Banshee Team Blog

Tricks Trails & Fails - 2011

2012-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hi,

since it's still very cold in Germany my friend Kaspar Hornickel found some time to review unused footage from his 2011's projects (including ours) & this 10min edit was the outcome.

It simply reflects the fun & fails that a lot of german young guns have while just doing what we all like the most - riding our bikes - free and independant.

A must see. Enjoy !

Tricks Trails & Fails - 2011 from Kaspar Hornikel on Vimeo.

Find me 00.52 min and 06.17 min.

Just Ride it !

Cheers
Dennis

First Ride Of The Year!

2012-02-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

So it’s been a pretty rough start to my year, I guess it can only get better! I cant believe yesterday was my first ride of the year!

I’ve been in bed for 3 weeks sick! Flu to ear infection to bronchitis to tonsillitis with another ear infection! It’s taken 3 courses of antibiotics and I’m starting to finally feel human again!

So by now I was hoping to have some training under my belt but instead just trying to get back to normal after losing 25lbs!

So yesterday I headed down to Squarmish to see if I could still ride my bike, In no fit shape to be going crazy I decide to make a little video of me playing around on my much loved Spitfire.

Hope you enjoy, its pretty short and the quality isn’t great due to a real overcast day, but I had fun!

Hopefully I’ll never have to go this long again without riding my bike!

http://vimeo.com/36519856

Matej Charvat - 2011 recap

2012-02-08T08:08:00.001-08:00

We are all probably getting ready for 2012 racing season, but I'm coming back to show you a bit of my 2011 racing.

I've been racing for Banshee Bikes Factory team with my team mate Adam Brayton and we had an awesome time. I spent almost all weekends of the season at the races. I did whole World Cup except South Africa, most of IXS European DH Cup, a few other races plus a lot of training and riding. It was simply fun with some solid results.

First of all, there is a video footage which hasn't been released yet. It shows some Worldcups, Dirt Jumps, MX and World Champs of 2011.

Matej Charvat - 2011 on pinkbike.com

Views:10 Faves: Comments: Add to my Favorites

For whole story with more photos and a

Views:16 Faves: Comments: Add to my Favorites

As a bonus, here we have some pictures:

I was a bit unlucky this season in WC qualis. I was really confident when the season started, as I qualified myself for all races back in 2010. But I put myself under a little stress too. Here is the spot in La Bresse, where I crashed in Qualification. I was simply too fast and landed too far, a little bit nosedived for sure, haha.

Another missed finals - Fort William. I was really enjoying the course this year. I was training with Brayton all the week, having fun. I had really good run in the qualis, but slipped a bit off the line at the bottom, missed the bridge and fell into the stream...a minute from the finishline, haha. At least, I was happy to get 6th at first split.

We also had some fun at Brayton's - Keswick, UK. Lovely place, really. As Adam said: "The best place in the world".

One of the races of IXS EDC also visited my home country, Czech Republic. I think everybody was loving the track, except the pissing rain following us for whole weekend. I finished 3rd in the end.

I was also having fun on Worlds in Champery. The track is one of my favorites and I enjoyed a whole week of training. I also had a solid run in qualis, finishing 21st. BUT!!, the mud on Sunday was a thing. I was really looking forward to that, because I like mud and I've been racing there all World Cups before.. But this was crazy, again. I was feeling good until I crashed for the first time...after that I crashed 3 more times. Really wild run, who has not seen this in real, can't understand how massive this is.

I didn't ride my MX bike through the season too often. I had no time. Here is one of the autumn rides.

If you are interested in more pictures from 2011, you can see the whole album at my profile.

Anybody, who is interested in what I'm doing can follow me on my fb page: http://www.facebook.com/matejcharvatofficialpage
or on my twitter: http://www.twitter.com/matejcharvat

I would like to thanks to my 2011 sponsors, which helped me a lot to make this happened.
*Banshee Bikes
*Alpine-pro
*Hant
*Maxxis
*RaceFace
*Elka
*WTB
*e*13
*HT
*Cane Creek
*Crank Brothers
*Ultim8shop.cz
*Gravitymag.com
*Krabcycles
*Bluegrass Eagle
*Inkospor
*Framewrap
*GoPro
*Five.Ten

And another special thanks to Gravitymag.com's Patrik Prochazka, who traveled with me to some races and made the most of the pictures above, the first one is by Ken81.

Halle5, Mainz/ Germany

2012-01-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

Since this is the one and only place in Germany to have dirts under roof - it is the place to be during the wintertime.
So last weekend it was time to meet some friends from other towns, go riding and having fun @ the new built lines.

Rampant rules!

Cheers

Dennis

Natura Productions

2012-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Jazz Chodak (a local filmer) and I have have teamed up to create Natura productions. We have done two edits so far and are looking to produce more videos that document my racing, riding and training, as well as life on the Sunshine Coast as mountain bikers.Here is a new XC edit "Misty days" to launch our new Natura facebook page. Be sure to like our page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natura
Enjoy
Misty days

Forrest Riesco

Fogelsode #5 and Goodbye Banshee Video

2011-12-31T19:44:00.001-08:00

With school and the holidays coming to a close, there's a ton more time to ride! As per usual, Post Office is the place to be around here during this time of year, and it becomes an oddity to see a vacant roll-in during sunset.

Photo: Davin Pena

Also, with the new year means I will be parting ways with Banshee. I'm absolutely grateful for the support that they've provided during these past two seasons, and I put together this compilation of footage from my time with them.

Happy New Year!

-Fogel

Fall Edit!

2011-12-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

Here's my new edit I said I would have in my previous post!

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/232564/

-Shane Trento

THE PERFECT WEEK!

2011-12-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

Monday: Headed down to Vancouver to meet Jon Hadfield and go to the Trident warehouse to pick up my new Spitfire frame.

Tuesday: Got her built in the morning. Then heading down to Squarmish with Paul and Katrina, to give the new ride a good going over! We met up with the boys form the smoke (Vancouver)! Jon, Seb and Pete. The trails were perfect. The open climbs were frozen solid so rolled super fast then glory dirt in the trees for the decents, Happy days.

I’m usually pretty funny when it comes to new bikes and getting used to them. This bike however has been different. Loving it from the get go. Seems to fit me spot on, cant believe how good the geo is (Thanks Keith). It climbs sweet and feels planted but really opens up when you point it downhill, low, slack and super confidence inspiring!

Wednesday: Woke up to an email titled “Trans-Provence 2012: some news” this was confirming my place for next years race! It’s like a dream come true getting an entry as there’s only 56 public entries! So stoked but gutted at the same time as my bro missed out on an entry due to a slow email account, dam computers!

Planning on hitting the training hard from the 1^st January. Not going to lie, pretty worried as my bro has offered to train me and from his background representing Great Britain for athletics, its going to hurt!

I’ll check in soon with an update on how the winter riding and training is going!

Tobias Pantling

Fall riding and training

2011-12-11T17:42:00.001-08:00

Hey,

Though it's the off season now, I have actually been very busy with riding, training, school and planning for next season. I just recently got a Banshee Spitfire, which has been my "do it all" bike, it climbs with ease and descends like a big bike. A lot of my riding throughout the week has been with my Spitfire, as well as hitting the local dirt jumps on my Banshee Amp. I'm not one to go for the big tricks, but this past week I have learned tuck-no-handers, which I'm pretty stoked on.

I attended the first Cycling BC DH team testing camp a few weeks ago. We did a MAP test and a sprint test, which I was happy to see my work pay off and improve on both. There were also some sessions with a nutritionist, a mental trainer, a strength coach and even a yoga session.

Photo by Clayton Racicot. At the Western Open at Kicking Horse Resort.

My newest training tool I've discovered is a Freelap timing system. Freelap was interested in helping me with my training and got me set up with one of their TX junior systems. I tried it out on one of my local tracks and it was really cool to test different riding styles, bike setups and just sorting out the mental aspect of racing the clock.

I also found this article in Decline Magazine of the Western Open, which had a big one page spread photo of me. I was very stoked on the great photo by Clayton Racicot. It was a great race, and one of the most well organized events I've attended.

I've been doing quite a bit of gym training, and a lot of riding!! My goal is to get a bit stronger and spend a lot of time on my bikes. Doesn't really matter if it's XC, DJ or DH, I think all of it benefits me in a way, and most of all doesn't make training a task.

I was just out today with the C4 team, which was a lot of fun. They're a fast bunch of riders and I was happy to show them some trails over here on the Coast.

Forrest

forrestriesco.blogspot.com

2011 Season!

2011-12-03T13:41:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody! Here are my results from the 2011 season. I am super stoked on my results and I am getting ready to one-up them next year!

Last year I was a freshmen in high school and I competed in the Norcal high school cycling association . This was my first time riding and racing XC and I had a lot more fun than I thought. I surprised myself with my decent results!

Race #1-East Garrison Prologue: 4th place

Race #2-Granite Bay Challenge: 9th place

Race #3-East Garrison, Fort Ord: 8th place

Race #4-Laguna Seca Grand Prix: 6th place

Race #5-Bogg's Mountain Classic: 5th place

I placed 7th in the overall standings for the season.

State Championships- Los Olivos, CA: 6th place

http://www.norcalmtb.org/events/results/

I also raced dual slalom for the first time this year at Sea Otter. I tried it out by racing Cat 3 18 & Under Men and won! I was pumped on that for sure!

http://www.seaotterclassic.com/raceresults/index.cfm

I went to the Folsom Fam Jam again this year which was a lot of fun! I ended up competing and winning best line in amateur so i'm stoked on that!

I have a fall edit that is in the works that will be out in a couple of weeks so i'll have another post with that!

-Shane Trento

Off The Radar

2011-11-29T20:56:00.001-08:00

I had the pleasure of having Zinger and Howey stay at my house for a couple weeks at the beginning of the month. We rode a bunch, and Zinger was hard at work behind the lens, coming out with this banger!

Megavalanche 2011 - ST PAUL REUNION - Banshee in the top of world rankings

2011-11-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

November 26-27 - MEGAVALANCHE 2011 - 450 riders on the start !

The tops of the global riders discipline together to do battle: Julien and Remy ABSALON, Cédric GRACIA, Karim AMOUR, René WILDHABER .....

and .................Claudio Dijoux REUNION, 18 years old, takes his Rune in the top rankings !

November 26, 2011
Qualifications : after 3 specials, THE SURPRISE : Qualified 6th, Cedric Gracia and Rene Wildhaber are behind !
November 27, 2011
The Race : Claudio finally finished the race in 12th place among the pros. Disappointed, but it was certainly a feat!

Good job man, don't be unmotivated, next year will be even better!

More results :

http://www.megavalanche.com/photos/pdf/764.pdf
http://www.megavalanche.com/photos/pdf/765.pdf

Short training video and race video ar coming soon !

Fogelsode Season 3 #4: AT's Showdown and a Wind Down Sesh

2011-11-27T15:31:00.001-08:00

It's been an eventful past couple weeks! AT's Showdown never fails to disappoint and this year was no exception! I always look forward to this contest, not only for the good times that it brings, but because it brings friends from all over to the area, making for some rad days of riding before and after the comp. The contest went perfectly, with few injuries and exciting finals that the "head to head" format brought. I ended up finishing 8th, so I'm stoked on that!
We got a bunch of rain in the days following, so it was back to the good 'ol step-up for some lighthearted sessions--a nice change of pace!

Final 32 on Pinkbike Photo of the Year

2011-11-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

This photo of Brian by Andrew Wilz made the final 32 in the Pinkbike photo of the year contest! If you dig it, we'd appreciate your vote. Thanks! - http://www.pinkbike.com/contest/poy/

Fogelsode Season 3 #3: Bridge and Teva

2011-11-12T01:09:00.001-08:00

Christian Wright and I had the pleasure of riding the Bridge Jumps, with Brendan Howey behind the lens with his broken ankle. We were joined by Dennis Langenstam, and later Eric Lawrenuk, Mark Matthews, and Kurt Sorge, making for some good times! With contests filling up everyone's schedules, it felt awesome to have such a chill day riding such flowy jumps! I threw in some footage from our trip to Teva Games as well!

