In an interview with Greg Minnaar at Soho Bikes in London Rob Warner has suggested that Aaron Gwin will not be riding for Specialized next year.

At 11 minutes in the above video, the pair are discussing whether Gwin would beat Minnaar’s all-time wins record and Warner said: “He’s going alright, new bike for him next year”.

Warner quickly realised his mistake and said: “I’m not sure we can release it here, have they put out an official thing yet?”

Being a commentator for Red Bull, Warner is likely to have an inside scoop on any World Cup transfers and it genuinely looks like he may have let a spoiler slip here.

The whole interview is very funny and offers some great insight as Minnaar discusses the Santa Cruz Syndicate family, his favorite bikes and his most memorable wins.

Rumours about Gwin’s future were already flying after the French mountain bike website 26in posted a cryptic drawing on its Facebook that suggested Aaron Gwin was moving to YT Industries for next year.

The picture showed an arrow going from California (where Gwin is from) to south east Germany, presumably Forscheim where YT Industries is based. The arrow is labeled with an American flag and a number one which furthers the suspicion that the post is about Aaron Gwin.

26in also posted a caption with the image that translated as, “We do not tell you more!”.

Aaron Gwin is out of contract this year so is free to move if he wishes to. YT does not currently have a World Cup downhill team, but it does produce the Tues 2.0 downhill bike. It has also signed a raft of big name athletes recently including Andreu Lacondeguy, Kelly McGarry and Cam Zink.

Gwin has been massively successful at any team he’s raced for and has won World Cup overall titles for Trek and Specialized. He’s surely the most valuable racer and the World Cup circuit so will no doubt have been made many lucrative offers.

The other possibility is that this could be Richie Rude. He is currently the Enduro World Series World Champion but there is heavy suspicion that he will be returning to downhill next year.

With the Athertons potentially moving to Trek and Gwin maybe heading to YT, next year’s World Cup pits have the potential to look very different to what we’re currently used to.

We’re very excited for whatever news tomorrow will bring and will be sure to keep you up to date as we hear it.