Foot out Flat out’s Paul has been on the hill at the NPS today – here’s update number 1. Oh my god.

“It’s been a mad day, the track is relentlessly steep, super dry and dusty. Real tech. I’ve never seen a race stopped so frequently, red flags and stops literally every 30 seconds. Mad crashes and riders getting off their bikes and walking down parts of the track. Seen a few veterans today say that they aint even racing tomorrow. 

It’s going to be a mad race, some of the elite riders have been hitting mad speeds on what has to be the most mental track in Britain.”

Cheers Paul!

Jamie News

1 day to go until the ticking time bomb that is Llangollen NPS Rd2 EXPLODES. Will it be the best track ever? Will anyone get down the hill? Will it live up to the hype? Will the forum kids of the world rejoice as it’s all rained off?

Whatever – I can’t wait for steep, gnarly N.Wales racing. Here’s the latest news and some pics from the NPS team. tick, tick, tick, tick….

Round two is going to be off the Richter Scale and will go down in the history books as the hardest track in the U.K to race on. Steve Parr and his trail fairies have officially set the bench mark and completed a master piece.

The course drops 1,000 feet and is super steep. Imagine the steepest and most technical sections from your favourite tracks, Champery, Glen Coe, Mynth Duu, Strathyre, Dunkeld, Goats Gully and Fort William Woods all in one track, without a break and no let up. The only pedalling you will do is three strokes off the start line and that is it.

Spiked mud tyres will be the order of the day and for the riders convenience we have booked extra port-a-loos and bog roll, it’s now up to you to bring plenty of spare pants/knickers and for some we advise wearing a nappy on your first run down.

The U.Ks finest riders have worked and trained hard to qualify at the regional races throughout the land to gain enough points to race the prestigious NPS! Also joining them will be the Maxxis/ Rocky Mountain DH team: New Zealander Cameron Cole, American Luke Strobel and current UCI World Cup leader France’s Sabrina Jonnier.

The stepping stone to the World Cup is widely seen as the British National Points Series – NPS, this year sponsored by MSC Bikes, Descent-Gear.com, British Cycling and Monster Energy. UCI accredited means bumper prize money and for those riders fast enough, qualification onto the World Cup stage!

Now it’s a one run race format for the win so it really is do or die, anything could happen..

Full Face helmets are compulsory and we strongly advise full body armour and a neck brace whilst walking down the track, let alone riding it!

Here is the schedule so you don’t miss any of the action:

Friday

Course open for foot inspection only.

Saturday

06:00 -09:30 Course open for foot inspection only.

Anybody caught riding on course will be DQ’d for the year.

08:30 Uplift opens

09:30 Open Practise for all none Expert and Elite

10:00 Open practise for all Expert and Elite

16:30 Last Uplift for all none Expert and Elite

16:59 Last Uplift for Expert and Elite

17:00 Expert/Elite Practise only

17:30 Course Closed

17:45 Riders Meeting

18:00 Course inspection on foot only

Sunday

08:30 Uplift opens

09:00 Open Practise

10:10 Last Uplift

10:45 Course Closed

11:00 Timed Seeding Run

13:45 Seeding finished

14:00 One Timed Race Run

16:45 Last man time

17:15 Podium

Pureriders.co.uk and Descent-Gear.com will be trackside stocked up with the all latest gear, spares and repairs. Steve Parr will also be showcasing the latest range of MSC Bikes.

Tim Flooks from TF Tuned will be throwing in 200 big ones to the rider who wins their category by the biggest margin. Pete Evans from 2Stage Bikes has also dug deep and will be flowing another 200 sterling to the rider with the fastest seeding and race run time overall!

Parking for riders and spectators is always free and Monster Energy will be there fuelling the riders and there with their huge Wigwam to keep us sheltered from the elements. We have a huge sound system, live timing with big screen and running commentary.

Everyone is welcome to walk up the hill and catch the action close up, just make sure you stay well behind the tapes.

We have a new onsite caterer to keep the hunger away who will be set up trackside.

E-13 will also be in attendance, look out for Pete Drew from Silverfish at Scott Beaumont’s Rocky Mountain Pits.

Make sure you stay for podium time as we always have a few throw aways for the kids in the crowd!

