RYAN CONNELL ENDURO DIARIES : PUNTA ALA EWS

Obstacle // Alessandra Tommei

Ryan Connell is a young gun from Wollongong NSW who is spending 3 months racing 12 of the biggest Enduro events on the planet. With a aim to just compete and push his racing boundaries, here is his account of the first round of the Enduro World Series in Punta Ala.

Wednesday
Marco Fidalgo and I arrived in Milan at 12:30pm after a 4 hour flight from Portugal where we’re currently located, picking up our bags and bikes from the oversize area we swiftly shot over to the car rental centre where we had pre booked a car. Once we got there it turned out that none of our credit cards were acceptable, we quickly scrambled to find a car big enough and cheap enough, €420 euros later we did. Loading the car up we flat sticked it to Punta Ala resort at some ridiculous speeds, crazy Europeans. I fell asleep in the back whilst Marco drove. We arrived in Punta Ala resort at 6:30pm in the pouring rain which was also forecast for the following days practice, my friend Marco a professional Mtber from Portugal dropped me at the resort with these Italians which I was to be staying with. And to my surprise they didn’t really speak much of the English tongue, so I went to bed. …View More

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TREK FACTORY RACING CHAMPIONS EDIT

Insight behind Bec Henderson and Dan McConnell’s victories at the opening round of UCI Mountain Bike World Cup race in Albstadt Germany.

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WSMTB CLUB RD 2

Tom Green

Sunday May 18th came with not a cloud in the sky, just beautiful autumn warmth – perfect for a morning XC race. The second round of Western Sydney MTB Club’s annual championship at Yellowmundee enjoyed great conditions, the Rural Fire Service even turning up to feed the riders, and raise some well earned funds. At 8:30 the racing began with 10+ kids roaring around a short-track, yelling out their race numbers with huge grins on their face. The fun continued with U15 racing, before A-Grade Men’s riders took the start line – Brian Price took off with early speed, coming in first place with a comfortable lead of 1 minute and 20 seconds.

The event was well run by the club and a great crowd of participants and spectators attended. The next WSMTB round will also be held at Yellowmundee on June 6, however there is track work this Saturday, May 25.

Photo & Words : Jamie Black

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BEAR CLAW IS COMING TO MELROSE FAT TYRE FESTIVAL

Darren Berrecloth Bike Beast // infinity list

The Bear Claw A.K.A. Darren Berrecloth confirms for the 2013 Melrose Fat Tyre Festival supported by Schwalbe Tyres. The Slopestyle legend Darren “Bear Claw” Berrecloth has recently confirmed he will be attending the 2013 Melrose Fat Tyre Festival from June 7 – 10 2013

Darren recently starred in the movie “where the trail ends” and is widely known for his exploits in the Slopestyle scene. The Crankwerx Whistler champion is “dropping into Melrose” on his way to the Munich X games on June 27 – 30 and is “stoked to come and hang out at our event” Darren has an incredibly busy schedule during the northern summer and this year is no exception so we are really lucky and super excited that he has chosen to come to the Flinders Ranges. Richard Bruce, one of the event organisers said. …View More

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A DEADLY DUO – HENDERSON & MCCONNELL INTERVIEWED

A deadly duo - Bec Henderson & Dan McConnell

Sit back and enjoy as Tim Bardsley-Smith interviews Bec Henderson and Dan McConnell on their week past, the wins in Albstadt Germany, the journey it took to get there and the road ahead. Click through for a short gallery …View More

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WILLUNGA – AIR DH EDITION

A little light heckling for Troy Brosnan

Willunga- Wet, windy, wild Willunga! The course situated around an hour from the city of Adelaide, is on private property and rarely gets used by anything more than the occasional adrenalin addicted sheep. Perched on the face of a ridge that looks out over Whites Valley, the track is nothing more than a thin strand of brown amongst a sea of green for most of the year; that is until the Inside Line crew arrive and it is transformed into a thick line of minced up dirt and rock!

The weather forecast was the main concern in the week preceding the race as Willunga is infamous for its blistering wind that blows directly off the gulf and its ability to turn on rain like there was a switch somewhere. Having said that, however, the last few years have been relatively kind and this year the man upstairs turned on an absolute pearler! Sandwiched between ‘showers,’ ‘rain’ and ‘rain developing,’ was a weekend of ‘mostly sunny,’ and mostly sunny it was. …View More

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CHILLED BARJARG WEEKEND

Beautiful alpine terrain

After months and weeks of chasing mountain bike races and trails throughout the countryside, what do you do with your self inflicted weekend off?

Go racing of course.

I was keen to visit more Victorian trails after a trip earlier in the year for a round of the VDHS not to mention a national round or two. It was simple really the courses seemed to have just the right mixture of (proper) steepness as well as technicality and fun.
The Victorian schedule runs a little different to the rest of the states, with state rounds in the summer instead of winter. This leaves a opening for small individual series to pop up like the “King of Ballarat” or the choice of this weekend “The Steintech Alpine Gravity” series. Relatively short at just three races and already one down I would head to the second at Barjarg. …View More

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