Thought the 2020 Team Rumours season was getting stale? Well, let’s inject some excitement with the announcement of The Brigade Team, an all-new downhill team.
Many people following the 2020 team rumours threads around the web have expressed disappointment with the year’s rumours, but for those of us who dig a little deeper and uncover more clues, 2020 has been perhaps even more exciting than 2019.
For me, the biggest and most exciting 2020 Downhill team news is that of the all-new The Brigade Team, the newest team to enter the UCI World Cup season. I uncovered details of The Brigade a few months ago and have been sitting on the story while uncovering more info, waiting for the time that I could reveal all!
Who is The Brigade Team?
The Brigade Team was created after a meeting between SR Suntour and Monkey’s Sauce. The two discovered their passion for racing and enthusiasm for downhill could be a winning recipe for a successful race team and so The Brigade Team was formed.
Who are The Brigade Team riders?
Alex Marin, formerly of Madison Saracen has moved to The Brigade and has already been spotted out and about on one of the team’s custom Santa Cruz V10 bikes.
Alex will be joined by another elite rider who will be announced in the coming days, but if you have been following the news as closely as I have then you’ll probably already have an idea of who that could be.
I have spent the last 6 season on serious Factory teams. For 2020, I felt like doing something different as a rider. I found a team with a great group of people. With the added bonus of being able to bring my mechanic, was a perfect fit. Next season I want to place in the top 20 regularly and of course, place in the top 10! I know what it takes to get on the top 10 and with The Brigade I now I can do it again!
Alex Marin
The press release (below) also mentions the potential of a surprise junior racer too. We don’t know if this is already and done deal or one in the making, but either way, we will be keeping a close eye on developments.
Who is sponsoring The Brigade Team?
Hexis Energy Drink. Hexis is a company that supplies high-quality wraps for customising cars, adding race livery to trucks, and more. Hexis has been extremely successful with a number of offices around the globe, it’s own motorsport racing division and even an energy drink called Hexis Energy.
Vee Tire Co. Is the tyre supply for The Brigade. This is actually the second WC DH race team that Vee Tire supplies rubber too, the other team being Propain Factory racing. Vee Tire Co. is quickly becoming a tyre maker to watch and already have a vast portfolio of top names riding their sticky race rubber.
SR Suntour. Taiwanese suspension maker SR Suntour is backing The Brigade, and their World Cup Winning Performance thanks to Tracey Hannah and the Polygon Team is sure to help The Brigade Team riders tame the most gnarly of World Cup tracks.
HXR Components. HXR Components, the same company behind the Lone Parabellum that I have been testing is also on board as a sponsor for this exciting new team. HXR is famous for the Easy-Shift system that allows riders to shift gear without peddling and this system will be used on race bikes.
Monkey’s Sauce. Monkey’s Sauce will be keeping The Brigade puncture-free, cleaned and lubed at every stop of the World Cup with its effective sealant and specially formulated bike cleaning Shampoo.
Production Privée. Steel enduro frame brand, Production Privée is also sponsoring The Brigade. No, they won’t race on PP frames, although that would be extremely cool wouldn’t it? but who knows what the future has in store. For this season Production Privée will supply both the handlebar and stem.
Crank Brothers. Crank Brothers is another major sponsor of this new race team. Crank Brothers has a huge range of components that have already been proven in the UCI Downhill and is sure to be another solid team sponsor for the coming season. From spy shots of the bike, we can see Alex and co will be running Crank Brothers Synthesis wheels and pedals.
Braking. Keeping Alex Marin’s speed in check will be brake manufacturing Braking. Braking is a company better known in the motocross and motorbike world, but over the past year, we have seen their brakes show up on mountain bikes too. Cedric Gracia uses them on his prototype Forestal and we even spotted a pair at the Fort William World Cup in 2019.
What frame will The Brigade ride?
As SR SUNTOUR and Monkey’s Sauce aren’t bike brands they don’t have a frame for the team to race on. In fact, the only company supporting The Brigade that also builds a bike is Production Privée and they don’t have a downhill bike, though The Brigade riders will use PP frames for training.
To solve this problem, Alex Marin and the rest of the team will ride Santa Cruz V10 frames for the 2020 season, fitted with SR Suntour suspension, Production Privée bars and stem, Braking brakes, Vee Tire Flow Snap tyre, HXR Easy Shift transmission and a range of Crank Brothers parts including wheels.
Below is the official press release of this new team:
New decade, new team!
Like most teams, it all starts with a handful of passionate people and partners. For us, it happened to be the result of a meeting between SR SUNTOUR and Monkey’s Sauce who have merged to create The Brigade Team together with a host of top-class sponsors, elite athletes and talented team members.
The Brigade Team’s World Cup assault will be led by 2 elite downhill racers. It’s an exciting lineup but we’re going to keep a lid on our full team roster for now and introduce our first Brigade Team rider, Alex Marin.
Alex, at just 23 years old is no stranger to world-class racing. The Spanish racer has spent the past 6 years on factory teams and with top 10 race results already under his belt, we have high hopes for him.
“I have spent the last 6 seasons on factory teams. For 2020 I felt like doing something different as a rider and found a team with a great group of people. With the bonus of being able to bring my mechanic, it was a perfect fit. This season I want to place in the top 20 regularly and of course, place in the top 10! I know what it takes to get on the top 10 and with The Brigade I know I can do it again!” – Alex Marin
THE BRIGADE TEAM
Riders/Staff
We’ll reveal our 2nd elite racer soon, but joining Alex we have a potential surprise Junior racer joining The Brigade Ranks, along with two experienced team mechanics, our suspension engineer, Kevin Allemand from SR Suntour not to mention our media crew bring the latest insights from each race of 2020.
Our racers will tackle the 2020 season onboard our custom Santa Cruz V10 race bikes, each built by our mechanics using world-leading components from our hand-picked collection of sponsors and partners.
SR SUNTOUR – will support us for with their excellent Rux and Triair 3CR suspension systems. SR Suntour will be on hand at every race to tune our race rig and assist with logistics.
VEE TIRE CO – We’re excited to be rolling into 2020 on Vee Tire Co tyres. Our team will work closely with Vee engineers and designers in Thailand as well as storming the WC on the proven SNAP WCE tyre.
MONKEY’S SAUCE – With Monkey’s Sauce cleaning, lubrication and tyre sealants stocking the pits, we’ll be running smooth, clean and reliable at every WC round.
KENNY – Race kit, body protection and helmets are all supplied by Kenny.
HEXIS ENERGY DRINK – is the official energy drink partner of The Brigade Team, ensuring we’re on point and energised every step of the way.
CRANK BROTHERS – will provide their proven Synthesis wheelsets and race-proven pedals to the team.
PRODUCTION PRIVÉE – becomes our official cockpit and enduro bike partner.
BRAKING – Leaps into the world of mountain bike racing with its high-performance disc brake system.
HXR Components – has outfitted our V10’s with the innovative Easyshift transmission system.
Today is just the start of The Brigade, and we’ll be announcing more rider and team news shortly. To keep up-to-date with The Brigade follow us at
The Brigade Team
Stay tuned to learn more about The Brigade, plus more 2020 Team Rumours news coming soon.
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Cathro?
Cathro looks to be racing for Pinkbike, whether that looks a bit like The Privateer mk2 or as part of an otherwise established team.