It’s competition time folks and we have 10 Dare 2b Clampdown jackets, which are lightweight, breathable and packed full of features, to give away to the lucky winners! 

You could win one of these fantastic Dare 2b Clampdown jackets!

Here are the details of the Clampdown jacket from Dare 2b, which retails at £100.00:

“The Clampdown Jacket provides performance protection for walking, cycling and running in wet conditions. Lightweight, durable and simple in design, the four way stretch jacket is both waterproof and breathable. Articulated sleeves, cuff adjustors and underarm ventilation zips allow complete ease of movement whatever the activity. A taffeta and mesh lining gives next-to-skin comfort and the fully adjustable wire peaked hood makes sure you get visibility when you need it the most. The jacket boasts multiple pockets with waterproof zip fastenings, including an internal pocket with MP3 port.”

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is answer this question:

[competition_20]

Closing date for this competition is Wednesday 24th April so get yourself entered to be in with a chance of winning a quality jacket from Dare 2b! Good luck.

TERMS & CONDITIONS: By entering you are agreeing to receive details of future offers and promotions from Factory Media and related third parties. This competition will close on April 24th, 2013.

PERSONAL STATEMENT: By entering I also confirm I have read and accept the terms & conditions of the prize draw, competition rules and privacy policy.

From Red Bull:

We follow Danny to Newport Beach in California, where he tries to identify and remedy a problem that not only threatens the project but his career as a rider.

Under the watchful guidance of Red Bull UK’s Head of High Performance Darren Roberts, Danny trains with world renowned mountain bike siblings ‘The Athertons’ and meets trials bike pioneer and one of Danny’s heroes Hans Rey, “I definitely see Hans as a role model, it’s good to talk to him about injuries and see how you can make a comeback.”

Regular Gym work and physiotherapy may heal the injury over time, but it is only when Danny visits spine surgeon Dr. Robert Bray at the D.I.S.C facility that he finds a solution to combat the problem without restrictions, but at what price?

#SuperEnduro2013 – PRO1 Sestri Levante – Highlights from Superenduro TV on Vimeo.

Name: Justin Leov
Nickname: Jusso
Date of Birth: 20.10.84
Current Team: Trek World Racing
Bike: Trek Session 9.9 Carbon DH
Height (cm): 180
Weight (kg): 79
Homepage: www.justinleov.com
Residence: Christchurch, New Zealand

www.trekworldracing.com

Today saw the entrants practising the stages and then race in a ‘prologue’ stage, which was essentially a short urban sprint around the alleyways, down some steps and even along a section of beach. This pre-cursor to the main attraction is a staple at the Superenduro series races and does a great job of bringing in the crowds and showcasing the sport.

We’ll have a full report after the race tomorrow but for now here are some photos from today by Ben Winder:

The people of Superenduro subject 1: Giulio from Endura Italy. Loving the trails and enjoying hanging out at the event.
Photo © Ben Winder

The people of Superenduro subject 2: Simon from SRAM. Loving the downhills and his brand new pimped-out Specialized 29er.
Photo © Ben Winder

The people of Superenduro subject 3: Manuel and Valentina of Life Cycle. These guys have helped us get to the race – thanks! They are happy and smiling as ever. Look out for top results tomorrow – they were both top 5 in the prologue.
Photo © Ben Winder

Follow the signs for pain. And great trails once you’ve made it to the top.
Photo © Ben Winder

Sestri Levante’s trails range from flowing to technical to high speeds through open rock gardens above the sea… Quite some place and with a great atmosphere to boot.
Photo © Ben Winder

Teaboys on tour. Ali Todd (pictured) and Ben Winder (pictures) are here in Italy to expand their pizza-based horizons and to help with the testing of bikes.
Photo © Ben Winder

This is a fantastically well run series with all the infrastructure in place to allow further growth.
Photo © Ben Winder

Plenty of spectators turned up to watch the high speed racing through the streets this evening.
Photo © Ben Winder

The prologue stage was fast, short and a leg burner.
Photo © Ben Winder

Keeping it upright on the shiny cobbles wasn’t an easy task and more than one rider overcooked it big time. This rider got through clean and fast though.
Photo © Ben Winder

Oh Italy… We’re feeling quite lucky to be here.
Photo © Ben Winder

Just another day at the Superenduro. These events are open to all and we’ve seen everything from a carbon 29er hardtail to 180mm travel freeride bikes today, with riders ranging equally as much in shape and size. Get yourself entered and make one of these events a holiday to remember, go on!
Photo © Ben Winder

Check out the Superenduro website for more information and plenty of videos and photos.

