MONSTER ENERGY in the UK!

Quick bit of news from our friends at Madison... They are now importing Monster Energy drink into the UK making it even easier to have green wee and feel REALLY AWAKE.

We drank a LOT of this stuff at Fort Bill and if energy drinks are your thing it's not too bad. The flavours are nice and zingy, it comes in a huge can and it certainly does the job of perking you up. They've also been putting some big cash into downhill this season with free Monster at all the big races and their name slapped on Sam Hill, Steve Peat, Brendan and loads more.

Keep an eye on the following:

www.monsterenergy.com
www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk

Photo is of Monster rider Brendawg Fairclough from www.23degrees-sports.com.
By Fraser Britton

Mynydd Du - the aftermath!

The dust (mud?) has settled after Mynydd Du and we've got some new Welsh Champs... Well done all.

Aimee Dix Elite Female
Rowan Sorrell Elite Male
Lee Hamer Hardtail
Gareth Brewin Junior Male
William Roberts Juvenile
Kate Betts Master Female
Chris Ames Master Male
Jason Carpenter Veteran Male
Manon Carpenter Youth Female
Sam Webster Youth Male

The UK Hardtail Champ is..... Lee Huskinson (told ya so!)

Fastest of the day was Matt Simmonds, with Habu-Blu Cann taking it for the girls.

Check out dragondownhill.co.uk for full results, all pics are nicked from them

Also Hardtail Nation for the hardtail action

Welsh Champs and the UNOFFICIAL HARDTAIL CHAMPS!!

This has got to be the best race of the year so far...

The Welsh Champs AND the Hardtail Champs running head to head at the AMAZING Mynydd Du. It's going to be sooooo good.

Check out the photo above of the covetted hardtail champs denim beater, awarded to the UK's fastest hardtail racer. Nathan Ball took her home last year at Rheola but he's out with an injury so it's open to anyone. Judging by the pace Lee H was putting down at Bala I reckon my money might be on him!

Here's last years champs:

Running the gauntlet are:

Lewis Bateman TJ ELEC

Ashley Evans

Sy Finch Newquay Pirates

Tim Grant The Defective

Oliver Gregory 704645

Lee Hamer Extreme Culture

Lee Huskinson DMRbikes/Marzzochi/Mace/Ni

Ben Irons sofari sogoodi

Ryan Lewis Extreme Culture

Jake Mckenna

Derek Pinkett

Bill Thackray Pontefract carpets

Lewis Warrington

Iain Woodley hardtailnation.co.uk

Raise hell chaps!

Good luck to anyone racing - pop down and give 'em a cheer if you fancy a great day out.

Check out hardtailnation.co.uk and dragondownhill.co.uk. All pics are pinched from them, cheers boys!

Finaly, a quick vid of the mighty Mynydd Du:

2008 Scottish DH Champs - Glencoe

MASSIVE weekend of racing coming up!

It's the Scottish DH champs up at Glencoe, sponsored by Chain Reaction Cycles... Check out the SDA site for more info here.

Here's a vid of last year's champs at Dunkeld from Marshall Films:

New RaceFace Atlas FR chain guide

Fresh produce from Race Face, check it out....

The Atlas guide gives you a bashring/chain guide for riding hard and also a granny ring to get up the climbs. Might be a perfect set up for those 6 and 6 trail bikes out there?

22T or 24T and up to 36T bash
Fits 68/73, 83, 100mm BB's
145g without bash
245g with bash
Bad Ass Black
£79.95

raceface.com
silverfish-uk.com

Countdown to the National Champs!

There's under two weeks to go until the National Champs at Bala and the Pearce Cycles guys have been working hard ...

We heard rumours of a monster road crossing, and here she is! A six metre high bridge over the road, firing riders down into the finish area.

They've also been grooming the track and getting it fixed after the Midland's round. There's not going to be any major changes to the track except for the bridge and a new section into the finish field. They've also mellowed out the doubles in the fields which were a bit kicky in the last race.

We'll have some more shots from the Pearce guys after this weekend... In the mean time check out this vid of the track:

NPS Fort William Results! Minnaar takes it again.

News just in, thanks to Martin Whiteley at 23Degrees.

Minnaar took the win at the NPS at Fort William... Beating 2nd place Ben Cathro by 5 seconds. Another great Fort William result for Greg, but even better for Cathro. 5 seconds off Greg Minnaar aint half bad at all, good f'in work!

