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29 May »
Events »
Cory
The UCI World Cup series continued in Fort William, Scotland this weekend, with a full slate of mountain biking action. Spectators at the event had a chance to watch pros like Michal Prokop, Jill Kintner, and others rip it up on the second 4x event of the season, and downhillers like Sam Hill, Cedric Gracia, and Tracy Moseley pin it on a challenging DH course (men / women). The fourth UCI cross country took place on Saturday, with the usual cast of racers laying it all on the line. Read the rest of this entry »
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22 May »
Events »
Cory
After a six week layoff between the first two UCI cross country events, the world’s top xc racers were back in the saddle over the weekend, enduring muddy conditions on a course that was modified in the days leading up to the race. Both Julien Absalon and Gunn-Rita Dahle continued where they left off the previous week, stamping their authority all over this year’s series. Read the rest of this entry »
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17 May »
Events »
Cory
I don’t write about too many industry events on The Biking Hub because the site’s audience is pretty diverse — we have readers from all across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia — and most local events don’t mean much to a reader who is based 3,000km from the location. With that being said, I’m dropping the pretense to plug the dates for Norco’s upcoming VPS-Fest because it’s a worthy event that a bunch of you might enjoy.
Each year, Norco sets up shop at select locations around BC and Ontario, and thanks its customers for their support. At these events, owners of Norco bikes are treated to a day of free, lift-accessed riding at places like Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops, Blue Mountain in Ontario, and Mount Washington on Vancouver Island. Should anyone experience a mechanical during the day, Norco offers free technical support and flat repairs (and I’ve seen them offer full support to non-Norco riders too). And, even better, groms get the chance to ride with, and get tips from, members of Norco’s factory team, not to mention the chance to win a boatload of swag.
It’s a cool concept, a cool event, and a great way for the manufacturer to stay in touch with its customers. If you live near any of these spots, make sure you pre-register and head up for a wicked day on the slopes. And if you don’t live near these places, it’s never a bad time to start planning a road trip.
2006 VPS-Fest dates
For more information, make sure you check out: Norco.com
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14 May »
Events »
Cory
The second event on the UCI World Cup cross country schedule went down over the weekend on a fast-rolling 7km course in Madrid, Spain. With a six week layoff after the first event in Curacao and a brief interlude at Sea otter, most of the world’s top cross country racers were ready to get back at it. Read the rest of this entry »
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8 May »
Events »
Cory
On a weekend when Paolo Savoldelli took early control of the Giro d’Italia road race with a solid opening time trial, and a couple of weeks after the first UCI xc event, a bunch more mountain bike events took place: a UCI downhill mountain bike event was held in Vigo, Spain; a NORBA race went down in California, and a UCI marathon event was held in Greece.
Of course, this list doesn’t include the many local events that took place over the past couple of days. Read the rest of this entry »
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I’m a little late on the draw with this one, but I figured a bunch of you would still appreciate the link.
Last year, Race Face introduced the mountain biking world to the Ultimate XC Challenge, a cross country counterpart to the company’s freeride-oriented UFC. Like the UFC, the UXC is a peer-judged contest where riders from across the world submit videos that are voted on by other riders. Two winning teams will be chosen, and they’ll have their bikes kitted out in Race Face gear before setting off to ride the 2006 TransRockies Challenge.
This is one of those, “Do I really want to win this?” contests but I do know that there are lots of folks out there who are really keen on pushing themselves to the edge at events like the Transrockies.
Related links
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Photo: Jeff Kerkove. Stormy weather combined with Iowa’s “B” roads proved to be difficult for every racer in the event.
For the regulars out there, Guitar Ted has been spending the last few weeks describing some of the highs and lows of getting the 2005 edition of the Trans Iowa endurance event off the ground. The 2006 Trans Iowa went this past weekend and it was, how do you say… a bit wet.
Ted’s partner in crime, Jeff Kerkove, posted up a bunch of event photos on Flickr and you can see for yourself the conditions that the participants endured.
Be sure to tune in next week for Guitar Ted’s recap of this year’s event.
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25 April »
Events »
Cory
HubTV regularly posts up mountain bike footage on its website and they’ve just started serving up video that third-party sites can embed within their own pages. Check out the following interview with Brian Lopes, recorded during this year’s Sea Otter Classic.
And while the interface doesn’t scale smoothly, the sound is a little tinny, and there’s a whole lot of background noise, it would be interesting to see a little more of this kind of stuff… Also, poke around the rest of the HubTV site for some more mountain bike action.
Via NorCal Mtn Bike Racing.
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13 April »
Events »
Dan
It’s been a few months since I first got my hands on a 2006 Cannondale Rush 1000 and gave my initial impressions, but with the crummy Canadian winter weather I haven’t had much time to put some serious seat time on it. That finally changed over the past couple of weeks when warm weather and the motivation of the first mountain bike race of the season had me licking my chops in excitement.
And, just as I prepared myself for race season, I decided to make a number of major changes to the Rush 1000 to get it light enough and performing well enough to be considered a serious cross country racer.
Starting with the drivetrain, I kept the stock X.9 rear derailleur and existing SRAM cassette, but I replaced the X.7 shifters with the new high-zoot X.0 carbon trigger shifters. The X.0 setup comes with Teflon coated cables and the installation and setup was simple and easy. For cranks, I’m using my 2004 Shimano XTR triple-ring setup as they’re extremely light, stiff, and work well with the SRAM shifters.
The first race on the Rush was the 30km Paris to Ancaster in Ontario, Canada which took place on Sunday, 9 April 2006. For anyone who has ever taken part in this event or the longer, 60km version of the race, you know how important tire selection can be… Read the rest of this entry »
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Well, the Sea Otter Classic is officially underway and gear news is starting to filter onto the web. I’ll be using this space to send you towards other sites that have stuff that hasn’t been made available elsewhere.
2007 Shimano XTR group. Last week, news of the 2007 Shimano XTR group was all over the web even though, personally, I don’t appreciate the aesthetics of the upcoming version, especially since the current polished XTR lineup looks so nice.
Singletrack magazine was quick to the punch and released a bunch of photos of the 2007 XTR stuff. The photos show Trek rider Chris Eatough’s bike equipped with some new XTR goodies, and they give you a decent idea about what to look forward to in the coming months from Shimano. Singletrack also has some neat shots of some Santa Cruz bikes, including the Syndicate’s fleet of Nomads.
VeloNews has a parking lot test of the XTR group that provides some good insight into the way the components actually work. Check it out!
The 29″ers. 29″er manufacturers are making a strong appearance at the Classic, with new bikes by Salsa Cycles, Trek, Orbea, and Niner Bikes.
Update (8 April 2006): SRAM mountain bike gear. SRAM’s road group has seen the lion’s share of the media’s attention over the past few weeks but, today, CyclingNews reminded us all that the other big ‘S’ still makes mountain bike parts. Case in point? The new Avid Juicy Ultimate — Avid’s next generation high-end brake. Decked out in carbon and featuring refined design elements, expect to see many an Ultimate at your local race series.
The same piece on CyclingNews also looks at the 2007 Giant Anthem, carbon edition. Currently raced by Giant’s Adam Craig, the carbon Anthem looks like a race circuit monster. And, as a couple of people noted yesterday when checking out the Niner Bikes R.I.P. 9, Fox Racing Shox has a new version of the Float rear shock set for release in ‘07. The Fox Float RP23 features an additional adjustment dial on top of the propedal lever. I haven’t been able to track down any information on this one yet but I’ll be sure to post it up when it comes in.
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