Monday Media - Hopton

Managed a trip over to sunny Hopton yesterday for a couple of runs down the new track. Top marks to the folks with the shovels they've done a great job. It's a really nice, fast track with loads of variety and plenty of jumps all over the place...

Top section is standard Midlands fare with lots of tight lines and roots ending with a tech(ish) little drop into a table and left berm combo. Middle section gets all fast, dusty and open... bit like the Scouse Track I thought! Down the bottom it gets nice and steep with some tight corners and a lovely double berm, rock garden to table-top finish. Great track and a nice short walk back to the top... Spot on. Keep an eye on Pearce Cycles for uplifts days coming up.

Anyway, just wanted to share two pics with you. Up top you've got my mate Owen with his tricked out Cove and Troy kit, hitting 'the line' and looking pro. The guy in the bottom shot was a Ludlow local and was over with his mate Ben and their chocolate lab. He'd just got some new wheels for his hardtail and was out giving the downhill thing a bit of a go. Spikey Jack lid, MX stem, beater and fucking loving it.

Two very different shots and very different riders.... both having a blast riding their pushbikes in the sunshine!

This weekends action...

Over 1000 downloads in 3 days...

A big thankyou to everyone who's downloaded the mag in the last 3 days and given us all some awesome feedback - without you we'd be a bunch of losers making a mag that people didn't read!

Seriously - I want to thank everyone who has got involved with Wideopen since the early days back in February... we had a dream and so far it's come true.

Wait and see what's next!

New Pump Urban Wear site online

The new pump site is now online, complete with an all new organic range. Check it out at www.pumpurbanwear.co.uk

Red bikes are faster!

Word from Ste@Fearingout regarding the Wideopen longtermer...

Just spent the afternoon at Mabie forest on the freshly built up DialledBikes Holeshot frame (dialledbikes.com) thats on test for Wideopen (wideopenmag.co.uk). First impressions are really good but I'll be putting in as many hours on it as possible over the next few weeks. The 4x track at Mabie is also looking good. Its is a little on the short side but has some killer jumps to keep you on your toes.

There she is all built up then. I did promis some shots of the sidekick in DH mode but in my rush to get this best built up I forgot all about it. so you'll have to make out what you can from this great shot of the Saturday evening slalom race at Pitfichie.

Foot out, flat out, eyes shut in blind fear!

Wideopen Issue 3 - OUT MONDAY!

Yeah guys check back here on Monday for a bumper issue - it'll be worth the wait!

Rugog NPS update - October is the new July!

News just in from the Patonator -

SPS Events can now announce round three at Rugog will be re-scheduled to Innerleithen and a different track from that used at round 1. The new date will be Saturday and Sunday the 13th and 14th of October 2007.


Picture courtesy of Ian Linton

All entries from the cancelled Rugog round will automatically be transferred to the new revised date.

Those riders who can not make the new date and require a refund of your race fees, please do so by contacting Steve Parr with all your details:

steveparr66@yahoo.co.uk

SPS Events. Steve Parr & Si Paton..

http://www.npsdh.com/

Rugog strikes again "NPS DownHill Round 3 CANCELLED"

Bad news again for Rugog and the NPS... tough call but it's gotta be better than a repeat of last year.


image by Rex at foelgasnach.co.uk

SPS Events has taken the tough decision to cancel the next round of the Chain Reaction Cycles NPS this weekend on the 21st and 22nd of July 2007.

With the wettest June on record and July almost looking the same, this has left the pit fields at Rugog inaccessible along with our two back up courses at Caersws and Moelfre.

SPS Events will let you all know by Thursday the 19th of July as to whether we will re-schedule the round or cancel it all together and offer a full refund of race entries.

Again our deepest apologies.

SPS Events.


Steve Parr & Si Paton..
http://www.blogger.com/www.NPSDH.com

Fox Racing National Champs - Beaumont's got it!

