The UCI DH Commençal/Muc-Off Riding Addiction and The Brigade teams will use Galfer Bike braking components during the 2021 season, and have very real possibilities of gaining podium finishes and wins in the UCI DH World Cup.
Galfer’s bicycle division continues to expand in this sector and has entered into two key sporting agreements with the Commençal Riding Addiction and The Brigade teams for the 2021 season, which will use Galfer’s “Disc Wave®” brake discs and Pro and Advanced brake pads in the world’s top downhill competitions.
Commençal/Muc-Off Riding Addiction
The Commençal/Muc-Off Riding Addiction team boasts French athletes Amaury Pierron, Thibaut Daprela and Myriam Nicole in the Elite category and the Canadian Tristan Lemire in the Junior category, captained by brothers Thibaut and Gaëtan Ruffin. It’s worth remembering that Myriam Nicole and Amaury Pierron were winners of the Downhill World Cup in 2017 and 2019 respectively and that Nicole won the UCI DH World Cup in 2019. It goes without saying that this team has huge competitive potential and has a very realistic chance of achieving podium positions and victories during the 2021 season.
They have entrusted Galfer to be the official supplier of braking system components for their Commençal Supreme DH bikes and will use the 203 mm and 223 mm “Disc Wave®” brake discs combined with G1554T Pro FD426/FD549 compound brake pads for dry conditions and G1851 Advanced brake pads for extreme wet conditions.
Thibaut Ruffin: “We are super excited to partner with GALFER for 2021. One of our goals coming into 2021 was to work on the best possible braking combo and we know how much brake pads and rotors are essential for it. There was no doubt for us that GALFER was going to be a partner of choice to reach that goal. Their Disc Wave® rotors along with their Pro and Advanced brakes pads have already blown our minds! Can’t wait for the race season to start!”
The Brigade
Meanwhile, The Brigade team has ratcheted up their quality levels in 2021 and expanded the number of riders on its payroll to four: the Spaniard Alex Marin and Frenchman Rudy Cabirou have been kept on, and are joined by the Colombian Rafa Gutiérrez (3 times Pan American Champion) and Frenchwoman Melanie Chappaz, who was Female Junior DH World Champion in 2017. They will all be riding their new bikes for the first time, developed by Production Privée in their cutting-edge facilities in Andorra. They will also have fixed 203 mm/223 mm “Disc Wave®” brake discs and Formula Cura 4 Pro and Advanced brake pads.
Alex Marin: “Definitively there is a big improvement going into Galfer this year, because the products they make and because they pretty much improve every single brake in the market there is right now. It’s actually pretty cool to be able to work with them, from the pads to the discs they just make a huge difference in the braking and they don’t warm up that much, which that makes it like really good. For us, we are riding long and steep tracks in the world cup circuit, it’s necessary to have a product that doesn’t warm up too much and which you have the same sensibility of braking all the time. From top to bottom of the run you can feel really confident in going into the last corners of the run and you know when you want a brake, brakes are going to work, so yeah, that’s pretty much cool.”
These new sporting agreements signify a major step forward for Galfer Bike, as the downhill discipline is the most demanding in MTB, requiring the skilled use of brakes that can make all the difference to the results. They will also give the brand more opportunities to improve and develop its braking products in conjunction with world-class riders.
Galfer has braking products specifically designed for DH such as the G1554T Pro compound brake pads (green), which don’t need breaking in and have a superior braking performance, and the G1851 Advanced compound brake pads (red), for extreme muddy terrain conditions. Along with the pads, the oversized ø223 mm Wave brake discs (and also the standard size ø203 mm and ø180 mm, with a thickness of over 2.0 mm), give the Galfer Bike brake combo braking power that is far superior to the original material, of particular value in downhill competitions.
