2016 Mondraker DH Team - Hart, Pekoll, Greenland and Ragot
The MS Mondraker team enters into the 2016 season with a lot of changes and some little surprises. After a so-so season with a lot of crashes and injuries, we all went back to work, determined to return stronger for the new 2016 season!
Danny Hart and Markus Pekoll remain on the team, but the squad gets buoyed by the arrival of the 2015 junior Worldcup overall winner and junior world champion Laurie Greenland.
 | We are stoked to have Laurie on our roster. We were looking for a passionate, race-driven character to join forces with Danny and Markus. With Laurie, we found the right person and the future now looks very bright indeed! - Team manager Lukas Haider |
| At Mondraker, we are delighted to have such a talented rider as Laurie racing with our MS-Mondraker Team in 2016, especially as he dominated the junior field last season and is the current Junior World Champion. With his consistency, seven podiums out of seven World Cup events, three World Cup wins and overall World Cup title as a junior, no doubt Laurie and his Summum Carbon Pro Team will be one of the rookies to follow this coming racing season which is about to start soon and, of course, he is one of the rising and brightest stars on the international DH scene. We wish him the best for his first season in the Elite category, along with our current and fellow riders Danny Hart and Markus Pekoll! - Mondraker, Miguel Pina |
| It was during the last races in 2015 that I met Laurie in person for the first time. By then it was already clear that he is one of the most promising young athletes to come up to Elite category in 2016. But it was not just his riding skills that made a big impression on me but also his personality and happiness were a huge factor for me to come up with an offer for him. After he won the overall junior world cup and world champs, many of the top world Cup teams were competing for Laurie. But in the end he made the choice to join our team after feeling the trust we had with him and discovering the professionalism of our crew. We are extremely happy to welcome Laurie and his long term friend and mechanic Chaz Churry and see them representing our Team and sponsors. I think Laurie will be able to reach top 20 results in the first year in the Elite category and maybe even further up. However we will give him all the necessary freedom to adjust to the new environment and support him as much as possible. - MS-RACING, Markus Stoeckl |
Furthermore, we are happy to announce a last minute add-on to our team, which is Emmeline Ragot. This may be a surprise to most of you as Emmeline officially retired in 2015. This should not be seen as a comeback, but as a backdoor for her if she is able to recover 100% after her bad ankle and elbow injuries. We always stand by our riders to give them the optimal chances of success.
| A lot of you guys may be surprised seeing me in the current roster of the MS Mondraker Team. My last season was not what I was hoping for. At the start of the previous season, I was almost sure that I was going to retire at the End. But as we got more and more into the season I was feeling good, that is until my crash in Mont Sainte Anne, the injuries I got made the decision easier for me. Right now I am doing a kind of re-education to get my elbow and ankle up to a 100% level, which means I am still training. Registering with the team keeps a door open for me... we will see! - Emmeline Ragot |
Apart from the A-Team lineup, we started again a B Team support program under the responsibility of Maria Ulrich and Rainer Wollendorfer. The main focus will be on European races such as the European IXS cup where our promising riders, Fabian Ulrich, Matt Lawton and Pascal Engel will be competing.
For 2016 we are also pleased to announce deals with new sponsors:
The biggest change in our sponsor line-up is for sure the suspension partner. After Marzocchi was bought by Fox Suspension, we are now happy to be a part of the Fox family. For 2016, we will race on the Fox 40 and DHX 2 and we are looking forward to working with the race support team of Fox.
| Following the purchase of Marzocchi, we are allocating our efforts into making sure we have all the surrounding elements in place to continue the success of the brand. Our goal at FOX is making sure our suspension products, including Marzocchi, are properly supported in the marketplace. This process takes time. For 2016, we are excited to have the MS Mondraker racing on FOX suspension while we continue our efforts on expanding the Marzocchi service and support. FOX has experience working with the MS team in the past and look forward to restarting the racing relationship again. Laurie won his world championship on FOX and we hope to help him continue his success in the elite class. -Fox, Mark Fitzsimmons |
| The MS Mondraker team has been one of the most professional teams on the circuit for years - working with these guys, my good friend Chaz as a mechanic and being able to keep my favorite components and sponsors going into this year make me very excited! Riding along experienced elite riders like Marcus and Danny will help me a lot going into my first year in the category. My goals are to progress on my results from last year, pushing towards more top 20 results! -Laurie Greenland |
MS Racing is more than happy to announce the new partnership with Dainese. We are known in the industry for the strong will to develop new products. Dainese is a company we had an eye on since we saw their developments in skiing regarding the airbag technology. We now have the chance to invest our knowledge into new products at Dainese, which is the base of our new partnership.
| At Dainese, we are committed to innovating products that help our athletes push the boundaries of their given sport. Working with and learning from top tier athletes like Danny and Markus is at the root of the development of premium gear. We are extremely excited to partner with MS and will stand behind them as they push the envelope of the downhill mountain biking community. - Dainese, Giovanni Fogal |
| A few changes for me in 2016: firstly I have been working with the RMJ-Acadamy for training, so that means spending a lot of time in Liverpool at the John Moore University, and I am loving it, training in a group has been really cool. I am also excited to be working with a few new team sponsors, Maxxis tyres is cool for me, they are the OG of the tyre industry: I used these when I was an amateur coming through. Concerning Dainese, a lot of you may know that I am a big Moto GP fan and these guys are the biggest name in leather suits, so I can't wait to see what they are going to do for our team: We visited the facilities and I was blown away. Finally, Fox, what can I say! They have dominated the last few years of DH racing, and I am really looking forward to bolting their stuff to my bike. 2016 looks like it is going to be good! - Danny Hart |
Having fought for multiple championships with Schwalbe tires in the past, MS Mondraker is excited about its new cooperation with Maxxis Tires and is ready for a winning and successful 2016!
| Maxxis has always sought opportunities to sponsor excellent teams and is pleased to announce the new sponsorship for the outstanding MS Mondraker team in 2016. Maxxis is proud of building this new partnership with Mondraker and providing high-quality tires to the team. - Maxxis, Robert Tsai |
MS Mondraker also competing in the Enduro World Series
This season we will also support four riders on the Enduro World Series. Cyril Pages and Matthias Stonic will represent the team in the Masters category. Two junior riders, Gabriel Torralba and Alexi Cuellar-Primot, will compete in the U21 category.
And now it’s time for the serious business! We can’t wait to start the season and race!
MENTIONS: @foxracingshox / @Dainese / @Maxxis / @lozgreenland99
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And Im not tryin to argue with you, just offer a different perspective.
Miss you
MATTHIAS STONIG ...close, but not close enough...
yeah Emmeline is back