Here's some on board footage from Greg in practice:

Greg was over in the UK for one of his Big Air Training Camps and had a few of the students entered into the race. He seeded fastest yesterday, as the only rider under the 5 minute mark. In his final run he managed to make it down 5 seconds up on Ben, despite bashing his pedal on a rock in the top section.

Greg's quote: "I busted the clip on one of my pedals on a rock up top and had to spin the pedal with my right foot on more than one occasion to get clipped back in, and was worried I'd lost too much time. I knew Ben and Marc would be strong today, so I'm happy for the win, but to be honest, I was really happy for my riders here at the camp, they all did well this weekend and they were great to work with."

Here's the top 5, full results soon as I can get them!

1. Greg Minnaar (RSA) - 4m 50.483s
2. Ben Cathro - (GBR) - 4m 55.921s
3. Joe Barnes - (GBR) - 5m 02.513s
4. Marc Beaumont (GBR) - 5m 02.987s
5. Neil Donoghue (GBR) - 5m 04.403s

http://www.npsdh.com/

http://www.gregminnaar.com/

NPS Fort William...

The NPS is up at Fort William this weekend, following in the footsteps of last month's World Cup.



The news from Jim is that Saturday practice was mega dry and dusty with the track taking a hell of a beating. Lots of holes appearing, lots of busted rims and lots of breaking bumps all over the place.



The Mojo boys were on the hill with Hutchins looking quick and no rubber suits in site... Their boy Cathro took 1st at the previous round and got a hell of a result at the World Cup. Could there be a Mojo podium today?



Also, pretty interestingly, Minaar was getting some runs in. He was apparently riding with a headcam talking through the lines as he was hitting them!

We'll keep you posted how Sunday's race runs go. The Atherton's are on the start list but whether they'll turn up is anyone's guess.

Stay tuned!

Ryders Eyewear hits the UK

Ryders Eyewear is by no means a new company. They've become a massive hit in Canada since the brand started some 20 years ago, and now have the likes of Shaums March and Ryan Leech and others, using their eye wear. Not because these riders get paid though, just because they like the product which says a lot for them.

Thanks to Man O'Leisure Distributors we should be seeing Ryders Eyewear hit the UK big time towards the end of '08. They were also kind enough to hook us up with a couple of pairs of shades, so you can expect to see a review of these in the mag sometime in the future.

I'll be running the Tangent over the next few months to get an idea of what the brand is all about while we also have a Treviso on test as well. To find out more about the range on offer check out the Ryders Eyewear website. These are already available in a limited number of stores but we'll bring you the news when they first hit the shops near you.

MDE Flats - Wideopen EXCLUSIVE!

Our mate Elbry at Riderruncompany just fired over some pics of MDE's latest pedal... and an EXCLUSIVE offer for Wideopen readers!

These babies are hot off the press from MDE bikes in Italy

570grams a pair
Replaceable 10 grip pins per side
Sealed bearings / DU
CNC machined spindles Cr-Mo
Alloy extruded / CNC machined low profile body
Laser logo done in house @ mde italy

RRP is £55 BUT Wideopen readers can get them for £50 postage free!

These are super limited so get 'em whilst they're hot!

Click here for Riderruncompany
Click here for MDE Bikes

Wharncliffe Weekender 2008

‘The Wharncliffe Weekender 2008’is set for the the weekend of 12th & 13th July 2008. Entries close on the 5th July so get in quick!

Expect a weekend of bikes, booze and BBQ all hosted by World Cup champ Steve Peat. The whole thing is in aid of the Weston Park Cancer Appeal Fund!

New for '08 is 'Peaty’s Sunday Forest Ride'... where you can sign up for a ride with Farmer Jack, Steve P and friends. You'll get a guided tour of Wharnecliffe and hopefully pick up some tips on the way!

All entry fees and enquires to: The Wharncliffe Weekender, C/O Highfields, Woodhead Road, Wortley, Sheffield, S35 7DS

Email : info@wharncliffeweekender.com
Tel contact 07768 222849

Full info is at: http://www.wharncliffeweekender.com/

Gamut P40 - Long Term Test

It seems like there's heaps of chain guides fighting it out at the moment... Which 'aint a bad thing as the quality of them all is going through the roof.

Here's Gamut USA's latest offering, the 'P40'. Straight out of the box it's amazingly light (254grams) and looks beautifully neat and simple.