Big up to Marc Beaumont... First place at the Nat Champs this weekend! 2nd place to Bryceland with Donny in 3rd. Top 3 females were Tracey Moseley, Helen Gaskell then Fionn Griffiths.

Full results are here

News overload...

Morning folks! I spent last week in Les Gets with Riders Retreat whilst the rest of the WO team were working hard on the mag, having babies, moving house...that kinda thing. Was a great week with amazing tracks but not so amazing weather (pissed it down for 5 of 7 days).

Spent the week mostly sliding down the local Les Gets and Morzine tracks plus a day out to Switzerland, which was really good. We managed a quick photo-shoot one afternoon between downpours... here's Gary on the infamous Les Gets Gully run. Full repo and pics in the mag(obviously).


Anyway the press releases have been mounting up whilst I was away...here's a few of 'em.


Pump Urban Wear New Site The new site will be online 25th July, go check it out at http://www.pumpurbanwear.co.uk/



Caersws Cup From NPS4x.com . The entry for the race is now open on line. The races takes place July 28/29th at the Classic Caersws Downhill Venue nr Newtown Powys. The race is limited to only 300 riders for each day, these normaly fill quickly.

Full details of the event and online entry here



Edge Spring 07 if you've not seen it yet, the latest Edge magazine is out "Showcasing the best of the action from the Spring, the start of the race season and the first good weather we've had this year. " Check it out here


Happy Birthday Howies Howies are 12 years old this month, well done to them. Check out their website and mailing list for some birthday deals here


MRP have just launched their shiny new and improved website! Check it out at http://www.mrpbike.com/


From Matt at Ison
Team Identiti's Glen Coe has been pulling Double Backflips at CorbySkatepark. After a layoff to recover from his hernia op Glen has been back on it in a big way! He has been riding non-stop over the past few weeks and it has definitely paid off - as the video clip proves!!! Glen recently came into Ison to pick up a brand new P45 Pro Bike and it's good to see he is putting it to good use!!! It has held up to his riding with no problems - proof that the bike is strong enough (yet still nimble) for any rider!!!

The footage:

Issue 3 update!

Hey all - just a short note to let people know where Issue 3 is up to... as some of you will be aware last Thursday I became a Dad so things here have been a bit hectic!

However we're nearly there now with this issue - probably 95% complete, over 100 pages of TOP QUALITY content... should be online in the next week. Sign up to our distribution list using the Contact link (on the right) and we'll email you as soon as it's out!

Schladming results...

Without reading too much into the results, Sam Hill is clearly favourite for the overall title this year; he now leads the championship by even further and Peaty finished back in 5th. Strong performance from Gee Atherton with a 2nd to Hill in the race and the practice. All 3 Honda riders in the top 7, so Brendan looks as if he is "On it" and over his hand injury from earlier in the season.

Full results on www.nissan-ucimtbworldcup.com Top 10 below....
1 HILL Samuel IRON HORSE / MONSTER ENERGY 3:51.44
2 ATHERTON Gee ANIMAL COMMENCAL 3:56.58
3 MINNAAR Greg TEAM G-CROSS HONDA 3:56.96
4 LEHIKOINEN Matti TEAM G-CROSS HONDA 3:57.01
5 PEAT Steve SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE 3:57.81
6 VAZQUEZ LOPEZ David MSC BIKES 3:57.93
7 FAIRCLOUGH Brendan TEAM G-CROSS HONDA 3:58.13
8 RENNIE Nathan SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE 4:00.27
9 BEAUMONT Marc TEAM MBUK SANTACRUZ 4:01.39
10 REID Ben 4:01.82
Fearingout team rider Matt Simmonds got another good time on the board.
36 SIMMONDS Matthew 3:09.11 4:14.27
All in all, check how many "GBR" names you see on the board....we kick ass!

4X Nationals venue announced...

See BRITISH CYCLING for more information... but at least Forest of Dean isn't too far away!

