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The nominations for the Bike Biz awards are out and CSG UK and it's brands have been nominated for a total of 4 awards!
CSG UK has been nominated in both the "Bike Distributor" and the highly coveted "Distributor of the year" awards.
Cannondale have been nominated in the Bike Brand category.
Finally, our very own BMX P&A brand Xposure has been nominated in the P&A brand category.
Check out the full story on Bike Biz here.
August 8th to 11th show will be first UK viewing of four helmet line, as well as other p&a
Cycling Sports Group's UK 'Ride the Revolution' show, scheduled for August 8th to 11th at the Poole headquarters, will see Cannondale reveal a helmet line, first seen at the recent Press Camp event.
The four helmet line caters for urban, mountain bike and road cyclists and is said to 'represent a forwards move into parts and accessories' for Cannondale.
The new helmet models with prices ranging from £29.99 to £79.99 will be on display along with a selection of new parts and accessories from Cannondale; among the expansive range of other brands showing the 2012 lines at the show.
UK parts and accessories purchasing manager Matt Farrow announced the range as “A great range of helmets for every rider” and “with a unique adjuster system, ensuring each helmet has a quality fit.” He added: “The Cannondale Product Development Team has created a range of helmets which meet the demands of today’s cyclist, whatever their style.”
Dealers who wish to attend the Ride the Revolution show are asked to pre-register here. The address of CSG's UK facility is:
Vantage Way, The Fulcrum, Poole, BH12 4NU
Find out more specific details about the helmet line in the August issue of BikeBiz, due to mail this week.
Anna had a great ride on her Mongoose Boot'r DH bike at the Mega Avalanche this year taking 15th place overall. She was the 2nd brit to make it down the mountain and only 5 minutes off the legendary Anne Caroline-Chaussons winning time!
"The Journey to the Mega was a killer, It took me 9 hours to get from Glentress to Croydon, my train was delayed and I was still wearing the dirty clothes I'd worn under my body armour from the jump competition. I had whiplash down my neck from a crash, along with a handful of oozing cuts and big, black bruises, my new prizes meant I could barely carry anything and my 25 minutes delayed train meant that I missed the last tube, which meant that everyone I was travelling to the Mega with missed their ferry. I paid for a taxi that i couldn't afford. I got into the car and said hello to my friends and everyone was so pissed off that i was late that no-one replied. Even though I'd been somewhere fun and was going somewhere fun, I was exhuasted, dirty, in pain and upset. I burst into tears and only the fact that my ever-patient boyfriend was driving is what kept me in the car to continue another 12 hours to the South of France. Memories usually fade the bad things to remember only the good things, I'm so glad I carried on that journey, but thinking about it still makes me wince, I have never been in so much pain without relief for so long.
But moan over, the week in the Alpes was one of the most incredible weeks ever! I've never much spent time in mountains and they still astound me with their beauty and power. Every day we rode and rode and rode until the pump in our arms exploded and we couldn't ride anymore. Evenings were spent massaging each other's forearms and eating carbs. I thought seriously about my race, I practiced the course and tried to keep hydrated. I never really prepare for things, preparing ruins the fun, but this time I felt differently, I cared about my race not just about the experience. I knew that if my bike broke I would quit, I knew that I wanted a top-20 and I wanted to give myself the best chance possible to do that.
Something wonderful was with me on the way up to the Qualification run, that thing was my buddy Hanna. Her enthusiasm was contageous, we chatted to all the girls waiting for the lift and we cheered and shouted. By the time the techno music started and the horn went I was just eager to go, go, go! I wasn't sure what position I was in but i knew I'd had a good start, sprinting down the fire road and carefully picking my line through the sharp rocks. I wasn't scared, the terrain was tough but I had practiced it and was more concerned about not crashing as it would lose me time. My bike was a beast, rolling over everything, I'd not had a single problem with it in the week and race day was no different. I had a great battle with another girl to the line, she was slower than me through the final burms and single track and I was buzzing her, but she rode cleverly and defensively, cutting off any chance I had to overtake her, we sprinted in our biggest gears down the road to the finish line. She beat me, but it was cool, I knew I'd done OK and i love a bit of a battle whatever the outcome. Ed, my proud boyfriend, bounded over to tell me he thought I was 11th, I was jumping! The commentator shoved his mike in my face "You are so happy, why are you so happy? Did you have fun?"