We have trophies from Hope Technology for the top five in each category along with prizes from Descent-Gear.com, Lizard Skins, Fox Europe, No Limits, Ticket2RideBC.com, Swiss and Swallow, Leisure Lakes, Continental, Nema and Dave Franciosy.

Dave Heath our resident Osteopath will also be there to straighten you out so pop on over to him..

How to get there: Just note the following post code gets you close but no cigar. LL20 8AR. Race signage will be up from the Thursday before the event. Any riders caught on track walking or riding prior to the event will be DQ’d immediately, no refund and will have their nuts chopped off.

Retail and Trade Teams please turn left on arrival at the race venue. All other riders and spectators please turn right. The field itself is flat and excellent for camping, tents, motor homes and vans.

Just a quick update as the Farmer will be providing running drinking water and the use of his field plus a free bike wash will be provided. He will be collecting a camping fee of £5 per tent/caravan/motor home for the whole weekend. No need to book just turn up and pay the man!

Further information on the NPS can be found at www.NPSDH.com

Both Steve Parr and Si Paton welcome you all and look forward to seeing you trackside for another great year of top flight racing.

–
Si “Superfly” Paton.
www.Descent-Gear.com
www.NPSDH.com
www.Pinkbike.com

Jamie News

http://www.bristoltrailsgroup.com

Jamie News

Transition Bikes re-defines ‘all-mountain’ genre with an all new Covert

Moving forward into a new realm of design, Transition Bikes has completely revamped the existing Covert all mountain bike to create a new 6” travel quiver-killing bike capable of more aggressive riding. The new Covert sports a refined frame at the same weight as the old model, but is significantly stronger. The new frame comes in at a respectable 6.7 lbs without rear shock, and builds up to a 28-32 lb bike made for efficient long days in the saddle

At the core of the Covert is a completely new proprietary tubeset designed by Transition Bikes. The new tubes create a stronger frame with better contact points for welding shock mounts, pivots, and the headtube. In addition to the new tubes Transition has created a one piece CNC’d rocker link to increase stiffness and strength, as well as new dropouts and chainstay/seatstay yokes. All these new features not only add to the aesthetics of the bike but increase strength while shedding weight.

Rear suspension is handled by the Fox RP23 large volume or DHX 5.0 Air. The shock rate on the Covert is slightly progressive with only a 2.8% change throughout the stroke. This allows for consistent feel throughout the travel and allows for easy tuning and setup of the shock. As the Covert goes through it’s travel, the leverage decreases slightly and allows the natural progressiveness of the air shock to ramp up and soak up large bumps and hits. This also gives the bike excellent small bump sensitivity and feel at the top of the stroke while allowing the rider to use the travel without a harsh bottom out.

Alongside the Covert’s structural refinement, the geometry has progressed to be modeled around a 160mm singlecrown fork, such as a Fox 36 or Lyric. The new geometry maintains the all mountain roots of the old Covert which was very climb friendly and nimble, but gets slackened out just a bit to make room for the larger fork without raising the BB. “Geometry and fit is everything in a bike and that is why we didn’t change the geo and sizing too much on the Covert. We really felt like we hit some perfect numbers on the Covert and our customers loved it. On the re-design we made sure to maintain that magic fit and feel that we loved about the bike,” says Kyle Young, owner of Transition Bikes.

“When we released the Covert we were really going for a lightweight all mountain only frame but soon found our customers putting larger forks on the bikes and pushing the limits of the design. Most of these customers are people that can only have one bike but love to pedal singletrack and also hit more aggressive freeride trails. They needed a bike that could handle both. Our solution was to make the Covert work for both worlds without the weight penalty. The reality is that mountain bikes are expensive and while most riders would love to have a full quiver of bikes, they can only afford one bike that needs to do everything,” says Kevin Menard, owner of Transition Bikes.

Additional features include internal chainstay cable routing which is super easy to setup and change the housing and a tapered headtube which allows for excellent weld contact for the top and down tubes as well as providing lower stack heights for the handlebar and fork. Transition Bikes will also be releasing a headset for sale with the frame for both tapered and traditional 1-1/8” steer tubes.

Transition plans to be shipping the Coverts by early June just in time for prime riding conditions.