Enjoy!

Dynamic style backyard edit

2011-11-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Danny Pfeiffer & Kaspar Hornickel visit me to do a little edit for co sponsor dynamic style clothing in my backyard while riding my AMP. Here the result. Enjoy!

Welcome to Dynamic Style Clothing | Dennis Hoppe from Kaspar Hornikel on Vimeo.

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THANKS TO EVERYBODY @ BANSHEEBIKES FOR THE CONTINOUS SUPPORT !
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...just RIDE IT !

Cheers
Dennis

Race season is ON!

2011-11-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone...!

National race season has started in Chile!

And what a better way to start than with a new team jersey!

All the races that will be attending the MBstore.cl / Bansheebikes chile team, they will be shown here, with pictures and gopro race reports!

Here are some pictures of the Melipilla race and the first national race points series that was held on Cerro San cristobal (Santiago, capital of Chile)

Have a great ride!

www.mbstore.cl

* pictures are from photographer Jose Ewing

* Jersey designs belongs to MBstore.cl / and designers Maite Urzua & Cristian Burr

Fogelsode Season 3 #2: Game of B.I.K.E.

2011-11-01T01:39:00.001-07:00

When Christian Wright and I were on our way up to Jump Ship in Victoria, we got to stay at Brendan Howey's house for a few days. With time to kill, we had some fun little seshes on his mulch jump, and Christian had the idea to play a game of B.I.K.E.! As you can see, it was a tremendously strict and serious game, with progression being the only thing on our minds...

Fogelsode Season 3 #2: Game of B.I.K.E. on pinkbike.com

Big City Files

2011-10-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

FR,DH,4X,dirt in Bydgoszcz (Poland) :)

Banshee Rampant test

2011-10-29T09:09:00.001-07:00

In biggest Polish e-magazin is a Rampant test ;)
http://43ride.com/_pdf/43ride_16.pdf

British Columbia 2011 - Teaser

2011-10-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

This was a tough one. A few days ago I decided to finally sit down and have a look at all the footage that my brother Jonathan and I captured during our amazing summer in Whistler. 'Having a look at the footage' quickly turned into dragging all the files into my editing software and working my way through it. Well... I'm nowhere close to being done but here's a first glimplse at what to expect from us in the following weeks... enjoy!

Credit: Joz & Moz Zimmermann / www.zimbros.de
Music: Against Me! - Hot Shots

Thanks to Banshee Bikes, Point One Racing and ride2gether for their continuous support!

Racing at Longride race (Chile)

2011-10-25T08:17:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

A couple of days ago it was a big race named "longride" located in Los Andes - Chile

Bansheebikes Chile / MBstore.cl team went to that race and here is the report of it.

First time in the morning the bikes and tent were up in the pickup truck

The travel was not that far, with an amazing view (after a night of full rain) and just a couple of kms away from the capital of Chile (Santiago), we headed up to Los andes

When we arrived we noticed that there was a big jump on the finish area, so the Bansheebikes Chile tent was ment to be near that and see all the great jumps and styles of the racers!

Cristian Burr (Chilean MBstore rider) and Ismael "colito" Pelaia (Argentinian MBstore rider) were on this race, on their DH bikes, the banshee legend mkII team blue editions.

Here we can see Ismael "colito" Pelaia jumping over the big jump from the finish area (OVER A PICKUP TRUCK! YEAH!)

Sunday race day came, and the track was a real mess (as every rider said). Rocks, really dusty and difficult.

Cristian burr had a mechanical problem at the qualy and didn´t had a chance to make it to the finals. But Colito made it with a really good time (also with some mistakes in its way down)

Finally the race was over, a great weekend for the team riders and for Bansheebikes Chile, Colito got 7th in the experts category, so he went back to his country with a really big smile after a great race!

Nothing better for a great weekend than to finish it with a great BBQ at the finish area with your friends.

Soon more news of Bansheebikes Chile and MBstore.cl !

Have a great week and enjoy the ride!

www.mbstore.cl

Poaching un-ridden trails after Whistler Bike Park closed

2011-10-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today after school (Oct.24) I hiked up the mountain with my beautifully cleaned Banshee Legand in tip top condition to go shred some sexy buffed trails. Approximately 4 weeks ago I broke my hand riding some local dirt jumps and I haven't ridden on the mountain with school in the way aswell as breaking myself since September 4th! Today was my first ride and it felt so downright awesome to be back. Here is a couple of clips of my first run from being back.

Enjoy,

Adison MacDonald.

http://www.youtube.com/inbox?feature=mhsn#sent/1

Opladen - Dirts

2011-10-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Hi !

2 weeks ago I visited a spot in Opladen, near Leverkusen/Germany.
It's located in the woods and doubles in various sizes give you enough airtime for some good stuff. Timo, one of the locals made some nice shots while I'm checking the lines. Enjoy.

360-barspin-series

360-nosedive-series

360-tabletop

oldschool-SS

Thanks Timo!

AMP - rocks!

Cheers

Dennis

Fogelsode Season 3 #1: Average School Day

2011-10-15T21:23:00.001-07:00

Season three is here, with new episodes every two weeks!

For most of September, I found myself in a constant routine: load up my bike/gear at night, go to school in the morning, grab a burrito, and head straight over to Post Office for a little sundown sesh. Sometimes a bunch of people would be out there, other times it was just me. It never really mattered too much though, as any ride turned a stressful school day into a good day. I brought the camera out one day, and self filmed for this edit.

Enjoy!

Photo: Davin Pena

-Fogel

Ride On!

2011-10-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

Documentary time! Filmed by Quinn Maxwell and Keith Crass.

Ride On! - More Mountain Bike Videos

Always in Style Tight Jeans, Tight Bikes.

2011-09-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

Anyone who already owns one of the new Banshee Amp's knows how tight this little machine feels! This summer I was so relieved to build it up 2 days prior to the dual slalom event at CrankWorx. It felt so good the moment I got on it as I cat-walked out of my garage down the road and straight to the village to get some practice in on the fresh dual slalom course. I've never felt so cozy on a bike I've never ridden before which was ideal since the course was gnarly, but super fun, fast and flowy.

Since my initiation at the dual I've been hitting everything in my home town (Whistler), the Airdome, the dirt jumps, the local pump tracks, or crusing over to the beach you name it. One more think I should mention is how cool it was to have the frame arrive raw with no colour or stickers, they leave the creativity up to you with the included sticker package. Versatility of design and function!

This frame with definatly live up to its name~

Lets ride,

Adison MacDonald.

Team Geronimo at the Mountain States Cup Finals

2011-09-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

The team had a great weekend at Sol Vista. Brian rode smart and squeaked by some carnage, taking the win in 4X. Then the next day he was just 0.6 seconds off pace in the DH, good enough for 2nd on the day.

Mike's consistency landed him in 2nd overall in the Mountain States Cup Pro points race, and the junior squad took home the 2nd place overall team ranking as well. Well done, guys!

Vital has a cool slideshow from the event:

2011 Mountain States Cup Sol Survivor — More Mountain Bike Photos

and a video, too!

2011 Sol Survivor Race Video - More Mountain Bike Videos

Fade away Session

2011-09-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hi !

Last weekend the 1. Fade away Session (hosted by Amir Kabbani) took place in Bikepark-Boppard, Germany.

The intention of this session was to have a funny, relaxed season ending and that's what really was !

Ride the AMP

Greetz
Dennis

Matej Charvat// Autumn 2011 Vid

2011-09-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

Season whether we like it or not unstoppably ends and that's why we took one last chance to ride in warm and dry conditions. While this edit of Matej was made on popular "Freeride" track in Spinleruv Mlyn. Video should also express a big thanks to all, who supported Matej in 2011. "I would like to say thanks to all my sponsors, who helped me in 2011 season. Just as I would like to thank to all the fans, who cheered for me along the track during the season and also to all the people who simply like what am I doing. Cheers!"

Matej Charvat// Autumn 2011 on pinkbike.com

Cruising Fuzzy Bunny Trail on Teton Pass

2011-09-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Jess recently visited Jackson Hole for some laid back riding between races, and Kyle Walcott captured the occasion on film. Enjoy!

Cruising Fuzzy Bunny Trail on Teton Pass - More Mountain Bike Videos

2011-09-16T13:13:00.001-07:00

Danish DH cup - Finals

The last round of the Danish DH cup took place this past weekend in the north of Jutland at a place called Rold forrest. This was the second time we were going to race at that venue. The track in it self is rather basic, with a lot of man made jumps and obstacles. The hole way down the track you are scrubing jumps, pumping holes and pedaling every were you can which is sick! The weather made the race quite interesting thus it had rained all week and the to weather prognoses said it would rain sunday as well.

Saturday practice

Since I had already wrapped up the overall title at the last round I came into the race with a mindset of having fun and putting down the best runs I could do. So I cracked on with practice which went really well on the damp track. I was still running the High Roller II´s which keeps getting better and better. Even though it is almost my home track since I live about 30 minutes drive away, I do not ride there that often. So I put in some good practice runs, with my dad who was attending to his first DH race.

Second race run

After a little delay the race began in the quite sunny weather in contrast to the bad weather they had forecasted. Run no. 1 went okay, I hit all of my lines but i had a little mechanical which cost me some time. Nevertheless I came down with a 3.5 second lead. After the first run we had the obligatory one hour practice on the second track. The 2 run went good i had a solid run with minor mistakes coming down about 1 second faster that second place, which gave me the 6th win out of 6 race in the Danish DH cup this year.

6th round podium

Mathis Lystbæk - Mike Thisted - Sebastian Jensen - Rasmus Reding - Rasmus Jensen

Overall it was a good weekend with good racing and a good season ender. Personally I still have one more race, which is the final round of the German iXS cup which takes place the 24.-25. this month in Thale.

Overall Podium :)

A big thank you goes out to Stefan Hovaldt for taking all of the pictures.

- Sebastian Jensen

OneHitWonder / Filthy Ape

2011-09-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favourite features in the Whistler Bike Park. It's not difficult at all it looks rather intimidating at first. Just remember to lean back and enjoy the view up there!

Cheers,
-Moritz Zimmermann
www.zimbros.de

Get stoked: Forrest Riesco

2011-09-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hey,Just finished up a quick little edit I did with a local friend/filmer Jazz Chodak. It gives you a little taste of my style, and the riding here on the Sunshine Coast. Jazz and I were so stoked on how it turned out and what we had created that we thought a fitting name should be “Get stoked”.You can check it out on Pinkbike and please let me know your thoughts on it, enjoy.Again thanks to all the people that have helped me out this season and made it a great one.Thanks,Forrestforrestriesco.blogspot.com

Season wrap up

2011-09-01T18:21:00.001-07:00

Hello,

This season has been amazing, not necessarily my results, but more so how much I've learned and how much fun I have had traveling across Canada racing the new tracks and being with some of the most fun and interesting people. From the coaches to team mates to people from the other side of Canada that are just as stoked as I am to ride.

I just recently added to my learning experience this season at Hemlock Mountain for the BC Cup finals. I decided that this off season I want to step it up a level, I don't want to sit around waiting for some magical thing to make me faster, so to do this I've got to take chances and push myself. And that's just what I did last weekend at my final race. I was riding great Saturday, pushing myself and getting loose, the track was wide open and was very fast. Sunday I was having a great race run and hanging it out. Halfway through though my back wheel got caught in a rut when I attempted an outside line and I ended up upside down tangled in my bike with a mouth full of dust. I jumped back up as quick as I could and continued on to finish with my brake lever bent up and my seat crooked. I finished fourth in Junior, 12th in Pro and 9 seconds off the fastest time of the day. My result wasn't what I was hoping but that's the consequences sometimes of taking chances and pushing myself. One of the Cycling BC coaches said I was one of the two fastest riders through the rock drop and I am confident that if I apply what I've learned this season than I will be able to ride that pace and faster consistently next season.

