Mountain

Pedro's new portable tool does many things, including paying tribute to one of cycling's early innovators by being, well, innovative. Singletrack.com talks to the guy who brought it to life.

“Lance in Leadville” has a nice ring to it. The high altitude, 100-mile fire-road-heavy mountain bike race looks like an MTB event made in heaven for the Aspen-dwelling Texan. But seeing the man himself astride a mountain bike is still a touch odd, after his chiseled visage has been photographed for so long on road bikes.

Depending on how you look at it, Manuel Prado came within one and a half minutes, or 35 minutes, of the win at last year's Leadville Trail 100. By the time Prado (Sho-Air-Specialized) crossed the line in downtown Leadville, race winner Wiens and second-placed Lance Armstrong had finished their post-race interviews and were looking for a ride home. But Prado's third place was a lot closer and a lot more impressive than it seemed.

Trek, Lance Armstrong's bike sponsor, has sent a squad to Saturday's Leadville 100 to drive the pace with the goal of setting a course record.

Lance Armstrong is hoping a strong field will help deliver him to a victory in record time at this Saturday's Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado. The Astana rider told VeloNews Thursday that while he hasn't recruited a team for the race, his sponsor Trek has sent a squad to Leadville, including former pro Travis Brown. Armstrong is looking to them and to other top riders to drive the pace in the first 45 miles or so of the out-and-back course.

Dave Wiens dropped Lance Armstrong in the last ten miles of last year's Leadville 100, and cranked in to the finish in downtown Leadville with Armstrong breathing down his neck. Making it worse was the creepy sensation of a squishy rear tire, which nursed into the finish. When he crossed the line less than two minutes ahead of Armstrong he was almost riding on the rim.

New Anthem X Advanced SL gets lighter while the Trance X Advanced SL goes carbon.

As of Friday evening, The National Weather Service is calling for a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon Saturday in Leadville, and race organizers and racers are bracing for a possible wet finish to the race, which starts at 6:30 a.m. Earlier int he week the forecast was for a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday, and it rained off and on in Leadville Friday. Organizers are now hoping that many amateur riders can finish before the rain arrives. "I think God doesn't like slow mountain bike riders," said Ken Chlouber, the race director.

Discounts on Syncros products going to IMBA members and volunteers for creating, enhancing and preserving mountain bike trails.

Take a look at the fabulous flying machines and the folks flingin' them around up in Winter Park, Colorado.

Maybe the best part of riding in Winter Park is that once there you won't need a car to access some 600 miles of trails - yes, 600 miles.

With three of five series events complete, Kain Leonard and Darian Harvey lead the first-ever Pro Gravity Tour.

One of the ways members of the Dave Matthews Band are trying to reduce carbon output is by riding their bikes while on tour. To that end, the band has teamed up with Specialized Bicycles for rest, recreation and fan education.

Geoff Kabush and Catharine Prendel, Canada's XC national champs, score wins in Kenda Cup East/PROXCT event Saturday at Mount Snow, Vermont. Kabush repeats win in Sunday short-track race while Katerina Nash makes up for XC showing.

The best thing about mountain biking in Park City is the accessibility of both beginner and expert trails in the area - 350 miles of 'em. Go forth and conquer.

Crankworx Colorado hosts 1,100 athletes in five disciplines over the course of four days. Record number of riders in WP's bike park, too.

The Intermontane Challenge wrapped up last week in Kamloops, British Columbia with a 30-kilometer time trial, providing a chance for Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz-WTB-FOX) and Sue Butler (MonaVie-Cannondale) to cement their overall wins in the week-long stage race.

Although still in its late prototype phase, the Ibis 160 mm Mojo HD has already been ridden to victory by Brian Lopes at the recent Enduro Trophy des Nations in Vars, France.

Classic East Coast singletrack gets even better with the unveiling of new cross country courses August 7-9 at the US Kenda Cup East, USA Cycling's Pro XCT Tour in Vermont.

Sturgis ain't just for the hogs. Yes, South Dakota's Black Hills are the home of a huge Harleyfest, but they also boast sweet singletrack and feature festivities for the fat-tire set.

This is one tallboy you can't guzzle, but Santa Cruz's venture into the world of 29ers with the carbon Tallboy is sure to instill a buzz.

Rain and mud can't keep Geoff Kabush and Lene Byberg from admiring their first World Cup wins. Julien Absalon retains overall series lead.