Great scenery, although with the weather this weekend you might not be able to appreciate it! We reckon it’ll be a fun weekend of racing with plenty of atmosphere even if it does rain.

The organisers have just sent over this press release about the event, read it and get yourself signed up for an event that is sure to kick the winter cobwebs out!

Here’s the information from the organisers: 

THE SCHWALBE MTB MARATHON AND SPORTIVE SERIES 2013

We are just about to head out to the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells to set up the event village for the 1^st round of the 2013 series (13^th and 14^th April) of the Schwalbe MTB Marathon Series powered byMercedes-Benz Vito Sport. Before the event officially opens we thought we would let you know how things are looking there.

The Riding 

Course designer John Lloyd has been super busy over the last few weeks and months (not shying away from lots of rides in the snow either) and has created some fantastic new courses for the 2013 opener. To start with the first half of the 70km route is completely different to the course we have used in the past. John has been working hard on his bike looking for new trails and has come up with some great sections of single-track across a new hill, previously never used in a marathon.

The 70km riders re-join the others at Fforest Fields before going up onto Aberedw Hill, using the best of the old and yet more new single-track sections.

The Exposure Lights Big Night Out night pilots will also be presented with an almost entirely new course with a new and very exciting finish.

And to top it all off John has given the courses the ‘weather proof’ once over.

As always there will be well stocked feed stations at regular intervals out on course and Cycle-tec will be providing mechanic services out on course and at the venue.

Get yourself entered into the event, go on!

Can I still get in? Entry on the day? 

There are still places available for the Builth Wells round as well as the other remaining rounds of the Schwalbe MTB Marathon Series 2013. You can still enter pre-enter via the online entry up to the 11^th April. Pre-entry will close then.

For further details on the Exposure Lights Big Night Out Night Marathon and for the Spring Marathon please go to the Builth Wells event page or go to the course detail page for the vital statistics of the weekend. To enter go straight to the entry page.

If you can’t make up your mind then you can also enter at the event. 

Registration and start times

The registration, camping, event village, parking as well as start/finish is all based at the Royal Welsh Showground – postcode LD2 3SY. The showground has all the mod cons, showers, proper toilets, tarmac to park on, unfortunately no hook ups for caravans, but lots of nice clean grass to camp on.

The registration is open on Saturday from 12pm (noon) – 8pm and then again on Sunday from 7-10am. Simply make your way to the registration when you arrive, sign next to your name and get all the bits and pieces you need for the weekend handed to you.

The start of the night marathon is at 7.30pm on Saturday and the start of the ‘day’ marathon is at 10.30am on Sunday morning. The venue will be signposted from Friday lunch-time onwards and the campground will be open from Friday all the way through to Monday – for everybody who wants to make a longer weekend out of it. 

Photos on course 

We will have 2 photographers out on the course; our regular photographer, Jon Brooke and his colleague – the idea being to give you an even greater selection of images to choose from. Check out Jon’s website where you can find your photos to view and to buy. It normally takes Jon a couple of days before the photos go live.

What else is going on?

Once again we will have a broad range of traders and exhibitors on site: Schwalbe and Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport will take centre stage in the (all indoors) event village. Gore Bike Wear will run their popular Try B4 You buy offer, Pivot Cycles will have a selection of their latest bikes available to demo on our specially created course and Exposure Lights will show their latest lighting equipment. We have catering throughout the weekend and the MTB-Marathon bar on Friday and Saturday night. The City College Norwich crew will provide massage services, Torq will be at hand with nutrition advice as well as retailing their products….and so on, and so on.

If you can’t make it: 

Should you not be able to make it to the Builth round – don’t worry as this is just the start of another great year of MTB-Marathons and road sportives.

From the next round onwards we will cater also for the road riders out there and will continue the streak of double events.

