Now it's final: Trek is taking over the entire bicycle production of Villiger AG, which wants to concentrate fully on the tobacco business again. All brands under the Villiger umbrella will become the property of the Americans: Villiger, Arrow, Tigra and Diamant.

The Swiss sales team, the bicycle factory in Hartmannsdorf, Germany, and the German sales company will also be taken over.

Velopages reported on October 26 that Villiger's two-wheeler division was about to be sold to TREK. It has been known for some time that patron Heinrich Villiger wants to sell this division. TREK has previously made a name for itself in terms of takeovers, particularly with the purchase of KLEIN, FISHER and BONTRAGER.

Excluded from this relocation are the Tigra and Arrow brands, which will continue to be assembled in Buttisholz. This means that one of the last Swiss bike manufacturers is reducing its Swiss production to an absolute minimum. Nothing will change for customers, but many jobs will be lost at Villiger's headquarters in the Lucerne hinterland.

Lukas and Mathias Flückiger are switching to the new Trek racing team for the coming season. Together with Liam Killeen, they form the core of the team. Lukas Flückiger finished second on the World Cup podium once this season in Bromont and has finished close behind several times. With ninth place, young Mathias Flückiger achieved a top 10 place for the first time at the World Cup final. Both are changing teams because their previous team Athleticum is disbanding.

The race program includes the entire Marathon World Cup, difficult stage races such as the Cape Epic and the big races at the European festivals. Katrin Schwing and Alban Lakata are also focusing on cross country national league & World Cup races, and in the long term both have one eye on Beijing 2008.

With the slimming down of the Remedy, where the suspension travel has shrunk from 160 to 150 millimeters for the coming year, Trek has made room for a new bike in the enduro/freeride sector. The free space has been filled by the "Scratch". With 160 millimetres at the fork and 170 millimetres at the rear, Trek positions the Scratch as a "light freerider with drive qualities".

The US bike manufacturer Trek presents the 2003 innovations. These are mainly in the higher suspension travel range. With the Liquid, they are introducing a new line for the "All Mountain" sector: a decent amount of suspension travel at the front and rear, both adjustable in height, solidly built, a real fun-mobile. There is also a modified version of the Trek "Diesel" downhiller with more gears for freeriding. And finally, the Trekkies have tweaked the Roland Greens rocket and present the Fuel at the 10 kg limit.

Last Sunday, a special kind of auction took place in New York. Under the title "It's about the Bike", seven of Lance Armstrong's racing bikes were auctioned off for the benefit of his cancer foundation. The seven bikes - all from this year's racing season - were designed exclusively for Lance by world-famous artists and brought in total proceeds of an incredible 1.25 million dollars. The "Trek Madone Butterfly" by artist Damian Hirst was the most expensive and went under the auction hammer for a whopping 500'000 dollars. Lance rode it in the final stage of this year's Tour de France.

Following the takeover of Villiger-Werke by Trek, the question of jobs was up in the air for a long time. Now it is clear: with Villiger's move to Trek's premises in Dübendorf, 15 employees at the Villiger plant will not be given new jobs. This affects fitters in particular. However, 15 other Villiger employees have received new employment contracts.

Two new people have been working in strategically important positions at Trek since the beginning of the year. The most prominent new addition to the head office for the German-speaking market is former BMC Managing Director Peter Kreuder, who is responsible for the growing e-bike market. At the same time, John Glett also took up his position as head of the field sales team.

The US bike manufacturer Trek can look back on a successful financial year in Central Europe. The Hartmannsdorf assembly plant, where all Villiger bikes for Switzerland are built, was able to increase output to 131,000 bikes in 2008. And Trek is expecting another increase for the current year.

The bicycle giant Trek is recalling almost fifty thousand "Girls MT220" bikes worldwide. There is a risk that the frame of the children's bike with 24" wheels could break at the head tube. Several hundred bikes sold in Switzerland are affected by the recall.