Christian Taillefer, born August 29, 1970, is a cyclist, pioneer in the downhill mountain bike, also known for his snow speed records.
Summary
Christian Taillefer started cycling with BMX, then started mountain biking with cross-country, before becoming one of the European pioneers of the descent 1 . He gradually abandoned the cross-country, and became European downhill champion in 1991 at La Bourboule, before being a Bronze medalist the following year at the world championships in Bromont (Canada) 2 .
In 1994, following a bet lost during a race between a bike and a snowboard on a ski slope, he sets out in record speed attempts on snow: the first record is set at 147 km / h with a series bike. Subsequently, he develops more efficient bikes, sometimes with fairly traditional techniques: in the absence of a wind tunnel, he fixed the bike on the roof of his brother's car on the highway 3 . A competition is then set up between him and Eric Barone , each successively beating the records of the other. Christian Taillefer reached 178 km / h in 1995 on a prototype, then reached 212.139 km / h on a prototype Peugeot profiled March 26, 1998 in Vars .
In the 2000s, he built his own bike brand: Taillefer Bicycles , whose downhill bikes have good results with the drivers of Team Maxxis, Estelle Vuillemin ...
His brother Fabrice was also an ATV rider.
After stopping his bike brand, he helped found Trotrx , a brand of off-road scooters.