Stage 4 of the Intermontane Challenge coincided with Benjamin Sonntag’s birthday, but for him it will be most memorable for a trip to the emergency room in Kamloops, British Columbia. Or maybe not — the MonaVie-Cannondale rider lost consciousness for several minutes and doesn’t remember anything until he was stabilized at the ER. But Chris Sheppard remembers. The Santa Cruz-WTB-Fox rider, who won stage 4 and took the race leader’s jersey, was off the front with Sonntag when the crash occurred.

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup racing heads west to Bromont, Quebec, after a wet weekend in Mont Saint-Anne, where upsets in the men’s downhill and women’s cross-country rankings renew competition heading into this weekend’s round. Sam Hill (Monster-Specialized) ousted Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate), who suffered a crash last weekend, from the number one spot, while LUNA’s Catharine Pendrel outranked Elisabeth Osl (Central Ghost) thanks to a commanding win at Mont Saint-Anne.

After the successful stage 2 of the Intermontane Challenge in Kamloops, British Columbia, the event suffered a significant setback on day three. A last-minute course change, forced by a suddenly uncooperative local resident, kicked off a disastrous sequence of events that lead to multiple miscues on the course and the day’s results being nullified.

For the past few seasons Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski's carbon Superfly 29er has hovered around the 21- to 22-pound mark, a respectable weight for an extra large bike with large diameter wheels. But tech breakthroughs have the rig now under 20 pounds.

It wasn't this way for all of us, but for race leader Jeremiah Bishop, the 65km second stage of the Intermontane Challenge in Kamloops, British Columbia, unfolded in much the same formula as stage 1: a neutral rollout through town, followed by roughly an hour of dusty desert riding, an hour in the forest above town, and a third, final hour weaving through sagebrush on the way to the finish line back in town.

If the podiums at the recent Mountain Bike Nationals in Granby, Colorado, are any indication, the hardtail 26-incher may soon be going the way of thumbshifters and beartrap pedals. The elite podiums in Granby were dominated by 29ers (both hardtail and full-suspension) and full-suspension 26ers.

Adding to the list of mountain bike stage races dotting this year’s off-road racing calendar is the inaugural Intermontane Challenge, which begins today. The five-day race starts and ends in Kamloops, British Columbia; in fact, every stage starts and ends in the town, making the event logistically simple for organizers and athletes alike. Promoters have enhanced the event’s appeal further by offering $10,000 Canadian each to the winners of the men’s and women’s solo categories.

Rain changed things for mountain bikers in the Northeast this season. Nearly 30 days of stormy weather in May and June altered trails and canceled frequent riding plans and, while sunnier skies are shining in Quebec for this weekend’s UCI World Cup Mountain Bike races, changes in the riding surface caused by moisture could be a blessing to some, a curse to others.

Altitude specialist Josh Tostado (Santa Cruz-Bach Builders) defended his title at the 2009 Breckenridge 100 cross-country race, held July 18 in Colorado. Tostado spent the majority of the 100-mile race battling with Trek rider Jeff Schalk before finally pulling away in the waning miles to win by 11 minutes.   Tostado finished the race in 8:33:50.  “We were together the whole day pacing each other, it was good to have (Schalk) there to challenge me,” Tostado said. “I needed every advantage to beat that guy. On the flats and the roads was where I’d get worked.” 

The 2009 men’s podium at Mountain Bike Nationals at SolVista Resort in Granby, Colorado, looked like this: First place: Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Gary Fisher SuperFly 29er; Second place: Adam Craig, Giant Anthem X Advanced full suspension; Third: Sam Schultz, Gary Fisher SuperFly 29er; Fourth: Jeremiah Bishop, Cannondale Scalpel full suspension; Fifth: Jay Henry, Gary Fisher SuperFly 29er.

Subaru-Gary Fisher team rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski began his mountain bike racing career in Winter Park, Colorado, just south of the SolVista Resort, the site of the 2009 and 2010 Mountain Bike National Championships. For all intents it’s a home course for JHK and his wife, fellow Subaru-Gary Fisher racer, Heather Irmiger, who each took home national cross-country titles this weekend.

Katie Compton has the legs. Heather Irmiger has the lungs. Mary McConneloug owns the technical skills and Georgia Gould has the speed.   Each of these four racers brings a unique set of skills into this weekend’s USA Cycling national cross-country championships, held at Sol Vista resort in Granby, Colorado. The four sit atop the list of favorites to win Saturday’s cross-country race, which awards one year of bragging rights to the victor.  So who is the absolute favorite to win? 

Think the BC Bike Race is the easy Epic mountain bike race? Think again.

Katie Compton has the legs. Heather Irmiger has the lungs. Mary McConneloug owns the technical skills and Georgia Gould has the speed.

