ATHLETES – Jake100 joins RASOULUTION

Hailing from London, Jake100 has been a highly visible rider for many years. It all started for Jake when he was approached by Nike to feature in their now-legendary LDNR ad-campaign. They seized the opportunity to showcase his back-wheel-heavy approach to cycling and continue to work with Jake after the campaign.

At RASOULUTION, when looking at Athlete management we take a unique approach for each athlete; there is no one-size fits all approach. Depending on the sector of the sport, where a rider is from, future plans and where that riders appeal lies, we ensure that each rider has tailored management and communication strategy to exactly match their needs.

From his early days in the LDNR campaign Jake has built a strong following on social media, and has featured more in mainstream news, that in the industry specific pages. Building a huge online audience with his edits, Jake eventually became a figure head of a young, urban scene dedicated to creative back-wheel maneuvers dubbed “Bike Life”. With approaching 1.5 million follows on TikTok Jake is now one of the focal points of the industry in the ever-evolving social media window.

Not only do RASOULUTION have a personalized approach to looking after each rider, we also take the same care to ensure each rider fits our agency in all areas, from attitude to outlook as well as their potential in the cycling industry. When Jake joined the roster at RASOULTUION, Managing Director Tarek Rasouli said,“The creativity in his edits as well his positive outlook on life made for a great first impression. When we first talked to him on a zoom call, we instantly had a great feeling about his character. He is absolutely genuine and knows what he wants and is smart beyond his years. We are looking forward to helping Jake develop his career as a bike rider and to elevate his projects and ideas with his partners in years to come.”

Born and raised in East London, UK, Jake grew up riding BMX and playing football.

After a string of knee injuries and surgeries put a halt to his promising career as a footballer, Jake briefly studied physiotherapy before embarking on an apprenticeship as a mechanic at London bike store Paradise Cycles. Working at the shop reignited Jake’s love for cycling and he quickly took to riding the streets of London in every free second he had.

It is important in athlete management to ensure that each person stands out from the crowd whist maintaining authenticity. With Jake this was very easy to identify as he runs the event series and charity under the banner of “Off the Streets”. With events that combine urban street culture with unique cross-disciplinary cycling races like wheelie races and no-front wheel races, the Off the Streets team hope to create opportunities in the cycling industry for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds through education and apprenticeships.

Jake has a new edit going out December 2021 which perfectly showcases his riding style on the streets of London. His long-term partnership with Collective Bikes that has forged the signature C100 model septically for the Freestyle Wheelie market will continue to sell and we look forward to bringing new partners to Jakes side over the coming months and years.

ATHLETES – After a year full of international contests, projects and travel restrictions we look back on Tomas Lemoine’s intense 2021 season.

In the world of MTB, Tomas Lemoine is known for his unique personality and incredible all-round skills across different disciplines. A contest focused rider, he’s felt the impact of travel restrictions during 2021 as part of the Covid pandemic. Nonetheless, he has had a very fruitful year. 

CONTESTS – Nothing will ever stand in the way of Tomas Lemoine’s Crankworx objectives

Having already finished on the overall podium of the King of Crankworx classification several times in the past, taking the win is one of Tomas Lemoine’s main goals. With 3 events set to go ahead on 3 different continents in 2021, the Covid pandemic cast a spell of uncertainty as to which of these would go ahead, and which riders would be able to attend.

The season started in June in Innsbruck, Austria, with all the best riders in the world managing to gather for an amazing show which even included a small crowd on finals day. Innsbruck turned out to be a great start to Tomas’ season, with a silver medal on the Pump Track and a gold on the Speed & Style. He then placed 9th on the Slopestyle, putting him at the top of the provisional King of Crankworx classification.

Unfortunately, Tomas tested positive for Covid shortly after that, which ruled him out of a maiden participation at Red Bull Hardline and, most importantly, made it impossible for him to enter Canada for the 2nd Crankworx event, taking place in British Columbia. This effectively ended his run for King of Crankworx 2021 and the bad luck did not stop there as he also had to go through minor knee surgery following an injury.