Marshbrook – England (Shropshire)
13th July 2013 – SCHWALBE MTB Marathon
14th July 2013 – SCHWALBE Road Sportives

Abergavenny/Crickhowell – Wales
3th August 2013 – SCHWALBE MTB Marathon
4th August 2013 – SCHWALBE Road Sportives

Ruthin – Wales
31st August 2013 – SCHWALBE MTB Marathon
1st September 2013 – SCHWALBE Road Sportives

All the details of the SCHWALBE MTB Marathon & Sportive Series 2013 powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport are now on www.mtb-marathon.co.uk. For more road sportive specific info please go to www.roadsportives.co.uk. Both websites are up-to-date and the online entry (provided by British Cycling) is now open. Also make sure you check the new MTB-Marathon facebook site (www.facebook.com/MTBmarathonSeries) for the latest news and updated directly from the frontline of the 2013 series.

Frenchman, ex-World Champion and Canyon Bikes’ big signing for the 2013 enduro season talks about flow with Dirt Magazine’s Steve Jones. Barel is known for his analytical approach to mountain biking so expect this to be in-depth. Over thinking it? What do you think?

Words: Aidan Bishop
Photos: Barbara Sztyk

New friends, great weather, good riding, good times!

After racing a round of the Big Ride – Cannondale Enduro series in Spain last year and liking it a lot I have planned to do more this season.  This year it is the official Open Enduro series in Spain, backed by it National Cycling Federation, and so should see it step up another level.  With the UK’s springtime still more than resembling winter, a trip to race in Spain was an even more attractive weekend ahead.  Flying out on the Thursday evening, we had the Friday to get our bearings, check out the town and ride a little on the hillside……unfortunately the weather was damp to say the least on the Friday, but the temperature was in double figures so it didn’t seem so bad!?  The opening round was held in the town of Ojen in the southern Spanish region of Andalucia, with lemon and olive trees, white buildings and narrow streets it was as picturesque as you could imagine.

A couple more Brits made it out for the race too, which was good, so Friday we met up with Joe Rafferty and Mark Scott (Pro Ride Guides) for breakfast, a catch up and some riding.  They are friends with the guys at Roost DH, a MTB holiday company down near Malaga which host DH riders from all over for good riding and good times.  Chatting with the guys it turns out Mark has done some work for the guys there and so knows the trails in the surrounding hills pretty well, this would come in handy for the day as we’d have a world cup level DH rider show us some of the terrain.  So myself, Joe, Mark, a local Ojen biker and Spanish elite endure rider Ruben set of into the hills for some riding. As it turned out we rode what was to be the 5^th and final stage for the race, a trail that had been used by national teams for DH training this year already as well as the Atherton’s, so when I try to explain the technical nature of it you’ll understand a little and hopefully the video will give you an idea too.

Saturday morning and we awoke to a perfect blue sky, exactly what I had hoped for!  The event was looking slick and professional as always, with good signage everywhere and the town fully embracing the event.  The centre of town was dominated by the Cannondale starting stage which would be the centre stage for the weekend, I really like the way this involves the local town with the race and adding to the whole atmosphere, it’s a shame the UK doesn’t have so many well placed towns at the base of a quality hill.

Saturday was for practice, riders being seeded from previous results and so no qualifying is needed.  5 timed stages with varying transition time allowances, the timings for the race added up to 4hrs riding and racing time.

Setting off from town at 8:30am, I was first to go followed by Joe, Mark then Tony Perez last year’s Spanish open enduro champion.  A 20 min climb mainly on the road and we’re at stage 1, flowing singletrack to begin before an awkward rocky stream crossing and pedal followed by narrow lane down then climb before firing you into the final section of steep loose rocky trail to finish just above town, sub 4mins was a good effort.

Then a monster transition! 1hr time allowance for this full on road climb (which would be amazing on a road bike) to offroad trail leading you to stage 2 start line.  Normally you wouldn’t set out on your 150mm trail bike up a road climb to get to your riding trails, but I think this is part of the attraction of Enduro racing where the route dictates you are out pedalling your bike for hours all the while chatting with friends and fellow racers, fortunately with the weather the views and the gentle gradient it was a pleasurable ascent (but this is where many would appreciate a double front ring set up?).  The stage itself was 3mins long, the trail snaking down a fire break with some man-made jumps and berms to start then a rocky chute before climbing back out and up the other side, keep on the pedals before a few more good corners and then finish your legs off to the line.