Less than one month after taking the marathon cross-country national championship race, held at the Firecracker 50 race in Breckenridge, Colorado, Horgan-Kobelski comes into this weekend's USA Cycling mountain bike national championships in nearby Granby as the odds-on favorite to win.

Organizers of the new Sho Air-Specialized US Cup and USA Cycling’s Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT) have canceled the final race of each respective series, the Series Shootout cross-country race. The event was supposed to be held Sunday, September 26 at Bootleg Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas, the day after the Las Vegas Interbike trade show closed.

Organizers of the new Sho Air-Specialized US Cup and USA Cycling's Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT) have canceled the final race of each respective series, the Series Shootout cross-country race. The event was supposed to be held September 26 at Bootleg Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas, and run during the Interbike trade show.

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski is making room in his closet for another stars and stripes jersey. Maybe two.   Less than one month after taking the marathon cross-country national championship race, held at the Firecracker 50 race in Breckenridge, Colorado, Horgan-Kobelski comes into this weekend’s USA Cycling mountain bike national championships in nearby Granby as the odds-on favorite to win.  

Geoff Kabush and Catherine Pendrel will wear the red maple leaf jersey for the next 12 months after winning the Canadian national cross-country championships Saturday at St-Felicien, Quebec. The winding course, which hosted a round of the UCI World Cup in 2007, was soaked by an afternoon of rain.

Gasps for air and the occasional clank of mountain bikes were the only sounds heard during the 45-minute hike-a-bike up the final pitch of the Wheeler Loop to the top of Breckenridge ski area. The steep section of the Colorado Trail, which on Thursday hosted the fifth stage of the inaugural Breck Epic stage race, soared from tree line to 12,400 feet. The trail was too narrow and steep for most riders to pedal, so they queued up to push their bikes. And in the thin Colorado air, deep breathing quickly turned to gasps.

It was another fabulous day on the trail in the inaugural Breck Epic. Today’s race course was another Colorado classic. Lung-busting climbs, ripping singletrack and spectacular views. Early in the race there was a train of us absolutely hammering a smooth, rolling section of trail and I thought to myself, 'this is way too much fun.' Then, of course, we hit the first climb. Then I thought to myself, 'this way too painful.'

Day two of the Breck Epic is in the books and indeed it was epic. It wasn’t epic in the sense that it was one of those gnarly all-day rides where you are so spent at the end you can barely muster up enough energy to take a shower. It was epic in that the course was absolutely spectacular.

For those of you who have read my Chocolate, Waffles and Cross journals from cyclocross seasons past, this is a little out of character for me. Let’s just call it base training for cyclocross season. A while back I caught wind of the inaugural Breck Epic, a six-day ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race held in the sprawling backcountry of Breckenridge, Colorado, and thought it sounded like a good time.

Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard left no doubt as to who owned the strongest set of legs at the 2009 BC Bike Race, winning the final day into Whistler to clinch the race's overall prize. The two Canadians attacked the field on the day's opening fire road climb and never looked back, finishing clear of the second-place Monavie-Cannondale squad of Matt Shriver and Ben Sonntag to take their fourth stage of the 2009 race. "We wanted to do it up in style," McGrath told VeloNews. "Me and (Sheppard) are the grizzly old veterans at this race. We wanted to put it to the young guys."

Chris Sheppard and Seamus McGrath stamped their authority on this year’s BC Bike Race, winning the sixth stage and putting nearly seven minutes into their chief rivals, the Kona duo of Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon. The two Canadians attacked from the gun in the 65km stage, which strung together a loop around the town of Squamish, and never looked back. The course included sections of the Gear Jammer and Test of Metal cross-country races.

For most Americans, the Fourth of July is associated with flags, fireworks, parades, and independence from another English speaking country. For the 750 registered racers of the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race in Breckenridge, Colorado, the Fourth of July will represent four to seven (the time limit) hours of exhausting singletrack followed by all those things that normal Americans do on this holiday.

The fifth day of the 2009 BC Bike Race saw riders tackle a 47-kilometer trek along British Columbia's Sunshine Coast from the town of Sechelt to the ferry landing at Langdale. The day's primary feature was a 45-minute descent on the famed Highway 102 South trail, which plunged down nearly 2000 vertical feet, and took most riders the better part of an hour to navigate.

The fifth day of the 2009 BC Bike Race saw a sizable line of riders queue up outside the Obsession Bikes bike maintenance tent at the finish line in Langdale. After five days of racing, the wrenches-for-hire had seen just about every mechanical calamity known in the world of mountain bike maintenance. Since day one, the business has attacked between 60-70 bikes a night, often times working on the rigs into the wee hours of the morning.