I finished off the BC Cup series in 3rd overall and placed 4th overall in the Canada Cup series. As you have probably guessed I was not selected for the World Championships team, missing it by one spot. It was an arguable decision by the CCA as I placed higher in Canada Cup points over the fourth picked junior from Newfoundland, but he did place higher than me at National Championships. A lot of people heard and thought that I was going and even just last week one of the Cycling BC team coaches sent an email to the CCA asking them to reconsider there decision as he believed I had progressed so much this year that I should be going.

Thanks so much to the people/companies that have made this season my best yet; First of all I'd like to thank Nancy Riesco Interior Design Inc. and Vancor Capital Ltd. for their financial support for my flights this season. Cycling BC, without them I wouldn't have been able to make the jump from the provincial level to the national level with all their support providing accomadation, coaching and on ground transportation for the entire National Series. Steven's Pools for their very generous financial support. Banshee BIkes for setting me up with the Legend MK2 race machine. POC helmets and armour for keeping me safe and looking good. Spank Industries for their support and Mike for keeping my bikes spinning on Spank rims. Race Face for their continuing support of me and providing me with the best components around. X-Fusion shocks for their very tuneable suspension and Suspensionwerx for keeping my suspension running smoothly. Kuat racks for their incredibly useful racks. NRG enterprises for supplying me with all my Maxxis rubber and Hope products. I'd also like to thank North Shore Billet, Five-Ten, Leatt Brace, Tyler at Twenty6 products, Gamut USA and SDG saddles. And last but not least my very supportive family that helps me reach for and achieve my goals.

I am looking forward to training hard this off season and having fun riding my bike. This off season and next race season I will be stepping it up and jumping to that next level and become closer to my goals of being an international rider and travel the world.

Thanks to everyone for making this a great season.

Forrest

forrestriesco.blogspot.com

Thanks to all the people/companies for supporting me for the 2011 race season.

Banshee bikes.
POC helmets and armour.
Vancor Capital Ltd.
Nancy Riesco Interior Design Inc.
Cycling BC
Spank industries.
Race Face components
X-Fusion shocks
Kuat racks
Suspensionwerx
North Shore billet
Five-Ten
Leatt Brace
Twenty6 products
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Easy Livin’

2011-08-31T21:15:00.001-07:00

Scope this little edit that my buddies Kyle, Iggy, and I put together last week! Good times back home!

Easy Livin' on pinkbike.com

-Fogel

Dreck Attack 2011

2011-08-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hi !

Last weekend the third year, the Dreck Attack Jam took place @ H2O trails in Germany.
Rider from across germany and some other countries found the way to and just wanted to have fun @ the sunny and relaxed Seeheim.

The trails were reshaped for this years event. The pro line was completely new & much bigger built up, so that some riders had very respect for the first double.

I did some high Barrel rolls, 360's nose dive, decades, double whips and finished up 8 place from 50 riders.

Dreck Attack's legendary Aftershowparty .... :-)

Here's a cool video from the jam. Enjoy.

DaPone Dreck Attack III - 2011 from DaPone Productions, A. Hechler on Vimeo.

I ride first, from 0.25 to 0.35

AMP forever.

greets
Dennis

Shot in Decline!

2011-08-26T22:01:00.001-07:00

Got a shot in the last issue of Decline with this 1-foot x-up at Teva Games! Stoked!

Buell Crushes it at Trestle Enduro Event

2011-08-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Team Geronimo had another great race weekend, but this time it wasn't a DH event. Enduro baby!

2011 Trestle All-Mountain Enduro at Winter Park — More Mountain Bike Photos

Matej Charvat - Val di Sole

2011-08-24T04:15:00.000-07:00

High temperatures and dust, that was the main characteristic of World cup finals in Val di Sole. The roughest track of the whole circuit pushed the riders and the material to their limits. I managed to equalize my best result from Windham(USA). After a bit slower upper part I smashed a bit harder at the bottom and finished 32nd again.

It was the last World cup this year, so I didn’t take the things easy. The conditions were hard, tho. Extremely hot and a lot of dust. Sometimes it felt like riding in snow. You hit the deep stuff and get out of control because you really didn’t know what are you going over. That’s what happened to me in last woods, I was a bit wild and wide over there. I’m actually happy with my run except I overbraked a lot of lines to stay safe and try not to fall.

I will hopefully be able to upload a video of me and Adam in Val di Sole soon. Stay tuned!

Matej

Summer so far

2011-08-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

My summer so far has been amazing! with crankworks and than just chilling at home riding my jump!
Crankworks I got 3rd in dual slalom and didn't do so well in giant slalom went off course and fell still had a great time both those courses are super fun! had a great time!
A few weeks ago I learnt backflips on my trick jump in my backyard!
Went to a jump jam yesterday and ended up fliping there also the first flip was with a half helmet which i regret doing since its just as easy with the leatt and its more safe! When the edit from the jam is put up i will post it!
Thanks Banshee and Sombrio!

Liam Wallace

Howey and I at Whistler!

2011-08-20T23:53:00.001-07:00

Check out this banger from Nic Genovese!

on pinkbike.com

-Fogel

My Summer Video!

2011-08-19T20:52:00.001-07:00

I left my house on the morning of May 31st, not knowing what I was getting myself into. It was an epic summer filled with nothing but good times! I went to Teva Games, up to Victoria for Jump Ship, over to Whistler where I coached at Camp of Champions, down to Colorado for Crankworx Colorado, back to the island for the Bearclaw Invitational, and finally back to Whistler to chill for a bit before trucking home. 7804 miles and 74 days later I was back, and had plenty of footage to put this edit together in order to share the trip with you!

Fogel's Summer Adventure 2: Fireworks, Friends, & X-Factors on pinkbike.com

The video's over 16 minutes long, so I broke it up into sections as well:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

-Fogel

Phat Wednesday!

2011-08-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

Racing is always a very interesting experience but to be honest, race runs aren't really that much fun. There's always the tension building up, you don't get to ride as much as you think you would and you always go through more tires, rear rims and derailleurs than usual. Wait, let me rephrase that: Racing is always very interesting and can also be a ton of fun when you have a race format such as Whistlers' own Phat Wednesday series.

The race track is announced a day prior to the actual race, you can practice as much or little as you want and when you decide that you actually do want to race, you simply pay an entrance fee of as little as $2, roll up to the start line and do your race run. After your run, you head to the GLC bar, grab a couple of beers and burgers and have a good time with your friends. Sounds awesome and it truly is a great event.

Unfortunately I had to sit out on this weeks' Phat Wednesday due me slicing my shin open a few days prior to the race. My brother Jonathan entered the race that was being held on a trail called Crank it Up - imagine a giant pump track with lots of berms, rollers and tables, a lot of braking bumps. Now imagine that you have this pump track is about 5 minutes long and you have to ride the track on your downhill bike. There you go.

In the end Joz finished with a very respectable 5:14 on his Legend and more importantly had a blast doing the race (although he had to admit it was quite painful and exhausting). Here's what his race run looked like:

Tomorrow we'll head down to Vancouver to do some touristy stuff. Hopefully my leg should be fully healed up soon and then it's time to shred the bike park again. Finally!

Cheers from Whistler,
-Moritz Zimmermann

Lear Miller Selected for World Championship

2011-08-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Lear Miller has been selected to represent the USA in the 4X race at the 2011 UCI World Championship. He is currently ranked 25th in the World, and will be duking it out with the World's best at the end of August in Champery, Switzerland.

Joining him on the USA 4X squad are good friends Blake Carney and Erik Nelson.

Photo by Jason Peters at Sea Otter 2011

Riders ready? Watch the lights...

Press release from USA Cycling below.

________________________________________________________

USA Cycling announced Friday the 51 athletes nominated to represent the United States at the 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Champery, Switzerland, from Aug. 29-Sept. 4.

The athletes who earned automatic nominations were selected by using USA Cycling’s Athlete Nomination criteria.

Leading the 10 elite American downhill riders will be the top-ranked rider in the World Cup rankings, Aaron Gwin (Temecula, Calif./Trek), who earned an automatic nomination. Gwin also won four of the five World Cup downhill races, thus far. Also receiving an automatic nomination is the leader of the 2011 USA Cycling Pro Mountain Bike Gravity Tour (Pro GRT), Cody Warren (Alpine, Calif./DRD X-Fusion Intense). The women’s downhill contingent will be led by automatic nominees Jacqueline Harmony (Sedona, Ariz./All Mountain Cyclery-Vixen Racing) and Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash./RedBull-Transition Racing). Kintner currently leads the women’s Pro GRT standings and is ranked 13th in the UCI Elite Women Downhill World Cup rankings. Harmony earned her automatic nomination by virtue of being ranked 11th in the UCI rankings. Competing as discretionary selections in the men’s elite race will be Logan Binggeli (Saint George, Utah/KHS Bicycles), Curtis Keene (Fremont, Calif.), Duncan Riffle (Santa Barbara, Calif./Giant MTB Team), Mitch Ropelato (Ogden, Utah/SPS North America) and Luke Strobel (Issaquah, Wash./MS Evil). Joanna Petterson (Jericho, Vt.) will join Harmony and Kintner as a discretionary selection in the women’s race.

Of the nine American contestants, four junior riders, three men and one woman, earned automatic nominations to compete in the junior men’s and women’s downhill contests in Champery. Neko Mulally (Reading, Pa./Trek), Austin Warren (Alpine, Calif./DRD X-Fusion Intense) and Trevor Trinkino (Evergreen, Colo./Yeti RPM) will contest the men’s race while Lauren Daney (Stafford, Va./Specialized-GROM Racing) will compete in the women’s junior downhill competition. Mulally earned an automatic nomination after placing second in the 2010 World Championships and by strong showings at three different World Cup events earlier this season. Trinkino posted the fastest time among a qualified pool of athletes at the Winter Park Crankworx to earn his automatic nomination. Warren earned his automatic nomination by placing 23rd in the World Cup event in Windham, N.Y. Daney earned her automatic nomination by placing 20th in the women’s elite downhill at the World Cup event in Windham, N.Y. Nate Furbee (Los Osos, Calif.), Austin Hackett Klaube (Dillon, Colo.), Kiran MacKinnon (Aromas, Calif.), Austin Warren (Alpine, Calif./DRD X-Fusion Intense) and Christian Wright (Auburn,CA Ex Drinks/ Commencal) will compete in the junior men’s race as discretionary selections.

The U.S. contingent will feature three male discretionary selections contesting the four-cross race. Blake Carney (Camarillo, Calif.), Lear Miller (Sedona, Ariz./Team Geronimo-Banshee) and Erik Nelson (Gilbert, Ariz.) were chosen to compete in the four-cross competition.

In addition to the downhill competitions, the World Championships will also feature elite four-cross competitions for gravity racers. The U.S. squad will be led by automatic nominee Melissa Buhl (Chandler, Ariz./KHS Bicycles) who earned an automatic nomination by being placing second at each of the World Cup events in Leogang, Austria and Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada, in addition being ranked sixth in the UCI World Cup MNT Cross rankings. Joanna Petterson (Jericho, Vt.) and Neven Steinmetz (Boulder, Colo./Ellsworth-Smile Generation) will join Buhl as discretionary selections.

The complete U.S. Gravity Team roster is listed below.

Elite Men Downhill

Logan Binggeli (Saint George, Utah/KHS Bicycles)

Aaron Gwin (Temecula, Calif./Trek)

Curtis Keene (Fremont, Calif.)

Duncan Riffle (Santa Barbara, Calif./Giant MTB Team)

Mitch Ropelato (Ogden, Utah/SPS North America)

Luke Strobel (Issaquah, Wash./MS Evil)

Cody Warren (Alpine, Calif./DRD X-Fusion Intense)

Elite Women Downhill

Jacqueline Harmony (Sedona, Ariz./All Mountain Cyclery-Vixen Racing)

Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash./RedBull-Transition Racing)

Joanna Petterson (Jericho, Vt.)