For More information:www.transitionbikes.com
info@transitionbikes.com

VIDEO LINK: http://broadbandsports.com/node/26763&loc=mostpop
Same video, higher quality: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/78471/

Jamie News

Rounds 2 and 3 of the NPS4X series went down this weekend at The Edge. Despite the computer melting Chris has managed to get some results online. He’s also got some snaps of what’s in store for Rd4 at South West Extreme.

Check it…

From Chris at NPS4x.com

Top Results from Rd3 at Bridgnorth on Sunday 24th May 2009.

These are tempoary results due to the computer programme oveheating in the hot weather!

We will have full results and series points updated before the next round at South West Extreme.

We must also thank Chicksands Bike Park and Steve Dowie for the use of thire Pro Gate System for the weekend.

Round 4 will be at South West Extreme on a brand new track. Chris reckons the track needed a bit of work so the SWE crew rolled out a 20 tonne digger a created a banger of a track. Awesome. There’s a monster gallery of snaps here thanks to Loz71.

Format

Event Times

Sunday 14th June 2009

• 10.00am to 11.00am Open Practice
• 11.00am to 12. noon Gate Practice
• 12.30pm Four Motos
• 2.00pm Quarters & Semi’s
• 3.30pm Finals A & B
• 4.30pm Podium Presentations

Location & Getting there – Where is it?

This place is really easy to get to situated on the North Devon coast just off the A39 Atlantic Highway two miles west of Bideford

South West Extreme in Abbotsham, Bideford, North Devon.

Post Code for Sat Nav is EX39 5AP

Over the road opposite is The Big Sheep website
and over looking the whole track and the best view for racing is the Ultimate High have a look here

Camping

There is plenty of room for camping, you can camp ONLY on the race weekend.

There is going to be a DJ and hot food on Saturday night, so make a weekend of it.

The camping field is open from Friday morning onwards and is based on a first come first served basis (there is plenty of room). The camp site is situated within the site right next to the track which makes it easy for all to enjoy the activities on offer.

Toilets will be provided.

Catering on Site

There is catering on site for the event and a pig roast planned for Saturday night.

New Categories this year.

These categories are for people who want to give 4X races ago, they are open to anyone without a Racing Licence

• Fun 12-17 Year olds
• Big Fun 18+ Year olds

British Cycling Race License Required. (you can get these from British Cycling)

• Juvenile 12-14 Year olds
• Youth 15-16 Year olds
• Junior 17-18 Year olds
• Senior 19-29 Year olds
• Master 30-39 Year olds
• Veteran 40+ Year olds
• Pro Elite 18+ Year olds

Jamie News

The guys over at Commencal HQ in Andorra have been hard at work crafting their 2010 range. The plan was for us to head to Andorra and test ride the new bikes before heading to the World Cup. Sadly, it never really worked out cos we’re all skint so the closest we got was watching the whole thing on the sofa!

Luckily, the very, very nice people over at Commencal sneaked down and papped a mountain of shots of the new bikes for us. Commencal 2010 spy shots anyone…?

The all new Commencal Absolut SX, which we were lucky enough to get an exclusive first shout about here on Wideopen. A 140mm travel, ’slope-style’  set up that’s aimed squarely at FUN. I want one. 

Commencal says: “The bike has been designed with Slopestyle in mind. But due the 140mm of travel and the air shock it’s more versatile than it looks, that’s why we called him Absolut SX because the bike can ride on  short downhill and not too bumpy (like you may have in UK ? We have some kind of tracks like this near Paris). It could be a perfect bike for tracks like A-Line and Dirt Merchant in Whistler and rides bike parks, dirt Jumps ….”

Meta 6 – a big hitting trail bike that’ll be as happy pootling round your local trails as it will thrashing crap out of the Alpine stuff.

Oh yeah. The Absolute VIP Ti. The production version of Dan Atherton’s 4X race bike. This could well be THE frame to blast your cash on in 2010 if you race 4x.

Clockwise from the top you’ve got a Meta 4X, Absolut Cromo and an Absolut 4X. Check out the pimp adjustable head angles on the 4X’ers.

Absolute Cromo CG. Gracia has had a hand in this one. How good does that green and white look?