It seemed fitting that Wednesday's fourth stage of the 2009 BC Bike Race fell on Canada Day, as Stage 4 exposed the 400 or so racers to more of Canada than any day other of this year’s race.

East Burke, Vermont, is the singletrack capital of New England. The tiny town — which is closer to Montreal than to any major American city — has a 100-mile-plus trail system that includes a wide variety of super sweet, narrow, twisty trails.

Jason Hill and Peter Butt rolled out of their tent at 6 a.m. to see the sun slowly rising over the snow speckled peaks on the western coast of British Columbia. Hill and Butt — two of the 400 or so riders competing in this year’s BC Bike Race — had endured a restless night in the tent village, situated alongside the beach in the small town of Parksville. The wind howled for most of the night, and Hill, who had forgotten his sleeping bag at his home in Anchorage, Alaska, was using a store-bought fleece liner as a blanket.

The second day of the 2009 BC Bike Race saw 400 riders depart mainland British Columbia and take an hour-long ferry boat ride to the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver island. The day's course featured 65 kilometers from Nanaimo to the beach town of Parksville, and was designed by Nanaimo resident Norman Thibault, who is the husband of World Cup racer Wendy Simms. The overwhelming majority of the trek was on tight, winding singletrack through the dense island forest. Riders ended their day in the BC Bike Race's tent city along the coastline in Parksville.

Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon of the Kona team came into the 2009 BC Bike Race with the recognition and confidence that follows all defending champions. In 2008 the duo proved to have had the strongest legs and best technical skills over the course of last-year’s seven-day race, which started in Victoria and finished in Whistler. This year, Wicks and Sneddon have been forced to play catch up — the duo finished second in both the first and second stages of the BC Bike Race to motivated Canadian riders Seamus McGrath (Jamis) and Chris Sheppard (Santa Cruz).

The 2009 BC Bike Race wasted little time in pushing its 400 or so competitors into the deep end. Just 7km into Sunday’s opening stage, a 28km loop around North Vancouver, riders took an abrupt left turn onto a steep, super-technical trail named Severed Dick. It was appropriate that British Columbia’s downhill/freeride legend Wade Simmons stood atop the trail, clad in a red volunteer T-shirt, pointing riders down the root-covered chute.?

Chris Sheppard and Seamus McGrath (Santa Cruz-Jamis) made good on their pre-race promise to “go for glory” at the 2009 BC Bike Race. One year after failing to finish due to a mechanical, the Canadians steamrolled to victory in Sunday’s 28km opening stage ahead of last year’s champs, Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon (Kona). “We thought we would ride pretty conservative and just get through the first day,” said Sheppard. “I hadn’t ridden some of these trails since 2000 or 2001.”

Each year the BC Bike Race attracts a handful of elite cross-country racers to challenge themselves on the singletrack during the seven-day journey from Vancouver to Whistler. In 2007 Trek’s endurance racers Jeff Schalk and Chris Eatough proved to be the heaviest hitters, controlling the race virtually from start to finish. Last year World Cup riders Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon (Kona) had the strongest legs, and faced off against a larger smattering of pro riders, Eatough and Schalk included.

It’s impossible to escape the buzz of sports chatter these days in the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia. The city is 200 days out from hosting the 2010 winter games, and Olympics is on the lips of nearly everyone. Olympic-related stories dot the local paper, the Vancouver Sun and are the topic of choice on local radio stations. It’s within this community that the BC Bike Race starts its third edition. Needless to say, the race isn’t generating nearly the hype of the approaching Olympics. That’s not a bad thing, so said race director Dean Payne.

You needn't ride too far from Andreas Hestler’s house in North Vancouver to reach the long, rocky descent for stage 1 of this year’s BC Bike Race. The trail is called “Pipeline,” as it runs along a gas pipe from atop a pine-covered mountain all the way to the waterline of the Burrard Inlet. The trail is steep and laden with obstacles. Rock-covered drop offs and slippery roots abound. Riders making the descent must squeeze in between huge trees and navigate long, narrow wooden structures. There are countless sections that are unquestionably scary.

The Utah-based Monavie-Cannondale professional mountain bike team is prepping for a busy July racing schedule chock-full of single- and multi-day cross-country races. Topping the list is USA Cycling's marathon national championships on July 4, the June 28-July 4 BC Bike Race and Colorado's July 5-10 Breck Epic. "This is busy season for us," said team manager Matt Ohran. "Epic racing around the world is our team's tagline, and we have to live up to that."

