Riding the latest prototype was extremely illuminating. First of all it revealed just how dated the production Commencal had become. The changes have certainly improved the Supreme no end. The feel is so much lighter underfoot, this bike feels much snappier and livelier than the old machine. There’s just more give in it for starters. But whereas Trek lost a bit of their feel by bulking up the Session frame, the Commencal feels similar to the early Sessions in that respect – energized. The bottom bracket is now much more up to date and power transfer seems improved. The bike is so much more intuitive than the old bike.

On the hill all those things that Nico Menard spoke of came to hand immediately, super quick changes of direction and a lower centre of gravity that balances the bike so much better. Standover is a great improvement over the slightly high old Supreme and you can certainly loosen up a lot quicker on this bike, rider input is far more direct. It will be interesting to see where they go with the shock tune because we had to leave just as the Fox Shox team turned up with a truck load of dampers for Gee to get tuned into.

In a time of heightened competition for the downhill market Max Commencal and his team have done an excellent job in updating the Supreme. They still had a bit of work to do with shock tune but this bike should go straight to the front row for the year ahead. Lets hope the price translates well. For Gee, Dan and Rachel they will definitely have moved on with their equipment for 2011. How many others will have?