Trek World Racing Update

It's been a few weeks since we looked at how the Trek World Racing team was going, and there's been some great results in the mean time.

First up, at the third round of the Cross Country World Cup in Offenburg, Germany, Mathias Fluckiger achieved an excellent result of 6th overall and was a clear winner of the U23 category, further extending his lead in that category. Brother Lukas had a tough race with a mechanical issue and finished in 15th. 

Earlier, in the women's race, Emily Batty had a great start, but got a front flat at the worst possible time, just as she was about to descend one of Offenburg's famous steep chutes. Emily's front wheel caught a root part way down and twisted, catapulting her over the bars. Emily is made of tough stuff, however, and she got back up and made it around the lap to the tech support zone where she got a new wheel before continuing. She ended up in 51st overall and 10h in U23.

Photo courtesy CyclingNews.com

The next World Cup isn't until late July, but meanwhile the riders have been doing some National rounds, with Emily racking up a win in the Canadian National close to home and Lukas getting back on the podium too at the Racer Cup Series in Switzerland:

From the TWR press release:

Meanwhile, on the same day but in Switzerland, Lukas Flueckiger was racing a world class field at the Racer Cup, the Swiss National Series. The night before the race saw a lot of rain, so the course was muddy and slippery. The course had one long uphill on big open dirt road, as well as single track. There was also one long downhill with rocks, wet and slippery roots - extremely technical. Luk chose his Top Fuel with the a prototype Bontrager XR3 mud tires. The riders had 1 startloop and 5 laps to complete. Luk had taken a 3 day break off the bike after the Offenburg World Cup and was fresh and looking forward to the race.

Luk said: "After a solid start, I was in the lead group after the startloop. In the first lap I felt strong and did some attacking in the uphills. On the highest point I was a few seconds in lead. Then on the downhill I had a good run and gained even more time. So, after the first lap I was in lead ahead of (World Champion) Nino Schurter and Florian Vogel. On lap 3 I had a front flat tire, changed the wheel and jumped on the bike just as Nino caught me. I was still in front with him but then Vogel and Jean-Christophe Peraud were coming up fast. Nino did no work because his team mate Vogel was not far behind, but with the wind it was pretty hard to do all the work alone. On the last section Vogel caught us just as Nino attacked. No chance to follow him as I was already too tired from all the lead work before. Vogel won the sprint, Nino 2nd, and I finished 3rd, but happy".

Meanwhile the DH riders have been racking up the frequent flyer miles, and the podiums. The first World Cup was at Maribor in Slovenia. Rain all weekend made for very muddy and slippery conditions, which made race runs a bit of a lottery. All three riders had runs that could've gone better, but stayed positive and headed back to the US for some National level race's. Check an interview with Andrew and Justin from Maribor here.

Firstly was the second round of the Pro GRT series at Plattekill, New York. Backing up from the good results at the first round, Tracey Moseley won the women's race and Andrew Neethling won the men's with Justin Leov joining him on the podium in third.

Photo courtesy VitalMTB.com

The following weekend was the lucrative US Open race. Drawing a field to rival a World Cup, the competition would be close. Showing they are a force to be reckoned with, TWR achieved the same result  as the previous weekend! Two wins and a 3rd! Check out the Vital video with Needles here.

From there it was back to Europe and the second round of the World Cup at the famous Fort William venue in Scotland. It was to be a weekend of ups and downs for the team. On the plus side, the team all qualified well, and overcame previous nerves and intimidation from the rough track. Unfortunately, they couldn't turn those positives into the results they were hoping for. Nevertheless, they are taking positives from it and looking towards the Wheels of Speed event this weekend, and the next World Cup the following weekend.

Also, the second episode of the In Pursuit video series has been released. Check it out here:

Check in later for more news, or follow out Twitter.

MTB Videos Galore!

In case you haven't been following the TBA Twitter feed (over there --->), there have been a few videos 'drop' in the last few days featuring Trek sponsored athletes. Check them out below:

Trek World Racing In Pursuit Episode 1 from Rob Parkin on Vimeo.

Brandon Semenuk mixing up his slopestyle training with his other, petrol powered, pursuits.

Cam McCaul delivering the goods on a newly built step-down gap for a Fox Racing Shox photo shoot. Check out his new bike that he uses! A Trek Scratch with the new Fox 36 180mm travel fork! And check what Cam can do on it too...

TWR DH'r Neko Mulally Breaks Arm

In a blow to the Trek World Racing team, American junior DH rider and new recruit, Neko Mulally has broken his arm at the Gravity East DH Series at Massanutten, Virginia, last weekend.

