren’t as technical as they used to be, in the same way, like trials technical or slow speed technical or off-camber, roots and things like that.

“I still think the tracks are generally pretty good. And I think the length of the tracks is fairly decent. We used to ride tracks up to eight minutes long, and that’s clearly not going to work if you want to show that on a TV and show the top 20 guys eight minutes a piece, something’s got to give somewhere. And the shorter the tracks, the closer the time gaps.”

Greg’s promising season was cut short after a crash at Les Gets.

One thing they are looking forward to, however, is new tracks – and more races. Poland was added to the calendar in 2024, and Williamson was pleasantly surprised by the event.

“We already have some great courses, and some we go to every year, which is nice because you know what you’re going to get. It’s historic. And if you got to win there, you’re part of that heritage.

“But then when you throw in the new venues, that’s a must as well, because it keeps things fresh. Like with Poland this year, I think everyone was really pleasantly surprised. They were really lovely people, the food was great. And, of course, we’ve all been wanting more races, and it looks like we’re going to get that.”

The sun (briefly) appeared for us at Fort Bill. Credit: Jack Tennyson

Unfortunately for Saracen, the time for investment in Elite World Cup Downhill has come to an end. With rising costs and a format that sees teams having to shell out for deals with the broadcasters, it lends itself to the better funded outfits rather than focusing on the development of the sport as a whole.

“It doesn’t quite work for Saracen as a brand just now,” Longden said. “There are lots of other opportunities for us to promote the brand. And the World Cup, isn’t it, sadly. So let’s give Warner Bros. the opportunity to see if it works out, and potentially maybe one day we’ll get back involved. Who knows?”

So it sounds like Saracen isn’t closing the door entirely, although for now it means people like Longden and Williamson will have to look for alternatives to stay in the sport next year.

“It is sad that the team’s coming to a close,” added Williamson. “It’s been really good. Will Longden has done a ridiculously good job. He’s got so much experience. And, yeah, it’s a sad time, but at same time, I’m really thankful to have been a part of it.”