It’s the official team relaunch for Matrix Pro Cycling tomorrow evening, and we are excited to be supporting them for our third year in a row. As with any team launch, it comes with a series of exciting announcements for the year ahead.
Elinor Barker (MBE) was launched to fame at the Rio Olympics after comfortably winning Gold in the team pursuit with Matrix team member Laura Kenny (Trott).
As a senior Elinor became a specialist in the team pursuit event, winning gold at the Rio Olympics, UCI Track Cycling World Championships of 2013 and 2014 as well as a hat-trick of golds at the UEC European Track Championships between 2013 and 2015.
All together Elinor has become a World, European, Six Day and Olympic champion as well as Commonwealth medallist and a world record holder at only 22.
Her love of cycling began with the Individual Time Trial however, having won World Championship Silver in the Copenhagen Junior World Time Trial Championships in in 2011. After six years focus on the track, will be returning to the TT with ambitions of taking victory at the elite World Championships in Bergen, Norway.
“I’m really excited to announce a new focus for the remainder of this year, after the upcoming Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong next month. After years of concentrating solely on the team pursuit on the track I think the time trial on the road is the perfect goal for me this year. I’ve had a huge amount of support already from Matrix and Specialized and can’t wait to properly get my teeth stuck into the challenge.” Elinor Barker, Matrix Pro Cycling
Elinor will be competing at the World Track Championships in April, followed immediately by a training camp in France at the team’s training base near Limoux. Following that Elinor will start road competition, with the British National Time Trial Championships as a focus of the first half of the season. From there the team will travel to Slovenia to support Elinor in the UCI time trial in Ljubljana, before looking to secure selection for the European and World Championships.
Elinor has chosen an S-Works Shiv TT Module and Roval CLX 64 tubular wheels for Time Trials, and an S-Works Tarmac with Roval CLX32 wheels for road racing. Elinor has already had the opportunity to take the Specialized S-Works Shiv bike provided to California to focus on detailed aerodynamics.
“Elinor chose Specialized bikes and equipment as part of her 2017 program and we are very proud to partner with her and her team. Elinor has an incredible talent, an open mindedness and strong professionalism towards her preparation and development. We have a great opportunity to work effectively together towards delivering best performance and achieving her goals this season, ultimately the Individual Time Trial at the World Championships in Bergen.” William Watt, Specialized UK