Ahead of the 2024 America's Cup, Brompton, makers of the iconic folding bike, is supporting the INEOS Britannia sailing team with T Line bicycles, to become its Official Folding Bike partner. The fleet will be available at the team’s Barcelona base for crew and staff to use to move around the city.
The perfect city bike partner for the team, Brompton’s T Line is expertly engineered with a refined all titanium frame that’s ultralight, as strong as steel, and features super responsive carbon components. Meaning the crew can travel on land with the same technical prowess and innovation as when they’re out on the water.
INEOS Britannia’s AC75 competition boat has estimated top speeds of 50kts and is powered by four cycling sailors, “Cyclors”, who have been training on road bikes for much of the last two years. The addition of the Brompton bikes adds the team’s commute to the list of moments they can get on a bike between sailing.
To launch the partnership, Brompton spent the day with Cyclor, Ben Cornish, as he commuted from his Barcelona city-centre apartment to the team’s training base in Moll d'Espanya.
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“Cycling plays a huge part in our training, on some of our busier training weeks we spend 20 hours on the bike. And then when we’re out on the water, 5 or 6 days a week we’re pedalling on the yacht – we’re effectively on a turbo trainer inside a carbon cockpit, travelling at speeds of up to 100km an hour whilst flying on the surface of the water” said Ben.
“I live and train in Barcelona, so the Brompton is the perfect tool to commute between my apartment and training. It’s great compared to a conventional bike, as you wouldn’t be able to jump on the underground with a normal bike or stop off at a café on your ride home and have a debrief with some of your coaches. You can fold it up and put it under your table – it’s really convenient.’’
© george marshall
“Brompton has a long affinity with sailing; one of our early investors would take a set of bikes aboard his sailboat, and then use them to ride around dry land when docked. So it's now amazing to see our pinnacle product, the T Line used, but the world’s pinnacle sailing team, INEOS Britannia to move around Barcelona,’ said Joe Finn, Head Of European Marketing at Brompton.
For more information and to shop the T Line bikes that INEOS Britannia use, head to www.brompton.com/c/bikes/t-line