As the snow retreats to the last shady corners of the Leoganger Steinberge mountains and spring is finally here, the shape crews in Saalfelden Leogang have already been working on the trails for a while. Their goal: to get the lines & trails in the Epic Bikepark Leogang and the single trails in the bike region ready for the opening on 12 May 2023. The brand new AlteSchmiede Trail, which promises 3.5 kilometers of finest single trail action, will be added for the 2023 season for the first time. Another treat for mountain bike guests in Austria’s biggest bike region…
Author: Tomas
From May 17th to the 21st, the world’s top riders will converge in Cairns, Australia, for five days of action-packed racing, fierce competition, and a whole lot of “shoeys” in the tropical rainforest. You can catch it all live on Red Bull TV. For those lucky souls who have already secured their festival passes, here is what to expect from stop number two, the paradise edition, of the 2023 Crankworx World Tour. The Flux Trail, Elevate Tail Building and World Trail crews have been working hard on the tools to freshen up and prep Cairns’ already immaculate tracks. Here’s a 1-minute preview of each of the courses from…
The new PRO Enduro and E-MTB specific saddles, in conjunction with an updated naming convention, will provide cyclists the ability to power their performance comfortably and efficiently. With a lightweight, and robust appearance, these two new saddles are the first introduction of a new design and overarching naming convention that will make saddle identification easier for cyclists, bike shop owners and dealers. Using three letter acronyms and two numbers, the PRO saddle naming convention explains each saddle’s intended discipline, length and the body position it facilitates, including the base, rail and padding material being used. PRO MSN 1.3 Enduro Saddle Developed…
WTB is excited to introduce its e-bike focused Devo saddle with a patent-pending Pickup handle that provides a simple yet effective way for riders to lift and maneuver e-bikes while also being a useful grab point for pushing up rough sections of trail. With 30+ years of innovative WTB saddle design to back its introduction, the patent-pending Pickup handle introduces an additional level of function and convenience to our already beloved saddle line. Pickup Handle for Heavy Lifting The additional weight of e-bikes creates new challenges when it comes to lifting your bike onto a rack, moving it around the…
Freeride mountain bike festival Darkfest is no stranger to world records and the sixth year of the spectacle was no different. The invite-only event combines the most fearless freeriders with the biggest dirt jumps in the world and it delivered another unbelievable week of progressive tricks that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on a mountain bike. This year the crew constructed the longest dirt jump yet, measuring in at 110 feet to the sweet spot of the landing and UK rider Tom Isted took full advantage, backflipping his way into the history books not once, but twice. The Darkfest…
With Rotorua being back at the start of the Crankworx calendar, it meant two things for the slopestyle athletes: good weather and plenty of practice time. After seeing mind blowing practice footage flooding in all week, expectations going into the contest were high to say the least. Run after run of progression, in the end it was Emil Johansson coming out on top. As Johansson’s 10th Crankworx slopestyle victory, this may have been his most technical run yet. Seeing 360 barspin to double downside whips both ways and a new flat drop flip x-up to start a heater of a run.…
The final day of Crankworx Rotorua brings the fans a 2 for 1 special, starting the day off with Dual Slalom Rotorua in the morning, before the festival finale – Maxxis Slopestyle in Memory of McGazza. With dual slalom qualifiers happening earlier in the week, it was an interesting turn of events to see how the top Elite Women and Men qualifiers would end up on finals day. With a few changes to the flagging positions, the dual slalom track that many of these riders raced only a few short months ago brought some new challenges into the mix. The…
The second to last day of Crankworx Rotorua and the sunny blue skies continued to carry momentum from the past week making it an epic Saturday for Speed & Style Rotorua. The day started with qualifiers for 10 Elite Women and 27 Elite Men. The Queen of Crankworx, Caroline Buchanan qualified first for the women, and the undisputed King of Speed & Style, Tomas Lemoine, qualified first for the men. Things heated up throughout the rounds, with a stacked field of “proper speed & stylers”, in the words of Tomas Lemoine. Australian, Mike Ross got the crowd buzzing when receiving…
The second weekend of Crankworx Rotorua has officially kicked off, and tonight’s Pump Track Challenge Presented by Torpedo7 was one for the books. Nestled into the base of Skyline Rotorua, the pump track has been designed to be a perfect stadium for spectating, walled with crowds cheering on the exciting head-to-head racing. Freshly reshaped, this tight and technical pump track makes for one of the most unforgiving tracks on the Crankworx World Tour. Featuring an updated stall wall that would ultimately prove to be the difference maker. The racing was as tight as the track itself, and the crowd was…
It’s the midpoint of Crankworx Rotorua and the world’s fastest and smoothest riders could be found ripping down Skyline’s iconic Mr. Black track for the return of the Crankworx Rotorua Air Downhill. This is one of those races where the track is seemingly simple to ride which makes it harder to race. There’s no margin for error on Mr. Black, and putting a podium run together, all comes down to the rider’s ability to squash jumps, ride the corners fast, and put down as much power as possible. It’s a two minute sprint where even a little more power than…
The vibes were high as Skyline Rotorua welcomed Crankworx fans back with the Official New Zealand Whip-Off Championships. The crowd was roaring while the riders were frothing and running back up to the top of the course to get more laps in. This was also arguably the largest women’s Whip-Off field in Crankworx Rotorua history. Canadian Elite Women, Georgia Astle and Kirsten Van Horne made their debut appearance on a Crankworx Whip-Off podium, coming in second and third place respectively. Crankworx Whip-Off veteran, Vinny Armstrong won first place with her signature style of carving up the lip and floating through…
The acclaimed mountain bike event returns in 2023 in a new location, accompanied by a new MTB festival. Mark your calendars, mountain bike fans! From the 14th to the 20th of August, 2023, Swatch Nines MTB will make its debut in a thrilling new location: Green Hill Bikepark in Schmallenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since its opening in July 2022, Green Hill has quickly become a household name in the MTB community. Situated on an abandoned ski slope in the Sauerland region, the park—one of the largest mountain bike destinations in Germany—was built in less than six months thanks to in-house…
The 2023 Crankworx World Tour has officially kicked off in Rotorua’s Whakarewarewa Forest for the RockShox Taniwha Downhill, putting the world’s best downhillers to the test. The track is known for it’s rooty chutes and ruts which can be challenging on a dry day, but absolutely menacing in the wet. After a downpour of rain two days before finals, the track dried up for some tacky dirt conditions, but featured a few “choose your own adventure” rut sections making for an action-packed day of racing. Number one seed in the Elite Men category, and five-time world champion Loic Bruni, was able…
The well-known manufacturer of brake components is joining forces with the prestigious Continental Atherton race team in 2023 and will equip all its bikes with the “Disc Shark®” discs and the Pro G1554T and Advanced G1851 pads at the UCI DH World Cup 2023. This fantastic partnership between Spanish brake manufacturer Galfer Bike and British bike brand Atherton Bikes will see them equip all their downhill competition bikes with Galfer brake components as of the 2023 season. Andreas Kolb and Charlie Hatton set the Men’s Elite category on fire in 2022, with a total of five podiums and eight “Top Ten” finishes in…