Following two years of commitment, perseverance, and good old-fashioned hard work, the Yeti/Shimano EP Racing Team is off to a strong start this season, scoring its first EDR-E triumph in Finale Ligure, Italy, and a dominant performance to follow in Poland. 

“We would like to congratulate the Yeti/Shimano EP Racing Team on their first big win,” said Yuzo Shimano, Shimano Executive Officer/Vice President. “Shimano chose Yeti as its partner two years ago to top the E-MTB scene, and has been thinking about how we should evolve E-MTB in order to make racers ride in the way they can win. We are most grateful for the team's meticulous feedback and ideas for improvement that have been incorporated into the product and we look forward to continued success in the future.”

Ryan Gilchrist took the win in Italy riding his Yeti SB160E equipped with Shimano’s EP801 drive unit. Facing nine brutal stages totaling over 50 minutes of full-gas racing, the Australian was consistent from start to finish on Finale’s famously steep slopes that overlook the stunning Italian Riviera.

Gilchrist started strong, placing third in the first two stages, then turned up the heat, winning the ensuing two stages and four of nine total. It all added up to a comfortable 23-second final time advantage over second-placed Manuel Soares José Borges of Portugal, with Frenchman Francescu Camoin in third.

“I kept a good pace and high intensity through the stages in the first loop with a strong focus on nutrition and being efficient on the liaisons and in the stages,” explained Gilchrist, 21, who just two years ago was racing as an unsponsored privateer on the junior circuit. “It wasn’t until stage three that I opened a substantial lead on the physically demanding and pedally stage. From there on, I had a lot of confidence in my riding and rode very strong through the power stages and all the way to the end of the day, securing the win.”

The Yeti/Shimano EP Racing Team followed up this early success with another great showing at the second round of EDR-E racing in Poland. Gilchrist took 3rd while teammate Mick Hannah placed 5th overall. The team was also excited to see Slawomir Lukasik of the Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team take the win here, as he was riding the same EP Racing drive unit as Gilchrist and Hannah. 

These victories were a true team effort that started 24 months ago when Shimano and Yeti first joined forces during the lead-up to the Big Mountain Enduro event in Ironton, Missouri, for the first of many test sessions. At the time, Gilchrist had not even joined the team that was captained by World Cup gravity racing legend Mick Hannah. 

It was Hannah’s willingness to engage in multiple test sessions, providing invaluable data and critical feedback, along with the dedicated Yeti team staff and a squadron of Shimano engineers and product managers, that helped develop and eventually deliver a drive unit capable of the peak performance required to win at the highest level of the sport. 

Throughout the 24-month process that had its share of ups and downs, Yeti’s faith was steadfast and Shimano’s commitment unwavering, as it sent engineers to every single race and countless off-site test sessions. 

"The Yeti and Shimano partnership spans over decades,” shares Damion Smith, Sports Marketing Manager for Yeti Cycles. “In the past two years, Shimano's focused effort and dedication to delivering the Yeti/Shimano EP Racing Team a power-stage and race-winning drive unit have been truly impressive. Dedicated partners like Shimano keep Yeti Cycles' Race Programs at the cutting edge and on the podium. Witnessing their unwavering commitment to racing development firsthand has been both rewarding and inspiring. I am proud and honored to partner with such a legendary and committed brand."

Through this relentless work, a host of innovations have been developed and put to use. At the outset of the project, power output was increased by 20% to 600 watts with the then still-in-development EP801 drive unit.  Riders can now enjoy the increased technical capability of EP801 equipped bikes, with other race developed improvements coming soon.

Besides increased power, the first requests from Hannah were a higher level of assist ratio, assist that remains at full strength up to the cut-off speed, and extended carry-over when the pedals stop turning.  Those features can help any rider tackle more technical terrain and will be released as a no cost firmware update for EP801 bikes soon.  The unique race development format of the EP Racing program allows for constant exploration of new customization options that will continue to elevate Shimano E-Bike Systems for years to come.

Like all Shimano athletes, the riders have had the freedom to choose their components and decide what is best for their race performance.  The result of the first team camp in 2022 was Hannah’s choice for Di2 shifting over mechanical.  The obvious benefit was the ability to Free Shift.  From the very first ride, Hannah could find speed on the trail by pre-shifting to the right gear while coasting, letting Free Shift technology spin the chain ring and move the derailleur so that he could accelerate out of every corner.

The somewhat surprising benefit of Di2 came later with the first Auto Shift tests.  While fully automatic shifting that keeps up with a hard charging World Cup racer remained out of reach, it proved to be relatively easy to predict the shifts to the right gear while the rider is coasting.  The benefit of being able to trust the gear when pedaling out of any corner was a big motivator to give it a shot, and Hannah chose to let the computer do his Free Shifting automatically for select stages at his first EWS race ever.  It was a valuable tool in his first stage win that day and set the team on a course for Auto Shift development with lofty goals, to let the racer forget about shifting almost entirely.

Whether they use HYPERGLIDE+ or LINKGLIDE, all EP801 bikes equipped with XT Di2 shifting have the ability to use the best version of Auto Shift for aggressive riding, where the computer chooses the gear while coasting but the rider has complete manual control whenever the pedals are turning.

Two years of Auto Shift development brought clever improvements to the algorithm bit by bit.  The additional speed and confidence to be gained from fully trusting Auto Shift through the one or two gear changes needed to continue accelerating after exiting a corner started to come within reach.  During the off-season, Hannah found he was finally able to keep his focus on the trail and his thumb wrapped around the bar for those hard charging bursts of pedaling.  In keeping with other race inspired improvements, this updated Auto Shift algorithm will be available by firmware update on XT Di2 equipped bikes soon.

“The exciting news for me from Finale was that I was able to race most of the stages using Auto Shift,” revealed Hannah, whose race day was undone by an untimely puncture during stage three. “I’ve actually been feeling more comfortable with Auto Shift than with manual shifting most of the time, so I decided to test it during race practice. Practice went well, so I chose to use it for the race. I still use manual shifting for the power stages, but I really liked Auto Shift for the downhill stages… The whole team and I have worked hard to have a winning bike and to do it at the first race of the season is very exciting for Ryan and everyone else involved in this huge effort.”

That effort began in earnest two years ago during those early test sessions overseen by Shimano North America MTB Product Manager Nick Murdick, along with a host of other key contributors from both the Yeti and Shimano camps.

"Right from the beginning of this project, we were excited to start recording data from somebody like Mick that pushes the bike that hard," explained Murdick during the project’s early stages. "Initially, at that first race in Missouri, we were supposed to be done with our data acquisition after just a couple of test climbs. But Mick offered to ride the data logging bike for all of practice. That gave us a ton of good data that we didn't even know what we’d use for at the beginning.”

Quickly, though, Shimano engineers were able to pin down exactly how Hannah was delivering power, which enabled them to determine how the still-in-development drive unit could best match and support his inputs. That data was then implemented into ensuing prototype drive unit improvements and eventually utilized in the production version of the EP801 system Gilchrist rode to victory in Finale.

Indeed, the Yeti/Shimano EP Race Team was created to compete at the highest level because, at the end of the day, pro racing is the best testing ground for great product. And with a shared rich history in racing development, Shimano and Yeti were collectively able to focus on this new challenge and reach the pinnacle of E-Enduro racing, in turn unlocking the future for all E-MTB riders.