UK specific Kona...

I quote (from BIKEMAGIC)...

The all-new Five O (top) is a UK-specific "hardtail trail" bike, featuring a new aluminium frame teamed with Marzocchi's 55R 140mm travel fork. The rest of the spec leans towards the burly - FSA Gravity Moto-X cranks, Hayes Stroker Trail brakes and Sun Ditch EQ rims shod with 2.35in Maxxis Minion tyres.

Looks quite interesting to me - quite possibly a good move, since fat full sussers seem to be taking over these days, and tbh are overkill for much of the UK.
Burly hardtails are where its at kids!

Worth taking a shoofty at the translation tho, as the new Coiler geometry adjustment seems really interesting - I can't wait to read a proper English written review!

More pics over here (words only in german tho) - READ THE TRANSLATION.

Les Gets Baby!

Just about to leave for a week in Les Gets with Riders Retreat - First time out so can't wait... I'll try and find an internet cafe mid week and upload some pics!

Au revoir!

Tees have landed...

The first batch of Wideopen tees arrived this morning... a full ad and details on how to get one from us will be in Issue 3.

In the meantime you can order them from the Fearingout shop.

Pump Comp Winner Pics

Got a great email over the weekend from our Pump comp winner Matt... It's really good to hear back from readers, especially when they're stoked on the mag and the competitions. Matt won a Pump t-shirt and a few other goodies, including some of the first batch of Wideopen stickers. We'll let you know in issue 3 how to get hold of some!

"Hi Jamie, t-shirt arrived today, many thanks, its great!

Sticker's were most welcome also, infact i've been after something like this since respraying the bike! I was so excited I even took pics (lucky you, they're attached too!)

Cheers again, I'm more than happy to support the site/mag in any way I can!

Matt"

Some bits and bobs from my inbox...

Just managed to grab 5 minutes to check my emails...Got quite a lot of Wideopen stuff which is always great. Here's a couple of little updates that might interest you all, i'll pop some more stuff up Monday:

From Caroline at TF Tuned Shox:

"Hi guys and dolls,
Just a quickie to let you know that RockShox, both parts and forks, are back in stock. Finally! We're busy today prepping the back-ordered forks, so if you've been waiting for a new toy, then this weekend you get to play in the rain. You lucky, lucky people.

Also, as most of you know by now, we no longer service Scott shocks. If you have a Genius in need of lovin', the nice people at Scott UK will be pleased to help - the number is +44 1670 712129. We will of course continue to honour our three-month warranty on TF-serviced Genius shocks - after all, a day without Genius is for Tim a day not lived to the full. No, really, honest!
He's soooooo sad to see them go. Ahem."

Also... Howies are having a summer sale. They've managed to completely outgrow the warehouse so have gotta shift some stuff before they can take any new deliveries. Click here for men's sale and here for ladies. Sounds like business is good in Cardigan Bay.

Welsh Downhill Championships

Folks, it may well seem that the DH season is not long started, but time flies and Championships need winning. This weekend (23rd/24th June) sees the Welsh Downhill Championships at Rheola.

See www.dragondownhill.co.uk for details. You can even watch a preview of the course which will also be featured for the British Championships (route to be changed a bit though), on the Dragon website, check it out.

Should be a good course and a top weekend of riding, racing and spectating. So if you're too scared, injured, bored or fed up of boring weekends, get yourself along and cheer the racers down that hill. Rheola...where champions are made.

Point to note, direct quote from Dragondownhill, "Midges up at Rheola are quite bad so bring some insect repellant."

So, take a horn to drum up some atmosphere, shout random chants and rub that insect repellant on liberally :D

Mountain Sessions at The Factory Skatepark in Dundee

Just spotted this on the Descent-World forum...

The Factory Skate Park in Dundee are running MTB only sessions from July to August. If your up that way, go check it out. Support your local skatepark folks!