YEAH BUDDY!
For race day I had lost my nerves, I wanted to do well, but I felt proud already and knew that whatever happened I would go home happy. I think that lack of drive is what made me do some silly things, like stopping for a wee, and stopping for this poor girl who had punctured near the bottom of the glacier, miles from anywhere and had no equipment. She was so bloody slow at opening my bag though. I gave her my pump and innertube, deciding that if I punctured I'd deal with it if it happened. It didn't, so all's well that ends well. I lost 4 places pushing up the long drag, I should have thought to change to smaller gears, but really, I don't think like that. Some spectators patted my back as some girls pedalled past me, I didn't mind, I knew I'd catch them on the downhill. Ha! I didn't! I didn't have it in me, and my overall place of 15th was good and deserved. I was panting like a dog in the town finish, unable to fathom that I had raced down the side of a whole mountain, over ice and snow, broken rocks and dust, switch backs through pine forest and finally bursting into civilisation at the bottom 1 hour and 18 minutes later. Mr Commentator came over to me again "Anna! You are so tired but so happy, why are you always smiling?"....What is there not to smile about? That was frikkin freeride!"
Anna Glowinski, Mulebar Girl, Mongoose rider, designer and all round cycling advocate tried her hand at some slopestyle skills at the recent Air Maiden event in Glentress. Check out her report below!
"It was an exhausting but rewarding couple of weeks. Business and illness had kept me off the bike for nearly 2 months and when I realised that both Air Maiden and the Megavalanche were upon me I went into panic mode. I'd booked them months before, not realising that one day the day would come to actually do them.
The main problem was that Air Maiden was on Sunday in Scotland, and practice for the Mega was on Monday, in the Alps. With a couple of days to go I looked into trains to Glentress, there aren't any! I had to go, my place at the competition had come from the very prestigeous The Clan Stunt Team and I'd be damned if i didnt make it. A quick post on facebook, twitter and Singletrack world resolved the problem. A lovely lady Sandra would pick me up from Edinburgh on Friday night, and another lovely lady Andrea would pick me up from sandra's on Saturday morning. Sorted.
My little old jump bike and i arrived at Glentress on Saturday to be greeted by 53 other nervous females and some very welcoming coaches. Saturday was all about learning and practicing, some women had never had two wheels off the ground before, and some were going huge and busting out nose manuals, whips and no-footers before lunch. I have never ridden such soft, floaty jumps and had got the guts to pull a shaky one-hander within an hour. We had two tailored sessions throughout the day, in which you could choose from "skinnies," wall rides, progressive or beginners jumps, progressive or beginners drops and pump track. The coaches Tracy and Emma were fantastic and really pushed everyone and broke our riding down to really think about what we were doing.
By Sunday everyone had made friends and we were told we had a couple of hours to practice our own thing. Competition number one was the official Air Maiden competition, it consisted of 3 runs of varying riding skills. We only got one run each. The first was the table top run of 9 flowing jumps, we were judged on smoothness, style and progression of our own personal limits. I did ok, tweaked a little in the air, that was all. I was really nervous, and so were all the other girls there. Everyone was so encouraging of each other, but i think everyone wanted to ride to the best of their abilities and with only one chance to prove yourself we all felt a bit of pressure.
On the skinnies I screwed up badly, having to pull up and pop off the side of the first two. I was quite shaky and just before the drop section i fell off....on the flat....for no reason! I was really disappointed, but lots of girls felt that they hadn't done their best, so we just tried to help each other feel pumped again instead. Finally it was the berm run, I have no idea how many berms there are, but it is so fast, and so fun, that by the bottom no-one was thinking about their performance, they were just whooping and calling out and grinning their heads off at the bottom.
The Kicker Competion was a separate competition, sponsored by the Bike Hub. It was really sunny and really fun. I had lost my nerves and was just enjoying myself now, we had 2 practice runs and the final run counted. They put on the ghetto blaster and I was confident and smiling when I did my one-hander, it was the best one I pulled all weekend.
