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World Cup season 2010

Here is the schedule for th 2010 UCI DH and 4X world cups. Sorry about it being so late, there are a few good and bad things about this new schedule,one of the bad things is that there are only 6 rounds, opposed to the 8 rounds we had this year. The good things are for one, the other tracks are all proper DH tracks, unlike stromlo which was to flat and featureless, also the USA get their first event in four long years.

Race dates and venues:

World Cup

4X Rnd1- Houffalize, Belgium - 1st & 2nd May
DH Rnd1/4X Rnd2- Maribor, Slovenia - 15th & 16th May
DH Rnd2/4X Rnd3- Fort William, Scotland - 5th & 6th June
DH Rnd3/4X Rnd4- Schladming, Austria (not australia) - 19th & 20th June
DH Rnd4- Champery, Switzerland - 24th & 25th July
DH+4X Rnd5- Val di Sole, Italy - 31st July & 1st September
DH+4X Rnd6- Windham, USA - 28th & 29th September

WORLD CHAMPS
DH+4X+XC(but who cares about XC)- Mont Saint Anne, Canada - 1st to 5th November

There you go now you know when the world cups are on.
Peety

SMPA video- Albany Creek Downhilling

A video of our latest antics in Albany creek.

Proto-type T-shirts

I was bored today so i decided to design these proto-type t-shirts for the company.

If you think you can do better email your designs to sprocketsproductions@hotmail.com

Front(Above)

Back(Below)

SMPA Facebook Group

Sprockets MTB Productions-Australia (SMPA) has decided another way you can interact is to join the Sprockets MTB Productions facebook group. search for the group on facebook and join.

Video of Gap Creek

This is the first video from Sprockets MTB Productions

Enjoy,

PEETY

World champs

I know its a bit late but I thought i would give you my rundown on the 2009 DH and 4X world Championship of 2009.
The 2009 world championship was held on the week of September 1st-6th The week of the Worlds ran from Wednesday to Sunday with different parts on different days.


On Wednesday Downhillers had the opportunity to walk the track to get a feel for their lines. Thursday was timed practice, opposed to the usual qualifying runs each rider had to nominate a practice run as their fastest time; this would then determine the order of the race.Thursday was practice; Friday was more practice and 4X race day. Australia’s Jared Graves has dominated this year’s fourcross competition, to add to this he won the World Champs too, (he also has the World Cup title rapped up going in to the final round in October) followed by Romani Saladini, Jakub Riha, Rafael Alvarez.

In the downhill things were much more interesting. Each team had their different ways of improving their own bikes , for instance some riders elected single clamp forks, this saved weight but reduced strength.

In the juniors there was tight racing going on between Brook macdonald, Danny Hart,shaun Oconnor and Rgys willemse. But it was Kiwi Brook Macdonald who took the win, with Shaun 2nd, Danny 3rd and Rhys 4th.

Mick Hannah of Australia was the first big name racer on the course and set a time of 2:31.02 which was then the quickest time of the day. Then Peaty hit the track he blitzed through the top section he was faster in both the first and second split, but not by much. Many thought that this could be Micks day after all. But in a bittersweet sort of way Peaty crossed the line 0.69 seconds faster than Hannah, although Hannah was out of contention, Peaty was one step closer to his dream. This was a familiar situation for Peaty, it was déjà vu of last year when Peaty was leading with three men to go. This time there were also three to go, namely Sam Hill, Greg Minaar and Gee Atherton. Sam Hill was next, Sam had been training here during the off season so he could pose a major threat to peaty dream. As Sam flew down the track Peaty was looking more and more nervous. Sam was up in the first split dead even on the second, so could he keep it together sadly he lacked the pace in the third section to be placed two spots below Mick Hannah with Frenchmen Fabien Barel in between.

Minaar was on course next, being on the same bike and team as Peaty this would be an interesting contest. Minaar was slightly up in the first split but slightly down in the second. After clearly showing he wasn’t going to let his team mate take the world title without a fight. Despite his best efforts Greg Minaar crossed the line a mere 0.05 seconds behind Peaty.

So we come to an almost identical situation as last year, Steve Peat leading and Gee Atherton being last man down and the only one who could stop Peaty’s dream. He did stop it last year could he do it again.

Steve peat is now the 2009 Downhill World Champion. Gee Atherton could not stop Peaty, Gee ended up placed 6th. What I said before holds true, this World Championship was the bitter sweet race, although no Australian won in the downhill, Steve Peat’s career became complete, one World Championship, seventeen World Cup wins and he has been racing for 15 years.

So there we have it, world champs of 2009

Scoop!!!!

Today I recieved a call from Race Elements informing me that one of the riders they work with has chrashed today. Rhys Willlemse was out for a DH ride when he chrashed with one of his riding mates. Rhys is currently in hospital with a broken femur. Luckily he crashed at the start of the off season so he will be racing next year, no word on who he was riding with but I expect it to be either Tamryn or Darcy Murell. You can follow Rhys's blog by visiting the Rhys Willemse link on the side, aswell as the Race Elements website. Rhys is an amazing rider who is the Junior national DH champion for 2009. this just goes to show that anyone can crash.
We wish you best recovery Rhys.

Crankworx- Whistler

Recently Crankworx- Whistler took place. Crankworx is a Mtb Series that goes all over north America, it holds events such as DH, Dual slalom (a 2 Rider DH race) and a Slopestyle contest, a park and street riding session.

Here are some photos.

