PRESS RELEASE: Deviate CyclesEdinburgh-based Lachlan Blair will be riding for Deviate Cycles in 2023, taking on the newly titled UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Cup, the Trans Madeira and some DH races to boot.
The move to Deviate happened in part by chance.
| I’d noticed Deviate bikes around more and more but I hadn't really cottoned on that they were based so close to me. My friend, photographer Ross Bell, knew Ben (Jones, Deviate’s co-owner), and he suggested that I contact Deviate. And we just clicked. It was so exciting, the thought of working with a company based an hour away from where I live!” |
Lachlan will be starting the year on a Claymore, something he’s already had a chance to swing a leg over on the many trails at Tweed Valley:
| The Claymore is just brilliant. I love the high pivot design - especially when climbing. Being able to pedal up choppy, rough climbs, without feeling a single bump on the trail - it’s just smooth pedaling, and traction to the back wheel. The traction is just there the whole time, that's the most noticeable thing. It's a great combination - huge fun, but also really stable and planted, with brilliant grip. The faster you go, and the more you attack, the more stable it feels. |
Most people will know Lachlan for his DH background and as a member of the Dudes of Hazzard alongside Joe Barnes. Following a crash in Leogang back in 2017 and the inception of the Hazzard Racing team in 2019, Lachlan switched focus to Enduro.
| The next year, I was still focused on downhilling, but after a few more injuries I started to realise that enduros were much less stressful, and you got to ride your bike a lot more! And after having not been able to ride my bike for so many months just getting to spend all day out riding your bike felt pretty good. So when Joe started the Hazzard Racing team in 2019, focussing purely on Enduro, that’s when I really just dived in. |
Lachlan’s racing season kicks off with the Tasmanian rounds of the UCI EDR where he’ll be joined by fellow Deviate rider Matthew Fairbrother.
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So it's not so much that everyone here is dentists (if you look at my bikes you will find that I'm as far from this archetype as you can get - current bike, and the newest and best I've owned, is a 2012 meta V3), it's more that it's obvious and boring to say MTBs are expensive. Yes they are - now move on.
@linton-photo: forward and up with downsizing, fellow Deviate brother