Maloja Pushbikers 2024 - Maloja Pushbikers

The Pushbikers finished last season as the second best German professional team behind BORA-hansgrohe. We are eagerly awaiting the first races in 2024 and can start the new season with big news.

Continuity and Innovation are the cornerstones of the Maloja Pushbikers for 2024. The UCI Continental Team from Holzkirchen in Upper Bavaria is starting its tenth professional season with a new bike partner and a proven team.

Team boss Christian Grasmann and Canadian bike manufacturer Argon 18 have agreed a three-year partnership. “We are both focussing on making an impact on and off the race circuit. Building a community and developing young athletes are among the team’s unique measures of success, and we support that,” says Martin Lesauteur, CEO of Argon 18. With great attention to detail, the Sum Team Bike was customised to the Pushbikers’ design at the Argon 18 European headquarters in Denmark. “We have found a new partner with an incredible amount of passion for cycling, state-of-the-art technologies and continuous development,” says the Pushbikers team boss Christian Grasmann. The former professional is convinced that cycling needs more vitality and unconventional thinking. “We try to contribute to this by reinventing ourselves every year, building up the Pushbikers not only as a pro team, but also as a cycling community. With Argon 18, we will reinforce this kind of thinking outside the norms and promote global partnerships.”

This is precisely why the two fit together so well, adds Robin Sybertz, Brand Activation Manager at Argon 18: “The Pushbikers team has been consistently going its own way for a decade now. They emphasise quality, creativity, consistency and courage. The Pushbikers have a high recognition value and pursue the same core values as Argon 18: Ride out of the ordinary.” With a 12-month racing season – from Six Days and UCI Track Championships to the international racing calendar on the road – the Pushbikers help Argon 18 “to constantly develop further in the fight for milliseconds on the track or to make the next road bike ride that much better,” says Sybertz. The Italian bike component manufacturer Full Speed Ahead (FSA), the saddle manufacturer Prologo and Super B as a tool supplier are also new to the Pushbikers partner pool.

In sporting terms, the Pushbikers are relying on continuity in the team structure: with Filippo Fortin (ITA), Roy Eefting (NL), Matias Malmberg (DK), Felix Meo (NZL), Fabian Steininger (AUT) and the German riders Wolfgang Brandl, Max Benz-Kuch, Moritz Malcharek, Patrick Reißig and Philip Weber, will remain the core Pushbikers team for the 2024 season. “We want to maintain the momentum and trust in each other that we`ve built up over the past year and carry the spirit into the coming season,” says Gregor Pavlic, Sporting Director of Maloja Pushbikers. “We are delighted that Filippo Fortin will be captaining his third year with the Pushbikers. With his victories, he has played a major role in the success and cohesion of the team.” In the slipstream of the experienced professionals, three young newcomers will join the Pushbikers in the coming season. 20-year-old Daniel Schrag is joining from Team Lotto Kern-Haus, together with 19-year-old Jermaine Zemke, who finished seventh in the team relay with the German selection at the Junior World Championships in Glasgow in 2023. The team has another Bavarian rider in Martin Meiler, who previously rode for the Austrian teams Vorarlberg and Felbermayr Simplon Wels.

“Established 2014” – this year the Maloja Pushbikers are celebrating the tenth anniversary with Maloja. The Chiemgau-based outdoor brand Maloja is not only the namesake, but above all the driving force and creative developer of the design stories behind the Pushbikers’ annually changing jerseys. “I’ve had so many shared moments and exciting experiences with Maloja for over 15 years,” says team boss Christian Grasmann. “We have built up a great deal of trust, which is not a given in cycling. My big thanks go to Peter Räuber and Klaus Haas for helping to build up the Pushbikers and integrating them permanently into the Maloja family.” “When we got to know Christian as an athlete over 15 years ago, it was clear that he was not only a good fit for Maloja as a person, but he also has a great awareness of function, business and design. We can still learn from him today. Not only for the professional bike clothing of the Maloja Pushbikers at UCI level, but for our entire racing bike range,” adds Peter Räuber, founder and CEO of Maloja.

The development of this year’s Maloja Pushbikers Team Kit began on a grey autumn day in 2022, when Christian Grasmann, Filippo Fortin, junior trainer Claudia Lichtenberg and other friends from the Pushbikers community set off together to the Maloja headquarters. Along the way, they collected empty bottles, spray cans, foil, tins, string and other disposable items by the roadside. Using digital design workstations and overhead projectors, they created shapes and patterns, colours and contrasts in a creative process. And in the end, it became clear that whether something is waste or valuable, its usefulness depends on our perspective.

Thanks Maloja for A DIFFERENT KIND OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

And one thing is certain: our riders will continue to be easily recognisable in the peloton.

Max Benz-Kuch / born 2000 / GER
Wolfgang Brandl / born 1986 / GER
Roy Eefting / born 1989 / NED
Filippo Fortin / born 1989 / ITA
Moritz Malcharek / born 1997 / GER
Matias Gunnar Malmberg / born 2000 / DK
Martin Meiler / born 1998 / GER
Felix James Meo / born 1997 / NZL
Patrick Reißig / born 1994 / GER
Daniel Schrag / born 2003 / GER
Fabian Steininger / born 2000 / AUT
Philip Weber / born 1998 / GER
Jermaine Zemke / born 2005 / GER