A big welcome to a new Orbea Enduro Team
2018-12-06
After its first year, 2019 is going to be a year in which our enduro team will debut a noticeably more powerful structure. Want to know more?
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Thomas Lapeyrie, Becky Cook & Gabriel Torralba (Photo: Orbea)
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Primož Štrancar (Photo: Orbea)
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Vid Peršak (Photo: Orbea)
The Orbea Enduro Team project started out in January 2018.It was our return to the Enduro World Series following the Orbea Enduro Crew. It’s been almost a year since our return to top enduro competition and we’ve learned a lot.
This goes along with our nature that just won’t let us settle for second best, that makes us always strive for improvement and evolve in everything we do. It’s a part of our day to day and our philosophy at all levels.
As the result of all this, the team will debut a revamped structure in 2019, which will give us a more powerful Orbea Enduro Team, with more ambitious goals. The changes will be felt on an athletic level and in terms of communications and product development.
New Team Manager
On the one hand, we’ve added a trusted person to the management team who has already formed part of the Orbea family for a number of years. He’s an experienced and recognized competitor in different categories of MTB who also has a long history of leading rally, enduro and DH teams.
This person is none other than Primož Štrancar, from Slovenia, where enduro has a long tradition. He brings more than two decades of experience in many different facets of MTB. He arrives on the team to replace Julien Brugeas, whom we would like to thank for his hard work over the years. We wish him well in this new stage of his life.
Simply put, Primož believes in dedication, commitment and honesty. These are values that served well him during his cycling career to become national DH champion, national XCO champion on several occasions, and international and Olympic XCO rider and the first World Enduro Master’s Champion in the EWS.
As a coach, he has served as head coach for different countries with XCO and DH teams, also earning international accolades. As if this were not enough, he is a qualified physical education instructor specialized in the training of cyclists. He definitely brings to the table a great deal of added value to promote the qualities of our riders.
A diamond in the rough
Our riders will have a new teammate in 2019.He’s a young 22-year-old talent from Slovenia, and reigning enduro champ in this country for the past four years. As a matter of fact, he competed in the 2018 EWS and came away with a fifth place finish as the best result in one of the rounds. His name is Vid Peršak, and he's a force to be reckoned with.
With this addition, we now have a number of riders who come from or live in different countries with a long enduro tradition. Thomas Lapeyrie represents the French side of the Alps, Gabriel Torralba hails from the peninsular side of the Pyrenees and Becky Cook comes from the small Island of Wight; near New Forest National Park.
Sports Marketing Manager
We’ve also added a new internal position, to take charge of the different management and communications tasks with the Orbea Enduro Team.
Among other things, he will facilitate contact between the team and Orbea. He will gather and attend to the needs of the Orbea Enduro Team and will also have the job of connecting the content developers with the team and our riders. Aitor Otxoa Fernández will take charge of this new role.
New contents
Finally, other news for 2019 is the incorporation of a new contents agency.
This doesn’t mean that we’re closing the door on our current content provider. Next year, this collaboration will be more closely focused on the product. The new content agency will work exclusively for the Orbea Enduro Team.
All of this will give us contents that are a step ahead of the competition. The focus will be more human, personal and documentary, providing added value for all enduro fans.
We have a very exciting year ahead of us. Care to join us?