CANYON WELCOMES HOMETOWN HERO LUKAS SCHAEFER TO THE CLLCTV

Embargoed until 11AM CET, Wednesday 02 APRIL 2025 – Some things just make sense. Lukas Schaefer has been repping freeride in the town of Koblenz, Germany for years - now he’s doing it with Canyon.

If you ride around Koblenz or Boppard, on the steep slopes surrounding the Rhine river in the west of Germany, you’ll likely already know Lukas. He’s been building, riding, and progressing right in Canyon’s backyard for as long as we can remember. He’s spent years shaping trails, stacking jumps, and turning his home turf into a spot that pushes riders to go bigger. And when he’s not on the bike, he’s making sure everyone else can ride too—maintaining trails, supporting the scene, and bringing the community together.

He’s also the host of one of the iconic Backyard Battle events, a freeride jam that brought together some of the best riders in the game for a session packed with big lines and creative riding. With another edition lined up for 2025, it’s only set to grow.

“Lukas has been part of the Koblenz scene forever. He’s already riding with a bunch of the crew here, showcasing his insanely good skills, and his work for the community is next level, so getting him on Canyon was just a matter of time,” says Lars Hartwich, Canyon MTB Sports Marketing Lead. “The guy builds, rides, and lives freeride—this partnership just fits. We are stoked about it.”

Lukas will be charging on the Torque, dialling in tricks on the Stitched 360 & 720, and riding the Spectral and Spectral:ONfly for laps in Boppard and beyond. And it’s not just Lukas getting set up—he’s starting his own devo programme together with CANYON to give young, upcoming regional talents the support to reach the next level.

His first stop as a Canyon rider? Darkfest- clocking some serious air time out in the South African sun.

Beyond that, he’s already building new features for an upcoming edit, pushing his riding even further. Keep an eye out—big things are coming.

"I’ve been seeing Canyon bikes on the trails for years, and to now be partnered with them is unreal," says Lukas. "The bikes are sick, the support is dialled, and I’m fired up to get to rolling.. Let’s go!"

Freeride, Slopestyle and Trials. Tech, racing, riding, curating communities and inspiring creativity. This corner of the Canyon CLLCTV will be redefining impossible again in 2025. From global comps to epic films and scrolling gold, this year will bring insane steeze and sends plus the joy that ‘playing on your bike’ can bring  Let’s take a look at who else is repping Canyon in freeride, slopestyle and trials this year:

There aren’t many mountain bikers who uplift their DH bikes with a Mclaren supercar, but then Fabio Wibmer is no ordinary rider. His 8 million subscribers on YouTube and anyone else who loves the biggest sends, slick trials moves, stunning scenery and a brilliant sense of humour will be buzzing to see what he does on his Canyon this year.

Gabriel Wibmer blew up feeds with ‘Late for School’ six years ago. His latest ‘How much do you bench?’ edit proves his style and creative ideas are fresher than ever. Be sure to have eyes on his content and World Cup racing progression in ’25.

You never know what UK slopestyle, jump and YouTube legend Sam Pilgrim will be up to next but it’s sure to be insanely entertaining. So get ready for more random madness mixed with ultra sick edits like his GoPro collab with fellow Canyon CLLCTV rider Samantha Soriano.

Freerider and Women’s ride camp creator Samantha is part of a whole Canyon CLLCTV crew based in Utah now. Ryan McNulty moved from Oregon to the home of Red Bull Rampage to go full send on his life of unbelievable steeze. DJ Brandt also starts his second year of effortless style with Canyon in the desert state. The awesome Adventure Groms, Curren and Granger Wares will no doubt be freaking their Dad out even more in 2025, stomping big Rampage lines and pulling big air tricks at just 11 years old.

Utah is also where Braydon Bringhurst exploded into MTB history. Climbing the Whole Enchilada DH trail in Moab for his unbelievable ‘8600ft’ film. His passion for ‘All Ways’ trail riding, mixing savage tech climbs, raw descents and pure jump and flow style returns with the breathtaking new Hard MTB League invitational in May.

We’re sure Canyon CLLCTV dual slalom and pump track champ Luca Commetti will be back for Hard MTB League again alongside fellow Californian, 16-year-old shredder Olivia Silva.

Xylena Hoppen is already getting the gravel miles in and digging the dirt in SoCal ready for another season of sending and road tripping on a full range of Canyon machines. Fellow US Canyon CLLCTV rider Jaz Smith is all about raising dust and getting air on her Torque:ON E-MTB and Sender DH bike wherever they take her.

She’ll do well to plant more flags than street riding legend Brad Simms did in 2024 though. He showcased his mix of terrifying max exposure lines plus sick BMX bred urban riding in Columbia, Portugal, India and Mexico last year so look out for him worldwide in 2025. 

He’s matched by Griffin Paulson whose bio is “Traveling, riding, and competing around the world.” He’ll be bringing his easy style and serious skin ink to the global circuit again this year for CLLCTV after a lifetime best 5th at Joyride Whistler in 2024.

Fast rising slopestyle star Lukas Skiold also went top ten at JoyRide and is back on the indoor ramps in Sweden after a late season crash. No doubt getting ready to uncork his comp crushing back-flip, bar-spin, tail-whip to double-bar-spin combo again as soon as possible.

Right now Haz Burbridge-Smith is recovering from surgery ahead of the ’25 season. In the meantime check out the stunningly inspirational ‘Anytime’ edit she dropped last autumn to see why this Australian BMXer turned MTBer is such a deserved fan-favourite.

In other words Canyon has brilliantly talented, creative MTB artists all over the globe, but they’ve saved the literal coolest (or should that be coldest) to last. Yes, Birk Selquist is back again on his Torque CF9, carving powder and railing trails with reindeer (yes really, go check his insta) in Tromso in the Arctic Circle. Maybe we’ll even see a collab with globe-trotting Canyon CLLCTV trials ninja Tomomi Nishikubo, who’s already hinted at “more projects in some surreal locations.”

Finally, new for ’25 is Lisa-Marie Blanc, the French freeride femme who placed fourth at last year’s Crankworx Whistler and took the FMBA rookie of the year ’24 title.

All Canyon CLLCTV freeride and slopestyle riders will be sharing sick pics and banging edits throughout the session. For the best of the best, make sure to tune into @cllctv_mtb.