Apparently it is a 'clean' break and should be easy to reset.

Mulally is hoping to be back in time for the World Cup round in Leogang, Austria on June 20th.

Read more at singletrack.com and the team website.

MTB World Cup XC #2

Last weekend saw the running of the second MTB World Cup XC in Houffalize, Belgium. All 3 Trek World Racing riders XC riders were in attendance for the muddy event.

Great results saw Mathias Flückiger finish in 6th overall, and a clear winner of the U23 category. This saw him tighten his grip on the U23 overall lead too. Brother Lukas finished in 10th.

Meanwhile, Emily Batty battled the wet and muddy conditions, as well as the packed startline to finish 28th overall and 5th in U23.

The team now have a few weeks off before the next World Cup round in Offenburg, Germany. Follow their website for more news.

Weekend Viewing

So we have reached the end of another week and most people now have two days off to look forward to. Being a cyclist, for me this means two days to ride my bike. This weekend however it means a big race on the calendar. The Dirt Works 100 is a 100km mountain bike race that is now in it’s fifth year. Starting in St. Albans, on the outskirts of Sydney, this race is extremely popular and has become a feature on many Sydney riders calendars. So my friends and I will be camping out on Saturday night to soak in the atmosphere, and to avoid the early morning ferry ride, before racing on Sunday morning. If you’re out there, come and say G’day! Hint: We’ll be in the massive Trek van!

For those who aren’t racing on the weekend and have some time to kill, check out these videos below to get you stoked on riding before you head out.

First up here’s a vid of Trek World Racing DH rider Tracey Moseley doing some winter training. So, when it get’s a little cooler over the next few months, just be thankful you’re not in the UK!

Then we have a vid of RadioShack rider Levi Leipheimer ripping on a bike with thicker tires than his normal ride. For a roadie he can sure rip on the dirt too!

Levi Leipheimer on a Mountain bike from Roger Bartels on Vimeo.

Now here’s a quick interview with Trek World Racing XC rider Emily Batty from the Sea Otter Classic, courtesy of CanadianCyclist.com.

Not to forget a couple of bike reviews. BikeRadar.com recently reviewed the Trek Elite 9.8 hardtail and found it to be an awesome race bike, and even versatile to be a trail bike too. Check one out at your nearest Trek dealer.

More local, the new issue of Australian Mountain Bike magazine is on the shelves and features an Under $3000 trail bike test. The Trek Fuel EX6 is featured and at $2,899 is great value for money, featuring the same frame that was found on last years EX9, with Full Floater, EVO Link and the awesome ABP.

Photo courtesy of DamianBreach.com

That's from me for this week, so I hope the sun is shining on you for the weekend and you can enjoy the trails or the roads, or the BMX track, or the velodrome, or the bike paths or wherever you happen to be riding.

MTB Catch Up

So I’ve been slack in posting some cool stuff that’s been on line in the last few months. So I’ll be endeavouring to catch up over the next couple of days.

Firstly, the northern hemisphere is entering their spring and summer seasons, which means that the racing season is kicking off. Just in time for this, Trek World Racing have launched their new team line up for 2010 with new look kit and bikes.

With the riders already having completed a team camp to dial in set ups on their bikes, they dove straight into racing over the last few weeks, starting with the Sea Otter Classic. Some solid results on the non-traditional tracks saw them settling in.

From Sea Otter the XC riders headed to Europe for the first XC World Cup race, in Dalby Forest, UK, while the gravity riders headed north to Washington State and the first round of the new Pro GRT series in Port Angeles.

At the World Cup, the XC riders had a great start to the season. Lukas Flueckiger finished 8th in the Elite men’s category in a stacked field, while younger brother Mathias will wear the U23 leaders jersey at the second round after dominating that category and finishing 13th overall. New team recruit Emily Batty had a stellar start to her first full World Cup season, finishing in 15th overall and 2nd in U23 women with her closest time gap to the winner at a World Cup race.

Meanwhile the Gravity riders also had a great weekend. Tracey Moseley won the women’s class, while in the men’s Justin Leov finished 2nd, Andrew Neethling was 4th and new junior signing Neko Mulally was 9th.

Look out for them on the podium at the coming race’s and follow the news on their website.

Alongside the race team, Trek recognise that a lot of amazing riding happens away from the race track. So, to support the riders that excel at these non-traditional formats they have started what they call the C3 Project and re-signed Cam McCaul and Brandon Semenuk for another 2 years. These guys will be rocking it at slopestyle comps and in leading freeride movies across the world.

