Andrew Taylor and Phil Sundbaum become adiridas

Jan 14, 2009

Source: Summer of Shred

Shooting stars Andrew Taylor and Phil Sundbaum from the USA are the newest addition to the adiridas, the international adidas Freeride Crew. To begin their partnership, adidas invited their two newest athletes for a visit in December to do something totally unique: ride their mountain bikes down an Olympic bobsled track! Taylor and Sundbaum will be representing the three stripes as they travel around the world competing and filming for their video project "Summer Of Shred".

Both riders bring the momentum from great 2008 seasons to the program, and will carry that through to 2009 as they continue their world travels to Botswana, New Zealand, Norway, and all over Europe for contest season.


Andrew Taylor (21) had a breakout season in 2008, capturing spots on podiums everywhere from Crankworx Colorado to Highland Mountain Bike Park's "Claymore Challenge". He was also invited to compete in the Red Bull Rampage, the Nissan Qashqai series and regularly appeared in Decline Magazine over the past year. Andrew is a member of the next generation of young slopestyle riders who is just as comfortable flowing through a big set of dirt jumps as he is flipping road gaps and huge drops. He turned heads when he became one of the only riders in qualifying at the Red Bull Rampage to even attempt a backflip on the massive big mountain course. Taylor has also signed with Marin Bikes to ride and develop their new dirt jump and slopestyle bikes.

Phil Sundbaum (27) capped off his 2008 season with a trip to Tanzania with mountain bike legend and adidas athlete Hans Rey. Phil donated bicycles through his "Flips 4 Life" charity project. He collected money for every backflip he did during the summer, then donated all of the money to Hans Rey's Wheels 4 Life charity. His Africa trip was the final segment in the "Summer Of Shred" DVD, which saw Phil laying down tire tracks all around the world on every bike in his quiver. Phil Sundbaum also made the rounds to nearly every freeride contest in 2008, showing that he wasn't afraid to have a full video schedule and a full contest schedule. His project "Summer Of Shred" has been recognized worldwide and will return even stronger in 2009.

Winter Of Shred
To begin their partnership with adidas, Phil and Andrew came over to Germany for a visit in December. They had an opportunity to tour the adidas headquarters and then do something totally unique: ride mountain bikes down an Olympic bobsled track! The two new adiridas team members were taken to Innsbruck, Austria, the location of the 1976 Winter Olympics to watch a World Cup bobsled race and meet multiple Olympic gold medalist and World Champion André Lange, the dominating bobsled pilot of the World Cup circuit and an adidas athlete himself.


After the race was completed, Phil and Andrew were given an opportunity to put studded tires on their wheels and pedal their bikes down the track! They only had one chance to go down as there were more than 20 TV cameras along the course waiting to film their run. After inspecting the track from the side, Phil and Andrew changed into their pro bobsled skin suites, put on their full-face helmets and took a deep breath before taking on their once-in-a-lifetime adventure. "This was the most incredible thing we have ever done on a bike", they both claimed afterwards. The bobsled athletes and coaches were really impressed by the performance of the two brave Americans, so Phil and Andrew got invited to a guest bobsled ride. This time, they reached a top speed of 120 km/h and had to endure forces of up to 5 Gs, resulting in an adrenaline rush that made Phil Sundbaum fancy a career as a pro bobsled racer for a few days…

Phil and Andrew get their Winter Shred on:

For more information on Andrew Taylor and Phil Sundbaum check out their profiles on adiridas.com.

Photo Credit: Markus Greber/ adiridas.com