Two years ago the Atherton Racing team expanded, signing on two young upcoming stars; Taylor Vernon and the less known Martin Maes. The young Belgian came out of nowhere at the end of the 2011 season and produced some really fast times in the European Enduro race series. Dan Atherton had just raced his first full season of enduro and definitely saw potential in Maes and brought him onboard the still fairly new GT program.
This year Martin has absolutely smashed the Elites in the Enduro World Series, he has taken multiple stage wins and shown he can really race with the big boys. He also raced his first DH World Cup in Fort William and won. The Belgian star is going to be a massive threat next year and we can’t wait to see what he has to offer. Let’s not forget as well how young Maes is, he still has another year left in the junior ranks.
For the Finale of the EWS Martin was racing his GT Sanction Pro, a purpose built 165mm travel enduro race bike.
In keeping with a few of the pro’s at Finale it’s looking like he was running a prototype Fox shock, with what looks like a bigger air can and piggyback.
He’s running a Hope’d up 1×10 drivetrain with a 34 tooth retainer ring and 40t-rex expanding the cassette range.
There’s a Shimano chain retention system making sure everything holds together.
The fox dropper post is controlled by the left hand shifter, keeping everything nice and neat.
While running an XTR race lever matched to a Saint caliper is a popular braking option of the EWS, Martin’s sticking with stock Saints and Ice Tech rotors.
