March 11/21 8:40 am - Emily Batty's Canyon MTB Racing Team Officially Launches

Posted by Editoress on 03/11/21
 

While it has been common knowledge for some time that Canadian mountain biker Emily Batty would be heading her own team for 2021 - joined by fellow Canadian Laurie Arseneault - today it became official. The team will be managed by Batty's husband and coach, Adam Morka.

When Canadian National Champion Emily Batty announced that she was leaving Trek Factory Racing, rumours flew as fans wondered where she would end up. In January, she announced her new partnership with Canyon bikes, and now the full details of her new team have been released.

It needs to be noted that, while the team is named Canyon MTB Racing, since the UCI requires a minimum of three riders for a World Cup team, the riders are listed under the Canyon Collective Factory Team for registration purposes.

Keeping the team small in the first year of racing was an important decision for Morka, the team owner and race and marketing director. "We are taking a crawl, walk, run approach," he says. "We want to have a good year and prioritize quality over having a large squad - for now."

Batty explains, "I feel like it's taken years to reach this level of support. We've worked hard to connect within the cycling community and achieve performances at the highest level. A strong group of people supporting my dreams and aspirations in sport has allowed me to build our own race program and pursue this next chapter. I can't thank Canyon and all of the new team partners enough for believing in the team and everything I have yet to accomplish in mountain biking and sport. 2021, let's go!"

"I also have big World Championships, World Cup, and Olympic goals," Batty adds. "I'm really chasing that podium at every race. I want to go big on the performance side of things this year: I'm most excited to get back to Val Di Sole for World Championships."

More than just a race team, Canyon MTB Racing is focused on providing a closer look behind the scenes through different modes of content creation and new initiatives with sponsors. "We have the vision to continue growing within the sport and beyond," Morka explains. "We wanted to build something completely different while creating a program that can stand the test of time, long after Emily decides she is done racing all while helping develop next-generation athletes on and off the bike."

This year, the program is supported by title sponsor Canyon, along with Bio Racer, Wahoo, Shimano, Abus, Fox, Schwalbe, DT Swiss, Lululemon, 100%, Vital Proteins, 4iiii, Ergon, Hyperice, UniorTools, Evoc, The Feed.com and Momum.

"Emily and her entire team perfectly combine a young-at-heart curiosity for new possibilities with an incredible amount of experience at the same time," says Julian Biefang, Senior Product Manager at Canyon. "This unites us: Together, we strive to achieve the best. The passion for cross-country racing is really in each team member, and that makes our collaboration maximally authentic - and we definitely enjoy it to the max!"

"We're excited to partner with Emily as one of the top Canadian racers, and the team as a whole. I think the alignment between our company and the team is perfect," says Phil Cortes, Manager at Bio Racer Canada. "The timing was ideal to start to work with the team, and I know that we're going to do really great things together."

"Emily is a perfect example of somebody who's not just a pure racer, she's got a lot of other stuff going on. She loves adventure and does so much to support cycling, in general," says Joe Lawwill, Shimano's MTB Marketing Specialist. "All those things are so important and make for a great partnership."

"We have big goals, for sure," Morka says. "I would love to see our team become the number one ranked XCO team in the world. That certainly doesn't happen overnight, but I'm confident we can get there in the near future."

Athletes
Laurie Arseneault - Elite Women XCO
Emily Batty - Elite Women XCO

Staff
Adam Morka - Race and Marketing Director
Theresa Rindler - Physiotherapist
Molly Hurford - PR and Communications
Mark Batty - Head Mechanic