Junior Men Downhill

Nate Furbee (Los Osos, Calif.)

Austin Hackett Klaube (Dillon, Colo.)

Kiran MacKinnon (Aromas, Calif.)

Neko Mulally (Reading, Pa./Trek)

Trevor Trinkino (Evergreen, Colo./Yeti RPM)

Austin Warren (Alpine, Calif./DRD X-Fusion Intense)

Christian Wright (Auburn,CA Ex Drinks/ Commencal)

Junior Women Downhill

Lauren Daney (Stafford, Va./Specialized-GROM Racing)

Men Four Cross

Blake Carney (Camarillo, Calif.)

Lear Miller (Sedona, Ariz./Team Geronimo-Banshee)

Erik Nelson (Gilbert, Ariz.)

Women Four Cross

Melissa Buhl (Chandler, Ariz./KHS Bicycles)

Joanna Petterson (Jericho, Vt.)

Neven Steinmetz (Boulder, Colo./Ellsworth-Smile Generation)

Good Days

2011-08-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

This is my first post here on the Banshee blog.
What you will notice is, english isn´t my native language ...
I life here in Austria, so the east side of the Alps are really close to my doorstep.

Maybe you spotted the "Duke" or the "Silly lines reloaded" video here,
this time again I´m doing this trial influenced riding with my Wildcard on a plus 3000 m mountain.
(that´s more then 10.000 feet)

Here is my report as I wrote it on my bike blog sillylines.com:
(Also something about me, my bike and my riding.)

------

Last year I thought that the Seekofel was the toughest decent I´ve ever done,
but this one was even harder. Even though it was described as an easy 3000 m
mountain, trying to make it with a bike was a challenge. I did this trip together with Mihi,
on the first day we made the first 800 meters of uphill till we reached the hut.
On the next day we had to walk another 800 meters in altitude, finally reaching the top.
On my way up I was insecure, most of the path are only rocks in all sizes, so it was like
a big, natural trial track. To be honest, I wasn´t able to ride everything, but in the end I
managed to do about 90 % of it.
From the top till the hut it took us about 3 hours, mostly doing this kinda trial-biking!
I never was that exhausted and tired, both my body and my head.

Special thanks to the innkeeper of the Arthur von Schmid hut, he really appreciated our doing,
he even wanted a photo of us (with bike) on the summit!

Thanks also to Mihi for doing most of the film work.

This is not a mountain you will do often, but the emotions after such a ride are very special!

Here is a video in a (short) Banshee-only version:

Good Days (Banshee only version) from Lizard on Vimeo.

Plus 2 photos:

More photos from this trip on the german site of my blog.
Best regards, Horst.

Three weeks of racing in the Rockies

2011-08-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

The past three weeks I have been in the interior of BC racing at the Canadian National Championships, the Canada Cup finals and the Western Open BC Cup.

I stayed with the Cycling BC team for just under two weeks at Panorama, which was great and a lot better than camping. Nationals was the first race in Panorama. We did a course walk Thursday and had a bit of practice in the afternoon. Friday was a full day of practice and then Saturday was seeding. For seeding I had a good consistent run, I pedaled hard but kept it steady through the tough sections. I seeded 3rd in Junior which I was satisfied with. Sunday I had a good run and kept it consistent and finished in 7th. I wasnt too pleased with my time or placing and figured out that I just didn't push it enough, I was thinking about my placing and who I had to beat too much which distracted me from having fun and going fast.

Getting loose during practice at Nationals (FYI I rode out of it)

The next weekend was the Canada Cup finals also at Panorama but on a different track. I learned from the mistakes I made at Nationals and made some changes to my mental game. There was no seeding for the Canada Cup, so we got two days of practice and then raced Sunday. Sunday the Juniors and Elites were mixed and placed in the start list by ranking. I was within the last 20 riders to race. My run was great, I pushed it and got quite loose on some sections. I didn't get too serious before or during my run because I ride the fastest when I'm having fun. When I came across the line I had the third fastest time if the day. I finished 4th in Junior less than two seconds off the win and 4 seconds off the fastest time of the day. I was very happy with my time as it placed me with the 12th fastest time of the day.

Race run at the Canada Cup finals

The next weekend was the Western Open BC Cup at Kicking Horse Mt in Golden. My parents came up for the last Canada Cup and than I stayed with them for the week and weekend of the BC Cup. We camped out in our Westfalia van. The course was the same as last year except a bit rougher and drier. It was a lot of fun practicing and racing on the course because it's so fast and loose. My race run was very good, I got a bit loose and put everything I had into the last horribly long pedal. When I came down I had the second fastest time of the day and fastest in Junior. I stayed in the hotseat until the last junior, a local racer Riley Suhan, came down and bumped me out. I was very happy with my result because it was Riley's home track and he's unbelievably fast on it. At the end of the day I finished 2nd in Junior and had the 14th fastest time of the day.

2nd place podium at the Western Open BC Cup

After all these races I finished 4th in the Canada Cup series, 1st seventeen year old in Canada. I am also leading the BC Cup series in Junior with two more races to go.

I am still waiting to hear if I've been selected for the National team to go to World Championships in Switzerland. There are four Junior riders going and I am in contention as I finished fourth in the Canada Cup series, but nothings official yet. That was one of my goals this year was to make it to Worlds and I am anxiously waiting to hear if that will become a reality.

I'd also like to give a shout out to NRG enterprises for helping me out a couple times on my trip. I was stuck and needed some parts twice and both times they pulled through and got me the right parts when I needed them.

Thanks

Forrest

Be sure to check my blog at forrestriesco.blogspot.com for more updates and photos.

Thanks to Dave Hord for all the awesome photos.

Whistler, BC - Week 1

2011-08-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago my brother Jonathan and I decided to work as much as we can in addition to going to university, save up some money and do something awesome for once: Spend our summer in what has to be the best place in the world if you're at least somewhat interested in the sport of Mountain Biking... fast forward and here we are in Whistler, first week into our summer vacation!

In fact we arrived in the Pacific North West around 2 weeks ago since we decided to spend a few days with some friends in the US. After a long 9-hour-drive we finally made it to Whistler exactly a week ago and have been riding the park every day since. Luckily the weather has been rather nice lately so all the trails are running very fast right now... except for Una Moss which is still covered in snow. Note to self: Don't ever again ride a fire road covered in snow. It's simply not worth it.

Apart from the, we've been having a blast so far. Our Legends are proving to be a great choice for the terrain up here, especially on the faster, wide-open tracks. Riding every day can be quite exhausting though - but I suppose this is just one of the many side-effects of doing several 30+ minutes runs a day.

A few days ago Jonathan and I decided to spend a day shooting some pictures up on the mountain instead of riding all day long. This proved to be a rather interesting experience. Every time I head out to snap photos I'm surprised by how many factors you have to keep in mind when shooting a rider going down the hill and for the rider, constantly switching between pushing up the hill and riding down in front of the camera can be as exhausting as riding all day long. We're fairly happy with the way most of them turned out though and you can find the results in this galery. Keep your eyes open for some more updates in the next weeks - after all, we'll stay here for another 5 weeks... good times to be had!

Cheers from Whistler, BC
-Moritz Zimmermann

Nokia Irish Downhill Championships

2011-08-08T07:33:00.001-07:00

The Nokia Irish National Downhill Championships were held a few weeks back in Carrick, Co Wicklow. Luckily for Ireland in the summer, the track was super dry and the weekend wasn't spoiled by any rain. Over 240 riders entered and there was a huge amount of spectators on the day ringing cowbells, blowing vuvuzela's and shouting at us going down the track. EpicDH and Flow Racing put on the event which was run super smoothly.

The track had a deadly steep rock section at the start which caused problems for many riders, with lots of punctures and offs during practice.

From Drop Box

I had a great ride on my little Banshee Legend and other than a near off at the end jump, and overtaking another competitor on the way down, had a clean run. The bike is great for smaller riders (I am 4' 11") and I was delighted to come first in the women's category.

From Drop Box

Here is a video of the race:

The 2011 Irish DH National Championships on pinkbike.com

5 days with Dennis Hoppe

2011-08-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

Hi,

since I had holiday the last week, some friends decided to meet me with the main aim to just have a good time & fun with our bikes.

Enjoy.

The Vid was shot & edited by Kaspar Hornikel. Rider: Daniel Pfeifer, Andreas Cantella, myself

Location: My Backyard and Zwingenberg (Seeheim) / Germany.

Always a pleasure to ride my AMP.

Ride on !

Dennis

Woodward West!

2011-08-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I was at Woodward West for a week for camp! That was my second time being at Woodward and my previous trip they did not have the "Dank Mega Trails" so I was pumped to bring my Rampant and hit them up! Overall it was good times meeting and riding with new people! Here are a few pics from camp!

*All photo credit goes to Ian Wilson except for the last three

The 43 footer.

-Shane Trento

India Trip

2011-07-26T23:07:00.000-07:00

A lot of people wouldn't even think there would be anything to ride in India. Just about two months ago I traveled to India with the Flow Riders to do shows there put on by Entourage.
After landing in Mumbai, India we then traveled to the city of Pune were we stayed for a week getting ready for the weekend of shows. Some of the prep for the shows included dialing in the roll in for the mtb guys and even doing a few interviews on the local radio station. Dealing with the resources, the space given, and the awesome staff we were able put on a great show in front of all of Pune, India.

After the event we Then took an 8 hour bus ride to the beaches of Goa. We stayed in Goa for just under a week but it was just about time to head home. although Goa was an amazing place to be, I was starting to miss home and not have the constant worry of getting lost. We then packed up and headed to Mumbia on an 11 hour bus ride where we would be departing for Canada.

I'm glad I could be involved in the first ever event put on like this in India. I met lots of great people and saw some of the amazing areas of Northwestern India. It was quite the culture shock being here but was a life changing experience for me.

Id like to thank all of the guys at Entourage for putting on the event and Dan "dangerous" Cowan for inviting me along. Here is a promo that was put together by Vinay Menon for the event and hopefully there are more of these in the future.

Kingdom Of Stunts | May 2011 | Pune from vinaymenon on Vimeo.

If you would like to view the full write up including photos done by Vinay Menon who was a huge part of this event and even showed us around the entire time check this out.

North America WC trip - Matej Charvat

2011-07-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Trip started on 27th June, when I flew to Montreal. I met my teammate Adam Brayton and Matt Scoles(Trek Cingolani) at the Airport. We were picked up by Elka Suspension's Patrick T. who helped us a lot. We had a drive to the races with a big Elka trailer equipped by a workshop, expotents and all what we needed. We packed up and went to the first WC in North America this year.

Mont Saint Anne (CAN)
The track was very simillar to the last years World Champs. We did some testing with Elka on Thursday on a different tracks to pre-setup the suspension for the race. It started to rain really heavy when the practice started. The track was almost like a river. I had a few crashes in my training runs. I didn't feel the best, but I made it in qualification on Friday. I slightly corrected my lines on Saturday for the finals. The weather turned to a bit sunny for Saturday and Sunday and the track started to dry. It was really fast for the finals.

I put a solid run together with a few mistakes, but still good for a long track like this one. I also did a famous nosedive on the last jump, but I saved it in the last moment.

I finished on 33rd - good result for me and we could move happy to cca 700km far Windham (USA) for next round of WC.

Windham, NY (USA)
This track was also almost the same like last year WC. It was also a bit wet at the beginning of practice, but it started to dry fast.

This track is one of the shorter ones on the circuit (maybe the shortest). Times are really tight and every hundred of a second counts. I was really confident in training and in Fridays qualification. I qualified on 26th. I knew that I can do top30 in the finals. Sundays final was a really tough battle.

I did a solid and smooth run with just a few operatively changed lines. I finished 32nd at the end of the day!!! Just for fun - there were 12 riders in my second, which proves a really tight field.

You can also watch a GoPro video from Mont-Sainte-Anne:

Banshee does Mt St Anne World Cup from Jacob Gibbins on Vimeo.

