Avid chainless challenge #2, Whistler B.C.

W.O.R.C.A (Whistler off road cycling association) held its 20th anniversary party on Saturday and along with Avid, held the second chain-less challenge. Base two sits at just over a 5 minute drive above the Blackcomb village and was the perfect setting for Worcapalooza. The event as a whole was a celebration for all 1275 members. A beautiful evening welcomed everyone to these free events that included a hill climb, criterium, a beer garden and of course the Avid chain-less. 

Worca is known for two things... Organized fun event and beer drinking. The beer drinking came in to play as the Avid chain-less racers cornered and hit the speed trap next to the beer garden. Heckling and even a bit of foul play made for some interesting runs.

Despite a steady stick throwing at Kurtis Keene he ended up with the fastest time of the day and took home a beautiful set of Avid Elixer CR mag's. katrina Strand was top women and took home the same bag of loot. Katrina also posted fastest woman's time through the speed trap, hitting just over 30km an hour.  Damian Smith was the fastest man/boy through the trap and bested Keene by only 1km an hour.

Complete results to come but for now... Enjoy the photos.

Masters Worlds in Pra Loup France

SRAM European PR honch Elmar Keineke raced together with some of the best European mountain bike editors in Pra Loup France for the Master Worlds Downhill. Alan Muldoon of MBR, Sam Peridy of VTT and Israel Romero of Solo Bici all rocked a Rockshox BoXXer along with Elixir brakes and Holzfeller cranks while enjoying SRAM full factory race support. Hats off to Sam Peridy with his new title of Masters World Champion in the 40-45 class. Elmar didn't fair to bad with a 5th in the 35-39 class. BoXXer had a great day with top finishes in all 3 classes. Great job gang! More images here.

Shaun Palmer checks in

Shaun Palmer used the SRAM setup at Crankworx as his home base. Here what the 'Palm has to say when HB checks in with him.

Shaun Palmer Interview - Crankworx 2009 from Dirt Tales on Vimeo.

AVID Chainless Challenge #2

Here we go again! The 2nd AVID Chainless Challenge goes down on Saturday August 29th in Whistler, BC as part of Worcapalooza. http://www.worca.com/
It will start at 3:00 pm @ Blackcomb Base 2, behind restaurant 18 Below.
Just look for the large orange AVID sphere...

Lance Victorious in Leadville 100 on SRAM XX Equipped Trek Fuel 9.9 SSL

Lance Armstrong (Mellow Johnny’s) dominated the competition and won the race, while also setting a new course record. Armstrong completed the race in a time of 6:28:50, knocking off more than 15 minutes from the old course record set by Dave Weins. Lance’s win ends a six-year winning streak by Weins. Armstrong rode about the final 60 miles of the high-altitude race alone and finished with a nearly flat rear tire.

Read more here HERE
and see more HERE

Hill & Faircloth Finish 1, 2!

Sam Hill finishes first in the Canadian Open DH. Teammate Brenden Faircloth posts up a solid 2nd place result!

Watts Wins!

Congrats to Greg Watts for winning the 2009 Kokanee Crankworx Slopestyle. Also awesome job by Brandon Semenuk for a solid second place finish. SRAM, RockShox, Avid and Truvativ athletes finish 1, 2!

Check out this slow motion video of Greg's run HERE!

Whistler Loonie Race

Here's a short video from the Thursday night Loonie race. Tons of fun, and casual eats, drinks, and hanging at Lift (village cafe).

Whistler Loonie Race from Dirt Tales on Vimeo.

Crankworx Friday Action

Congrats to Jill Kintner for winning the Giant Slalom!

Troy Lee introduces new D3 helmet. Here's Troy himself with SRAM athlete, Cam Zink.

Few more images from the day can be found HERE!

Whistler Loonie Race

ROCKSHOX sponsored the weekly Loonie race (local XC series).

With over 200 regulars, we had a great time and gave out some fun product at the apres gathering.

Check out more pictures from the event on our Flickr site.

Lance Armstrong’s XX-equipped Trek Fuel 9.9 SSL

From build, to photoshoot, to Lance, all within 24 hours

Here's a preview into Lance Armstrong’s new Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL mountain bike. Lance’s first race on his new steed was this past weekend in Snowmass where the part-time Aspen resident won the Pro Men’s Colorado State Cross Country Mountain Bike Championship.