It's made up of a 10mm thick polycarbonate (plasticy) bashring to keep your ring safe (122g) and a 5mm thick alu back plate with poly top and bottom guides to keep your chain in place (132g). It's designed for 36 - 40 tooth chain rings and is available in pretty much every option of colour, mounting and crank arm you'll ever need. If it doesn't quite fit the bill there's another 4 guides in Gamut's range.

We'll be giving the P40 a thrashing over the next few months and letting you know how it copes. Look out for a first repo in Wideopen issue 7 and long term tests from then on...

You can check out Gamut USA here
And UK distributor Madison here

Animal Bike Range out now

Animal must be pretty chuffed with themselves at the moment... They've got two World Champions (Rach and Gee Atherton) on the team and they've just launched a whole new range of mtb specific clothing.

We checked out the kit at Madison's Icebike show earlier this year and it looks great. Really well thought out, really tough and really stylish. Plus there's not many ranges that have been developed with the help of 2 world champs!

Here's a couple of screen grabs... With any luck we'll be bringing you a full report in the near future.

If you want to get your hands on some kit... pop down to your local Animal store or order from your local bike shop, Madison are the distributor.

Check out the full range at Animal.co.uk

Dragon Rheola

Just a really quickly edited podcast from Rheola on Sunday. Edited on movie maker at me mum's house cos' I've filled up all my harddrives! Full results at Dragondownhill.co.uk Anyway enjoy:

UK National Champs - ENTER NOW!

Click the poster to make it BIGGER

There's only 1 week left to enter the UK National Champs at Rhyd-Y-Felin...

Why?:

• It's one of the best tracks in the UK
• You get LOADS of ranking points
• They're building a bloody great big bridge into the finish arena
• It's only the 6th time they've had an event here
• The track is AMAZING!

Full details on the Pearce site here

Gee and Rach final runs...

Loads more here

3 UK World Champions!!

Amazing results from the World Champs!

Gee Atherton, Rachel Atherton and Josh Bryceland are your new downhill WORLD CHAMPIONS. Well bloody done to 'em!

Here's another great video from MTBCut.tv:


Full results are here

The UK is dominating the world!

World Champs Weekend - Val Di Sole

Things are hotting up at the World Champs in Italy...

It's DH finals day with Gee and Rach Atherton qualifying fastest. There's going to be some balls out riding tomorrow as everyone does their thing to grab the rainbow jersey.



The guys are MTBCut.TV are doing an amazing job as usual and have got loads of quality footage online already. Stay tuned here: http://www.mtbcut.tv/

Dirt are also all over it as usual, with Billy Trailstar ebeaming updates back to their site here: http://www.dirtmag.co.uk/

Look out for another couple of updates from us and a full report in Issue 7.

Aberfeldy SDA

What a weekend. The track on Friday was just some tape between the trees where some branches had been cleared. No lines, no corners, just loose dusty trails and a good measure of rocks thrown in as well.
By Sunday afternoon there was a proper track, and Mr Joe Barnes showed us all why he has the number one plate, taking the win by over 4 seconds!
Check out the next issue of wideopen for a full report on what the track was like and who done well for themselves.

Picture of the man himself kindly provided by Torks @ torks.co.uk. Check out his site for a load more pictures from the weekends.

The Uprising

I happened to stumble across this film quite a while ago now, but since then I've managed to meet up with the guy behind it all Callum Swift. So rather than having me try to tell you what it's all about I thought I'd leave it to the man himself.... The Uprising is a film due out later this year about the future of downhill. It features the worlds best young riders doing what they love both at home and at the races, and whether they are the world champion or an unknown local they all share a love for bikes and the ability to go damm fast on them! Filmed in the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Andorra, Italy, Slovenia and South Africa and featuring the likes of Bryceland, Cammelini, Cunningham, Hart, Fairclough, Simmonds, Reid, Dale and Smith its packed with more flat out riding than you can cope with. Selected nationals, world cups and the world champs cover the racing and to keep things interesting there is mini moto at the Fairclough's, night time dirt jumping in Geneva, street in London and plenty of extras. Keep an eye on www.theuprisingfilm.com for updates and expect a trailer out in August. In the mean time here is a little teaser to keep you entertained...

[Okay I'm stuggling the embed this so here's the link instead!]

So there you have it. Still want to know more? Check out the next issue of wideopen for a short interview with Callum to find out the why, where, when and hows.