SRAM now sponsors Saalbach's adidas Slopestyle event
Pic: SRAM

As part of SRAM's apparent mission to rule the entire bicycle universe, the component manufacturer is stepping up its involvement in freeride. There's three main strands to this - events, riders and of course products.

The adidas Slopestyle in Saalbach, Austria (June 16-18) is probably Europe's premier freeride event, and SRAM is now a main sponsor. It's promoting a new amateur event, RockShox Ticket2Style, the day before Slopestyle proper. 40 amateur riders will compete, with the top five getting themselves into the Slopestyle qualification runs alongside the professionals. That's quite an opportunity...

SRAM now has sponsored riders on both sides of the Atlantic, with Carlo Dieckmann and Joscha Forstreuter in Germany, Team Ayton Giant in Framce, Kyle Strait, Cameron Zink and Jamie Goldman in the US and Geoff Gulevich and Darren Berrecloth in Canada.

And products? The company says it'll be introducing new freeride-specific components for 2007, including a long-travel fork range and brakes. Watch this space...