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
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
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
It has been an absolutely surreal couple of days with Dan and I achieving the biggest results of our racing careers over the weekend winning our World Cup races at the opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt, Germany.
The week leading into the race went perfectly smoothly being looked after by all the kind people from the Trek Factory team, for me there were two major things ticking over in my mind… The first, what was going to happen with the weather, it has been completely inconsistent with rainy days followed by beautiful sunny days and the forecast was continually changing. The second, how is my form? My training had been going well, I had a dream start to the season in February/March (winning my first National Round, Mellow Johnny’s Classic and a few other races). But, I had a really average race in Solothurn in Switzerland a couple of weekends ago so there was certainly some doubt in my mind…. I was really keen to get the first World Cup race done and dusted, just to see where I stand relative to the other girls and see where I need to improve. Continue reading
You will simply be unable to look away once you hit play. “We spent four weeks in the summer of 2012 building two lines in Lofoten, Norway; a dirt line and a big bike line. Our goal was to capture world-class riding in the untouched and unique nature around Lofoten. The fast shifting weather and continuous problems with getting the lines working left us with only a couple of days to complete the film.
This is a highlight clip featuring all the best action from the project.
Lines of Lofoten – a 5 episode web-series will be released shortly.”
Fektor are proud to welcome Australian rider David Mcmillan onto the roster, joining Rhys Atkinson as they look forward to success in the upcoming 2013 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup season.
Dave had one of his strongest seasons finishing 6th overall in the 2013 Australian National Series along with a podium at the Oceania Championships in Tasmania.
With a big season planned Dave said: “I’m really excited to be part of the Fektor family. They have a great vision and have a good positive vibe. I’m looking forward to representing Fektor in my overseas adventures to Europe and Canada.”
Dave has a full World Cup calendar booked, along with Crankworx events. Team mate Rhys Atkinson will be doing a select few World Cups. He had this to say: “Pumped to have Dave on the team. He’s a great guy and rider, look forward to having him in the Fektor family.” …View More
With the CWR team effectively ending at the end of the most recent national season, the young and exceptionally quick junior Ben Hill was back on the market for sponsorship. However, no one quite realised just how fast he would be picked up. The man behind the Swift Rocky Mountain team Ben Crundwell took no chances, instantly offering a ride to the young gun. We thought we would have a quick chat with Hill in person to see what went down, here is what he had to say :
So Ben how do you feel about the move, were you surprise to pick up a new ride so soon?
I feel good and I’m pretty happy about the move. However I was very surprised to move on and get on a new bike, something completely different so soon after last season. Basically so happy about it all feeling nice and fresh coming into a new season so I owe it all to Benny (Ben Crundwell).
Have you spent much time on the Flatline? It must have been a bit strange to return to the world of regular drivetrains after a lengthy stay on the Zerode.
I have ridden the new Flatline twice now, and that’s two solid days riding that went bloody well! The rocky feels sick underfoot, it didn’t feel too weird to be going back to a derailleur but there was a little adjusting to the whole shifting and pedaling at the same time thing again. …View More
