Author: Cris Bloomfield

Kelme and Domina Vacanze team have been dropped from this year’s cycling elite. Both teams had been threatened with being removed from the world’s top 30 for failing to meet International Cycling Union (UCI) rulings. Both Mario Cipolini’s Italian outfit and Vuelta d’Espana winners Kelme have been send down after failing to comply. They have until 15 January to meet the registration conditions to be a second-division squad. Roger Hammond’s Belgian Palmans Collstrop team and Spain’s Relax Bodysol benefited from the UCI’s decision and have been promoted to the top flight.

Canadian Dave Watson was announced winner of the Guardian Unlimited’s Sports Personality of the Year Award 2003, for his impressive Tour de France peloton jump in one of thois years mountain stages of the tour. Immediately after the jump, speculation regarding its authenticity was rife, but the release of MSP’s New World Disorder IV, Ride the Lightning, provided stunning evidence of a classic bit of freeriding. The third prize also went to a rider – Tour hardman, Tyler Hamilton.

Paola Pezzo has decided to return to the xc mountain bike scene in a bit to attempt to claim a thrid Olympic Gold medal. The decision was made during the World’s in Lugano, where she was a special guest and spectator. “I went to Lugano in September to see the World Championships. That’s where I told myself that I just couldn’t go to Athens to watch. The Olympics are possible, and I can do well. Nothing’s easy, but it wasn’t easy in Atlanta and Sydney either. It’s never easy.” More over at Dirt Rag.

Meanwhile some riders in California had an unexpected complication to a ride in the woods, when a mountain lion decided that one of them looked pretty tasty and tried to eat them. More here, but in all honesty, this story has been everywhere. What bandwagon?

I missed tonight’s Calderdale nightride. I’m a bit gutted, but I’ll get over it. This posting from mtbr.com, hints at the reason why people love night riding so much: “All I can say is a great ride with great friends really turned a bad day into a good one”. Read the full post here.

Long ago I used to frequent mtbr.com a lot more than I do now, it’s still a place to find fantastic photos like these and here stories from riders in different parts of the world. It shows just how the internet really does negate the geographical dstances between the mountain biking community.

This is the Finnish mountain biking forum that has generated a lot of traffic to rothar.com over the last few weeks. I don’t pretend to understand much of it, but there’s the occassional bit of English that’s recognisable.

And finally if you never read about any of Reed and Woody’s excellent adventures, they are still up here if you trawl through the postings.

The hardcore amongst us were out this morning. I was not. There’s a big difference between doing breakfast rides in summer compared to this time of year. The least of it is that I’d have another bike to clean or have dirty in the kitchen. The bigger issue is to do with getting up at 5 in the morning to go out and ride in the cold wet and dark south of Manchester.

There isn’t a winter Enduro race in Thetford this year, which is a shame because it’s a popular season starter. Fortunately local rider Slowjo has taken on responsibility for organising a bit of a ride in the woods anyway. There are details here and the provisional date is 9th May.

Barrie Clarke is a legend within the British mountain bike scene, probably best known for his over ten years service with the Raleigh team and numerous national championship titles. This is his website.

This news article brought a smile to my face. It’s good to see a small victory against the big companies. The current law on copyright is just not going to work.

Drink driving is just stupid. Stupid, like driving without wearing a seatbelt or whilst using a mobile phone. This is an example of the consequences, at least there was only damage to property, there could have been loss of life. What is it about Range Rover drivers?

I meant to add a link to this video in my last update. It’s a biggy, but the bike crash within caused much amusement to a shop full of customers at the weekend.

Following on from yesterday’s road news, rumours have been in cirulation for sometime, but Planet X have now confirmed that they will be forming a road racing team for the coming season based around Mark Lovatt, John Tanner and Kevin Dawson. The team will be supported by a small but tightly knit group of sponsors that will see them riding a new range of road bikes from On-One.

There is some great news for all of us in a recent report from MTB-Wales that heralds details of a new trail about to start construction that will encourage visitors to Betws-y-Coed to stay a bit longer:

Construction of a new mountain bike trail will soon begin in woodland at Penmachno close to Betws-y-Coed. The 32 km trail will cost £220,000 to build and should be finished in around 16 months. Click here for the full story.

Meanwhile Jon and the crew over at Just Riding Along have managed to get their mitts on one of the new Edge full sussers and have given it a write up. Click the link above to get the report and access a number of photos.

The first ride of the year today and a welcome return to the Gwydyr Forest above Betws-y-Coed. Thanks to Steve Makin and friends for the open invitation. Given the forecast we were exceptionally lucky with the weather and the excellent drainage on the Marin trail means it wasn’t a mudfest. Here’s a few pictures.

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Those are the words of team manager Fons Leroy, about his latest signing World Mountain Bike Champion Filip Meirhaeghe, who along with bronze medalist Roel Paulissen have signed contracts with the new Division III team Vlaanderen 2016, according to VRT Teletekst. Meirhaeghe, who rode for Domina Vacanze last year, will be the team’s top rider and will have the freedom to choose his own program this year. There’s more at cyclingnews.

