Scott

Scott is a bicycle manufacturer based in Givisiez, Switzerland. The company produces a range of bikes across multiple disciplines, from road and gravel to off-road and kids-specific bikes, alongside equipment and clothing, too. Scott also has winter sports, motocross and running product ranges.

History

The company was founded in 1958 by Ed Scott, an engineer by trade and a keen skier. Scott USA, as it was initially known, started by producing ski poles made from aluminium, and moved into the cycling industry in the late 1980s.

Scott’s first foray into cycling was with its clip-on aero bars. Designed by Charley French, the bars were used by Greg LeMond to win the 1989 Tour de France. By the early 1990s, the company had manufactured its first carbon mountain bike, the Endorphin, along with multiple cycling accessories.

Despite a temporary period between 1995 and 1998 where Scott sold off 55% of its shares, the company continued to break new ground. 1998 saw it launch the lightest full-suspension mountain bike in the world, the G-Zero, before twice breaking the record for the world’s lightest road frame on the market in the early 2000s.

Scott revolutionised the mountain bike in 2003 when it launched the full-suspension shock-adjustable Genius. Two years later and majority owner Beat Zaugg acquired the rest of the company following a buy-out transaction.

Over the coming years, Scott released the first model of its Addict road bike that weighed just 5.9kg. Scott brought out the lightest carbon MTB frame ever produced in 2011, helping Nino Schurter to win the MTB World Cup 12 months later. The Swiss rider would go on to win countless titles on Scott mountain bikes.

Collaborating with electronics company Bosch, Scott launched an e-bike range in 2012, all the while continuing to refine its road and mountain bikes to be lighter than ever before. The Foil Disc aero road bike became the lightest on the market in 2017 and would be used by the men’s and women’s professional teams of Mitchelton-Scott between 2018 and 2020.

Scott opened its new global headquarters for all of its departments in 2019, located in Givisiez, Switzerland. The Korean Youngone Corporation took a 50.1% stake in the business in 2020.

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Pro cycling

Current sponsorships: Team DSM, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team

Highlights:

• Greg LeMond snatched Tour de France glory out of the hands of home favourite Laurent Fignon on the final stage time-trial in 1989. The American, with Scott’s clip-on aero bars fitted to his TT bike, secured the maillot jaune by the smallest-ever winning margin of just eight seconds.
• Scott partnered with Australian WorldTour team Orica GreenEDGE when it formed in 2012. They won Milan-Sanremo with Simon Gerrans after just over three months, and later added the 2014 Liège-Bastogne-Liège through Gerrans, the 2016 Paris-Roubaix through May Hayman, and the 2016 Lombardia through Esteban Chaves, as well as the 2018 Vuelta a España through Simon Yates.
• Riding his Scott Spark RC mountain bike 900, Nino Schurter had a season for the ages in 2017, winning every round of the MTB World Cup, the Cape Epic stage race and the MTB World Championships. All this success arrived just a year after the Swiss rider won Olympic Gold in Rio.
• Team DSM have won six Grand Tour stages since partnering with Scott in 2021. The German outfit won a trio of stages at the 2021 Vuelta a España.
• On the first stage of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes sprinted into the maillot jaune on the Champs-Élysées. The win was one of Wiebes’ 22 victories in a memorable 2022.