GT Factory Racing unveil 2015 race bikes
March 18th, 2015
By Andrew Dodd in Bikes,Tech
Just before the race season kicks off, the new bikes and kit that the teams have start popping up – and the first really cool ones we’ve seen are from the GT Factory Team.
On the team roster for GT Factory Racing 2015 are Gee, Dan and Rachel Atherton, Taylor Vernon and Martin Maes.
Gee and Rachel are heading up the team’s attack on the UCI World Cup, with Taylor Vernon looking to progress and start building his experience now he’s racing in the seniors. For downhill, the team are using the GT Fury, which hasn’t changed much from the 2014 race bike – other than the super bright new paint jobs. Although Gee’s bike won’t differ too much from his 2014 race bike, Rachel mentioned of some subtle refinements to her bike. On a purely visual basis, it’s great to see that Rachel gets her own Teal colour-way and will stand out against the guys.
“ This will be our fourth season riding for GT. We had a lot of input into the design of the Fury, especially with the frame and getting the geometry perfect. We made quite a lot of changes to the Downhill bike last year and we ended up in a good place so basically this year’s bike is the bike that carried me to victory in World Champs. There’s no major component changes, we’ve been working with Fox, Shimano and Continental for so long that the products feel like an extension of myself” Gee Atherton
“We’ve made some small but telling changes to the geometry of my Fury for this season and I’m so excited riding it, I’ve been working with my mechanic Joe for two years now, in the first year we won both World titles, so that’s a massive goal for us in 2015!” Rachel Atherton
Dan Atherton and Martin Maes will be hitting the Enduro World Series hard, and have been training specifically for the rigours of Enduro racing. For Enduro, they’ll be riding the GT Sanction that Dan developed for the 2014 race season. Dan had an unlucky season in 2014 so will no doubt be looking to get back up there, whilst Martin had an incredible season with 7 stage wins across 7 races. He’ll no doubt want to up his ante, and definitely seems at ease on the Sanction.
“The bike is unchanged since 2014, apart from a fresh lick of paint. People often underestimate the severity of the EWS courses – basically they are six World Cup tracks to be ridden in a day, it’s not terrain that all Enduro bikes can deal with. The Sanction has the suspension and pedaling characteristics of the GT Fury but in a scaled down chassis. It’s a tough bike and 2015 is going to be the year that Martin and I push it even harder” Dan Atherton
Check out Dan and Martin racing in the Torpedo 7 Coronet Enduro at Queenstown Bike Festival, New Zealand on March 20th, then the first Enduro World Series race at Crankworx New Zealand 8 days later on the 28th. Gee, Rachel and Taylor hit the downhill action in the Crankworx downhill on the 27th March – and you can be sure that every one of them are serious contenders.