2011-07-17T19:24:00.001-07:00

Dont post this on the blog but just wondering how do u post pics?
heres a link to the picture i want to post
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/6866901/

Crankworks first weekend!

2011-07-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Crankworks so far!
When i got to whistler on Friday i unpacked and went to the Chromag dirt jump jam which was a lot of fun!
A couple of guys went down and got hurt which sucks to hear and see.
Landed my first tail whip on a dirt jump, the jam was a blast as it was last year!
Saturday got up went up the mountain for a couple of practice laps before the dual slalom time trials started.
Qualified fourth, .6 seconds behind 3rd and 2nd had to go against 5th place beat him and got to the second round against the guy who qualified 1st, heres a picture of me against #1
got beat the first time down, and pushed the brakes forward so I couldn't find them in the second heat going into a corner ended up going over the corner and into the other track but held it together and didn't go down.
Got to go to the small final and won the first heat by 2.19 seconds went up for another heat and beat him again by 2.32 seconds and got onto the podium first time racing dual slalom which was super fun and will try and race it every year! Got 3rd over all.
Thanks banshee for supporting me with my bikes and Sombrio for my gear.
Next weekend I'm going up again for Giant Slalom cant wait!

Crankworks!

2011-07-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow i leave for Crankworks for 2 days I am going to the Chromag jam on Friday night from 5-8 be there and on Saturday racing dual slalom! Next weekend I am going again for 3 days Giant slalom on Friday Watching slopestyle on Saturday and coming home sometime Sunday!
Its going to be a good week up in whistler hopefully i can go more during the week to watch and ride will post when i get back!
-Liam Wallace

Claymore Challenge at Highland MTN Park

2011-07-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

Claymore challenge at Highland MTN park has been a huge success with its huge live stream on the internet, the crowd at the MTN, as well as the rider turn out. I thought since my slope style experience isn't too high I should get on it and come ride Claymore Challenge as it is closest to home and looks like one of the most fun courses out there.

Just a few weeks ago Tuesday June, 21st I made the 9 hour drive to the event to ride and meet up with other banshee team riders like Paul Genovese and Mike Montgomery. Once we got there at the mountain I was pretty anxious to check out the course so we did a course walk up the freshly groomed slope style course.

First day of practice was scheduled to be on Wednesday June, 22nd but as the people at Highland MTN knew there was unwanted weather conditions rolling in that were suppose to hit that area as soon as practice started. All of the riders were trying to ignore those signs but as mother nature took its toll on us.
We all headed to the new Highland Training Center indoors. As our session indoor was getting under way some riders who rode in 26 trix in Leo gang, Austria were just showing up.

June, 23rd and It was the day of our scheduled two run qualifier and the rain didn't look like it was going to give up any time soon. All the riders were put on call and qualifying got postponed until the rain gave up. Some of the riders head for the trails under the trees were we were still able to ride without getting soaked.

It was then a waiting game to start our quick start practice right into our qualifying.

June 24th was our day for the free bird best trick contest but still looked like the course was too wet and not safe to begin riding on. With Plastic tarps covering the course it looked like another day of indoor riding at the HTC were all the riders were trying to get as dialed in as they could and some even learned new tricks. With some riders worrying about flight conflict the rain was really doing a number on us all as the Staff at Highland Mountain started to run out of ideas.
June 25th and it was the day for our two run finals. The amazing staff at Highland MTN really put their work in to track the break in the weather to give us a chance to practice and get our two run finals underway. As finals started a few of the riders started going down hard and were taken out of the contest. Putting up with the muddy conditions all the riders got through their runs and there had to be a winner.

Brandon Semenuk for his third time in a row being knighted by owner of the mountain Mark Hayes followed by a second place finish with Yannick Granieri and a third place finish with Kyle Strait also winning best trick with a double tailwhip. Despite the bad weather I still had a great time at this event and cant wait to come back and ride with everyone next year. Photography credit goes to Steve Hayes and Ian Hylands.

Woodward is the right place.

2011-07-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Heres a edit I put together from my weeks instructing at Woodward west. Way to many good times to get them all on film, If you get the chance to head down there just send it!

Miss America!

2011-07-08T22:44:00.001-07:00

Me and the rest of the Locs on Spokez crew started a trail in the winter, took a break as things picked up in the spring, and banged out the rest of it in May. We named it “Miss America” and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! Justin and Devin started their new media group called “Root One Media”, and we all worked hard to shoot what we had dug so much on. I’m really psyched on how it came out, enjoy!

Bangin' Miss America on pinkbike.com

3rd at the Bromont Canada Cup #2 in Quebec

2011-07-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last week I got back from the Canada Cup #2 at Bromont in Quebec.

I flew over with the Cycling BC team and we arrived Wednesday night at our condo in Bromont. The race was on Saturday, so Thursday we walked the track and then had our one day of practice on Friday.

The track was so much fun, it was previously a world cup track and it showed through the rock huck lines and the wide open high speed sections. It is now by far my favorite race course.

Race day was very good. In my race run I stalled up in one corner at the top and than got quite a cheer from the crowd when I got bucked on a rock garden and came onto a wooden ramp to drop drifting sideways. I made it out okay though and from there on it was so fun, the bottom section had fast berms with some super fast bits and a good sized road gap. I came across the line with the biggest smile on my face, according to one of the team BC coaches. I ended up 3rd in Junior expert three quarters of a second off the win and top 30 in Pro. Though I always want to improve my time I was very happy with my result as it bumped me into third overall in the Canada Cup series with one more Canada Cup to go. This is also good coming into Nationals as now I am consistent in the National series which means if I get a good result at National Championships in a few weeks than I could end up on the Canadian National team and possibly go to the World Championships.

Two weeks ago I also got 3rd at the Bear Mountain BC Cup #2. It was a very muddy course and I had an over the bars crash in my race run, but besides that it was a good weekend and my result put me in 2nd overall in the Junior Expert BC Cup overall standings. I've got three more BC Cup's to go, so I am aiming to get a few more good results and push it to hopefully win the series.

I also just had a Cycling BC team training camp in Whistler this past weekend which was a lot of fun. Getting in so many runs up there was very helpful and allowed me to work on and perfect some things I have been working on.

I have this weekend off and next weekend is Crankworx. I am still undecided if I will be racing the Canadian Open at Crankworx as it is the weekend before Nationals. It is a very fun course, but I'm thinking I should probably use that time to prepare for Nationals as it is going to be the most important race of the year for me.

If you would like to keep updated on my season or check out what I've been up to make sure to check out my blog at forrestriesco.blogspot.com

Here is a link to a photo from the last Canada Cup if you would like to see it.

Thanks

Forrest

Getting ready for crankworks!

2011-06-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

I have been going dirt jumping lately on my wildcard and just learnt 360's and barspins on a dirt quarter pipe hopefully soon on a really dirt jump!
Last night Me and a buddy went for a training ride up by my house, its a great trail like a mix of dual slalom and single track it was sweet perfect little practice trail for crankworks!!
Really looking forward to crankworks this year since I'm old enough to compete in dual slalom and giant slalom!

2011-06-30T03:53:00.000-07:00

Dirtmasters!

The last two week´s i have been fairly busy riding my bikes and preparing for exam´s. So ill start with Dirtmasters in Winterberg which is a super cool event with a lot of different MTB events and exhibitions. In fact it is the biggest freeride festival in Europe.

Bo, Christian and I arrived Wednesday night so we had a day to relax before practice started friday. After we had got our number plats and walked the track we headed up for a few runs. The track was super dry and flowing well, quite short though so the times were going to be really close. Practice went well and I was having tons of fun.

Sebastian Jensen

Saturday morning Bo and I got up early to avoid the sun burning us in the long queue since some 500 people was racing DH. I got 4 good runs in before seeding later that day. I also changed some lines since the track was good bed in for the better. After the early practice we went down to the pits and got some food and chill a bit before our seeding runs. Bo seeded in 6th in the masters class, which he was quite happy with. I seeding in 66th spot, 9 seconds of the pace in Elite men, which I was not that happy with, but I had some left in the tank for sundays race.

Bo Andersen

Sunday we got up early again to got some runs in and dial the last things in. Practice went well until I crashed hard into a tree on my last run. I was pretty sore after the crash so I could not pedal that well but I was okay.

Come finals the bikes were running good and I was felling quite confident that I could put in a good time and get a top 30 which was my goal. Bo was also felling good and was hoping for a top 10. First up was Bo who put in a good effort and ended up 11th. After Bo´s run there was a big crash in the rock garden, just after I had warmed up, so the race was delayed about 45 minutes which influenced on my starting time. Nevertheless I got going and had a okay run riding some sections on my heels but it was okay. I ended up in 46th spot only 7 seconds off the winning time. I was only 1 second from a top 30 which was pretty annoying. But the positive was that is was only 7 second off the pace where is was 15 second off last year, so that a good improvement.

Bo´s Banshee Legend

Overall the weekend was good I had lots of fun on and off the bike enjoying the good weather and the festival atmosphere. I´m looking forward to next iXS in Ilmenau in about 4 weeks and hoping to get in the top 30 there!

- Sebastian Jensen

Bear Mountain Challenge 2011

2011-06-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

Jun.18 I was on my way to the 2nd B.C. cup of the year in Mission, B.C. called Bear Mountain Challenge. It was pretty difficult on organizing this competition with the troubles of not getting my beautiful Banshee legend MK II ready in time, so i had to borrow my dad's friends bike (Sebastien Vickers) which was also a legend MK II. It was a little big for me but I knew I could handle it. First couple of runs on the legend was my first time ever and it felt amazing! I was so stoked to be finally be on a Banshee bike because ever since I was in Vegas at Inter-bike I loved Banshee! I gotta thank Jon Hadfield for making things happen for me with Banshee! He's gotta be one of the most switched on guys I've ever had to deal with when it comes to support. All day it was pissing rain out on the course, the roots and rocks were covered in a inch thick mud layer everywhere, but it was super fun. The west coast experience was kick'n in. After training the clouds started to clear up and it started to look like race day was gonna be hot and sunny…

Wrong! I woke up to the sound of rain falling on the tent. My dad and I started to pack up the camp site and cruise over to the race course. I ended up doing two practice runs and I was ready to pedal my butt off! I got to the top of the course with my new clean clothes on and I knew I was ready. Two people in front of me till the run which matters, I pulled out my goggles from my jacket and i dropped them in the mud…Damn it! -__- I went to go to pick them up, but I ended up stepping on them. Damn it! -__-. 1 person left, so I forgot about my goggles and put them back in my jacket. I drop in with total confidence that i'm going to have a "clean" run. About half way down the course i could barely see from the mud caked in and around my eyes, but I still continued to finish my run without hesitation. When i got to the bottom i stripped from my mud covered gear and got into some new clothes. After quite a bit of listening to Tippy and the other categories I heard my category. When I heard Tippy say ''in second place a young shredder from whistler!'' I was like ''chea-yuh-bra-bra-chu-yuh-yuh-braaaaaaaaaaaaa!" just kidding not really my style, but was stoked none the less as it was my fifth day on a bike since my broken collar bone in April at Race the Ranch.

Definitely want to say thanks to the Trident team for helping and encouraging me at the race. They're a humble group of guys and was sweet to chill with them. Zac Smith was a diamond, he showed me some tips I never new on how to maintain my Banshee. This guy knows bikes!

Stay classy,

Adison MacDonald.

Frist photos of summer

2011-06-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hey, these are some photo's my buddy Jordy Evens got riding. Thanks to banshee bikes for there help.

Jonathon

Freakin Bike Checks!

2011-06-22T20:45:00.001-07:00

Check out my new bikes for the season!

Banshee Rampant!

Banshee Legend!

2011 So Far!

2011-06-18T23:10:00.001-07:00

I've been riding a lot lately, but sadly, I haven't been filming so much.This is all the good footy I have gotten this year. There are a few clips that I have used before but mostly new! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/25283319

-Shane Trento

Push Pedal Crank

2011-06-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Banshee lovers, not the norm for us but still an grand journey. I am currently on the most epic adventure of my life so far right now, following the Tour Divide as riders go from Banff Canada to Mexico. If you look closely you might even see a spy shot of a Banshee Bike. Enjoy!