At podium time the winners of the Kicker Comp were announced, as 3rd and second place got taken my stomach dropped, I had really hoped to be on there. When they called my name in first place I was totally surprised, there were some really good girls there, namely Liz, Erin and Rhona. I was stoked to be standing on their makeshift podium on the top step, I think the pictures show that!
It has made me want to push my jumping, I love being in the air, by this time next year I hope to be doing no-handers and no-footers and good, strong X-ups and whips. Watch this space."
Cannondale supported rider Aidan Bishop had a great race at the Mega Avalanche finishing in a fantastic 17th place overall out of a total participation of 1362, 3rd in his Qualifying heat and the 3rd placed Brit!
Amazing Ride Aidan! Can't wait to see what you can do on the new Jekyll!
Check out Aidan's race report below.
Words: Aidan Bishop
Photos: Barbara Sztyk
It’s Mega time again!!!
The annual pilgrimage to the biggest and craziest marathon DH race was once again upon us this past week, yes it is MegAvalanche time! This year I was signed up to race again with Gummy joining me from the Berkshire sector of the Rapidracerproducts team. This year we had set off earlier than last and headed down to Alpe D’Huez the Sunday before so we could acclimatise ourselves as best as we could before the race. Mackie was again racing and kindly booked up the chalet we stayed in from last year, so there was a total of 9 of us living and riding together for the week...happy days!
So after catching up with faces from last year and beyond and a couple of beers, we were up Monday and got the mountain bikes out and headed for the qualifying track. As it turned out the morning was wet and rainy (the only bad day of the week) so once we were at the top we headed down fairly quickly to keep warm. The tracks for qualifying and the full mega course were ‘new’ for this year and so I for one was interested to see the changes. The qualifying track up top was the same, after the first half dozen loose rocky hairpin track corners they carried on over wide open rock bed with a couple of snow patches still not melted as opposed to last year where it was fast dry fire track road to follow. This new section was I believe similar to previous year’s so not new but it was to me and was an eye opener to follow where you had to go and was physically tiring to pedal along and over. Past this and you re joined the fire track to guide you into the singletrack top half. This was the same as last year, a dusty and rocky path with a nasty little steep section with wooden pallets strategically fixed to enable you to ride down the rock faces, then it was bermed and rocky trail until you hit the next fire road above Alpe d’Huez. The same fast dusty trail brought you out just above town and this is where you split from last year’s track and continued down the side of the road on a manmade trail with berms, small table tops and a triple and quad pack. After here you headed right through town, which was a new experience for most, slaloming the flags over jumps through a tunnel and weave down the main road and then you drop onto a dusty red graded trail. This consisted of steep and very dusty berms and drops all the way to the finish in Huez 300m below the main town. Race runs saw times from 21 – 30mins or so. We did one run and was liking it until the we realized the lift queue wasn’t moving much at all and so decided to ride back up the road to town....20mins later and we were in a restaurant to try and dry out and have a beer and some lunch!
The next few days saw much of the same, just taking time to ride different tracks and have fun. Most of us brought out road bikes also and so a few road miles were covered to hopefully aid the acclimatising process and ride some alpine hills in the sunshine. This included myself and Gummy taking on the famous 21 hairpin bends of Alpe D’Huez on the Wednesday, our plan was to ride from the chalet in Oz down along and up to Alpe and then get one of the last lifts back down to the chalet, therefore avoiding the 5mile climb back up to the chalet and saving our legs a little. The plan half worked! I climbed the Alpe in under an hour, got lots of drinks and got one of the last lifts up....Gummy text to say he just missed the last lift! As it turned out I Also missed the connecting last lift down to Oz where the chalet was and tried to plead with the operator I had to get down to oz and waved my road bike at him showing an off-road ride down was out of the question! The result was an off-road drive down the mountain in a pick up truck, people pay for such a driving experience so a unique end to the day. Gummy rode back down the road and along the valley and awaited one of us to collect him as he was feeling a little ‘blown’ from his climbing efforts!
Me chasing Rowan Sorrell into the first corner of qualifying.
