2 BIKES, 2 RIDERS, 2 CRANKWORX VICTORIES...
July 6th 2022
Last week saw two international victories for our Continental Atherton team riders, with a win in the Dual Slalom on the AM150 for Andreas Kolb and top step for Charlie Hatton in the downhill on the brand new AM200 Mullet.
The Slalom is a bit of a favourite for Andi who took 3rd at Sea Otter earlier this year. It’s a real crowd pleaser which puts some of the world’s fastest riders head-to-head in a side-by-side battle. Riders take one run down each side of the course, with the fastest combined time taking the win – and the slower rider being eliminated.
Andi’s home crowd were out in force to support their man as he took on George Brannigan in the finals, after a scorching quals round the day before a huge downpour transformed the track from loose, dry and slippy to wet and greasy.
Andreas said “The AM150 has quite a lot of travel for this event but I feel like the conditions favoured us DH riders, and it served me well in Sea Otter so… even though I had potentially the chance to ride the new Atherton Bikes prototype AM130 I stuck with the 150 and it proved to be the right decision! In this event you have to be so precise on your cornering and that’s exactly what the Atherton Bike delivers, it’s so predictable and tracks exactly where you want it to go. It’s just super easy to throw it from one turn into the next.”
In the Downhill race it looked like Andreas was on his way to yet another podium, Mick Hannah was on the hotseat when Andi went ahead by a full 2 seconds in the top split but on the approach to the boardwalk his rear wheel struck something that knocked him off line .. and right off the edge of the platform, incredibly Andi rode it out but with a big loss of seconds that took him out of the running!
In the Downhill race it looked like Andreas was on his way to yet another podium, Mick Hannah was on the hotseat when Andi went ahead by a full 2 seconds in the top split but on the approach to the boardwalk his rear wheel struck something that knocked him off line .. and right off the edge of the platform, incredibly Andi rode it out but with a big loss of seconds that took him out of the running!
Charlie had qualified second, a less than optimal gear change put him 0.2 back on Mick after the top splits but the AM200 carried great speed through the slow, bumpy corners at the bottom of the track and Charlie’s top-level fitness came into play as he absolutely charged through the bottom section, crossing the line 3.1 seconds ahead of Hannah. Only Finn Iles was left on track, but he couldn’t match Charlie’s pace and crossed the line 2.38 seconds back on the Continental Atherton rider.
Charlie said ”I’m so stoked! I qualified 2nd, 4 seconds behind Finn so I knew I would have to fully commit in my race run. The track was super fun but very hard to race with very limited line choice and so flat in places so it was crucial to carry speed. This track isn’t somewhere I would usually excel, I pedalled hard everywhere I could! I’m so stoked with the bike at the minute it feels super dialled, so maybe I pushed on a bit more, took a couple of lines I might not have considered in the past, being able to trust the bike like this boosts my confidence”
Dan Brown, Atherton Bikes CEO said ‘Both AM150 and AM 200 are based around Dave Weagle’s DW6 suspension platform which gives a nearly unlimited level of adjustability, during prototyping, the finished article is certainly proving itself with great mid stroke support and fantastic traction, we’ve also worked hard on the compliance of the rear triangle which means both of these bikes corner as if on rails… we’ve really seen that pay off as both riders grow in confidence. These two bikes have very different characteristics but our additive manufacturing methods mean that learnings on one model can immediately inform improvements across the board. Couldn’t be more pleased for these two – bring on Lenzerheide.”
The AM200M will officially launch very soon, make sure you grab your exclusive build slot before the rush...
The AM200M will go on sale to the public for the first time later this month – ask us about a pre-order here