Lapierre debuts new team and bike at the 2026 World Cup

The French brand Lapierre has kicked off the 2026 XCO World Cup with a double move that marks a turning point in its sports project. A new team and a new bike in competition. The new Lapierre PXR Racing has just debuted as a structure in South Korea and has done so with what should be the next XRM, a prototype that has been accumulating kilometers and results for months before now making the leap to the highest level.

Lapierre debuts in the World Cup what will be its next XRM

The new Lapierre PXR Racing takes the foundation of the now-defunct Ghost Factory Racing, which explains why there is no adaptation phase. The structure was already built and functioning. Lapierre has simply absorbed it and put it to compete with its own identity and with a group of riders ready to perform from the first test: Anne Terpstra, Nicole Koller, Caroline Bohé, Anton Cooper, and Tobias Lillelund.

The same goes for the new XRM, which is not a prototype that has debuted in Korea. It is the same development platform that Anne Terpstra already won with in Chelva and has been tested for months. But what changes now is the scale, and we could say that it goes from being a one-off prototype to becoming the official bike of the entire team in a World Cup.

On a technical level, the change from the current XRM is total. There is no real continuity in the design. The frame has been rethought from scratch and adopts an architecture that deviates from the dominant line in current XCO.

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The breaking point is in the position of the shock absorber. Unlike the current trend, Lapierre abandons the elevated location of the top tube and places it at the bottom of the frame, integrated around the bottom bracket. A clearly dynamic behavior-oriented approach for the bike.

Lowering the shock absorber means working with a lower center of gravity. In practical terms, this should translate into a bike that is more stable on quick supports and more precise when the circuit requires linking curves or changes of pace in technical areas.

The suspension system maintains a monopivot base with flexible stays, which allows for reducing pivot points, simplifying the assembly, and saving weight. Additionally, its design has contemplated from the beginning a configuration with electronic shock absorbers like the Flight Attendant, which requires more space to house the control unit and integrated battery.

There are no official figures, but the proportions of the frame and the project's own approach point to more travel than in its previous version. Everything indicates that the bike moves above 100 mm, probably in a range close to 110–115 mm, following the trend of taking XCO bikes towards a more aggressive terrain without losing pedaling efficiency.

The integration also changes. The wiring disappears from the front of the frame and goes through the steering, a clean solution visually but complicating maintenance, something accepted at this level of competition.

The rear triangle, for its part, opts for very stylized stays that work through carbon flexion, seeking rigidity and direct response without adding mechanical complexity.

We can only wait to see if this is a model that is still being fine-tuned in competition or a platform already ready to hit the market.