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Mountain Biking News - April 2008
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Wednesday, 30 April 2008After months of deliberation, the Kokanee Crankworx organizing committee is excited to announce a stacked list of invited riders for the all-new VW Trick Showdown and the ever popular Slopestyle @ Kokanee Crankworx which will be held on Thursday, August 14 and Saturday, August 16, respectively. The Slopestyle will be broadcast via live webcast on www.crankworx.com.
“The popularity of slopestyle riding continues to grow and we are seeing an unprecedented number of professional athletes putting everything on the line to compete in this exciting sport,” comments Jeremy Roche, Kokanee Crankworx General Manager. “We made the decision this year to move to an invitational format for the Slopestyle contest, ensuring that the very best of the best will be here in Whistler to compete.”
The invitation list, comprised of 30 of the world's best riders, was compiled based on past results from key contests in North America and Europe over the last three years. Contests include Kokanee Crankworx, Crankworx Colorado, The BearClaw Invitational, and two European competitions. Two wild card spots were included and four spots, open to winners of upcoming events in Canada, the USA and Europe, are being reserved.
“We worked hard to create a fair process that rewards top performances on the international slopestyle event circuit, and provides opportunities through the wildcard spots for stars who, for various reasons, may not have achieved the necessary results,” elaborates Roche.
Thirty athletes will receive invitations to compete in these two events during the nine-day Festival. The VW Trick Showdown is a new rider-judged contest where riders will “session” two features within the Slopestyle course and be judged by their peers. The Slopestyle @ Kokanee Crankworx will once again take the Festival headliner spot on Saturday evening, and will follow a new format this year which will ensure an even more exciting spectator event. All 30 athletes will have two qualifying runs with the top 15 riders advancing to the finals. The drama will then intensify as the top 15 riders each take one run, in reverse order, to claim victory and the 2008 Slopestyle @ Kokanee Crankworx title.
The following athletes are invited to the 2008 Slopestyle @ Kokanee Crankworx and VW Trick Showdown. This list, in alphabetical order, includes the two wildcard entries:
Aaron Chase
Alex Prochazka
Andreu Lacondeguy
Andrew Taylor
Ben Boyko
Benny Korthaus
Brandon Semenuk
Cameron McCaul
Cameron Zink
Darren Berrecloth
Darren Pokoj
Eric Porter
Grant Fielder
Greg Watts
Ian Nelson
Jamie Goldman
Kyle McDonald
Kyle Strait
Lance Mcdermott
Lluis Lacondeguy
Mitchell Chubey
Nate Adams
Paul Basagoita
Ryder Kasprick
Thomas Vanderham
Trond Hansen
Tune in to www.crankworx.com for more details and updates on both Kokanee Crankworx in Whistler, BC and Crankworx Colorado taking place on July 31 - August 3.
Source:
www.pinkbike.com
Tuesday, 29 April 2008Every year, on Memorial Day weekend, cyclists of all ages and levels enjoy a great activity that will surely fuel their cycling passion - the Annual Great Western Bicycle Rally.
This year's event will be held on May 23-26 at the scenic setting of Paso Robles, California. Bring along your friends or family and experience an affordable mini vacation with other cyclists. The Great West ern Bicycle Rally is a huge, friendly, family-oriented bike extravaganza that is dedicated to recreational cycling and transforms the Paso Robles fairgrounds into a biker’s paradise.
There are 25 scenic bike routes of varying distances and difficulty, including farmland, vineyard, native oaks, and ocean scenery.
Great Western Bicycle Rally Participants Receive:
- Route slips for rides from 5 to 100 miles
- Admission to numerous social activities and competitions
- "The Wine Ride" - we pick up your wine purchases
- Family and Kids activities
- Vendor market place, Bike Swap, and BBQ's
- An optional supported One-Day Century/Metric Century Bike Ride
- Velo de Femme (Women's Only Ride)
- Clinics, Yoga, Massage, Fun Run
- Goodie bag and chance to win door prizes
Tuesday, 29 April 2008Marin Bikes, manufacturer of performance bicycles, added seasoned professional racers as well as a new amateur team to its squad for 2008. With less than one season and in some cases less than one month on Marin's improved Quad-Link 2.0 suspensions and proven race hardtails, racers had exceptional podium placements at this last weekend's Sea Otter Classic event in Monterey, California.
Leading the wave of gravity riders was former World Cup Champion and new Marin athlete, German born Jurgen Beneke. After coming back last year from a seven-year hiatus, Beneke again confirmed his World Cup abilities by riding a Quad XC to 2nd place in the Pro Super D field and 8th in the Downhill aboard the Quake XLT. Beneke represents an important class of riders on the racing scene, an athlete whose life is not spent training 40 hours a week, but working to support his family. Riding a stock 120mm travel Quad XC Mount Vision, Beneke's Super D finish is an endorsement of the well-balanced and race proven design. In 2007, the previous iteration of the Mount Vision garnered Mountain Biking Magazine's All Mountain Bike of the Year.
