Video Danger Zone Goes To PBP from Paganella Bike Park on Vimeo.
Sam Pilgrim has landed himself Picture of the Day on http://www.pinkbike.com/ with this beyond flat tabletop-360.
Gaerne invited the cyclist Michele Scarponi (Team Lampre ISD), winner of the “Giro del Trentino” and runner-up at the Giro d’Italia, to visit the Gaerne Factory to celebrate his excellent results of this year.
During next season Scarponi will wear the new "CARBON G.AIR " shoes, the top of the new road collection signed by Gaerne, a very light and breathable shoe, a true jewel of technology and design that he will test in his upcoming events, such as the Vuelta in Spain and the Lombardia Tour.
Michele, friendly and always with a good humour, has received and embraced the Gazzola family and all Gaerne staff, taking photos with all employees and speaking with journalists and fans that arrived to meet him.
Scarponi said: “I am happy to be here today, I’m really fond of these places because they remind me my beginning. I can only thank Gaerne and Mr. Ernesto Gazzola for everything they do for me. I have a special feeling with my shoes and in Gaerne I discovered some technical details that are helping me to achieve important results".
Ernesto Gazzola – Gaerne owner and big fan of cycling: “"I am very happy to invite Michele here, this year he gave to Gaerne many important results and also, between us there is a friendship, relationship and mutual respect that goes beyond the work. I’m always very attentive to the advices that champions as Scarponi give to us: so we can make the shoes more and more performing, by taking advantage of the technology and of our fifty years of experience, and on their side testing the new shoes and their innovations, this is a winning combination. What our athletes are testing now, our customers will find on the shoes they will buy, with the same technical characteristics and the same care, all of course always made in Italy. Since I founded the company in 1962, I have always had a cult of work done to perfection and uncompromising quality, and this is rewarding, allowing us to reach important goals.
Dan was off in the first 5 as a result of his crash and had a great fast run in the 1.54 bracket. He went into the hot seat to hold first position for the next half an hour.
Nukeproof Vet rider and Fort William local Alastair Maclennan took the trip to Kranjska Gora in Slovenia for the European Masters DH Champs last weekend and brought home the Gold Medal on board his Nukeproof Scalp. Here's his round up of the weekend.
Tactics were to put in a good solid run leaving the oposition wondering what I had left. It went well and I didn' over do it on the big pedal section and coasted in with a time of 3:08.866 with Giuseppe Lividini 2nd on 3:19.119 and Jiri cila 3rd on 3:32.759.
It's a long way from Benderloch to Llangollen (357 miles to be precise). When a track as awesome as Llangollen is hosting a British Downhill Series race a few weeks before the National Champs, it's an easy decision to make. A rare sighting of the Welsh sun was also made.
Here's a report from MTBCut's tallest humanoid, Ben Cathro:
The track was wild slick and short. It demanded absolute precision as the times were super tight. Fraser was loving it in practice, getting wild and putting the knee down in the corners. When it came to racing a cautious run saw him place a disappointing 10th. Fraser was not best pleased with his result and looked forward to moving forward and smashing it in Canada.
I was loving the steep tight track and so was my Orange 322. It felt good to get back on the new bike and I was looking forward to a good result. I had a decent run but pushed it too hard and blew out some corners loosing valuable seconds. I was pretty pleased with 8th and excited about hitting the next World Cup in Canada.
Team Lampre-ISD have chosen their 9 riders to represent them at the 2011 Tour de France. The 9 riders will be kept comfortable by their Gaerne G.Mythos Plus shoes.
Leonardo Bertagnolli: 33 years old, Italy. 15 victories in career, 1 Tour de France.
Anthony Roux of the Lapierre-sponsored Francaise des Jeux team finished 2nd at the French Road Championships. The race consisted of 234.5km of smooth tarmac around Bologne. Despite a concerted effort to catch the breakaway leader Sylvain Chavanel, Roux was unable to close the 38 second gap with the assistance of Thomas Voeckler.