Nonetheless, Tomas quickly got over his disappointment at the start of the very last Crankworx event of the year in Rotorua, grabbing podiums in both Pump Track and Speed & Style once again. Putting down a good Slopestyle run with a convalescent knee was a challenge, but Tomas pulled it off to grab a 5th spot as a conclusion to his season. All in all, he finished 4th of the King of Crankworx 2021 classification and won 4 medals along the way.

Tomas Lemoine competing against his close friend Thomas Genon during CLIF Speed & Style at Crankworx Innsbruck 2021 (© Louis Eder)

CONTENT & PR – Youtube content creation, wide media placements and video projects

2021 has been a year full of great new projects for Tomas. After meeting in the winter of 2020 to discuss content and contest plans with RASOULUTION, he started creating Vlogs and promoting them on a branded YouTube channel. Those generated thousands of views and created value for all his partners, both in terms of visibility and content creation. RASOULUTION implemented a strategy to share activation assets for Tomas, ensuring partners had content at their fingertips all year long.

Tomas is one of the biggest stars of French MTB and during the off-season we established contacts with the n°1 sports media in France, L’Equipe, to establish a ‘journal’ style of article written by Tomas on their website. Two of those articles were coordinated and published around Crankworx Innsbruck and Rotorua, bringing visibility for Tomas, his partners and promoting MTB Slopestyle to a very wide and more mainstream audience.

Later in November, Tomas and one his partners will release their biggest video project to date, stay tuned!

PARTNERSHIPS – A French top MTBer and a French top tire brand, a perfect fit

For a multi discipline rider such as Tomas, the range of tires available for use must be as wide as possible while still providing good riding quality. Finding a partner that will combine both characteristics is not always easy. Combining this challenging requirement with Tomas’ French identity, we identified Michelin as a perfect fit for him. Since the beginning of the year, he has been riding Michelin tires across all disciplines and all bikes, bringing him great satisfaction and providing the French brand with an amazing visibility platform on the MTB scene.

Tomas Lemoine performing at the Pumptrack Challenge at Crankworx Innsbruck (© Red Bull Content Pool / Boris Beyer)

 

 

Header Picture: RASOULUTION / Richard Bos

BRANDS – 20 years of Bikepark Leogang 

With The Epic Bikepark Leogang being not only Austria’s first bike park – founded in 2001, when the concept “bike park” was almost unkown across Europe – but also being one of RASOULUTION’s first PR clients, we are more than happy to celebrate their 20th birthday with them and, of course, to keep pushing their mountain bike communications in their anniversary season, too. 

As partners in charge of mountain bike related PR, RASOULUTION has played a key role over the last 15 years communicating the news of the Epic Bikepark Leogang, inviting journalists on-site to shred and experience the trails themselves or creating and managing influencer and customer camps, like the acclaimed Race Camp with Aaron Gwin back in 2019. On-site support and press relations during the legendary Leogang World Cup events or the World Championships in 2020 is part of our duties as well. 

This year, in 2021, big parts of the communication revolved around the 20th anniversary, which served as the arc for all press engagement and played an important role in all four press releases that were distributed internationally. Next to that, the organization of press trips, which not only included classic media but also YouTuber and other social media influencer became more important. Aside from individual trips, RASOULUTION organized a two-day Skills Camp for four MTB-savvy influencers, who could improve their skills with coach Jasper Jauch and created awareness for the Epic Bikepark Leogang through their channels. 

The second big on-site event for RASOULUTION this year was the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup hosted by Leogang in early June. The first double header of the season saw the downhill riders joining the competition for the first time in 2021. RASOULUTION provided the daily reports on the awesome and thrilling races in XCC, XCO and DHI and maintained the press relations for all on-site journalists, facilitating interviews, supplying press materials etc.  

