Below the article about lopes' new ride by mr Sal Ruibal, read here for the full article and more photos.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Sal Ruibal
Beauty (Ibis Mojo Sl) meets the Beast (Brian Lopes). Brian Lopes is the best all-around bike rider in the world. He rules the 4-cross and dual slalom world and could probably kick buttocks on the XC circuit if he set his mind to it.
On banked and bermed tracks, there’s no one who can catch him. In a road sprint, look out Boonen and Cipollini, he’s on your wheel. He can freeride like a Canadian on fire and hop over picnic tables like like a kangaroo on caffeine.
So that’s why I was set aback to hear from Mr. Lopes that he was switching from longtime bike sponsor GT to Ibis, a brand known for exquisitely crafted bicycles that are so beautiful that many are on living room walls instead of bike racks. The back-order wait is longer than getting a green card in El Paso.
But Lopes can ride whatever he wants and he wants Ibis. It is hard for me to visualize Lopes bombing down the 4X course, swapping paint with the rough trade and exposing all that wonderful, curvaceous carbon to mud and rocks.
He’ll start his Ibis era with the scrumptious MojoSL, a full-suspension carbon machine better known for sculpting lines on singletrack trails than bashing miscreants hubs-over-head in 4X. It just looks too pretty for the sport.
When the super stiff Ibis Tranny hardtail debuts later this year, Lopes will be more in his element. Full power transfer and explosive sprinting will rule the day.
Brian Lopes will just keep on winning, but now he’ll look cool while he does it.
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