World Campionships: BIKEMagazine Interview
The text below is an excerpt from an interview our friends at BikeMagazine just did...to read the full interview and some cool photos by Sven Martin click on this link
Brian Lopes, who has more career World Cup victories than any other gravity racer, will slide on a full-face helmet one more time at this week's World Championships in Canberra, Australia. Lopes retired from racing after last season, having racked up 25 career World Cup victories and four World Championship titles in dual slalom and 4X.
But when Lopes hits the dirt at the World Championships, it won't be on the 4X course. Instead, he'll be tackling Canberra's DH course. It will be only the second time in a decade that Lopes has competed in a World Cup downhill race. And, not surprisingly, he actually thinks he can do well.
We caught up with Lopes right after Crankworx--where he won the Air DH, Giant Dual Slalom and the Enduro Downhill--and asked him about the World Championships, his new race bike and a potential return to the World Cup.
When did you first start thinking about competing in the DH at Worlds?
I first thought about it after I saw the video on Freecaster of Greg Minnaar's run last year. There looked like a lot of jumping, a lot of pedaling, no tree sections, and it didn't seem too steep--basically a course I thought I could ride the new Ibis HD bike on and a course that somewhat suited my style.
What's this new Ibis HD bike? Was it developed for Worlds? Or was it already in the works?
The HD is the latest bike from Ibis. HD stands for heavy duty. That is what it is called right now, anyway, but I'm not sure exactly what the final name will be. It has 160 millimeters of travel, a slacker head angle, 12-millimeter Maxle rear axle, and is stiffer than the Mojo. Basically, if you loved the Mojo but wanted something for more aggressive riding, this is the bike. It's only about a pound heavier than a Mojo SL frame, so it's still super-light. You can build a sub-30-pound bike that you can pedal up all your local trails. This bike was already in the works when I signed with Ibis almost two years ago. It wasn't developed for the Worlds, but when I saw the course, I asked the guys at Ibis if it would be ready by August. I thought it could be a good fit.
to read the FULL interview and some cool photos by Sven Martin click on this link
Posted by paula on September 3, 2009 12:44 AM