“Since 2006, The Epic Bikepark Leogang has been working closely with RASOULUTION. Next to developing world class events, such as 26TRIX and White Style, which put the region of Saalfelden Leogang on the map globally, the agency also looks after our yearly media relations. With pleasure I look back at 14 years of a successful partnership. Tarek Rasouli and his team develop many ideas and activities outside of the general PR work and the agency has a great network inside and outside of the bike industry. The Epic Bikepark Leogang and RASOULUTION share a similar success story!” – Kornel Grundner, CEO of Leoganger Bergbahnen  

 

Pictures: Klemens König & Moritz Ablinger

EVENTS – Red Bull Copenride, organizing an event in the midst of the Covid Pandemic

2020 was a short year in terms of events with very few contests a going ahead and most of them without audiences.  In 2021, everybody was thrilled to see live action back on the scene.

Red Bull Denmark together with RASOULUTION organized one of the best come backs possible: Red Bull Copenride – a new FMB Gold Event in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Organizing a mountain bike contest on one of the flattest countries on earth is no easy feat. After the confirmation of the course’s initial design, our team coordinated both construction teams -wood and dirt, to build one of the biggest urban slopestyle course ever seen.

A contest is nothing without contenders. Our team got in touch with the FMBA to set the event status, rules, judges and contact the riders. Gathering athletes from around the globe during a pandemic was a challenge. RASOULUTION studied each of the athletes’ personal situations (travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, etc.) to make sure they could not only attend the contest but do it with the minimum of stress.

Everything was in place for the events original date, mid-July. Unfortunately, due to external factors, the event had to be postponed by one month. The team adapted its efforts to make it possible for the event to go ahead. On August 13th,staff, judges, athletes and bikes descended on the venue for the first day of practice. Everything ran as planned, Friday was booked for the qualifying runs and for the Shimano Best Trick jam session and Saturday for the final runs and price ceremony.

After two days with perfect weather conditions for practice and qualification, the weather changed drastically on Saturday., Considering all the possibilities, RASOULUTION and Red Bull decided to cancel the finals in order to guarantee the safety of the athletes.

Nonetheless, our team managed to adapt and provide the fans with one last Best Trick Show. Although the official finals were off, thousands came to see the best MTB riders in the world.

 

Photos by Esben Zøllner Olensen / Red Bull Content Pool.

BRANDS – Entering a whole new discipline, how we helped Fizik make their mark on the MTB Gravity world.

2021 has been an exciting and successful year for Fizik with the launch of their brand new downhill focused Gravita shoe. A historically road-oriented brand, Fizik knew seducing a very different target audience would be challenging. We are proud to have been able to use our MTB market knowledge to guide them to success.

ATHLETES – Generating reach by partnering with some of the most famous MTB athletes

Preparing for their big 2021 reveal, Fizik approached us at the end of 2020 looking for marketing expertise in the MTB field. We offered to guide them through those first steps in the MTB gravity scene. We initially focused on two areas: marketing strategy and athletes.

For an ambitious high-end brand like Fizik, it was all about building credibility among the target audience: core gravity mountain bikers. To get there, we created a portfolio of potential top-level athletes, from content creators to professional racers, in order to maximize the number of different touchpoints between the brand and its customer targets.

RASOULUTION lead the negotiations and a within just a few months Fizik started partnerships with the likes of Gabriel Wibmer, Remy Metailler, Marcelo Gutierrez, Paula Zibasa, Marina Zechner and Micayla Gatto.

PR & MARKETING ACTIVATIONS – Putting existing partnerships to the service of a product launch

Building up on those partnerships, RASOULUTION and Fizik worked on optimising them through varied marketing activations.

Just a few weeks after the Gravita reveal, RASOULUTION and Fizik worked together on the idea of a B2C oriented design contest. End consumers all around the world would have the possibility to create their own Gravita design, submit it and win the actual shoe with their own personal design.

The activation was a great success. Following our advice, Fizik teamed up with Pinkbike, the biggest MTB medium out there, to host the contest. This lead to the submission of dozens of designs and thousands of people interacting with the brand. Entries are now closed but the winner is to be announced in the coming weeks.

Photos by Stephan Wibmer.