Orange Factory Racing Returns for 2022

PRESS RELEASE: Orange Bikes

We are pleased to announce the return of the Orange Factory Racing Team for the 2022 race season and its second year.

Established in 2021, the three-man race team was born out of Orange’s deep racing heritage and goes hand-in-hand with the development of the new Orange Switch 7, the team’s bike of choice for the Enduro World Series.

After a strong first year in 2021, the team will see British talents Lachlan Blair, Joe Connell and Tom Wilson continue on the Factory Racing programme. The trio will make the Enduro World Series their main focus, whilst also racing the British National Enduro series, one-off European enduro events and even a few downhill World Cups where the schedule allows.



Lachlan Blair kicked off the ‘21 season with a 4th place at Trans Madeira and then moved on to score a whole heap of rock-solid results at the Enduro World Series.

Raring to get back at it for 2022, Lachlan has already been out to Portugal and the UCI DH World Cup at Lourdes to take the Orange 279 into the fray.

Follow Lachlan on IG here.


Joe Connell joined the Orange Factory Racing team for the first time in 2021 and immediately scored the team’s first podium, with a 3rd place overall at Trans Madeira. He went on to punch out a season of consistent results, including the team’s best Enduro World Series result of the year at Tweedlove EWS.

Joe is currently out in Finale Ligure working on pre-competition shakedown tweaks to the new Switch 7.

Follow Joe on IG here.



Now in his 6th year as an Orange sponsored rider, Tom Wilson is both the youngest member of the team and our longest standing sponsored rider. 2021 marked Tom’s first year in the EWS big leagues and he used the year to build his experience and pace with plenty of promising results. We’re looking forward to seeing more from him in the ’22 season.

Follow Tom on IG here.





Of course, there’s no Orange Factory Racing without our bikes and for 2022 the team will be on the mighty Switch 7. Developed with the input of the team, the new bike was built to be even more capable at the sharp end of racing on the World’s toughest stages.

The team’s first year was spent testing and refining the bike behind the scenes, using each EWS venue as a proving ground for the new platform. Now in full production, the new Switch 7 will be the team’s weapon of choice for the Enduro World Series, benefiting from the added progression to the suspension provided by the new STRANGE power link, designed specifically for performance on world level enduro tracks.

Finally, we'd like to thank the partners that are providing truly world-class support for Lachlan, Joe and Tom for the 2022 season; a line-up of some of the industry’s biggest and best.

The team will run Leatt clothing and protection, Michelin tyres, Burgtec bars, grips, flat pedals and stems, Formula brakes and SDG seat posts and saddles as well as using Granite Design onboard tools, Juice Lubes maintenance products and a selection of STRANGE Components. New to the programme for this year is the mighty Öhlins suspension supplying forks and shocks and StansNoTubes who will provide wheelsets. They will also run MRP chain guides, Rideworks headsets, Crankbrothers pedals and RRP mudguards.

You can learn more about Orange Factory Racing here at Orange Bikes.