Just been on the phone to Team Chain Reaction Cycles.com/Intense manager Nige Page, who was actually stood outside peeling stickers off last years team van. See it’s not all glamour for the bosses, they’ve got flights to book, riders to look after and stickers to peel off.

Nige told me the team will remain the same as last year with the addition of the newly married Claire Buchar/Kovarik for DH and the not newly married, or married at all (I think) Lewis Lacey who will be performing 4x duties.

Kovarik is listed as doing selected 4x events, Nige couldn’t say for sure which if any he’ll be doing.

So the 2009 team line up is as follows:

Chris Kovarik – DH and selected Slalom and 4X events
Julien Camellini – DH
Matt Simmonds – DH
Ruaridh Cunningham – DH
Claire Buchar/Kovarik – DH
Dan Critchlow – DH
Lucas Mechura – 4X
Lewis Lacey – 4X

Nigel also added:

“For this year we will be the main team sponsored by Intense cycles and we have been working hard along with Jeff Steber to produce the best DH and 4X race bikes that Intense have ever built. We are very excited about our race bikes for this year and I feel the team will be very competitive on the World Cup circuit.

Early testing indicates that the new DH bike is exactly what we need for our riders to get the very best results possible on the current tracks we compete on.

We will be racing the full UCI world cup series starting off next month in South Africa and ending in Austria in September plus some other selected races throughout the summer.

Our first race as a team will be the South African National round in Pietermaritzburg the week before the first round of the 2009 UCI World Cup.

We also have a second van this year to make things easier for us in Europe. Frank at CRC has blinged it out to the Max. Check it out below. Cheers Frank – your a ledge!”

Nigel Page.

I’m betting that van will look a bit raggedy after a few trips round Europe.

Team Boss Nigel Page announces the 2009 downhill mountain bike Chain Reaction Cycles.com/Intense