Friday soon approached and that meant it was qualifying time!! This year there were 10 qualifying heats consisting of 200 men per heat plus one heat for the women...that’s a lot of racers! To make the cut for the main final Sunday you had to be in the first 35, the next 35 would be in the ‘challenger’ final on the Saturday after the women’s race, the next 35 would make the ‘amateur’ final after the main men’s final Sunday. So the 350 qualifiers in each final were then split down in three’s, therefore make top 3 for the front row ‘a’, 4th to 6th row ‘b’ and so on. First up was Gummy in heat 3, unfortunately not managing to get any sort of seeding from previous racing results he had to line up on the back row making it a near impossible task to make the top 35 if he didn’t overtake at least 100 riders in the first corners of the race. He didn’t and along with a few collisions with other riders and an electric fence!?! He finished 68th, therefore a place in Saturday’s challenger final. Mackie was next for the team and having a better seed than last year was confident of making the main final on Sunday, unfortunately a puncture meant finishing 45th he just missed the cut and joined Gummy for Saturday’s final. One of the unluckiest of chalet mates was Dan who missed the cut by one place last year only to finish 37th this year and miss out by two spots!! I was in the last heat and from previous results had second seed and took my place on the front row, alongside the notable Welshman Rowan Sorrell. The tape went up and Rowan was like the proverbial off a shovel and led into the first corner, luckily I was hot on his tail. I kept upright and in contention on the top section going into the singletrack in 4th place. One rider took an excitable line and nearly took me out only to nearly crash himself a minute down the track. I then battled with a French guy whilst Rowan and another fast rider on a DH bike pulled away slowly on the technical downhill track up top. Exiting this section and the guy in front of me was starting to get in the way a little so nearing the new section of track I made my move past and then kept the pace high. I drew myself close to the leaders, keeping a focus on Mr Sorrell’s red jersey. Heading into town and I passed for second place and closed onto Rowan’s tail, it stayed like that to the finish where I rode safely on the dusty steep berms so as not to throw it away before the finish. So 2nd place in my heat meant an eventual 19th seed and front row for the main final on Sunday, one row better than last year and I was happy with my efforts and that my training had paid off.
Mackie in finals action!
Saturday morning arrived and we headed up the mountain to watch Mackie and Gummy race in the ‘Challenger’ final. They set off 30 mins after the women’s final. We got the lifts up above Alpe D’Huez and then followed the track just above town to a tricky section containing rocky drops which always drew a bit of a crowd. On our way there and we saw Anne Caro fly past a clear 3 minutes ahead of her competitors already, a class act still! We watched the rest of the women’s field tackle the drops with some tumbles and awaited the leaders of the men’s’ race to come into sight. They soon did and it was clear the leaders were fast riders, indicating to me that a lot of these guys were easily fast enough for the main final but must have missed qualifying due to crashes or mechanicals in their qualifying races. So I counted through the riders hoping to see Mackie or Gummy in a good position. Mackie was first to pass us and I shouted to him his placing at that point, he was in 35th, Gummy didn’t take too long to pass us next in 76th, clearly frustrated he couldn’t ride at his speed due to traffic, a result of not starting from one of the front rows. The guys both finished unscathed and made place on the rest of the track with Mackie finishing an impressive 21st and Gummy battling through to 69th, good job guys!
Gummy battling through traffic in Saturday’s final.
Another new experience for me was that normally you would go along Friday night to collect your line sticker to signify where you qualified, if you make row ‘A’ you have to go along Saturday night to collect the sticker along with being called out and introduced in front of a crowd, flattering for the ego but meant we didn’t eat till late when I had to be on the lift at 6am!! But I had to collect the sticker and so the presentations were made for the women’s race, with Anne Caroline Chausson taking the victory by a clear 7 mins I believe. Then the 30 front row qualified riders were called out in reverse order and each one had to pull an entry form ticket out of a box for jerseys to be won for each ticket, nice but prolonged the whole affair as you can imagine. Anyway the Brits had a good showing on the front row with Joe Barnes, Alex Stock, Rowan Sorrell, Myself, Joe Rafferty and Martin Astley making the line up alongside the favourites and previous winners like Remy Absalon, Rene Wildhaber, Nicolas Voulliouz, Karim Amour with just Jerome Clementz and Franck Parolin not present due to mechanicals in qualifying.
Row ‘A’ riders presentation (move it along, I’m starving!!)
