In only its second year of existence the Ibis Cycles Enduro Race Team made its mark on the 2016 Enduro World Series season taking 2nd overall in the team competition, 3rd overall in the women’s field - Anita Gehrig, and 3rd overall in the U21 competition.
For 2017 the team returns with the same core group of riders, plus some new additions and new sponsors to help them achieve even greater results in the new season.
“
We are insanely proud of what the team achieved last year, and we’re really looking forward to the new season” Said Ibis president and team manager, Tom Morgan. “
The team has really taken on the personality of Ibis, sort of the - ‘Little Team That Could’. It takes a lot more than just talent and training to make all this work, and this group is resourceful, determined, and professional. At the same time they are easy-going and friendly too.”
Returning for their third year with the team, Anita and Carolin Gehrig, the “twin towers” from Switzerland hope to continue their rise to the top of the women’s field. When the 2016 was over, Anita ranked 3rd overall and Carolin 5th, with Anita achieving her first podium finish - 2nd in Aspen, CO.
Coming back for his second year with the team is Robin Wallner from Sweden. For 2016 Robin was ranked 14th overall, and achieved two top 10 results.
Also returning is Dillon Santos of Salinas, CA. In 2016 Dillon took 3rd at the Sea Otter Classic and won the 3rd round of the California Enduro Series at Toro Park.
New additions to the team include Zakarias Johansen of Norway, and team mechanic and road manager Mats Pettersson. Zakarias is moving up to contest a full season of EWS racing after dominating the SRAM/Specialized Enduro series last year.
Returning team sponsors include POC, Maxxis, Joystick, Lizard Skins and Honey Stinger. New team sponsors include Fox Racing Shocks, Shimano, Feedback Sports and 5.10.
FBM!Also, riding on an independent program for Ibis in the EWS this year will be François Bailly-Maître. Since its founding, François has been one of the most consistent top 10 finishers in the EWS, at 8th overall in 2016, 11th in 2015 and 8th in 2014.
It was a strange off-season for me before contacting Ibis. Despite 2016 probably being my best season ever, I was struggling to find the good deal, but from the first time I spoke with Ibis, I directly felt the positive vibes and their motivation to have me on board.
Once I received the Mojo HD3, I built it up quickly, and the first impressions were really good! I was a bit concerned as I only rode a 29er the last 4 years, but the geometry and the DW-Link system seems to work really well. The dry winter we’re having has given me the chance to test it and I already at home!
I already want to say a big thanks to Ibis, and I am looking forward to an incredible season! -
François Bailly-Maître
Follow the Ibis Cycles Enduro Racing Team on
Instagram:
instagram.com/ibisracingFacebook:
facebook.com/IbisCyclesEnduroRaceTeam
MENTIONS:
@ibiscycles /
@Maxxis / @foxracingshox /
@shimano
He is riding 1-2 weekly with youth riders from his region to help them get faster - and organizes one of the best weekend enduro races of Europe once a year in his home area - the "l'Enduro Jura by Julbo" - which packs the most incredible value of any Enduro race I guess. 230€ from Friday evening till Sunday afternoon, food and accomodation (not in tents but appartements!) and all shuttles covered. The food is top notch regional specialities (not some of the junk the english race organisers hand out). On top every participant got a pair of free Julbo goggles worth >100€.
I really wish him good luck scoring high again - even though I guess he will again dedicate lots of time to other causes. Guess he could be top 3 if he dedicated all his time to racing. So let's Go FBM!
(Oh and I guess this marks the end of BMC in Enduro? Trailfox not updated and into it's 4. season now same frame. BMC seems to focus on XC only or will they even completely ditch MTB and focus road only?).
btw. Wildest bunnyhop seen in a while, courtesy of Zakka: www.instagram.com/p/4J_FwSTYwR
Is she still with ibis?
That's strange.
Is it because he spends more time nailing the results than posting to instagram? The world of having to juggle being an pro athlete and a social media ambassador is a strange one.
If you look at the overall 2016 EWS results, you can find official riders sitting lower than 30th and 40th while some privateers made it into the 30 best riders of the season. Now, figure out who gets a contract for 2017...
I read Harry Heath interview today on Dirt Mag, he said :
"I’d raced for 11 years and in that time I’d changed from being a kid who’s only consideration in life was to build a kicker or a berm to rip. The race industry has also changed from the days of hillbilly bike riders owning the companies.
The faster I got the more support the industry gave me so that in turn enabled me to keep racing and get faster, which is what I wanted to do. However the bigger the industry got and the more it wanted to make money, the less I liked it.
It started to grate against what I was feeling but at the same time I was still on the rise with it. I like where I got to in the sport competitive wise and as a profession, and I don’t feel I had to take to much to get there, but I think to progress another level it’d take a lot more consumption of materials, fuel, money and other people’s time that wouldn’t morally feel right to me just for my own gain of being faster.
I can still be a better bike rider, be faster and still do UK races but it’s going to be me and my family traveling in the van using as little amount of stuff as we can.
I realise new product needs to be made and the progression of that is fun too, but I wish some companies would chill out, stop trying to rush all of the new fads out at once and care more about the quality of how products are made, what they’re made of and the longevity of them instead of trying to make as much money as possible.
If more companies in the industry followed Patagonia’s business model we’d be in a much better place. For anyone who wants a top read check out “Let my people go surfing” by Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia.
I think this point and the mass use of travel that has to be done to race the World Cups were the biggest turn offs for me as I still think the raw racing is rad and has been some of the best years of my life."
If you look at the bikes winning Enduro races they mostly have HTA at or less than 65 degrees. Being almost two degrees from this, it's enough to completely change the bikes ability to decend better. Given the results above, I don't see a single victory for any of the riders, only top 10 finishes... I'm willing to bet a degree or two would make this bike muck more aggressive and capable to get to the next level.
"We think 6" of travel will be good for most people's riding needs. We felt that it struck the best balance for a climbable, enduro-style bike. For example, if we went a little bit more, people would be putting 180mm forks on them and then the frame would need to be heavier and slacker to handle that. - Scot Nicol, Ibis"
If you want a "slacker" HA, there are other bikes to choose from.
I have a Mojo HD3 with 2.8, it was like a big BMX bike, stable, popping and fun - have you seen what Jeff Kendall-Weed can do on this thing. I was coming from a SB66, which was stable on descents and climbed great, but was a little sluggish on single track. I though I'd slack it out the Mojo so I got a EC Cane Creek Angleset and used the -1.5 cups. The Mojo had a ZS so that extra 10mm of height is almost worth another -.5 and the bars is at the same height as before, so I'm about 64.6 for my head tube angle, a DH number right? I thought this was going to be a big change, but not really, I lost a little of the crisp characteristics I loved about the bikes handling and its only slightly more stable at speed on the downs.
Long story short, I had no idea this was going to be my dream bike out of the box when I got it. Its a true all mountain bike thats great for racing Enduro or the weekend warrior like me;-) Good job Scott Nicols and team!
And saying it isn't a good race bike when it was the second placed team seems pretty silly to me. If Rude was on one then they would have had a win by now...