Specialized Factory Racing squad remains fixed for 2025
+ news from Payson McElveen and Trek Factory Racing
Specialized Factory Racing will have a similar footprint in 2025. All of their riders will return to the team next season, with Americans Christopher Blevins and Haley Batten signing on for two more years.
Blevins and Batten both joined the team in 2022 after racing for Specialized-backed Trinity Racing and will remain with Specialized through the 2026 season.
Batten raced to a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and also won early season XCO and XCC races in Brazil. The Specialized racer suffered from a concussion sustained in a crash at the Marathon MTB World Championships in Snowshoe, West Virginia, causing her to miss the final two rounds of the World Cup series.
Blevins was also successful in the early season, winning the opening XCO in Brazil before placing second at the XCC in Nove Mesto. A crash in Mont-Sainte-Anne disrupted his XCC bid and caused him to sit out the XCO.
I previously reported that Laura Stigger will race a mixed calendar of road and MTB in 2025 with Specialized Factory Racing in the dirt and Team SD Worx-Protime on the road. She has signed with the road team for one year, but it’s not clear how long her contract is for the MTB team. The contract details of Sina Frei, Martin Vidaurre, and Victor Koretzky are also unclear, though they will all stay with Specialized.
Koretzky was one of the best male XC riders this year, winning numerous World Cup races and placing second at the Olympics. His efforts, in addition to Frei and Stigger, allowed the team to sweep all of the elite races in Lake Placid.
"We don't have any new teammates, which I think is really cool," Blevins told Pinkbike. "We've been so successful as a team. We'll see a lot of changes in the World Cup scene this year, but it's pretty cool our team didn’t need to change anything."
Payson McElveen secures MAAP as apparel sponsor
Life Time Grand Prix rider Payson McElveen has been announcing new partnerships on Instagram. He previously wrote that he would be leaving longtime apparel sponsor Voler, and yesterday announced a new sponsorship by Australian-based premium apparel brand MAAP.
“It’s still sinking in that I get to work with this amazing brand,” McElveen said. “Their product has blown me away, and enthusiasm to collaborate on creative ideas made me so, so excited for the year ahead.”
McElveen also announced in recent weeks that he will be supported by Allied Cycle Works through 2027. He has ridden the Arkansas-based bike brand since 2022 and previously rode from Trek.
McElveen placed third in the Life Time Grand Prix this year and will participate in the American series again in 2025.
Trek Factory Racing debut new kit
Trek Factory Racing has debuted photos of their new racing kit. New signing Gunnar Holmgren posed with Riley Amos, Evie Richards, Madigan Munroe, and Gwendalyn Gibson to show off the red, blue, and purple kit.
The block design is reminiscent of the Lidl-Trek road team kit but retains its own flair, featuring navy blue throughout and the logos of title sponsors Trek and Pirelli.
The photos confirm that the five riders will remain on Trek, while Jolanda Neff and Anton Cooper have departed the team. It’s unclear if any more riders will join the team, but the fact that they’ve already done a photoshoot points to the team being finalized.