Exclusive Interview - Fabien Barel Signs for Canyon

The rumours are true - Fabien Barel has signed for Canyon Bikes. The three-time downhill World Champion has signed for the bike brand from Koblenz. We had an exclusive chat with the mountain bike legend to find out why he felt the time was right to join the German-based team and what his plans are with them.

He will be joined on the Canyon Factory Enduro Team by Joe Barnes, Ines Thoma, Marco Bühler and Eugen Maxi Dickerhoff. The team will make their debut together at the Garda Bike Festival in early May and their focus will then be the Enduro World Series.


How did you end up signing for Canyon?

We actually just met randomly, that's the way it happened. It was just an opportunity where we had a discussion about the philosophy of the company and the different things we wanted to achieve around R&D and around the evolution of the brand and mountain bike technology generally. All that together brought us into a discussion and the bosses were really interested to push technology to grow the sport and create real evolution onto mountain bikes. Because if we take the summary that all-mountain bikes today climb like cross-country bikes of ten years ago, and they go downhill like the downhill bikes of ten years ago. In the future we can expect that the all-mountain bikes in ten years time will be able to ride up like the cross-country bikes of today and ride down like the downhill bikes of today. All the technology, all the material you use for the rigidity of the frame, the kinematics and all the new technology that you can bring and I feel that the things that are coming up today will enable us to develop bikes that will be a compromise for everything.

What motivated you to leave Mondraker?

The decision was nothing to do with Mondraker as the relationship I have with the brand is fantastic and it still is today. We did great work over the last five years, a lot of strategy around communication and R&D and it's been a fantastic experience, it's nothing to do with those guys and the relationship we have and that won't change. The change came because of the opportunity to pursue a certain project around R&D. This was a strong motivation for me and I was ready to pick up this new all-mountain wave that is coming up today. That's the main reason and the main motivation.


How long will you be with Canyon for?

We have signed a three-year contract and we are definitely basing ourselves on a long-term relationship.

What will you be doing for Canyon? Are you just going to be doing R&D or will we get to see you racing again?

The main goal is to help them to push the R&D for developing all-mountain and downhill bikes. That's our main target. For this year, as it's quite new, I will be training for and racing the World Enduro Series.

Do you want revenge on Cedric Gracia for La Fenasosa?

Yeah, we will have a good back-to-back again.

How is it coming back to racing? You don't seem like the kind of guy to say "I'll out 20% in and see how I go..."

No, no, no. Obviously. Going back into something different to downhill is a change of direction, because I was planning to ride more motorbikes this year, ride bikes in France and not go further as I said over the last years. To go into racing, to go into enduro, is something that will bring me into a strong physical preparation and an approach to the sport that is completely different. Obviously, if I'm going to ride the Enduro World Series it's not to try and ride 20%... I will definitely train and try to give the best of myself to compete with the top guys like Nico [Vouilloz], Jerome Clementz, all those top enduro riders.


How much has your training programme changed compared to what you did for downhill?

I have had discussions with my trainer about this and the fitness you need to perform over five minutes or fifteen minutes are different. You are less into lactic acid, you need to have lucidity for longer runs, so the physical prep is actually quite different. We are talking more about endurance than power, so there is quite a difference for my natural shape that needs to be done. This doesn't really play to my advantages as I'm quite a heavy guy, more on the strength side of things rather than endurance. So these are all things we will need to anticipate and prepare for if we want to be competitive.

You have always had a reputation as an analytical rider, do you think this will help you in a discipline like enduro where managing the race is so important?

I think this is the case generally. You can take downhill, you can take all-mountain, you can take cross-country, you can take all types of sport. Trying to calculate things and make sure you manage your parameters is always an advantage. I will definitely put everything into making sure I prepare my bike well, I prepare myself physically well so I can be as competitive as possible.

At the first Enduro World Series race at Punta Ala in eight weeks time, will we see you on a developed bike compared to what is available now?

We have the Strive, the 160mm bike, and in Punta Ala we will probably already have the prototype. We are already working on that.


We will see something like Forward Geometry on the bikes?

The Forward Geometry is a concept that comes straight from Mondraker. They have been following my ideas in that direction and the name and the concept are something Mondraker asked me for leadership in and I think they can definitely be very proud of it, as it brings something new. On the bike that we are developing, the general attitude will be to have a longer front-centre while keeping the reach and stack the same as a normal bike as this brings the stability I generally want on my bikes. So we won't have Forward Geometry, as that is a concept of Mondraker, but we will definitely have geometry that provides the stability we need.

Photos: Markus Greber

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