Everything is two wheels with Luca Shaw. In this episode of THE SYNDICATE, we head back to North Carolina to hang out with Luca and his family, check in at Vallnord and Lenzerheide, and then head back to the states to do some riding in Pisgah. — Official website: santacruzbicycles.com
Author: Tomas
Four months, nine countries, two continents and it all comes down to this: The last stop of the World Cup season in Val di Sole, Italy will – finally – determine who takes home the men’s and women’s 2017 overall title in Downhill (DHI). The resort in Trentino, Italy was home to the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships just last season and a World Cup XCO event the year before. In fact, 2017 marks the third time that the rocky, rooty terrain of the Northern Italian valley has hosted the UCI World Cup Finals. The Italian fans who flock…
Martin Söderström and Hannah Barnes delivered on their missions. Now it’s your turn to face your challenge. 20 km, 1,000 vertical metres climbing, in one ride! Grab your mountain bike, your smartphone or a tracker – your mission starts now. Martin Söderström A minimum of 20 km and an altitude gain of 1,000 metres, all covered by mountain bike and in one ride – upload your best ride log along with a screenshot showing clearly legible tracking data to bmw-mountains.com/onamission and done – you are part of the BMW Mountains mission. Your mission runs from 21 August – 11 September…
As you can tell from the title, I have something to announce, but let’s start off with the race report from Whistler… Coming in after Aspen we were greeted with a smoky arrival. The forest fires really made the air quality bad and even a normal ride was hard on the lungs. The stages this year were very blown out and it was going to be the race of the year in terms of holding on. Top of the world trail into Ride Don’t Slide was going to be close to 20 minutes and that trail is like doing 1000…
The Austrian downhill flagship Markus Pekoll ends his career. The upcoming event at Val di Sole will be his last World Cup and the downhill World Championships at Cairns, Australia, will be the international grande finale to his impressive career. photo: Nathan Huges One decade of World Cup racing 2017 is the tenth full season the “boy from Schladming” is competing at the highest level of the sport. He grew up close to the legendary downhill track and picked up mountain biking when he was at the age of 17. A full 15 years racing is enough: “It just feels…
Red Bull Joyride is undoubtedly the pinnacle of slopestyle competition. This year however the iconic event hosted at Crankworx Whistler set the stage for the FMB Diamond Series Final, which will go down in Nuremberg, Germany, during the legendary urban slopestyle contest Red Bull District Ride. The eyes were on Emil Johansson (SWE) and Nicholi Rogatkin (USA), who were only separated by 30 points in the FMB Diamond Series standings. At the end of an intense battle in Canada Brandon Semenuk (CAN) took his fifth Red Bull Joyride win, ahead of Johansson, who took a huge step toward becoming the…
Troy Brosnan’s lightning fast reactions shone Saturday afternoon, as he pounded in for his third Canadian Open DH presented by iXS win on the roughest, toughest downhill course Crankworx racers have seen all year, following behind countrywoman Tracey Hannah, who earned her first place moments before. Troy Brosnan Both secured the Crankworx Downhill World Tour titles with their wins, adding a $5,000 bonus to a day quite unlike almost any other race seen on the elite downhill race circuit. Troy Brosnan: I haven’t seen Whistler this dry my whole entire life. It’s crazy. Even when there’s a little bit of…
If there is one sport both the King and Queen of Crankworx love, it’s Dual Slalom. And the results show. In a perfect repeat of last year’s podium, Tomas Slavik (CZE) and Jill Kintner (USA), King and Queen of Crankworx for just one more day, until tomorrow’s coronation, each pulled in for the slalom win, showing both still have the mettle and the skills to dominate. Jill Kintner vs Caroline Buchanan Jill Kintner: It’s like a true mountain biker’s skill. You have to be able to corner. You have to be able to shift gears, slow down. It’s a complete…
French pump track master Adrien Loron and reigning Queen of Crankworx Jill Kintner found themselves at the mercy of the BMX world Thursday, as they watched the possibility of sealing several titles concurrently slip through their fingers to champions of another sport. BMX crossover has proven a major game-changer on the Crankworx scene this year, with X-Games mega champion Ryan Nyquist’s successful chameleon-like move to Slopestyle athlete, and BMX Olympian Caroline Buchanan giving Kintner a serious run for her money on the pump track, and in the overall Queen of Crankworx standings. Caroline Buchanan And this time, Buchanan brought along…
For mountain biking fans, the current King of Crankworx frontrunner, Adrien Loron, would have been a random pick to with the Fox Air DH Wednesday afternoon, but the man himself says it is a four-year goal achieved, and hopefully, the launch of a career-topping week if he wins one more second place to secure the King of Crankworx title. Adrien Loron Buoyed by the confidence boost of two first place wins in recent months—after several years of second place finishes—Loron pulled out all the stops to win the highly competitive downhill event, a discipline well outside his normal competitive range.…
Sailors would tattoo “HOLD FAST” on their fingers in hope, that it would prevent their hands from slipping on ropes. Especially when working aloft in foul weather! We believe that our HOLD FAST grips have the same magical powers. They will let you hold on to your bars and ride out of any trail that you may encounter. Perhaps the longest lock-on grips on the planet – these whopping 148mm grips fit modern, wide handlebars perfectly and ensures that your palms are always on the rubber part, not on the clamp or barend. They are are reasonably thin and have…
It might be more of a football term, but Colombian downhill mountain bike racer Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas clearly knows what it means to “Go Long.” Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas Tuesday afternoon, he won the iconic 6.5-kilometre Garbanzo DH, the first of the three Crankworx Whistler downhills, for the fifth time in a row. It is one of the longest downhill races in the world—if not the longest on the current race scene. Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas: The more I win it, the more I want to keep winning it, and you just feel the pressure because you don’t want to let the…
Whistler is no stranger to mountain biking heroes and another was born today when hometown hero Jesse Melamed won round seven of the Enduro World Series, the Crankworx Open Enduro presented by Specialized. Jesse Melamed Melamed, 22, was locked in an intense battle with series leader Sam Hill (AUS) throughout the penultimate race of the EWS season. Hill took the first stage of the day, with an incredible 17-second lead, but by stage three, Melamed trailed by a mere half second. Then, in one of the most nail-biting EWS finishes of the year to date, he crashed at the top…
Its the first time reigning King of Crankworx Tomas Slavik can remember starting a race run without concern for the finish, and when he and fellow finalist Adrien Loron whipped off their helmets at the line, it appeared both were equally elated—though Loron secured first place. Jakub Vencl The victory represents a somewhat stunning finish for the Frenchman, who was well out of contention to win the Dual Speed & Style World Championship when he started the day, despite his second place seeding in the series. With two wins to his name, Czech rider Jakub Vencl had 300 points, to…