{"id":563561,"date":"2026-03-27T04:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/563561\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:15:09","slug":"forbidden-bets-big-on-canadian-racing-with-new-10000-own-the-podium-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/563561\/","title":{"rendered":"Forbidden bets big on Canadian racing with new $10,000 Own The Podium program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forbidden Bikes may be internationally recognised for its line of high pivot bikes (and a couple of others), but the brand is based right in the middle of Vancouver Island\u2019s booming mountain bike scene. Now, Forbidden is doubling down on supporting the Canadian riding community it calls home.<\/p>\n

Forbidden is launching the new Own The Podium program offering up to $10,000 in cash and prizing. That payout is based off of results in two of Canada\u2019s most prominent gravity racing series\u2019s. For enduro, the Canadian Enduro League<\/a>. For downhill, the Dunbar Summer Series<\/a> and Vancouver Island\u2019s local DH race, the Stevie Smith Memorial DH on Mount Washington.<\/p>\n

With WBD continuing to re-work the World Cup series, it looks like local and national events will continue to be more and more important parts of athlete development. It\u2019s great to see a Canadian brand recognise that and invest in domestic racing, not just international factory programs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rhys Verner\u2019s represented Forbidden and Canada abroad, and when the EWS landed in Whistler. Photo: M. Ablinger
\nPerformance based rewards with a twist, and a catch<\/p>\n

The program is performance based, but with a twist. It\u2019s not just for the elite or even just main four UCI categories. Forbidden\u2019s offering cash pricing for podium results across expert age categories in both Dunbar and CEL events. \u00a0There\u2019s prizing for sport-class and short-course categories, too.<\/p>\n

For the all-rounders, there\u2019s a specific Forbidden Leaderboard that tallies combined results (top-10) across CEL and Dunbar Summer Series events. If you\u2019re the fastest rider to race both Dh and enduro, you could walk away with a Dreadnought framekit.<\/p>\n

The catch is that you have to race on a Forbidden, purchased new in 2025 or 2026. That\u2019s where the \u201cup to\u201d $10,000 comes in. Both of those series are mostly limited to B.C. and a little bit of Alberta for 2026, too. Though with Dunbar hosting several Canada Cup events, there should still be a broader geographical base of riders showing up.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in Forbidden\u2019s new OTP program, registration is open now<\/a>. You do need to register before being eligible. And, as mentioned, you do need to own a Forbidden. There\u2019s a few on sale now, though, so maybe you could win the cost of a new rig back in prizing if you don\u2019t already have one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forbidden Bikes may be internationally recognised for its line of high pivot bikes (and a couple of others),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,217490,635,217491,217492,217493,82,217494],"class_list":["post-563561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-enduro-league","tag-cycling","tag-dunbar-summer-series","tag-forbidden-bikes","tag-own-the-podium","tag-sports","tag-the-other-own-the-podium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}