The return of the British road racing scene? There are two new five day events on the horizon for 2004: Tour of Scotland (25-29th August) and Tour of Britain pro road race (1st-5th September). More news as and when.

For those wanting to know what’s happening on the mtb scene in terms of a US perspective, there’s a good review of recent events over at Mountain Bike Action.

There have been some issues with the site for those users still using Internet Explorer version 5x on there PC’s. Hopefully thanks to a rather useful solution this is no longer an issue.

This is the latest incarnation of rothar.com. Most changes have been cosmetic, hope you like the result. I’ve finaly written up my time in central Switzerland from a few years ago, you can find it in the escapism section . There’s been a few other little tweaks here and there too.

The link between mountain bikers and the environment is never far from thought esppecially when you’re out there in the countryside. The idea is investigated a bit further in this dirtrag article from Philip Keyes. “The Church of Rotating Mass”, what do you make of that? Maybe its a code by which many cyclists already live, others like Gaansari Cycles‘ Gary Boulanger still like a more traditional approach. It’s a big world and there’s room for all views.

On a similar note you may have heard about “Critical Mass” events in various cities around the world, well what’s it all about? The name “Critical Mass” is taken from Ted White’s 1992 documentary film about bicycling, “Return of the Scorcher“. In the film, George Bliss describes a typical scene in China, where cyclists often cannot cross intersections because there is automobile cross-traffic and no traffic lights.

Slowly, more and more cyclists amass waiting to cross the road, and when there is a sufficient number of them — a critical mass, as Bliss called it — they are able to all move together with the force of their numbers to make cross traffic yield while they cross the road. Critical Mass has a very different flavor from city to city; there’s a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. If you want to know more about Critical Mass, find out what your local ride is.

Snow reports for this season are looking good, here’s the latest from the American East coast, which can be best described as epic. Whiteface, New York, has an 85-inch base, Jay Peak, Vermont, just scored a dump of more than 40 inches and Sugarloaf, Maine has a base of 62 inches. The snow keeps coming and the East keeps ruling it. Can you say, “White Christmas”? More at Freeskier.

Jimbo from sussex-mtb has been in touch and there’s now a link to the ‘site in the left hand column of the main page. Happy New Year.

Given what’s ahead over the next few days, this is likely to be the last post of the year and it’s been one hell of the year. There’s been travelling – two weeks in Switzerland, a week in Andorra and a week both Guernsey and Jersey. I’ve been riding in new parts of the country and have plans for more rides in more new areas next year. There’s been racing, albeit a bit of a disastrous one and riding with friends. All that and I’ve revisited some of my favourite routes.

Anyway here’s to good riding, good weather and good fortunes in the New Year.

There’ve been changes at work too and I think that we’ve been lucky enough to secure the services of a certain person known as sexmidget. Do the droid and the sexmidget have anything in common other than a penchant for singlespeeds and a shared surname?

The mountain bike website bandwagon is continuing to attract newbies. It’s a lot of work, a big time commitment and requires a certain element of dedication. Good luck to anyone giving it a shot. Anyway here’s a couple of the latest: Bikesandpies and the infamous Moonshine Bikes.

The second of the Revolution series isn’t too far off now and this is the latest on what to expect:

From: British Cycling
Subject: Revolution 2

The second event in the new Revolution Track Racing Series, brought to you by Face Partnership, British Cycling and the Manchester Velodrome, will take place on the 24th January at the Manchester Velodrome. Following the enormous success of Revolution 1, which attracted over 3000 spectators, the second Revolution will offer another great night of track racing.

Revolution 2 will focus on endurance races in the absence of the World Class Performance Sprinters (currently in Australia) who will be racing at Revolution 3 on 28th February. There will, however, be some sprint action with a Keirin competition squeezed in alongside Points, Scratch and Devil Endurance races. New for Revolution 2 will be a 1500m Time Trial, 1km Madison Time Trial and a 3km Derny Paced Pursuit.

A team sprint competition will also boost the action in the Future Stars racing, which proved just as popular as the elite races at Revolution 1. With several top British track riders now confirmed including Chris Newton, Rob Hayles, Paul Manning, Bryan Steel, Malcolm Elliott and Tony Gibb who is currently winning in South Africa, top quality racing will be guaranteed.

Final negotiations are underway to bring some international names to challenge our British boys so keep posted on http://www.cyclingrevolution.com. for more news. For full event information or to purchase advance tickets please visit the website. Alternatively call the information line on 0700 594 2579 (lines open between 9am and 6pm Monday to Saturday).

Finally there’s a refined version of the site in the bag that’ll be appearing in the New Year after I take the deco’s down. After a long wait, there are some new pictures of the FSR up in the bikeshed section.

Sending Christmas cards is a good way to keep in touch with people, but it always reminds you how long it’s been since you heard from them last. More often than not it’s been too long.

