We sat down with Luke Fitzpatrick to talk about the Privateer Lounge hosted by his Epic Bikeshop at the recent UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Lenzerheide. With a big change in the racing schedules and format for the 2023 season – certainly for downhill, Luke’s initiative comes at an interesting time for the sport and is was great to hear his perspective on the difficulties faced by racers looking to compete on smaller budgets. From providing a spot to base their weekend out of, to helping fix bikes between runs and races, spares, the suspension “race sh*t”, and all the way to family BBQs, the Privateers Lounge had it all (unfortunately, the red carpet was delivered too late). Luke even offers up the blue print for other shops aspiring to open up their own Privateer Lounges in support of independent racers at other World Cup rounds (free hint: have plenty of spares!). Luke’s passion for the future of the sport doesn’t stop with privateers, though, as he is also one of the driving forces behind the Lenzerheide Downhill Kids as well as the Epic Junior Racing Team and we get to hear all about these youth programmes as well!