BMC to hit EWS on Shimano XTR Di2

The BMC Trailfox TF01 was the first 150mm travel full-carbon 29er on the Enduro World Series circuit. Now, another first has been added to its Palmarés, it is now the first Enduro bike to be equipped with Shimano’s XTR Di2 electronic drivetrain.

Shimano’s XTR Di2 was revealed last year at the Albstadt UCI MTB World Cup. BMC MTB Racing Team’s Julien Absalon was one of the prominent riders testing and validating this new piece of cycling hardware in the lead-up to its launch. Now the BMC Factory Trailcrew are using the gear for the upcoming Enduro World Series. This was delivered by Shimano to the BMC Factory Trailcrew training camp last week in Finale Ligure in the form of the electronic upgrade of Francois Bailly-Maitre’s BMC Trailfox TF01 to XTR Di2.

The initial feedback from François Bailly-Maître has been really positive. According to the French BMC Factory Trailcrew team captain “The XTR Di2 is really fast and precise and the cool thing is, it can be easily programmed to accommodate different riding styles. Once you’ve entered your data in the E-tube software it is really easy to fine-tune your bike for the kind of training, race, or transitions you’d like to do. The group set is really light and it even offers different assets such as a display on the handlebar and a “click” letting the rider know when the shifter is pushed. The Syncro shift system allows you to control both the back and front with only one shifter. And the space between both levers can be modified as much as you want. It is also aesthetically simple because everything is integrated into the frame.” added François Bailly-Maître.

Also present at the training camp and outfitting the Trailfox together with Shimano was BMC’s Mountain Bike Engineer Guillaume Farin who commented “François has a ton of race experience at the highest level and, in multiple disciplines. He is, simply put, an amazing all-round mountain biker. BMC Switzerland and Shimano are technology-driven companies operating at the cutting edge, and we really see a lot of value in doing early testing with athletes like François. XTR Di2 offers Enduro riders unique benefits by combining the extended gear range of a double chainring setup, with the intuitive function of only one shifter in a tidy package. François was quick to note he could program different modes with the Syncro shift technology: one mode for paced transition climbs favoring easy gears, and tougher modes for raced stages with preselected, bigger gears.  The tuneable chain retention and the silence of the whole system impressed us all, and could not be faulted over the first few days of testing.”

François added “I am really happy and extremely proud to be chosen as the first ever Enduro pilot to ride with Di2. It is great to see that a company like Shimano is supporting us 200%. It gives me an extra motivation to train hard and get ready for the first round of the EWS and the rest of the season”.

François Bailly-Maître will leave for New Zealand at the beginning of March and get ready for the first round of the EWS that takes place in Rotorua on the 27th and 28th of March

The BMC Trail Crew aren’t the only team equipped with XTR Di2 – photos from the recent training camp for Trek Factory Racing showed the whole team now use the electronic groupset – keep an eye out for it on Bec Henderson’s and Dan McConnell’s bikes at the upcoming Oceania Champs.