Also racing Downhill, current two-time Masters Downhill World Champion, Shaums March finished 22nd in the event, riding the Quad XLT series Quake 7.3. Shaums took the time to race when he wasn't busy coaching the members of his Mad March Racing team. Representing the MMR/Marin Bikes development team, neo pro Miranda Miller made a strong showing with 14th in the Women's Pro Downhill field. The high school senior was the 2006 Canadian Junior Downhill National Champion and 2007 Canadian Junior Downhill silver medalist as well a member of the 2007 Canadian National Team in Fort William, Scotland. Both riders choose to eschew longer travel downhill bikes for the Quake 7.3, with 170mm of travel (7 inches) and offering greater pedaling efficiency and maneuverability on the fast Sea Otter course.
In the XC fields, newly partnered Team Lost Coast Brewery and Marin factory endurance racer Yuri Hauswald had an exceptional showing across the professional and amateur ranks riding Marin's Hydro-Light Hardtails and the American built Team Titanium models. Lost Coast riders Brian Astell, Tsering Alleyne, Emma Worldpeace, and Maureen Kunz, finishing 15th in the Women's Professional XC race, used the races as tune-ups for the upcoming of National Mountain Bike Series (NSMB) series while Hauswald utilized both the XC and the Road Race as preparation for his upcoming Dirt Sweat & Gears 12 Hour endurance race in Tennessee.
“The addition to Marin's racing support program is unique in that it was developed to support riders who are real world athletes,” stated Marin Bikes Marketing Manager, Mark Vanek. “All the athletes that competed are either employed full time or are full time students. It's important that their bikes are efficient, lightweight, and ready to race when they are. We're proud of our new riders and their finishes this weekend.”
Source:
www.pinkbike.com
Monday, 28 April 2008Canada Olympic Park, owned and operated by the Calgary Olympic Development Association in Calgary, is home to Southern Alberta's only gravity-fed mountain bike park. Having served the bike communities of Southern Alberta and beyond as a venue for extensive mountain biking programs and regional, provincial, and world level events, COP has been well-known to mountain bikers as a bike park with a mi sh mash of stunts piled into a small geographical region... until now.
It has been clear to everyone over the years that COP needed a facelift. Our trail system was originally designed for cross country riders to climb up our west trees area and then ride down the east trees, which has resulted in a “spaghetti bowl” of a trail system. Over the past 10 years, enthusiastic trail crew members have worked to adapt to our size constraints by building a network of stunts sporadically around the west trees. While what existed was fun for most, we needed some help in building a brand new, smooth-flowing bike park that could once again stoke out the mountain bikers who call COP one of their shred spots.
To say it took a lot of time and hand wringing to finally get the go ahead to have Gravity Logic of Whistler Blackcomb and Crankworx fame (www.gravitylogic.ca) at COP would be a bit of an understatement. Once the approval came through, every stunt anyone has ever known to be a part of COP was torn out of our West Trees and Tom, Dave, Rob, and Ryan of Gravity Logic were on site mapping out what will work out to be one very sick bike park for 2008. Construction has been moving along at a decent pace considering both the size of the project and the frustrating unreliability of Alberta weather in April (running machines in the snow is no fun!).
Building a brand new bike park from the ground up is hard work and takes a lot of bodies! We've worked very hard over the last few weeks to get a lot of the grunt work done with clearing trails, ripping out old stunts, and putting up new ones, but it is easily a job for a crew quadruple our size. That's where the Calgary biking community comes in.
Want to get involved in trail building, get your hands dirty, and have a free lunch (on CODA)?
Head out to the Park at 9am-3pm on Saturday, May 3rd. You'll get a sneak peak of what we've got in store for the bike season and the opportunity to have a hand in making some history at Canada Olympic Park.
Mountain bike season is upon us... Now pick up a shovel!
For more details, please visit www.canadaolympicpark.ca.
Source:
www.pinkbike.com
Sunday, 27 April 2008Upon the conclusion of a hard riding weekend at the Sea Otter Classic, BMX riders gathered and enjoyed a BMX after party at the Aptos homemade dirt track locally known as the Post Office Jumps. Just like old school parties, grills were set up, and there were overflowing drinks and non-stop entertainment.
The track, turned party ground, was filled with riders, dirt jumping enthusiast s, parents, photographers. The riders were in fact cheered by the crowd to do bigger and more complicated jumps. Cameron McCaul, sponsored rider out of Aptos, did exactly what the crowd wanted him to, landing a backflip superman off the biggest jump. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a couple of months,” McCaul said.
Lainey Aldridge, a 17-year old from Santa Cruz, was one of the many riders who participated in the Sea Otter Classic. She said that her favorite part of the event was “just riding and learning new tricks".
This after event celebration further promoted camaraderie and cooperation not only between the participants of the Sea Otter Classic, but everyone who supported and cheered for them as well.
For more details on this news, please visit www.mercurynews.com.
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