“It was always the plan”
It came as a bit of a shock really. At the recent Eurobike tradeshow we were just chatting to Fabien Barel and he dropped the bomb, “yeah, at the end of the season, at the last Enduro World Series, I will retire… that was always the plan”. I was slightly struck dumb. Just in case you don’t know Barel is one of the greatest downhill racers ever… 2 time DH World Champ (plus Junior World Champ), multi World Cup race wins and of course now Enduro racing star. He suffered a horrendous injury in 2014 when he broke one of his vertebrae narrowly missing breaking his spinal cord… it was amazing to see him back racing. In fact with two races still left to go he can still win the overall EWS series title this year.
Barel is ever the professional and of course he has plans for next year, it sounds that there are some exciting things happening in 2016 and beyond with his sponsor Canyon Bikes.
Want to see the legend race? Better get yourself down to Finale Ligure in Italy, October 1/2.
Photo: Matt Wragg/EWS and Steve Jones.