Push Pedal Crank

2011-06-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

Lorien Arnold from Sooke Mountain Cycle putting his Legend through its paces at Broom Hill on Vancouver Island, BC.

2011-06-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

#2 Round of the Danish DH cup

Sebastian Jensen prejumping the last drop.

The second round of the Danish DH cup was held at a new venue in Randers this past weekend. The forecast for the weekend said rain, rain and rain and so it was. The track was not that difficult, there was a couple of turn and a bunch of jumps and drops. Nevertheless it was a bunch of fun to ride. Compared to other danish courses it was good since they only had a couple of months to build it. Props to the builders!

Kasper Nancke pinning it.

Saturday practice:

Both Kasper and myself were on new bikes. Kaspers last parts arrived before the race so he could build up his new Last Herb DH. My old bike was stolen, a couple of days before the race. So Bo and I build up my new bike friday night just in the for the race. I would like to give at big shout out to the people who made it happen!

Practice went well and we got our bikes dialed in for the race on Sunday. We were trying out some funky lines in practice and having a lost of fun. Both Bo and I opted for the Maxxis EXO´s again for a fast and lighter rolling bike.

Bo trying out a offcamber line in practice.

Sunday practice and racing:

Sunday started out fairly chilled with a couple of runs to dial in some lines and get a feeling of the bike.

Bo was up first to race since he hadn´t ridden the first DH cup. Bo´s first run went well until he crashed in the middle section. He picked it up again and ended up posting a 50,7. For his second run Bo wanted to get down without crashing and came in 6 seconds faster, which he was fairly happy with.

Next up was Kasper. He was feeling comfortable on his new Last. Kasper posted a 44,550 for his first run and went into the hot seat. Second run was good but .5 of a second slower but was good enough for a 2nd place and his first podium of the year.

Since I won the first round I was seeded first and therefore the last to pin it down the hill. My first run went good with no real mistakes and I came down in 42.13 which I was happy with. My last run was almost the exact the same only .35 slower which gave me the two fastest times of the day over 5 seconds faster than 2nd place. 1. and 2. for 222Racing was pretty good and were looking forward to doing the same at the next round.

Kasper Nancke - Sebastian Jensen - Mike Thisted - Mathias Lystbæk - Mikkel Groth

Thanks to Simon Nejst and Lars Mortensen for the pictures.

- Sebastian Jensen, 222Racing

SKS - Slopestyle

2011-06-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

Hi !

Last weekend the SKS-Slopestyle has taken place @ Winterberg, Germany as part of the Dirtmaster Festival 2011. Below you find some pics of me riding my Rampant during competition on the rebuilt course, that was extended this year with some new wooden obstacles. The Rampant makes it a lot easier to compensate the hard landings while still having the handling of a hardtail. 1st choice.

Since the slopestyle-track is located in a dip, it's easy for the people to view the ongoing action.

As every year some friends and myself rented a vacational home near the festival . Short ways for lot's of fun, party & action during the festival days.

Impressions from last year...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC8AiJCfr-0

The Festival consist of slopestyle, 4x, Downhill, Enduro Ride and an expo-area.

http://www.dirtmasters-festival.de/

Here you have the view from the middle of the 4x straight to the slopestyle course.

Since the wind was blowing during my runs I did it the safe and not risked to much, so I ended up 27th, pro class, from finally listed 45 and total over 80 starters.

Overall it was a great & long weekend

Greetz from Germany

Dennis Hoppe

Dirtmasters Festival / iXS GDC #1 - Winterberg

2011-06-09T14:25:00.001-07:00

The Dirtmasters Festival in Winterberg is often referred to as the European version of the legendary Crankworx-Festival. And despite the fact that Winterberg is much smaller than good old Whistler, the comparison is fairly accurate actually. The Dirtmasters Festival consists of several competitions, ranging from speed-disciplines such as Fourcross and Downhill to style-oriented disciplines like the Slopestyle event. And just like in Whistler, tons of companies show up to show their latest and greatest products, tons of people show up to watch the bike action and get drunk, tons of riders show up to compete against each other... the list goes on and on!

Welcome to Winterberg!

My brother Joz and I arrived in Winterberg on Wednesday in order to set up our tent and get a few runs in on the Downhill track before the masses would arrive. Our plan was to compete in the first round of the iXS German Downhill cup, which was actually completely sold out within a few hours. In addition to that, we were obviously looking forward to watching all the other competitions, hang out with our friends, walk across the exhibition area and enjoy the weekend.

On Thursday, the iXS Rookie Downhill Cup took place on one of the well-known tracks in Winterberg. Although called Rookie Cup, the level of riding was far from "Rookie" and a lot of the spectators were blown away by the level of riding. In addition to watching the race, we also managed to walk the track for the upcoming downhill race which looked like a ton of fun, despite being fairly short.

The atmosphere was great as usual.

The track started with a good-sized jump followed by a fairly flat, pedalling-section before entering the woods. All the wooded sections were really fast and constantly changed due to a constant stream of riders on track. The entire course was flowing very well. It certainly wasn't the most difficult or longest track ever but this actually meant that racing on the track would be quite challenging. One mistake and your race run was pretty much over since times were extremely close.

Practice on the track was a ton of fun. Waiting in line to get back up the mountain... well, not as much fun as riding. But this is what happens when more than 500 people decide to practice and race on a course that is just a little over 1.5km in length. Except for waiting in line, the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday were great and both Joz and I felt really comfortable on track.

Having fun on the track! / credit: www.traildiaries.de

On his last run before qualifyers, Joz somehow managed to snap the damper unit of his fork in half. Luckily the guys at Sram fixed his fork for free but he had to ride his qualifying run on a borrowed fork that he'd never ridden before, so he had to ride very conservatively. Despite that, he managed to qualify in 24th position with a 2:06. My qualifier went well and I didn't make any major mistakes but for some reason my time wasn't very good. I qualified in 75th position out of around 150 people with a 2:15. I was fairly happy with my position but at the same time, I knew that I was a bit off my own pace so I was looking to improve my time come race day.

On Saturday night, we watched the SKS Slopestyle where some of the best riders in the world threw down some amazing tricks, including double backflips, triple tailwhips, 360 double whips and so on. Personally slopestyle or dirt jumping isn't exactly my cup of tea but I was absolutely blown away by the level of riding. Thousands of spectators were standing along the course and made for a great atmosphere. In the end, Martin Soderstrom took the win in a convincing manner.

The slopestyle was amazing to watch!

Come Sunday, I was well-prepared to give it all that I could in my race run. I felt great right before the start but for some reason messed up one of the first corners, almost sliding out. Apart from that, everything was going very well and I was riding notably quicker than in the qualifiers. With the finish line almost in sight, my bike slid out underneath me and before I knew what was happening, I hit the ground. I managed to get back on my bike but once again my race run was pretty much over. I crossed the finish line with a 2:19 way back in 96th place. Without crashing, I most likely would have gotten a Top 50 result out of 150 riders so I wasn't too devastated.

Joz rode very well in his finals run but made a few little mistakes that cost him some valuable time, especially on a track this short. He wasn't too happy with his race run but finished with a 2:05 which was good enough for 23rd position. He was less than 1.5 seconds off a top 10 finish which once again proves how close and competetive the racing was.

After our race runs, we headed up the mountain again to watch the pros take on the course. Unfortunately the race was delayed for close to an hour due to a fellow racer crashing extremely hard in the fastest and rockiest section of the course. Get well soon! In the end, German downhill legend Marcus Klausmann took the win ahead of Andi Sieber and US ripper Logan Binggeli.

Joz on his way to 23rd place out of 150 riders / credit: www.traildiaries.de

Looking back at it now, the weekend really couldn't have gone any better. The racing was a lot of fun as was watching all the other events, the atmosphere was great with thousands of spectators, a lot of friends showed up to support us and while not exactly as well-known as Crankworx, the Dirtmasters Festival once again proved that it's most definitely worth visiting.

Cheers from Germany,
-Moritz Zimmermann

Whistler airbag video day 2!

2011-06-04T22:30:00.001-07:00

Whistler!

2011-06-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

On May 29th i went to whistler for the first time this year to hit the airbag and foampit which im super stoaked about because i learnt flips! heres the video!
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/200088/
(Im orange shirt blue helmet)
On June 3rd my dad went down hard riding whistler for his birthday so yesterday i drove up to whistler with a friend to see my dad and than ride the trails today which is always a good time! (my dad has a concussion cracked sternam and 5 cracked vertibra's. He out for 6 weeks but should be fine!) So i got probably 10 laps in on the trails and than got major arm pump so i went to the dirt jumps where i met Brandon Semenuk and rode with him for a bit! Whistler is always a good time cant wait to go again! Get better Dad!

2011-06-03T18:23:00.001-07:00

Last week I got back from the first Canada Cup race at Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. It was my first time racing outside of BC and my first time being on a plane, so it was quite an exciting trip.

I arrived in Montreal on Wednesday and went directly to the mountain where I was staying with the Cycling BC downhill team in one of the two condos they had.

Thursday the team went for a track walk to check out the course. It was quite a change from riding on the Sunshine Coast, there were a lot of rocks, fast rock faces and huge boulder rock gardens.

The first day of practice was Friday. It took a few runs of the course to get the feel of it and than it was super fun from then on.

On Saturday I slipped off the back of my bike and stretched/smashed my foot on some rocks. It was my first run of the day which really sucked, so I had to sit the rest of the day out with my foot up and iced.

The 2011 Cycling BC downhill team.

I was able to ride on Sunday, with a little bit of pain. I got in four rides in before my race run, which is more than I usually do, but with missing Saturdays practice I was scrambling to get my lines and get up to speed.

I ended up taking a bit of a crash in my race run. I went over the bars and got a little tangled up and out of the tape in one of the rock gardens. Besides my crash I had a pretty good run. I ended up 7th in junior, which wasn't exactly what I wanted but it was okay considering my circumstances.

I have a few more weeks left of school and then I have a BC Cup and then I'm headed back to Quebec for Canada Cup #2 at Bromont.

Thanks to Dave Hord for the photos.

Thanks

Forrest

forrestriesco.blogspot.com

Team Geronimo's May Race Update

2011-06-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

We've been busy! During the month of May we travelled all over the world and competed in several major downhill and 4X events. Cruise on over to our website to catch up with with team through our latest race report and photo galleries.

Photo by Matt Delorme

Edit Coming Soon!

2011-05-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

I've been riding a lot lately and finally going to have a video to show!

A little preview...

-Shane Trento

Video from Davin!

2011-05-26T22:42:00.001-07:00

Went on a shoot with Davin Pena the other day, and he whipped up this banger! Psyched how it came out!

Mike Montgomery Getting Rad at Woodward West

2011-05-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

Fully extended cliffhanger flips and more...

Mike Montgomery Mayhem - More Mountain Bike Videos

iXS European Downhill Cup #2 - Todtnau

2011-05-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

For the first time since 2005, Germany's most prestigious and, as many claim, best downhill track (finally!) Todtnau returned to the international racing scene by hosting the second round of the European Downhill Cup. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this race. The only races I've been to in the past were some smaller, local races and the iXS Dirtmasters race in Winterberg as well as the Wheels of Speed-Race in Willingen which arguably are two very unique races. And even though I've been to Todtnau several times in the past months - it's got to be my favourite DH track on this side of the Atlantic Ocean -, I was quite nervous on our way down to Todtnau.

Welcome to Todtnau!