Downhill Alternatives

With current craze of creating a new genre of Mtb that suits your specific riding style. I thought that this could become one of the greatest Mtb moves of late... Just think about that for a second, it opens up new markets, thus making Mtb more financially stable.

Anyway, this got me thinking, why not start a new one. You see living in a relatively flat area I do not have the opportunity to go for a Dh ride as much as I would like. I then thought, why spend most of my time trying to beg people to come with me. Because of this I have decided to create a new style of Mtb that solves all my problems. I call it Casual Dh.

Now although there are no rules as such there are some guideline's, these may or may not be possible with everyone's trail.

The Guidelines are:
· Casual DH is pretty much a set of casual races. It would work well for groups of up to ten people.
· Competitors must ride either from their house or 1km to the track.
· No bikes that were last bought for over $2000 can compete.
· The track must not take over 2 mins to complete.
· I suggest building your own trail.
· There must be a small uphill section.
· Incorporating a pump/rhythm section is a good idea.
· Must be ridden the first time anyone sees it.
· Times must be rounded to the nearest second.
· Possible novelty events such as, No pedaling, team events etc.

I am currentley in the process of building a trail for this purpose... Expect some picture soon.

Crashing and Injury

Yesterday while out riding at Gap Creek i came off and had a massive crash. This has lead me to think about all the Pro's that get injured all the time. Unlike me they have the series and their money from competing that they are missing out on, whereas for me just miss a week of riding. I can now understand how Pro athletes may feel. Here are some photos of my injuries (some are unable to be shown)

My shoulder

My elbow. This resembles all my knees and elbows.

And finally my head. I got a massive egg and some scratches on my lip.

Dirt Jumps

Just another quick note...
I am currently in the process of building/fixing some dirt jumps that i found just down the road.
I have ambitious plans whic may or may not become reality.

Peety

Wallrides

Some sick wallrides that i found on the internet. As you will remember i am house bound because of that dust.

Freeriding

Freeriding is the most complex genre in MTB, namely because it is so open to the induviduals interpretation.
For example some people may only consider freeriding as massive drops and gaps, whereas some may think you need no trail merely a big mountain. Then there are the genres of street freeride, slopestyle freeride, DH freeride, northshore freeride and jump freeride.
See below for examples.

Peety

Dust Storm!

If you look outside my house all you can see is a redish haze. This haze is from a massive dust storm that has swept up to brisbane from sydney. Because of this I am stuck inside and cannot go riding. so i had a look on the internet and found a few awesome Freeriding pics

Schladming

This weekend in Schladming in Austria the 8th and final round of the DH and 4X took place. As you all probably know Jared graves won the 4X (even though he already had the title wrapped up), although the big news is who won the DH. it was a four way battle and anyone could have recieved the overall title depending on the result.
Here are the race results:

In 3rd place: Greg Minaar. Minaar was last years World Cup Champion.

In 2nd place: Sam "blinky" Blenkinsop. Blenkinsop did take the win here last year. 

And in 1st place: The king of DH in 2009 Samuel Hill of AUS.

But what does all of this mean for the overall standings. As I said before any of the top four could have taken the title.

But who did take the title you ask. Well the Santa Cruz Syndicate team took the team title, with riders like World Champion Steve Peat, last years World Cup Champion Greg Minaar and British boy Josh Bryceland.

Anyway back to the induvidual Overall title:

Here are the results:

5th-Mick Hannah (990pts) GT

4th-Gee Atherton (1166pts) Animal/Commencal

3rd-Steve Peat (1258pts) Syndicate

2nd-Greg Minaar (1349pts) Syndicate

And the World Cup Champion is:

1st- Samuel Hill (1469pts) Monster Energy

Overall Podium

left to right: Gee Atherton, Greg Minaar, Sam Hill, Steve Peat (its a good last name) and Mick Hannah.

1st and 5th are both Aussies I knew it was gonna happen.

So the race season is done and dusted,now its back to the local scene.

Peety

Internet Coverage.

Just one extra little note. I have been hooked on the internet of late, the internet has made the spread of MTB news almost instant.

 Just today I went on to http://www.dirtmag.co.uk/ and found out the winner of the fourcross final in round eight of the world cup, the fourcross final only happened last night and I was able to see that Jared Graves of Australia had won this morning. Like wise I will be able to see who won the downhill, that is happening today, early tommorow morning. 

The internet coverage of the world cup also allows me to see the weird, crazy and quirky side of the races.

For example today I discovered that a gorrila crashed the World Cup and was posing for photos. Although I suspect it was merely a man in a gorrila suit, but the interenet just said gorrila so it must be true, right? 

Thats all Folks.

Peety

First blood

Well here I am, starting what Ive been wanting to do for months now. I have finally got this blog thingamajig going. Anyways, this blog will be more focused on the extreme side of MTB, Ie Slopestyle, Downhill, Freeride etc.

Now I will focus on the local Slopestyling scene, around where I live there have been a few new jump spots and a smattering of northshore development (MTB obstacle course made from wood), I am also in the process of designing a jump park in my back yard.

Freeride is a section that is hard to measure growth in, because you dont necessarily need tracks that are publicised, the genre is more about getting out and doing more riding than building and letting nature do the building.

The local Dh scene is coming on strong with more and more tracks emerging, I have still to try most of them but I am getting there. Some of the tracks I have ridden have been absolutely brilliant, sadly though I have discovered some that have not been maintained well enough.

Thats all, I have now taken my first blogging blood.

Peety