Canyon produced one of the stand out bikes of 2016 in the Sender but were conspicuous in their absence from World Cup racing. For 2017 they look to set matters right having assembled a strong team of racers ready to stamp a big endorsement on a truly great bike.

By Steven Jones

The team will be based out of the south of France and has a truly international feel to it. In terms of equipment it’s likely they will be leading the charge for Mavic and Sram, and with so many teams now on Fox suspension it looks like Canyon is most likely team to deliver success for RockShox in 2017.

Fronting the team is Troy Brosnan who moves over from Specialized after six years on the Demo. Brosnan is looking hungry to add to his two junior world championship titles and solitary world cup win in Fort William in 2014. He moves from a medium to Demo to a medium Sender. This means Troy is riding a bike equivalent in sizing to a large Demo.

Ruaridh Cunningham is also a former junior world champion, from Fort William in 2007. The Scotsman has massive experience, a previous winner of ‘Hardline’ and looking to improve on ninth at Lenzerheide last season.

Canadian Mark Wallace also has top ten World Cup previous to his name. He moves over from Devinci after many years. Sixth at Mont Saint Anne in 2015 followed by eighth in Val Di Sole, Wallace opened 2016 with a further top ten placing at Lourdes last season.

Directing the team is one of downhill’s most exemplary tacticians, a total racer and double World Champion Fabien Barel. In him the team has a man with an incredible knowledge and understanding of racing which he will impart on the team. Priceless and scary at the same time, Barel will doubtless never be far away and downhill racing will be very much all the better for having him around again.