My brother Joz and I loaded up the car and took off early Wednesday morning to get a few more practice runs in before the racers from all over the world arrived. The track was in prime condition and was extremely fun to ride as usual. The course starts with a smallish drop leading into a rather technical corner before you hit the first high speed section which is littered with some good-sized jumps and road gaps. This section is followed by the first pedalling bit and a very rooty section. Then you're off into a very high speed, rough section with some berms and jumps before entering a very long and flowy section through the woods which is quite technical in some places and extremely fun to ride. Usually the track ends here but the race organizers decided to add a grassy, off camber-section after leaving the woods, which lead right into a brutal, slightly uphill pedal-fest before crossing the finish line. In total, the track is close to 3km long and very difficult to ride. On the one hand it's very fast and rough in most places but there also are some very exhausting pedalling bits. Therefore one could easily mess up his race run by pedalling too hard and then not being able to control the bike through the technical bits and vice-versa.

Practice on Friday went surprisingly well and trouble-free. The pace was great and we managed to hit some lines that we hadn't even seen before. You could definitely tell that everyone was taking it quite easy since nobody wanted to be too exhausted for their race run come Sunday. After practice was done, we hiked up again to watch the Pros practice on course and we were definitely blown away by some of the riding... definitely very inspirational. We also met Banshee World Cup rider Matej Charvat and talked to him for a while. He was looking great on track and proved to be very nice and easy to get along with off the track.

Prepping the Legends...

Come Saturday, we got up early to get our two mandatory practice runs in. Again, everything was going very well. Our Legends felt right at home in the rough stuff and both Joz and I were really comfortable with the track. We decided to take a closer look at two or three sections to discuss our line choices for our upcoming seeding run but apart from that, everything was quite dialled. After a healthy lunch, we went back up again to do our seeding run. I had a minor little crash in the very first turn which cost me a bit of time and I also decided to walk the uphill bit so I was pleasently surprised to find out that I qualified in 23rd position despite saving a lot of energy. Joz rode very well and qualified in 14th place out of around 65 riders, so both of us were very pleaed with how our seeding runs went.

For some reason though, Sunday simply was one of these days were nothing quite works the way you want it to work. I felt horrible during the morning practice, riding all over the place and not hitting any of my lines. In addition to that, I flatted my rear tire once again and managed to bang up my rear wheel pretty badly so I decided to call it a day and rest until my finals run. Joz was once again feeling great on track and riding very fast yet controlled at the same time, so he was quite confident for his finals run.

Possibly the best berm in the world? / credit: www.traildiaries.de

When I was standing on the start line, I felt surprisingly calm and relaxed, unlike during the morning practice session. Right when I left the start hut, everything was going very well and I was hitting all the lines that I was planning on hitting while riding notably faster than during my qualifier. I also managed to hit some lines that I hadn't attempted before so everything was going great until I went down in what was propably the easiest turn on the entire track. My front tire must have washed out underneath me or something like that - I didn't even have time to react so I went down into the ground with my head first. My visor was broken so I couldn't see anything for the first few seconds and I had to run up the hill to grab my bike. Luckily my helmet and neck brace absorbed most of the impact. I was lucky that I was able to get back on my bike again but obviously I knew that my race run was pretty much over. In the end I was quite surprised to find out that my finals time was just half a second off my qualifier despite the big crash and consequently keeping it rather mellow down the rest of the track, finishing in 31th position. Joz managed to hold it together during his race run and not make any major mistakes. He knocked a couple seconds off his qualifier and finished in 18th place with a 4:38 which he was very happy with.

After our race runs, we loaded up the car and watched the Pros tackle the last bit of the course. Track favourite and local hero Marcus Klausmann, who qualified 6 seconds ahead of everyone and looked visibly faster than the rest of the field managed to rip his rear derailleur off his bike so the race was over for him. In the end, Brook Macdonald took the victory a few seconds ahead of Nick Beer and Joshua Button.

Joz on his way to a great Top-20-finish / credit: www.traildiaries.de

Looking back at the race now a few days later, I'm still pretty bummed about the way my race run went but that's racing I guess. If anything, crashing in my race run should be a motivation to be a bit more focused during my race run in Winterberg next week. All in all, I'm quite happy with how the weekend went though. The riding was great, the course and the entire event was awesome and we got to spend a lot of time with a bunch of friends riding and racing our bikes. I guess you couldn't ask for anything more, right?

We should have a bunch of pictures posted up on www.zimbros.de very soon. In the meantime, our good friends Peter and Rizzo took a bunch of awesome pictures of the race and uploaded them onto www.traildiaries.de, so take a few minutes and check them out.

Cheers from Germany,
-Moritz Zimmermann

222Racing Denmark in Germany

2011-05-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago 222Racing went to Willingen and Winterberg in Germany to get up to speed and have fun before the race season started. We rode in Willingen for two days and Winterberg for two days aswell. we did not meet Moritz Zimmermann, but Moritz we should met up some day "down there"

Here is a edit from the trip, enjoy!

http://video.mpora.com/watch/qFUeA4EA1/

- Sebastian Jensen, 222Racing

Fogelsode S2 #10: Back At It!

2011-05-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

About two months ago, I put a foot down weird on a sketchy 360 and broke the third metatarsal in my right foot. Thankfully, my recovery was smooth and painless, with constant entertainment and good times that my friends and family brought! Not to mention, I got a killer cast-tan out of it! I got cleared to start easing into riding two weeks ago, so I spent a week building up strength riding cross country, and started jumping the week after. I’ve been collecting GoPro footage along the way, with some clips during my recovery, my x-rays, a bit of cross country riding, and finally jumping and downhilling again! It feels absolutely unreal to start riding again and I couldn’t be happier! Enjoy!

Fogelsode S2 #10: Back At It! on pinkbike.com

Winterberg!

2011-05-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

I often wonder what it would be like living in Vancouver or somewhere in the Alps. Well, to be a bit more precise, I often wonder how rad it would be living in one of those areas when it comes to riding proper downhill trails. But the thing is that I'm stuck in the middle of Germany and there aren't any big mountains anywhere around here. It's not all that bad though. As a matter of fact, there are some very nice trails around here so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Winterberg is a remote little town in the middle of Germany, surrounded by nothing but even smaller towns and some mountains (or should I say hills?). There isn't much elevation at all, especially when compared to places such as Whistler or Porte du Soleil, yet Winterberg is very well-known for its rad bike park.

First and foremost, Winterberg features what has to be the biggest and best slopestyle course of Europe, but as a matter of fact, there also are some very neat and fun downhill tracks. In all fairness, they aren't exactly what you would call really steep or extremely technical and it takes you less than two minutes to get from top to bottom - but riding those trails is a ton of fun. And this is what counts, right?

Last weekend, my brother Joz and I travelled to Winterberg to check out the new Downhill tracks. The trail crew has been quite busy during the past few months with building some new trails. The new trails are great actually. One of the new trails - which will also be the race course for the upcoming iXS German DH Cup - is very fast with some technical bits and several big jumps. In addition to that, there's another new trail, simply called the "single trail". This trail is as natural as it can get, with lots of off camber-sections, some tight switchbacks and some very steep bits every now and then.

To cut a long story short, Winterberg proves that you actually don't need that much elevation in order to build trails that are extremely fun to ride. Of course I'd prefer to have some epic, 30-minute-descents instead but for now, I'm really glad that places such as Winterberg offer some of the best riding around.

Check out www.zimbros.de for a couple more pictures!

Cheers from Germany,
-Moritz Zimmermann

Bit of DH on my new Rune

2011-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

First post on here, I am a photographer and videographer from the UK and have just got myself a sweet new Rune in Team red.

Anyway first shots of me out riding the thing down the local DH trails, the thing laps it up if your pretty smooth with it...

Nice 20 foot booter

Bit of a scrub

Another Scrub ( they are rad ) http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Anyway for more of my work and shots of my bike check out my site www.JacobGibbins.co.uk

Fromme ride!

2011-05-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

Went to Frommme today for the first time with Jordan Timmer and Lucas Bacso, friends of mine and man was it a fun mountain.
The Wildcard was the perfect bike for up there I'm so glad i bought one!
Ladies only is super techy and rocky but super fun ended up meeting Digger as he was building up there. Bobsled is awesome because its basically a huge pumptrack going down the mountain which is sick! Those trails make me not want to ride woodlot anymore.
Hopefully going to Whistler for opening day on Friday which will be fun!
Hopefully once there is nice weather i will post a dirtjumping/or downhilling video.

Water Trails

2011-05-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

My first full movie :) // PB broke something of a video miniature :(

Water Trails on pinkbike.com

Video to cure boredom

2011-05-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Bored? Check out this video from the 2011 Ranchstyle for some excitement featuring Banshee rider Mike Montrgomery!!

Ranch Style!

2011-05-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I recently got home from our 17 hour trip back from ranchstyle, and I had a blast. I rode very well for my personal standards but fell short from the finals by a few spots. I managed to backflip the stepdown and 360 the drop, which i was really pumped on. I hit the 35 footer on my amp and it was scary, I wish I had my rampant to send it but It will be built for teva in June forsure.
Heres a shot that Devon from pinkbike got.

Riding the Banshee Rune

2011-05-10T19:20:00.001-07:00

Here is a video of myself riding the 2011 banshee rune
Locations:
Til til DH tracks, Chile

Huinganal enduro track, Chile
San carlos enduro track, Chile

ENJOY!

Visit: MBstore.cl & be our friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MBstorechile

2011-05-05T03:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the first race of the season was held in Rold forest which was the first of 6 rounds. The track is pretty basic with some jumps and berms mixed up with the super loose ground after a few weeks of sunny weather. 222Racing (Bo Andersen and Sebastian Jensen) and 222Freeride (Kasper Nancke and Bjarke Pedersen) meet up saturday for practise.

Bjarke Pedersen sending it into a berm.

Saturday practise was good and we all got the dry course dialled in. I was trying out a pair of Maxxis Minion EXO´s since the course isn´t that rough so I would save a bit of weight and time in the end hopefully. Everybody was having fun and catching up after the winter break. Since we do no have any seeding in the Danish DH cup, practise on saturday is always chilled.

Bo Andersen on the logride.

On race day the track was rolling fast and was getting quite loose after the practise on saturday. So we got our bikes and geared up and headed up for one hour of practise before the first runs started. We all got a few runs in which we felt good about and was fairly confident on the course.

Sebastian Jensen in practise.

First up was Kasper who rode a decent run with a few mistakes and ended up in 19th spot with a 1.05,94. Next up was Bjarke on his Scythe who posted a 1.00,01, which he was happy with. Bjarke got a 4th which is quite solid. Last up was myself. My run went well I hit all my lines and I pedaled hard on the flat course. I posted a 56,93 which was the fastest time of the day and therefore good enough for 1st, winning with .4 of a second.

Bjarke Pedersen - Danny Sørensen - Sebastian Jensen - Henrik Martinsen - Mike Thisted

All in all it was a good weekend with happy people and a good vibe. The Banshee Legends and the Scythe was running good all weekend teamed up with the Marzocchi 888´s and the Roco shocks. We also got the chance to flash our new Sombrio kits and the new TLD lids and gloves. also a huge thanks to our other sponsors: Banshee Bikes - Halo wheels - Maxxis Tires - Marzocchi.com - Acros and SRAM!!

All of the pictures are taken by Andreas Gudum.

Next weekend 222Racing is going to Winterberg and Willingen in Germany so stay tuned!

- Sebastian Jensen, 222Racing

All the Digging is paying off

2011-05-03T14:33:00.001-07:00

Finally..

The Rain may be gone but the jumps are not thanks to a thousand blisters and a bunch of poison oak. Quite the trade, I got such a good deal.

Sunshine Coast DH race!

2011-05-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Good time at the Sunshine Coast DH race got 7 out of 14 for my first DH race ever, looking forward to more races. Had an amazing time on the Sunshine Coast and hope to go back soon!
Really Cannot wait till Theres nice weather 3 days and thats it! Build a new jump hopefully building a set soon so I can get dirt jumping again!
Will post pics soon!

IXS European Cup - Monte Tamaro

2011-05-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

European IXS series kicked off the season in Switzerland – Monte Tamaro. It seems to be the most prestigious European race serie. 300 racers from 16 countries were the indicator of that.

First race of the season is always different feeling. No-one knows how the others are going to ride after the winter break.

