CANYON CLLCTV GOES FULL FACTORY WITH THEIR 2025 GRAVITY TEAM SET-UP

New CLLCTV DH riders Marine Cabirou, Henri Kiefer, and Aletha Ostgaard join fan favorites Troy Brosnan and Luca Shaw in the fastest CLLCTV set-up yet

EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY 30TH JANUARY 2025, 11:00 CET: It’s official: Canyon is throwing its full weight behind the CLLCTV Factory Team for 2025. This isn’t just a refresh—it’s full commitment to building a race program designed to win today and shape the champions of tomorrow.

With the largest Factory MTB team in Canyon’s history, featuring five world-class riders, Canyon is bringing its engineering muscle, team support, and product innovation to a single, unified goal: winning races.

“This is the pinnacle of mountain bike racing and product development,” says Fabien Barel, triple DH World Champion and Canyon Factory DH Team Manager. “When riders, engineers, and staff are 100% focused and working as one, incredible things happen. That’s why we’ve brought two development riders under the same roof—it’s not just about race-day results but creating the future of our sport.”

Joining returning fan favorites Troy Brosnan and Luca Shaw are recently announced World Cup star Marine Cabirou, and two exciting new additions: Henri Kiefer and Aletha Ostgaard.

Troy Brosnan, the model of consistency, showed his winning form with a World Cup victory at Mont-Sainte-Anne last season. Luca Shaw brought speed and precision, helping dial in the Sender CFR prototype while stacking top-ten finishes. Marine Cabirou adds serious firepower to the squad—her blistering pace and technical skill make her a threat at every race.

Then there are the young upstarts: Henri Kiefer (already a German National Champ and Junior World Champ) and Aletha Ostgaard, a 16-year-old gravity phenom from the US with more Crankworx medals than most riders twice her age. These two aren’t just the future of the sport—they’re ready to start mixing it up at the sharp end now.

If you're wondering why Canyon brought future talents into the Factory Team, it's simple: These young guns are learning way more here than they ever could tucked away in a separate development team pits. Training, racing, and hanging out alongside the fastest riders in the world isn’t just about mentorship—it’s about accelerating progress.

The Sender CFR proto that will be hitting start lines this year didn’t appear out of thin air—it was born on the race track. Every component, every adjustment, every innovation comes from collaboration between our riders and engineers. Racing is Canyon’s ultimate testing ground, and the 2025 Factory Team represents their most focused development program yet.

Fabien Barel—Team Mentor and a critical cog in the Canyon MTB development machine—explains it best: “This is the most rewarding part. Riders and engineers working together to find the next tenth of a second. That’s what racing is all about—pushing boundaries to make the fastest bikes on the planet. And what we learn here doesn’t stay in the pits—the stuff that makes the cut will usually end up on production bikes someday.”

Jesse Melamed will be back rocking the red maple leaf of Canadian National Champion for the Canyon CLLCTV EDR Team in 2025. Already back on the XC bike after surgery, he’ll undoubtedly be growing back to his race winning, series dominating best as the season progresses.

EDR racer Ines Thoma took a break from big bikes last year to become a Canyon Adventure author with her fantastic “Allgäu Gravel” book. She’s already been hot lapping in the Italian sun in Finale Ligure on her Strive:ON CFR LTD though, ready to race E-MTB, Gravel and even her first triathlon for Canyon in 2025.

Never rule out veteran DH and Enduro legend Fabien Barel from laying down some serious speed on the DH , Enduro or E-MTB when he’s not too busy managing the CLLCTV Factory DH Team either. The triple DH World Champion is still one of the fastest and smartest riders on the mountain and we know he’s already chasing the team riders hard in timed practice on their training camps.

While the Factory Team pushes the Sender CFR prototype (pictured below) to its limits, Canyon’s CFR lineup offers riders the same race-winning DNA. The Sender CFR and Strive CFR bring cutting-edge design, proven components, and value that any privateer racer will appreciate.

Want a boost? The Strive:ON CFR LTD pairs Bosch’s CX Race motor with a choice of battery sizes, letting riders balance lightweight agility with long-range capability.

With the new Sender CFR, the stage is set for 2025 to be one for the history books, and Canyon’s here for every step of the journey. From early-season testing to behind-the-scenes content from the opening World Cup in Bielsko-Biała BTS, follow the Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team as get up to speed this season. For exclusive updates, trackside action, and everything in between, follow Canyon CLLCTV on Instagram. 

1. For more team photos, see here.