Here are some shots from the recent build up in Waterloo, WI, with Trek technician Ray Waxham and SRAM tech Paul Damato. Thanks to Michael Zellmann for the writeup and props on The Road Diaries!

An integrated Texas longhorn and Trek logo on the headtube - a Trekxas longhorn?

The production frame was designed by one of Trek’s frame artists and painted in house. It features an integrated Texas Longhorn/Trek logo (Trekxas?) on the headtube, a horseshoe on the integrated seat mast. The stem was also custom painted to match.

Lance’s XX cockpit with Bontrager XXX handlebars, that’s a lot of X’s – also notice the custom painted stem.

Lance requested that the bike come equipped with a complete production SRAM XX mountain bike gruppo; the latest, lightest, most efficient performance defining MTB gruppo which involved the SRAM, RockShox, Avid, and Truvativ brands. The goal of the XX project was to craft the most advanced cross-country specific gruppo ever.

Lance’s race set-up features the RockShox X-Loc handlebar remote connected to his SID suspension fork set at 100mm of travel. Also, the RockShox Ario rear shock utilizes an optional remote lock-out, which is mounted on his right side of the cockpit. He chose to run the 28/42 gearing mated to the 11-36 10 speed SRAM XX cassette with the PC 1090R chain and PowerLock. XX triggers control front and rear XX derailleurs, and he selected 160 X-Sweep rotors to finish off the XX brakeset.

Prior to his winning his state title Lance tweeted about his new XX gruppo, “First ride on the new SRAM XX as well. Hands down best shifting I’ve experienced on a mtb.” High praise for a guy who is pretty particular about his componentry. Read more about XX here XX homepage

Trek tech Ray Waxham builds up Lance’s new Trek Fuel 9.9 SSL bike equipped with SRAM’s new XX MTB group

The bike build took place the morning of July 31, the bike then went immediately into the photo shoot. The bike was then was boxed and UPS’d to Lance in CO for a Saturday morning arrival. Knowing Lance he probably had the bike built and was riding by 9am.

Congrats to Lance on his State Championship title and good luck at Leadville this weekend.

The beautiful finish was custom painted for Lance by Trek in Waterloo, WI

A backside shot from the photoshoot

How does one describe Whiffle Golf?

The SRAM crew setup in Whistler for the Crankworx event

What would Crankworx be without a Whiffle Golf tournament?

With a pig roast, a live band, and a clear break in the weather...it was a pretty great way to spend a Wednesday night.

Check out more pictures on our Flickr collections...

Cha Cha photo of the week

Cha Cha looks to be enjoying Crankworx just fine...

A little R&R before the Crankworx storm

So Monday and Tuesday after the first weekend at Crankworx we shut the truck down and take care of the basics, laundry, emails, haircuts, etc. in order to get ready for the next 5 five big days at the event. Monday we had the chance to stop by and visit Ian and Julien at the Chromag shop in Function Junction which is about a 5min drive South of Whistler. Chromag specializes in handmade hardtail framesets as well as stuff like seats, bars, and stems all with really cool colors and graphics. I've always liked their the logo, it's a grizzly attacking with one paw and protecting his junk with the other. More to come from the first really really big day at the event tomorrow. JD

Crankworx has begun

After the National Champs, the World Cups in Quebec and a long drive out West we find ourselves in Whistler at the biggest MTB event in North America and probably the World, Crankworx. Saturday was the first day of tech work in the pits and it was a busy one, I'm stoked to have some of the best mechanics in the World to get it done. Here's some shots of the setup and of Bryan, Shawn, and Felipe crankin out some work. More updates to come when things really get rolling mid-week. JD

Couple of Bromont Shots

So we're on the 5000K plus trip from Bromont to Whistler, we stopped in this little town north of Lake Superior called Wawa. Wish I had a fishing pole, heard the Northern Pikes are biting like crazy. First shot is from the GT trucks roster, I thought Eric Carter was from the US not Duvel? I was super surprised so I posted the shot. Then a shot of Doug Hatfield (Minnaars Mech) waking up the bike with a hammer, future team mechanics should take note since Greg ended up winning. Then we have Jacy who is Sam's mechanic standing proud with the number one plate, and Rick who is Peaty's mech giving the bike a few finishing touches before the final. Going to bed now, I hope to have some good shots of the trip up soon. Winnipeg or bust tomorrow. JD