We’re spoke to Brian Lopes in Maribor and he told us he wasn’t going to do a full World Cup 4x season but we didn’t take him seriously. He then told us the same thing in Andorra but we still didn’t believe him. Then he sent us an email which had this as a title “LOPES’ FINAL WORLD CUP ENDS ON THE PODIUM’

We said, “Are you retiring then?”
He goes ” Not retiring, just not pursuing a full world cup series for a title anymore. Doing some Maxi and MegaAvalanche races, changing it up a bit’.

So there you have it from the horses mouth. Maybe he should have quit last year when he was double world champion. There will probably be loads of rumours flying around about the suitability of a carbon fibre hardtail for 4x, but he did take second in Andorra so it can’t be that bad.

brian lopes