Despite suffering from a cold, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot competed anyway and finished a repectable 3rd in the Under 23 category and 2nd in the time trial. Ferrand Prévot clocked the best intermediate time mid-race, but then had trouble holding her pace until the end. "The first part of the parcours was good but then I had difficulties in the climb," she confirmed. The womem's road race took in a slightly shorter distance 109.6km of the Bologne-Sur-Mer region.
Straitline have long been reknowned for their pedal expertise, with the SC Platform being the choice of many a flat pedal rider. Their strength, durability and easy of service are unmatched.
Now, aimed squarely at the all-mountain market, Straitline have released details of their new AMPedal.
Weighing in at 330g with a steel axle and sub 300g with the Ti axle option, they offer a substantially lighter alternative to the SC Platform.
Ragley and IXS-sponsored endurance racers Dave Powell and Jason Miles both repeated their Mountain Mayhem 2010 solo podium successes by finishing 2nd and 3rd again!
Both riders battled hard all the way through the 24 hour race, Dave eventually just missing out on the top spot having led the race for a while and Jason claiming 3rd after spending the first half of the race in 4th position.
Both were riding Ragley TD:1 frames and finishing kit whilst they were kept comfortable throughout the race with IXS Vernon bib shorts.
The season has come to what feels like a half way point but for myself it's about to get interesting.
A ski crash (ribs on stump was the first disaster), a month later I competed in the Strathpuffer 24 hour XC race on my singlespeed. Aside from nearly having a mental breakdown at 4 in the morning, I was so tired after that when tidying the van the next day I lent over to pick up a crisp packet and heard the ribs crack again. Another month on and I thought I would risk a bit of skiing and spotted a transfer from the top of a wall down onto a snow covered hydro electric pipe. I climbed up the wall and hucked off - knee to join in pipe.
I struggled on for the first few nationals hurting and then was feeling good for the SDA at Ae Forest, rear wheel steering my way down to 2nd and got some good confidence from this.
Then disaster struck again. After a trail ride at Laggan we decided to stop talking about this big river jump and man up and huck it. Ferg sent the 80ft first no problem and Danny Mac with a bit of splits action on entry. Then my knee wasn't locked out enough and went back and sideways. I just opened my eyes in the water and floated up thinking what an idiot, something needs to change.
Floating in a murky dark river with a sore knee was the limit. I have stayed clean for over a month now and not hucked off anything not the bike.
Joe Barnes was another to suffer some seriously bad luck. A spring in Joe’s rear mech failed causing it to loose tension and fail. Unable to pedal Joe let off the brakes and tried to smash the course to pieces to make it through qualification. He came into a crucial corner before a flat section and tried to hit it full speed to carry speed but his front wheel washed out and he hit the deck.
I was sporting the number 42 at the weekend and I was looking to bring that down into the top 20. After a solid run I came down into 3rd eventually finishing up in 19th. I was annoyed that I didn’t get the top 10 I was looking for but in hindsight it was a solid result.
The following weekend was the 3rd round of the World Cup in Leogang so we packed up the wagon and started the 30 hour drive to Austria. Many bad jokes, some awful smells and lots of sugar later and we rolled into Leogang.
We were greeted by an angry Austrian campsite owner and a lot of moisture but things got better. The sun came out at times and the track was amazing. Qualifying was a bit of a disaster for myself. I had a rather painful crash just before my run. I smashed some painkillers and decided to take it easy and do a smooth run. Turned out that smooth equalled slow and I missed Qualifying. Words cannot describe how gutted I was.
Fraser had a solid run but just missed qualifying but 1.5 seconds. A bit more experience of these bigger tracks and he’ll get the pace figured out and start posting some amazing results.
Joe was team rider number one at the weekend. He qualified solidly and was on an amazing run in his final but he got caught out by the increasingly wild track and hit the deck. 70th position on the day. Not the most successful race for the team but we’ve all learned some lessons in these hard times and we’re looking forward to the next races.
Myself and Fraser will be smashing the world cups out in America and Joe is heading to Europe in the landship for some enduro action.
Cheers,
Ben.
Getting High in Venice Beach, L.A from The Cool Hunter on Vimeo.