Hit the Powerade feed station (a godsend!) before Stage 3.  Started with a fire road sprint before dropping in right into a nice cut out trail with berms, dusty turns and some fun natural whoops that you could roll, manual or jump through to the spectators delight! A rocky doubletrack pedal was broken up by some long bus stops before a high speed loamy couple of turns to the finish, under 4 mins was good, then refresh again before setting off to the next stage.

A new twist this year at the Big Ride was that stage 4 was kept secret until race day!  Another epic road transition, so switch my Jekyll down to short travel, saddle up and spin up the mountainside and take in the views.  Once at the top there was time to walk the first few corners and get a feel for what may lay ahead. At over  5 mins it was mostly put your head down and turn the pedals as fast as you could hold, in between there were some turns I nearly missed and some nice singletrack sections, before dropping down some natural drops to the finish…knackered!

A short pedal to the top of stage 5 and it was party time!! A whopper of a stage, this is the trail that is used by many for DH training. For this race it turned out to be over 8mins start to finish, the trail itself was fantastic, winding its way down the hillside through natural gulleys with open and switchback turns.  What made it technical was the amount of rocks embedded in it the trail, this meant you had to react quick to the line you were on if you didn’t know every inch of trail, so sometimes it was hang onto the bike and ride them sometimes finding a take off point and clear the pointy ones to lessen the risk of puncturing.  After 4 mins of this the trail flattened a bit and followed a dried stream bed where you had to try and maintain rolling speed which was tricky due to tiredness from hanging on and plenty more extremely rocky sections.  Successfully out of this it was through a long dark tunnel before joining a section of stage 1 along flowing trail before the last little rocky pedal to the line….and breath!!!  Honestly of DH World Cup level terrain it was an amazing trail for different reasons, you said your prayers at the start and hoped you and you enduro bike made it to the bottom in one piece, these bikes really are incredibly versatile to handle everything thrown at them.

Mark Scott, top of stage 5.

To the race then.  Stage 1 and Spain’s Tony Perez was fastest here with Mark Scott and Myself in hot pursuit.  Stage 2 I hurt myself to break the 3min marker and win the stage with Joe Rafferty close behind and Tony in third.  Stage 3 Tony just pipped Joe for the win here with Andres Fernandez in third.  Stage 4 Joe killed it and led the way on the fresh track to be fastest ahead of Tony and Mark Scott.  Stage 5 and young Mark Scott knew what he had to do and went full gas here to win by a full ten seconds (with a crash!) from Tony Perez with Spanish elite rider Santiago Lombo in third.  So after the first 3 stages done it was looking to be a close contest between Myself, Joe, Mark and Tony with all of us having a clean day.  Stage 4 I had a tumble which cost me valuable seconds meaning I lost touch with the other three.  Stage 5 was the decider for the overall result, I rode most of it smoothly and didn’t puncture but with 30-40 seconds of the track left my chain snapped leaving me to roll as fast as I could and the last little section I opted to run as I couldn’t pedal and managed to trip and fall for good measure!  Joe had issues and subsequently lost valuable time to Mark who was charging hard and dropped it on one tight sandy switchback but still went sub 8mins for the stage and overtook Joe on doing so and in the overall standings.  But it was the rally driving Spanish orthodontist Tony Perez that was strong and consistent all day who took the well deserved win.  For the women the talented multi-discipline racer Eva Castro was four mins ahead of Nicola Weaver, with Natalia Gonzalez in third after over 34mins of time racing.

I was really looking forward to riding and racing out in Spain and it lived up to every expectation.  Guti, Monica and the whole Big Ride team put on a great event, the town was busy and friendly as was all the new friends and riders I met there.  With the sun the 30euro entry fee and if you can find cheap flights to then I would highly recommend anyone go and enjoy a race out there, I am now looking forward to the second round in Tui in June.

Full results can be found at www.bigridechamionship.com, along with media and future race info.

Big thanks to Cannondale, Mavic, Crank Brothers, GoPro, MRP, RRP, Maxxis for their support.

“We spent a few days with the team and Floriane Pugin on San Romolo’s tracks. Spring has just begun but it already rocks!”

shaperideshoot.com