Here’s a couple of samples of their riding:

Cam McCaul:

ChaseLife 13 (99% CMC, 100% SWEET) - More Mountain Bike Videos

Brandon Semenuk:

Brandon Semenuk at the Post Office - More Mountain Bike Videos

For those who want to know a bit more about the amazing bikes these guys ride, check out the recent interview with Trek suspension guru Jose Gonzalez over on Bike Radar. Jose has been instrumental in redesigning the Trek suspension MTB’s, like the new Remedy, and making them some of the best bikes in the world. VitalMTB also posted a video of the Trek suspension R&D lab in California. Check it out here to see where the magic happens.

That’s it for now. More updates coming in the next few days.

Welcome back!

Well I hope you all had a great Australia Day and were able to relax, whether it was with a ride or around a BBQ. Now we are post Australia Day holiday it seems everyone is heading back to work or school. There was certainly a LOT more cars on the road this morning as I rode to work. I never get tired of the feeling of passing cars sat stationary in traffic!

By now of course you would have heard the results of the Tour Down Under. Unfortunately Team Radio Shack were not able to get up for a stage win although they did show themselves at the front of the pack on almost every stage.

Photo courtesy CyclingNews.com

The most exciting stage though had to be stage 5 featuring the two climbs up Willunga Hill. With the early breakaway pulled back in Cadel Evans attacked and got a gap, followed by Valverde and Sanchez! An Australian World Champion attacking on the climb in front of thousands of cheering Australian fans! What a sight! At one stage Cadel was the virtual leader on the road, but by the end of the stage they couldn’t stay far enough in front of the fast finishing peloton for Cadel to slip into the leaders jersey. I watched it on TV (which was great in itself to have live coverage) and can only imagine the atmosphere that must have been on the hill itself. Will have to make it a priority to be there next year! You can read some reports of the stage here, here and here. Were you watching the stage? There in person or on TV? Are you planning on going next year?

Meanwhile, in the world of triathlon, Trek have been busy joining forces with sportswear brand K•Swiss to form the 2010 Trek/K•Swiss Triathlon Team.

Expanding the support they have given to Chris Lieto and Julie Dibens, the team has 9 triathletes who focus on Ironman, 70.3 and Xterra events. The team also features two Aussies! Joe Gambles and Paul Matthews will be flying the flag for Trek and Australia as they compete across the world. See the official announcement here.

And not to leave the MTBers out of the sponsorship news, it was announced over the weekend that Trek World Racing will be taking on rising XC star Emily Batty for the 2010 season.

Emily had a fantastic season in 2009, wining multiple Canadian Cup races, a Pan American Championship and getting 10th at the World Cup in Belgium. She will be competing in the full World Cup season and taking aim at the U23 World Championships that will be held on her home soil of Mt. St. Anne. Read the full announcement here and read a recent interview with Emily here. Combined with the Flu brothers, the TWR XC team is looking very strong! Of course not to forget the DH riders, check the video news story on the second round of the NZ DH Cup that Justin Leov won recently. What a great looking course!

While one career is taking off, another comes to a close. Last year Chris Eatough announced his retirement from full time MTB racing. CyclingNews recently had an interview with Chris where he talks about his stellar career and his plans now that he won’t be racing full time.

That’s it for today, catch you tomorrow!

Australia Day Long Weekend On It's Way!

Well, the fourth stage of the Tour Down Under has wrapped up, and despite everyone’s best efforts, Team Radio Shack included, it looks like Andrew Greipel will ride away with his second TDU title.

They are already reporting record crowds for this years TDU, and I’m sure no-one can claim to be disappointed with the quality of the riding, and now it seems like some are calling for a second Pro-Tour race in Australia by moving the Herald Sun Tour to the weeks following the TDU. We’ll see what comes of that, but it’s a good sign for cycling in Australia when these sorts of suggestions are coming forward.

Meanwhile, there’s been some Mountain biking going on too. The NZ MTB Cup has been going on, and Trek World Racing rider Justin Leov has been taking advantage of the high level of the racing. He was narrowly beaten by Sam Blenkinsop at the first round, but comfortably took the win in the second round after Sam broke his wrist in practice.

Keep an eye on Dirt mag for results of the third round.

Now, to get you stoked on riding in the dirt for the weekend, check out these sites coverage of the Trek Ultimate Ride, the launch of the new Remedy and Scratch models, recently held in Utah. Great stuff.

These bikes will be in a Trek dealer near you soon, so keep an eye out.

See you post-Oz Day holiday next week! Keep the rubber side down, no matter what you’re riding.