Yoann Barelli rides Gouranga slabs on a hybrid
A wild first ride back for enduro racer six months after knee surgery
Yoann Barelli is back from injury with a bang. While the Squamish-based enduro racer has been off the bike for six months, he doesn’t ease back into it. Instead, he heads for one of the hardest trails in Squamish, B.C.. On a hybrid.
When Barelli’s Into the Gnar ended Season 1 early, it was because its creator and star had wrecked his knee in an awkward fall.
Surgery, and half a year of recovery later, Barelli returns, and isn’t lettning that hold him back. . His sponsor, Commencal, is happy to see him back on the bike, and gives him a hybrid bike to help ease Barelli back onto two wheels.
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What happens next is maybe not what they were expecting. Fans of Barelli’s antics will hardly be surprised. The French rider immediately heads for the infamous Gouranga slabs, after a quick test on a blue trail.
Yoann Barelli Into the Gnar: I’m Back !!!!!!!! (S2:E1)
It’s not the first time Barelli’s pulled big moves on little bikes. He made headlines riding Squamish’s Full Nelson on a cyclocross bike. He doubled down on that idea a year later, riding Dirt Merchant and A-Line, Whistler Bike Park’s famous jump trails on the same Giant TCX, as well as hitting some of Whistler’s old school skinnies in the valley trails.
If Barelli can do all this on a hybrid and cross bike, who needs a gravel bike?