Nice and simple with the Absolute Max Max.

Meta 55 complete.

Meta Super 4 – short(ish) travel trail and XC bike.

The ‘Ramones’ hardtail. Awesome name – awesome band! Looks like a long travel, alpine hardtail to me. Along the same lines as a Genesis Alpitude, Santa Cruz Chameleon, Dialled PA/Alpine. Burly enough to have some fun on the downhills, long travel fork friendly and still pedalable enough for all day riding. I like the look of these.

The Supreme and wee brother to the World Champ winning Supreme DH. Nice graphics.

And the real deal, the Supreme DH with 2010 Boxxers. The bike that’s won 2 World Champs in it’s first year of racing. It’s luck isn’t going so well in the World Cup series so far but there’s plenty of time yet till the Champs.

And probably the biggest news of the new line up… the all new Commencal Meta Carbon. Commencal announced this one at Madison’s Icebike show here in the UK. Expect it to be a bit lighter and a bit stiffer. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of this over the next few months.

Anyway – That’s all for now. Sorry the technical details are a bit sketchy and that this is a bit of an ‘advertorial’. I think the Commencals looks stunning and I’m always excited to see what they’ve got on the line up. They’re also keeping our 2 World Champs rolling so I reckon we can indulge a bit of promotion right? More details about the bikes when we got ‘em.

Huge thanks to Nico and Cedric at Commencal for getting this stuff to us!

http://www.commencal.com

Jamie News

The Edge at Much Wenlock is a mountain board track so think big fast berms, plenty of nice rollers and doubles with some wicked stepdowns. It’s wide open with plenty of overtaking!

This weekend is round 2 & 3 of the NPS 4x series organised by Chris Roberts. Saturday was Round Two and the winner in the ladies was Katy Curd pictured below on the second last jump, shortly before huuugely overshooting the last triple but managing to ride it out in the lead. Looking super quick all day with plenty of style to boot.

Talking of style Scott Beaumont is never one to disappoint. He was looking untouchable all afternoon and took the win in the mens Elite.

I just popped down for the afternoon as its about 10 minutes from my doorstep but British Cycling and wideopen snapper Andy Dunwoody is currently stood on the side of the hill in the sweltering heat.. true dedication! Hopefully we’ll have a few more snaps from the weekend to show you soon!

Jim News

The Goldtec Trails locals in South Wales are fighting hard to stop their spot getting ploughed by The Man. Here’s the latest update – if you love this spot give them your support!

“Hi all,

Jeff Cuthbert, the AM for Caerphilly is to visit the trials on Friday 22nd at 5.00pm. He wants to meet some of the riders who use the trails. I’d like for anyone who wants to show support for the trails to turn up and get some air.

If you do decide to come, it would be nice for as many people as possible to wear helmets. Nobodys going to stop you riding without one, but a nice hard slam on the head usually stops you!

It would be nice if people could pick any litter they see up, yet again no ones going to force you but it would be good.

Another pointer would be for everyone to start riding the lines from the very top instead of in the middle near the start of the hipline. When a load of people are crammed in the middle its difficult to ride around them. Thanks all.”

Join the Facebook group here.

Jamie News

Aston Hill plays host to Gee Atherton and the Daily Telegraph

Aston Hill was blessed with mountain biking royalty on Tuesday the 19th May.  Gee Atherton took a day out from his punishing schedule of races and promotional work to come down to Buckinghamshire to speak to some journalists from the Daily Telegraph, before taking them riding and sliding on a recently rained-on Hill. Gee was the consummate professional, especially considering that he came back from Andorra on Monday the 18th, was due in Glasgow on the 20th and flies out to the USA to race on the
21st!

The journos left happy, the photog got his shots and Gee left to get an early night. The article is due to appear as part of National Bike Week and is about how you can get out on decent local trails with a minimum of effort – Aston Hill is only a few miles from Tring and Wendover stations, easily reachable from London and surrounding towns, and there’s even plans to get a weekend bus service laid on to ferry riders from up to the Hill.

As ever, all Aston Hill news is at www.rideastonhill.co.uk and you can root for Gee as he chases more podiums at www.athertonracing.co.uk.

Jamie News

Jamie News