This is a link to the Park Tools website. Park make some of the best tools on the market. It’s just a shame their blue plastic tyre levers are crap. They bend, they snap and are generally far from the optimum tyre removing tool. They are however better than forks. So as everything else from Park passes testing, it gets the workshop seal of approval and is awarded a permanent link under the kit section.

Prompting alsorts of possibilities in terms of crap jokes based upon song titles, rockstar, Jon Bon Jovi, is to raise the profile of his sponsorship of a US-based Pro mtb team. Team West Virginia/Bon Jovi, will compete in state, regional and NCS races in 2004. There’s more over at MBAction.

“Silver cars are much less likely to be involved in a serious crash than cars of other colours, suggests a new study of over 1000 cars.

People driving in silver cars were 50 per cent less likely to suffer serious injury in a crash compared with drivers of white cars, the research in New Zealand found.

White, yellow, grey, red and blue cars carried about the same risk of injury. But those taking to the roads in black, brown or green cars were twice as likely to suffer a crash with serious injury”. More over at New Scientist.

Armstrong is now talking about riding the next two tours.

Campagnolo’s winter clothing line gets a quick preview over at Cyclingnews and Chris Currie talks about standardisation within the bike indutry over at Dirt Rag.

The Mountain bike market it seems is far from saturated and far from stagnant. There are still plenty of new bikes and brands developing within the market, most targeting niche markets where the bigger companies are less prepared to take potentially big risks.

Here’s a few of them, two British and one Canadian. First up On-One who have been around for some time and have a bit of an elite following in the Singlespeed sector of the market are planning a new range of bikes including this aluminium hardtail frame, a cyclo-cross bike for next season and possibly a long-travel inbred.

Then there’s Sheffield based Edge Bikes who have been making a name for themselves in the UK downhill scene producing bikes that have carried champions to the podium in this years racing. They do a range of bikes from full on downhill bikes through to lightweight full bounce cross country bikes designed to cope with the British winter.

Finally, there’s the Canadian based Knolly Bikes, the brain-child of Noel Buckley, who spent two years out of action with a broken arm designing a no-compromise, six inch plus travel freeride bike. Interesting use of a double linkage, which seems (in someways) similar to Specialized’s Demo 9, but in other ways completely different. Pinkbike have more news.

For those with a passion for fixed gear Singlespeeds, Hub Jub is there to meet your one speed gear requirements, offering a fine range of hubs and freewheels.

And if that’s not enough have a look at Dave’s Beer/Bike Ratio Training Plan.

I’m out of practice. I’ve forgotten some of the elements that make-up the ritual that is winter riding. When I first arrived in the Northwest, I was out riding pretty much every weekend and it was a steep learning curve as the weather worsened, as to exactly what kit you need to take with you.

You need more food than normal because you’re burning calories to keep you warm and to keep you moving, that and you need clothing to keep the elements out. Those are the easy things to get right apparently, the hard things it turned out today are remembering to take a spare set of warm gloves, dry woolly socks and a beanie to keep you toasty while you’re waiting to get the train home.

I borrowed the Epic Comp Disc demo bike for the day from Harry Halls and rode the Macclesfield Forest route suggested by NBT from IMBA UK. The weather was supposed to be good, but wasn’t. After the summer we’ve had I have absolutely no grounds to make complaints and had already decided I was going riding whatever the elements had to offer.

Intelligent suspension bike:
Forunately the none-demo models come in a more subtle shade of gray

Before the launch Specialized were very secretive about this bike. Afetre the launch there was a lot of press coverage and interest. During the test the Epic lived up to the hype. It’s a capable and a very suitable bike for racing and most UK off-road routes. It’s intelligent lockout turns the bike into a hardtail as soon as the terrain smooths out, but when you get to the off road stuff it seems like there is a lot more than the three inches of rear wheel travel.

With lockout on the forks too, it was easy to get the power down and motor the road sections, without feeling like you were carrying extra weight or that you were loosing power through the suspension. For the majority of UK rides it’s necessary to link in road routes to get to the next offroad section, so the ability to make this bike rigid is a great advantage.

I was a bit sceptical about exactly how well the ‘brain’ would work, but like many people who have ridden these revolutionary nikes, I am now convinced by the design. It works brilliantly. The rest of the finishing kit reflects good value for money. I still dislike the current wave of Specialized grips, they’re too small and not at all comfortable for my big hands, but this years new Telluride saddle is a big improvement over last years body geometry razor bladesque offering.

The rest of the gear is good stuff with a mix of Shimano XTR and LX for gearing duties, sure stopping hydralic shimano discs and a great set of light weight and strong wheels shod with Roll X rubber. In all this is a very capable and dynamic bike, possibly the ideal bike for a person wanting one do it all offroader.

Anyway I took a few pictures, but given the weather they were never going to be much to write home about. There are a couple more up in the wallpaper section now.

I’ve been meaning to link the following website for some time but never seem to get around to it. This is the old skool track website about people riding fixed gear track bikes in cities. If that’s you they want to hear from you.