The Sho Air-Specialized U.S. Cup East/West Shootout race, held on the final day of the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, will not see a change in its September 26 date. The news comes after series organizers attempted to shift the race date to the afternoon of Tuesday, September 22. The proposed date change was meant to see the event, which is also the USA Cycling Pro Cross-country Tour (ProXCT) finals, run in conjunction with the final day of the popular Outdoor Demo at Bootleg Canyon.

The 2010 UCI mountain bike World Cup will open on April 24 at Dalby Forest in Great Britain, a new venue for the sport’s premier series. The event will include only cross-country racing, and is aimed at promoting the sport in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics in London.   “The idea was to take the cross-country away from Fort William (Scotland) but leave the downhill and four-cross there, then bring (the cross-country) in England so the local media could latch onto it,” said Simon Burney, a technical delegate with the UCI.  

It’s not everyday that domestic riders get to unveil a World Cup course. But with last week’s announcement that New York’s Windham Mountain will host the 2010 World Cup Finals, this weekend’s previously scheduled Gravity East at Windham Mountain takes on an elevated profile as racers will inaugurate Windham’s new Downhill and four-cross tracks. 

Giant Factory Team rider Adam Craig won the 2008 national championship cross-country race in Mount Snow, Vermont, using a single 35-tooth chainring and half of MRP’s System 3 Carbon downhill chainguide. That race underscored his and other top cross-country racers’ commitment to leave behind multiple front chainrings for a light and simple single-ring solution.

La Ruta de los Conquistadores, the Costa Rican race organizers call the “World’s Toughest Mountain Bike Race,” is facing nearly $180,000 in debt and a complete reshuffling of its upper management. The financial and managerial storm centers on a dispute between race owner Roman Urbina and former director Luis Diego Viquez, whom Urbina fired three weeks ago. Both parties told VeloNews that their only concern now is that the race survives the crisis.

Windham Resort, a small ski area located 140 miles north of New York City, will host the final round of the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup on August 28-29. The race will include the big three of World Cup racing: cross-country, downhill and Four-cross. The event marks the first mountain bike World Cup to be held on American soil since 2005, when Angel Fire resort in New Mexico hosted a round of off-road racing’s premier series.

The 2009 American Mountain Classic stage race has been canceled, although promoters hope to resurrect the event as soon as next year. Organizer Tom Spiegel of Team Big Bear, said the five-day mountain bike stage race was scheduled for August 20-24 in Brian Head, Utah. Spiegel said the race suffered from low pre-registration numbers, a fact he suggested was due to the current economic climate.

Former world downhill champion Melissa “Missy” Giove and two alleged co-conspirators were arrested in New York Tuesday, charged with plans to distribute some 400 pounds of marijuana. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested the 37-year-old Giove, 26-year-old Tamara Geagly and 30-year-old Eric Canori north of Saratoga Springs, New York. Earlier unconfirmed reports that investigators had also seized some $2 million in cash appear to have been inaccurate.

USA Cycling’s Professional Cross-country Tour (ProXCT) resumes this Friday in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the Carmichael Training Systems Sand Creek International. The Friday-Saturday event includes short track and cross-country competition between the continent’s top off-road racers, as well as age-group cross-country races in the amateur ranks. The event is the fourth round of the Pro XCT and the sixth round of the Kenda Cup West, the west coast wing of the Sho Air-Specialized U.S. Cup of mountain bike racing.

Jeremiah Bishop (Monavie-Cannondale) and Jamie Dinkins (Motor Mile Racing) won Virginia’s Massanutten HooHa! cross-country race on June 7. The event was the third race of the Kenda Cup East, the east coast wing of the ShoAir-Specialized U.S. Cup of mountain bike racing, and was held at Massanutten Resort. The Massanutten race was a hometown event for Bishop, who hails from nearby Harrisonburg and trains extensively on the resort’s network of trails. The hilly area sits in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.

The Wisconsin Off Road Series is shaping up to be a three-way battle for the top spot between brothers Jesse and Mark Lalonde and Sheboygan racer Brian Matter. A Triple Crown winner in 2004 and cyclocross world championship team member last winter, Matter (Gear Grinder) powered to the top spot this Sunday at the WORS Big Ring Classic in Wausau, Wisconsin.

You’ve heard the rumors about SRAM XX. There’s been speculation about how many speeds it would have, what gear combinations would be available, how light it would be and what it would be made of. Now we have all the answers. XX is SRAM’s first complete off-road group, featuring an industry-first 10-speed mountain bike cassette and the first double-ring crankset from a major group manufacturer.