As the once massive, now dubiously political Midnight Oil once sang, "the time has come..."
Felt Epix, as Jason and myself, has had a fantastic innings, with its partnership with Felt, as well as its co-sponsors Ascend Sport, Night Lightning, OzRiders, the ever present mechanical wizardry of GVRaceTech and Sport Recovery. We've had the privilege to travel across the country to participate in events, to experience the wonders that many will only ever read about and to meet some fantastic people. Our adventures have given our wives near heart attacks, amused our worldwide readership and given us a lifetime of laughs, and to a certain extent that will never end. Its in our genes, the desire to go and seek and adventure, and for the past few years, we've been lucky enough to share the experience with others through the generosity of our corporate partners.
But sadly for all involved, the tough decision was forced upon us. From its very inception, we as Felt Epix, and formerly Felt Racing, have always strived to offer the most value for the sponsorship dollar. Both Jason and I have always been mindful of the fickle nature of sponsorship, and constantly pushed to find new and creative ways to expose the brands that helped us get to where we are. But for that very reason, we find ourselves in a place that is not permitting of these tasks.
Whatever form of cycling we have tried our hand at, Jason and I have always *tried* to make it look effortless. To my mind, that's extremely important for a 'semi-pro', a point of difference to the public cyclist. We have the best tools at hand to achieve that goal, and hence we should make it look easy. Truth be told, to go and do a ride in 'public', it often is easy, and that's simply because of the training that goes on behind the scenes. With our time being swept away in any number of directions, the time that was once used for training, is no longer. And hence, we can no longer commit ourselves to our cycling projects with anywhere near the success we could in the past.
Cycling in all its forms is something that I don't think you ever leave. In one way or another, you'll still always ride. Jason and myself will always continue to ride, to seek adventures and to enjoy every minute of it (sometimes in hindsight). We'll continue to push Felt Bicycles as an excellent brand, and our rides of choice. Naturally like anyone, we'd love to get a new bike each year, to ride it and to show everyone we see how good it is. But thats not the way we, as Felt Epix, are comfortable to operate. We know the monetary value of a bike, and appreciate the value of positive PR, but know ourselves that our exposure wouldn't balance that equation, and as such feel it would be unfair to deprive another rider of a share of the sponsorship budget.
Formally, Felt Epix would to thank Felt Bicycles and Southcott for all their assistance and support of the past 4 years. In the future, we hope to be able to approach you with another fresh new idea, but at the moment, we feel that funding might be better directed to younger or up and coming riders. The bikes have been amazing, the support has been unbeatable and we hope that Felt Epix has blazed another unique path in the fantastic world of cycling.
Thank you,