The track was really difficult, long and challenging what was enhanced by rain on the begining of the weekend. It was my first real wet riding this year, but I felt amazing on Friday. I made some more practice on Saturday before quali and I also felt that I’m fast. I simply did a whole run and finished 3rd (1st Nick Beer, 2nd Marcus Pekoll) in qualification what really motivated me for Sunday.

Sunday, the race day was full of sun. The track began to dry a bit, but some slippery rocks came out. I was really confident and I knew that I can do some good result. I rode well with some small mistakes almost the first half of the track, but than a fatal mistake happened. I slipped a bit from my line and hit the rock by my front wheel what catapulted me over the bars. I hit another rock with my head and knee and the race was over for me.

Resuls:
1st Markus Pekoll
2nd Joshua Button
3rd Lorenzo Suding
4th Marcel Beer
5th Brook McDonald
Matej Charvat – DNF

It was a shame as I felt that I can do it, but this is not the end..

I've already been to doctor and my knee seems to be just badly bumped. A week of having a rest should make it.

New Jersey

2011-05-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

My new jersey with Banshee logo and 43ride (biggest polish e-magazine

Andrew Bigelow on PlusSizeBMX

2011-04-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

Banshee Grassroots rider Andrew Bigelow has an interview up on Plussizebmx.com

Check out the interview here.

Welcome on-board Andrew!

2011-04-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

Sending it

2011-04-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

Foam pits are always a paine because half the work is crawling out. That’s why there’s nothing like having a diald session at a step up with all the buds. It’s the kind of thing that looses all gratification when you start to take it too seriously, but for all its worth it’s as much fun as you can have in the sand without towels and sun screen.

Thank you Tyler Paget for the dope flicks.

A great start to the season

2011-04-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend at Race the Ranch, BC Cup #1, I placed 3rd in Junior Expert. I was very happy to start the season off on the podium, this proves to myself that the work I've put in over the winter is going to be paying off this season.

The whole weekend was packed with awesome riding. The course was very short, my time being 1:59 and the fastest overall time being 1:53. The track was super fun with very drifty corners and fast high speed sections. I had to hold myself back from doing too many runs on Saturday, since the course was so fun, but I had to not tire myself out too much to make sure I was ready to give it my all on Sunday.

I've got a few photos from the race including a podium shot below.

If you want to keep updated on my season you can always check out my website at forrestriesco.com, or you can keep updated through my blog.

This weekend coming up I will be racing the local Sunshine Coaster DH race, than on May 18 I will be leaving for Quebec, for the first Canada Cup.

Forrest

Early Season Update

2011-04-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

Team Geronimo is back from the first whirlwind of major events, photo shoots, and testing sessions of 2011. It was quite the trip! We traveled over 10,000 miles by air and by land over the past month...

Vist our site to read about our trips to

Columbia, Port Angeles, Black Rock, Sea Otter and more

2011-04-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

BC Cup #1: Race the Ranch, Kamloops BC- April 23/24 2011-

Hello MTB friends… my name is Trevor Burke and I am riding for Banshee/Trident Racing in 2011. I’d like to share a few words about the race this past weekend, BC Cup #1: Race the Ranch in Kamloops BC. Right off the bat here I’d like to mention that as I am writing this I am drinking Sangria out of my Pro Mens 1st place trophy which is a boot shaped mug just like out of the movie Beerfest... Well done to who ever thought of this for a trophy! Awesome! I also received a spanking fresh “Race the Ranch” belt buckle... STOKED!!!

At the end of summer 2010 I received an email from Zac at Trident Sports (Banshee Distribution North America) asking if I wanted to ride a Banshee Legend MkII with Dorado`s for next season. I had ridden our friend Seb Vickers’ Legend/Dorado setup in whistler over the summer and it felt amazing… so I jumped at the opportunity putting a "for sale" sign on my v10 the next day!

Trev in the Steep bit up above the road gap

After living in Whistler for 18 consecutive months and 2 months into my 2nd ski season, I was over shredding pow and needed to feel 2 wheels ripping up dirt underneath me, so I moved to North Vancouver to crash on a buddies’ floor for 4 months to save some coin and begin training for Summer and the racing season ahead…. in that 4 months I managed to do only 20 days of gym work and only a handful of mountain bike rides (on Zac’s bikes!), not quite the intensive training I was hoping on, but it was something. Lots of cheap beer and playstation got in the way I’ll admit…

Trevva prancing like a reindeer

I got a lift to Kamloops with my buddy, Bart Brown (Masters PINNER!) in style! We drove up in his new Ford F350 van which can take 15 passengers and it was holding just 3 of us, so plenty of room to stretch out, also with his pimped out custom built trailer towed behind, with beds, music system and heating! Definitely the best way to go to a race! We arrived in Kamloops on Friday afternoon and went for a track walk. I had raced the track last year and knew it was pedally… this year the course had a few extra jumps and seemed like there wasn’t any more than 15 meters of track with out a jump or corner. Whilst walking the track I walked past one of the fastest guys in BC, Dean Tennant scoping lines, I knew there was going to be some tough competition for the season opener. My travel mates and I settled into a few cold ones and went to bed ready to hit the track the next day.

Junior X Member Kip Shortreed- Rumblin'

Saturday morning I was eager to get up to the top and go for my first downhill run since November. Mr. Zac Smith arrived at the race site right on time with his Legend which I would be borrowing for this race, as a couple parts for our new bikes hadn’t arrived yet…We set up our pit, I put my Alpinestars gear on, grabbed my Smith Goggles in a flash, swapped Zac’s brakes to the correct side ( front brake RIGHT mate!!! )and got a lift up to the start. First run down the course/ first downhill in 6 months/first ride on the Legend went better than expected as I hit all the big gaps on the course although there were a few corners I still had to figure out. By 2nd run I had all my lines sorted and the rest of Saturday I punched out runs all day not because I needed to practice the lines but because I was having so much fun riding the bike. I have ridden Boxxers for 6 years now and 1 day on the Dorado impressed the hell out of me, they feel so supple at high speeds through rough rock sections keeping my bars straight, instead of twitching off every other rock like other forks often seem to. I think more people need to just get on one of these forks and ride a bit… you’ll see what I mean. They aren’t just faster, they make a bike feel bloody special and I love it. After all these years of rebuilding the brand, the new folks behind Manitou really have something special going on . I’m hooked on the TPC+ damping for sure and they just look so cool! Radical.

Trev nearing the bottom of the course...

After a super fun day of riding bikes, it was time to watch the dual slalom so I headed up the course to watch the carnage with my box of cheese-its and a few viewing beers. Our teammate Dennis had a big crash in practice putting a nice little Easter egg on the side of his head just in time for Easter, but unfortunately putting him out of the competition. Dalen (Trident’s Bike Division Sales Manager) also competed in the Slalom and it looked to be a good time. Dinner and drinks and off to bed after that.

Dalen "The Momentum" Stanley rocking Slalom on his Amp

Dalen and Steve Boucher put in some solid runs in Masters, Steve taking 3^rd on his Black/Green Legend looking like a million bucks. Dalen’s girlfriend Cheryl was looking good as well on her spanking fresh BLUE Legend running against the other Masters Women, team co-manager/photographer/mechanic/suspensiontech/pitboss/fleetmaster Zac Smith snapped a snazzy pic of her looking solid just after the hip jump! Good work Cheryl, having fun out on the bike in STYLE.

Cheryl Moore on the move

Kip Shortreed- About to take a dirt nap!

Race time came around for myself and the rest of the Elite field, I sat in the trailer and listened to some fast tunes on my Ipod and drank a herbal energy drink supplied to me by Bart, I filled up a water bottle and jumped into the back of Tyler Gorz’s truck to grab a lift to the start gate feeling a little nervous.While waiting for the Pro Women to finish I did few laps around the bmx track on the Legend to get my legs moving. As our class began to race I looked around at my opponents who are ALL very fast guys from BC, Tyler Gorz is always a threat, Dean Tennant, Ryan Vanderham, Tyler Allison, Jeff Bryson, Dan Skogland and Andrew Mitchell (3 time national champ!) to name a few. Quite a stacked field. Teammate JS Therrien won this race last year on the Banshee Legend so of course I knew he would do well here, if not repeat another victory… this track is practically his after all! Nobody looked faster in practice than JS. I was nervous seeing all of this intimidating talent around me but it calmed my nerves to just think of doing well regardless of results against all of these great riders.

JS Looking very fast!
My run started off not quite the best only by fault of my own- I was having too much fun riding my bike in practice and I did not practice what gear to start the race in… I started in a harder gear than I should have, but as soon as I railed that first corner of the track I forgot all about it and had the time of my life pinning my way down the whole track. The top half of my run was very clean and I just felt happy riding my bike at speed so quickly because this bike and suspension setup is so sensitive and stable. Half way down the track after a blind hip jump over a rock garden, a fast straight goes into a very fast loose left hand corner- all weekend I had been cautious around this corner as most people were taking an inside foot off the pedal just in case... during my race run I hit the hip over the rocks and nailed this corner with perfect confidence in my bike setup. I just didn’t even think of putting a foot down because this bike with this setup just DEMANDS SPEED and helps you through everything as if automatic. I just can’t describe it any other way and I’ll say it again: The Legend MkII with Dorado Pro/Ti Sprung Revox Pro is like freaking auto-traction. What a bike.

A well earned brew- Cheers!
As predicted my wheels stuck to the ground and I cranked out of the corner into the most pedally section of the track popping and pumping all the jumps, this is the moment of the race I knew I was on a hot run, Zac’s Legend pedalled amazingly well through the next long flat section of track and pumping through the small jumps like I was on a pump track on a hardtail or something. Coming into the final drop section of the track I took my line which no other rider was taking allowing me to get a couple of extra cranks in before the final straight. I hit the final jump keeping it nice and low then cranked hard across the finish, I took over the hot seat from the awesome Ryan Vanderham by a mere 0.02 of a second, with approximately 12 of BC`s best racers still to come I was very nervous sitting in the hot seat. I have never won a Pro class race ever before, sitting and watching rider after rider come very close to my time was possibly the most nerve racking experience of my life, Brett Tippie helped calm those nerves with his awesome humour. Four years on 3 different V10’s seemed to do nothing for me personally, while a day and a half on a borrowed Legend that had seen over a year of battle-action came up trumps. What can I say our man Zac knows how to tune a bike. He was in the pits all weekend cleaning and repairing seemingly everyone in attendances’ gear. He even rode this bike in-between race day practice and start time on Rio trail and had the bike not only re-set for me personally but fully rebuilt, cleaned and tuned, what a champ. Despite being so nervous at the starting gate I won the race against so many talented athletes in the most stacked field I have seen with a time of 1.53.11, the fastest time of the day, borrowed bike and all... ON ANSWER FLAT PEDALS MATE!!!! I am really happy the race turned out so well for our Team. JS had a minor bobble in the top end of the track but recovered with apparently blistering lower-track speed for a decent time of 1.56.26 in 9^th place. Two Elite racers on the team running the track that day, and two top ten finishes. I am really excited to run the new bike this season and represent all of the top-end brands we have kitting us out. We have a lot of great people pitching in to help us out including Banshee Bikes of course, Manitou Suspension, Hayes/SunRingle/Answer Products (ProTaper handlebars can’t be beat!), Gamut Chainguides, WTB Saddles (Thanks for the fresh Silverado’s boys), Alpinestars extra fine Pyjama’s and Armour Systems, and Smith Optics keeping our vision crystal clear and our riders looking fresh.
Trevor gets his first Elite win aboard the Legend MkII!!

See you all out on the trails, in the Whistler Bike Park and of course at all the BC Cup races! Come one come all, we’re going to have a classy good time.

Cheers,

Trevor Burke

Team Banshee/Trident Racing

X Gon Give It To Ya!

2011-04-27T16:52:00.001-07:00

In February Cob and I headed down south in the X-Fusion Battle Bus with Theo and John for a seven day film trip in southern California. The video came out today on Pinkbike, and Theo killed it to say the least!

Enjoy!