So the alarm went off at 5am and like last year I thought ‘why?’ to myself!!! But looking out the window and seeing sunshine was of slight comfort as talk of a heavy storm for Sunday turned out to be a false alarm. I made it to the top and set about walking the first couple of corner to try and see what I would try and do come race time. I decided you can’t really plan what you’re going to do as with hundreds of riders around you all you can do is ride where there is space! The helicopter was soon hovering above us and the 5 second board was in front of us, the tape raised but didn’t seem to raise fully, with a moment’s hesitation thinking if we could go or not everyone else did and I didn’t get a good start, something that is essential if you want a result. I rode the first snow path feet up and in control but at the end of it Ross Schnell was on the floor, this caused me to slow right up and try to get round his bike.
Coming off the first snow from the start.
Got going again, then cut tight down a bank and set about crossing the next snow patch. The majority were staying right to get off the snow as soon as possible, I found myself far left but with a clear run, so I continued to stay on the bike and followed a rut right across the snow and ride the rocky path wide around the next corner. I was now back in the pack with riders everywhere, the next few straights was spent trying to ride it all smoothly but a couple of times I found myself slowed up by riders falling in the line I was following and then causing me to stop or fall. Onto to the glacier and for pure ice it seemed grippy, I stayed high on it and managed to pass some riders here, just concentrating not to grab my brakes and pedal smoothly across it to maintain grip. Off the glacier and it was onto a fast rolling track heading for the singletrack, I passed another couple of riders here and found myself back onto Mr Schnell’s back wheel, he had got himself back onto his bike quickly and back into the race. The pace of the riders I was with was good, and so I was just concentrating on being as smooth as I could so as not to puncture up top and then managed to pass riders where the track widened or climbed.
Staying clear of trouble on the second snow section.
With the top section done with no dramas, we traversed across the top of Alpe D’Huez and prepared for the major climb of the race. I found myself in a bit of a pack up here, it was hard work in the hot sun and high altitude, I heard people in the crowd counting us through, I was now in 26th place, better than this point last year. We started to descend again and this section of the track was pretty fast and got rough from the braking bumps often, luckily the extra days riding this year had appeared to pay off as armpump wasn’t holding me back as much as previous races. Passing by the town of Oz En Oisans and we were past halfway, I noticed a strange sound coming from my brake somewhere but they were still working so didn’t stop to investigate. With a pack of 4 or 5 of us together we rode the next, new for this year, wooded section together down the singletrack trail with very tight and steep switchback turns. Exiting here and onto a long fireroad section with a gentle rise halfway along it. I knew I had to attack here to try and gain places and so as soon as it started to go up I put my head gritted my teeth and span passed the group of riders I was with, managing to pass them I started to close in on another rider in front along with the shadow of another rider who stuck to my wheel. This section fired you out onto a short road climb past some houses, I kept the speed consistent up here, climbing it all out of the saddle and came across Rowan Sorrell here so I didn’t stop to chat and kept the pace high to try and take a little gap on him into the next downhill section ahead, knowing he is a talented downhiller and would likely hustle my back wheel if I didn’t. From here I knew the finish was drawing closer, my arms weren’t completely shot and so I was riding strongly and was now looking to pass another rider but the track just wasn’t wide enough to pass. There was one little road climb left until the final straight, I stayed on the riders tail until here and then climbed the whole road out of the saddle and into the last DH section and passed the rider. Turning onto the bridge before the final straight and I nearly fell off, giving my chasers a chance to close in. The last straight I simply didn’t have the strength to get out of the saddle and so I put my head down and tried to push a gear as fast as I could, hoping the riders behind felt the same, turning left towards the line and I checked over my shoulder to see if anyone was close enough to try and pass...they were and one guy was just about to try and pass me on the very last corner metres from the line, I soon closed that door on him to his annoyance and crossed the line. I had finished, exhausted but content I had got down with no major dramas, punctures or mechanicals. I made my way through the finish area where the other riders were and asked Mr Voulliouz who had won, he told me the results....Remy Absalon, Jerome Clementz, Rene Wildhaber, Nico, Karim Amour, a near French whitewash of the podium! I caught up with other riders before checking the results so far....I had made it into the top 20 and finished 17th taking me 48minutes to finish, I was happy with that, a top 20 at the Mega is no easy task I can tell you!!
Well, that’s another Mega done!!!
