Junior World Champ and World Cup Champ Laurie Greenland finds a new home with the MS Mondraker team after the Trek World Racing team finished… and Emmeline Ragot can’t quite make her mind up!

PRESS RELEASE

The MS Mondraker team enters into the 2016 season with a lot of changes and some little surprises. After a so-so season with a lot of crashes and injuries, we all went back to work, determined to return stronger for the new 2016 season! Danny Hart and Markus Pekoll remain in the team, but the squad gets buoyed by the arrival of the 2015 junior World Cup overall winner and junior world champion Laurie Greenland.

“A few changes for me in 2016: firstly I have been working with the RMJ-Acadamy for training, so that means spending a lot of time in Liverpool at the John Moore University, and I am loving it, training in a group has been really cool. I am also excited to be working with a few new team sponsors, Maxxis tyres is cool for me, they are the OG of the tyre industry: I used these when I was an amateur coming through. Concerning Dainese, a lot of you may know that I am a big Moto GP fan and these guys are the biggest name in leather suits, so I can’t wait to see what they are going to do for our team: We visited see the facilities and I was blown away. Finally, Fox, what can I say! They have dominated the last few years of DH racing, and I am really looking forward to bolting their stuff to my bike. 2016 looks like it is going to be good!”

Danny Hart

“We are stoked to have Laurie on our roster. We were looking for a passionate, race-driven character to join forces with Danny and Markus. With Laurie we found the right person and the future looks very bright indeed !”

Team manager Lukas Haider

“At Mondraker we are delighted to have such a talented rider as Laurie racing with our MS-Mondraker Team in 2016, especially as he dominated the junior field last season and is the current Junior World Champion. With his consistency, seven podiums out of seven World Cup events, three World Cup wins and overall World Cup title as a junior, no doubt Laurie and his Summum Carbon Pro Team will be one of the rookies to follow this coming racing season which is about to start soon and, of course, he is one of the rising and brightest stars on the international DH scene. We wish him the best for his first season in the Elite category, along with our current and fellow riders Danny Hart and Markus Pekoll.”

Mondraker, Miguel Pina

“2016 is going to be a very interesting year for me! After four years on Marzocchi, 5 Years with Alpinestars and 8 Years with Schwalbe, new things start with Fox suspension, Dainese clothing and Maxxis tyres!

I’m really looking forward to compete with this winning proofed products with a great history against the best in the world! When I started riding Downhill around 2004, the first protection I used was Dainese and Maxxis rubbers fitted my bike! My first real DH bike had the fox 40 in it! So, for me this is something like going back to the roots, and yes as I wrote before I can´t wait to race with this stuff on my Summum!
Another good thing for 2016 is that we got the fastest Junior in the World to race with us! I met Laurie earlier this year and I think we got along well from the first second as teammates! His speed and style for his age are incredible and I am sure we will have a great time on and off the track! With Danny and Laurie I have two of the best riders in the world as team members and that definitely should help me to reach my goals for the upcoming season!!”

Markus Pekoll

“The MS Mondraker team has been one of the most professional teams on the circuit for years- working with these guys, my good friend Chaz as a mechanic and being able to keep my favorite components and sponsors going into this year make me very excited!! Riding along experienced elite riders like Marcus and Danny will help me a lot going into my first year in the category. My goals are to progress on my results from last year, pushing towards more top 20 results!!”

Laurie Greenland

“A lot of you guys may be surprised seeing me in the current roster of the MS Mondraker Team. My last season was not what I was hoping for. At the start of the previous season I was almost sure that I was going to retire at the End. But as we got more and more into the season I was feeling good, that is until my crash in Mont Sainte Anne- the injuries I got made the decision easier for me. Right now I am doing a kind of re-education to get my elbow and ankle up to a 100% level, which means I am still training. Registering with the team keeps a door open for me… we will see!”

Emmeline Ragot

Furthermore we are happy to announce a last minute add-on to our team, which is Emmeline Ragot. This may be a surprise to most of you as Emmeline officially retired in 2015. This should not be seen as a comeback, but as a backdoor for her if she is able to recover 100% after her bad ankle and elbow injuries. We always stand by our riders to give them the optimal chances of success.

Apart from the A Team lineup, we started again a B Team support program under the responsibility of Maria Ulrich and Rainer Wollendorfer. The main focus will be on European races such as the European IXS cup where our promising riders, Fabian Ulrich, Matt Lawton and Pascal Engel will be competing.