What a month at Dirt. It’s been a whirlwind – people in and out the office, regular lunchtime rides kicked into action, plus we’ve been celebrating as Billy the ex-web has blessed the world with his firstborn!
We’ve been busy being busy, but in between riding bikes and general gallivanting we’ve managed to put together an issue of Dirt Mag that we’re really, genuinely happy with. Dirt #145 is out in the shops now, and it is absolutely stacked full of content and bursting with great photos – find out about it here.
Title photo: Mick Hannah at Valparaiso Cerro Abajo by Hutchinson UR.
Here’s a little bit of news from the wonderful world of mountain biking in the last week:
1: Enduro World Series entries go through the roof!
…it may be no surprise that Finale Ligure, the final round hosted by SuperEnduro on the Italian coast, would fill up in less than two hours.
Crankworx Whistler and Valloire filled up within the next hour. But newcomers to the 2014 Series, Scotland’s TweedLove Festival and Chile’s Nevados de Chillan, broke all records, with the latter filling all 150 available spots in less than two minutes.
– Enduro World Series
This is quite astonishing. There we were, speculating about whether the spread of EWS events across various continents might affect participation numbers, and pretty much the entire series sells out before anyone’s even had a chance to blink. Mountain biking is a strong sport and the global enduro series proves just that.
2: Downhill racers like to play in the sunshine
Hard at work. Photo via Atherton Racing.
Everyone seems to be at it right now – upping sticks to somewhere sunny for winter training, that is. Half the UK downhill scene appears to have opted for Malaga, not least the Athertons and the entire GT Factory Racing clan who pitched up this week.
3: Weather news: it’s still winter in Scotland
Last weekend saw the first of the Scottish Enduro Series races take place in the somewhat optimistically selected (sissy southerner speaking) season opening venue of Fort William. Apparently it’s still winter in the Highlands, as this great wee roundup vid demonstrates.
Round 1 of the inaugural POC Scottish Enduro Series took place last weekend in a very wet and windy Fort William. Hardly surprising given that it is still winter, and this is the Highlands! But that didn’t deter 300 people from entering, making the 1st round at Nevis Range a sell-out.
– No Fuss Events
4: Brendan Fairclough on flat track racing
Unfortunately Brendan isn’t referring to Flat Track of the motorised variety. Brendog has strong opinions of the direction downhill racing is heading right now, and he ain’t scared to voice them in this vid.
5: YT’s Capra launched!
There’s been a lot of hype about this Capra project from YT Industries, and if our bike tester Steve Jones’ opinion of it is anything to go by, it’s with good reason. Read about it here (and yes, that is a goat turd on the front wheel – we’ve double-checked with Jones).
6: Sick Mick and Hutchinson UR winter training
The Hutchinson United Ride team has been sunning in South America, with Mick Hannah racing to top 5 results in both the Santos and Valparaiso rounds of the City Downhill World Tour series. Mick was joined by sister Tracey and teammates Fabien Cousinié and Guillaume Cauvin for the Valparaiso Cerro Abajo, but Tracey wasn’t allowed to race as there’s no women’s category… Apparently she still enjoyed it though. With the team ever-expanding and seemingly one of the teams with a real buzz and passion behind it, expect big things in 2014.
7: Greg Callaghan on Nukeproof Factory Enduro Team
Ex-Dirt team enduro racer Greg Callaghan has just signed up to race for Nukeproof in 2014. Great news for Greg and we wish him luck for the coming season.
After a great 2013 season, Greg joins Nukeproof with some serious results under his belt both on the national and international Enduro race circuit. Racing on the new Nukeproof Mega AM 275, Greg will be attending the Gravity Enduro Series in Ireland, the UK Gravity Enduro Series and most of the Enduro World Series for 2014.
– Nukeproof
8: Morzine summer opening dates
Each bubble will be equipped to carry 3 bikes, that’s a capacity of 900 bikes an hour.
– Source Magazine
OK, summer’s a fair way off, but with a little sunshine and signs of spring in the air it doesn’t hurt to dream. We’ve just seen rumour of Morzine’s brand spanking new bubble lift (replaces decrepit, kind of dangerous, but ‘distinctive’ old lift) opening on 14 June, according to Source Magazine.
9: FMB World Tour announces 2014 direction
Since its formation in 2010, the FMB (Freeride Mountain Bike) World Tour has done a hell of a lot to promote slopestyle and freeride events, and to advance the disciplines. It sounds like big plans are afoot for 2014 – read the full statement from FMB here.
So far the structure of the FMB World Tour has helped the sport progress and given a tangible world series for professional athletes to compete in. Now however, the time has come to take it to the next level, while ensuring the continuous transparency and the smooth running of the FMB World Tour.
– FMB World Tour
10: BMX news
Dakota Roche is, quite simply, ridiculously talented, and this is one of the best BMX edits to come out in a long while. How would his skills translate to big wheels?
11: Supercross news
Just in case you missed last week’s Supercross action.
