There’s all sorts of good stuff in MBUK 287. Here’s a few highlights…

Best buy full suspension bikes – which gives you the best performance at a bargain price?

First rides on the Ragley Marley, Scott Gambler 10 and Giant Anthem X 29er 1.

How to stay in control – be a pilot, not a passenger, with these skills and drills to keep you in charge on the trail.

New rides! Big Ride route around the Malvern Hills, and a Wrecking Crew ride around Kinlochleven.

Best holiday ever? Cal Jelley takes the ultimate tour of Northern California to ride the birthplaces of mountain biking!

Snow Patrol! Ric puts fat bikes to the test in the wintry Scottish Highlands.

The Coastal Crew – you’ll want their jobs once you’ve read our feature!

We meet the Coastal Crew – the mountain bikers, film-makers and photographers with the most enviable jobs in the world!

The plans for BikePark Wales are revealed – we’ve spoken to the developers and it’s looking amazing!

Awesome shots of the Athertons going massive on home turf!

15 sets of disc brakes tested – which are the superior stoppers?

Plus you get a free karabiner keyring and pull-out route maps!

MBUK 287 is in the shops now – or why not subscribe so you never miss an issue?

Fat bikes – just another fad? Ric finds out in the Highlands

Hannah Barnes shows the Wrecking Crew around her favourite Kinlochleven trails

On Monday, we caught up with Nico Vink for bikes, beers and barbecues at the Bensink BBB Jam

On Tuesday, we saw the Athertons and co show off the new ONE Industries MTB kit

Wednesday saw this video emerge of Chris Van Dine’s crazy wallride at Mexico’s Downhill Taxco urban race

Thursday brought with it part three of Weavs’ Mojo Trail Diaries with Fabien Barel and Mark Weir in Morocco

And on Friday, we couldn’t help but be impressed by this super slow-mo goodness from Anthill Films, starring Aaron Gwin, Greg Minaar and Gee Atherton

Don’t forget you can see all the latest MTB videos as they come out on ChopMTB.com.

Part 1 – Gee reflects on the world cup season opener in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and assesses his chances for the rest of the season. He reveals how he’s getting on with his new race bike, the GT Fury, before hitting the dirt jumps his brother Dan built in their back garden.

Part 2 – Rachel talks about her recovery from injury, her hopes for the 2012 season and her favourite new bike the GT Force, and then takes us on a cross-country ride with her dog Angus.

Part 3 – Dan talks about his plans to race gravity enduros as well as some longer events like the Trans Provence and Italian super enduros. As he says, for someone who grew up on a diet of dirt jumps and skate parks, these are likely to be tough to adapt to.

First up, the current World Champion bares his Hart & Soul (part one)…

Specialized riders Sam Hill and Troy Brosnan’s pre-season training in Perth…

And ealier this week, GT Factory Racing unveiled their new look. It’s certainly a lot stealthier than the Athertons’ previous blue-and-white look with Commencal…

This year’s UCI World Cup series kicks off in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa this weekend. Red Bull will be streaming all rounds live.

The World Champs are a weird affair and as the doom-mongers in Canada continue to scour the skies for the apparently iminent rain the riders got on with the first ‘timed training’ session.

The ‘timed training’ concept is a bit of a strange one – it’s basically quali, but not!

It’s a one hour open window to go flat-out and attempt to gauge how quick you are against the opposition. The problem is what if you don’t want the opposition to see how quick you’re going?! Who’s sand-bagging and who’s got it wide open – nobody knows!

Anyway, mind games aside, here are the top ten riders from yesterdays first session;

1. Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Sundicate)

2. Gee Atherton (Animal Commencal)

3. Aaron Gwin (Yeti/Fox Racing Shox)

4. Mitch Delfs (Pivot)

5. Sam Blenkinsop (Lapierre)

6. Danny Hart (Giant)

7. Julien Camellini (Chain Reaction Cycles)

8. Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate)

9. Chris Kovarik (Chain Reaction Cycles)

10. Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing)

So what do you reckon? Obviously neither Gee or Greg will want to back off after last weekend’s crunch World Cup decider, Peaty seems to be charging on a beautifully old-school course and look at Danny Hart – right up there! Mitch Delfs is another rider scaling the heights whilst Aaron Gwin is still very much in the hunt for that elusive first victory…

By Sunday night we’ll know who owns the stripes! Stay tuned for more updates.

The 2010 UCI World Cup – if I had to describe it in one word it would have to be ‘wow’! After a bullish start to the season by Greg Minnaar, Gee Atherton clawed his way back after a disappointing 2009 to take his maiden World Cup overall crown.

The venue for the final show-down was World Cup debutant Windham, NY. From the point of view of a swotty bike journo, this is exactly how you want the final round of a championship to end up. Two guys at the top of their game, seven points in it and an unproven track which neither had ever ridden before.

After an eventful qualifying session the margin was slimmer again with Minnaar coming home in fourth and Gee in fifth. That was it down to four points…

The two were now set-up for a back-to-back shoot out come Sunday afternoon – a straight fight for the crown.

All three Monster Energy Specialized riders had spells in the hot seat along with various other World Cup regulars but the real meat in the pie was yet to come.

From the first split on it was clear that Gee was giving it everything. He wasn’t going to waste time on a gamble of Minnaar having problems, nor was he simply riding for a podium – he was in this to win.

Minnaar’s run on the other hand never looked as fluid. He’d injured his elbow earlier in practice and was down at the opening two splits. He began eating back into the deficit during the third but it was just too much to ask – he crossed the line 0.37 secs down on Gee.

Fastest qualifier, Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Steve Peat, was hauling on his run and was eating time out of the already celebrating Atherton before a big off at speed in the final split put the brakes on a disappointing 2010 for the big lad from Sheffield.

Yeti’s Aaron Gwin had qualified second and was in the mood to give the home-fans something to shout about whilst securing third spot overall. It wasn’t to be however, Lapierre’s resident Kiwi Sam Blenkinsop tonked home in third earning himself the same spot overall and leaving Gwin in fourth in both the race and the overall.

So, what will a maiden overall World Cup crown do for Gee’s confidence on the way into this weekend’s World Champs? What do you reckon?

Gee Atherton (Commencal) took his second win of the season in Champery at the weekend to pull to within 13 points of Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate), who finished second.

The rain, which had turned the steep 1500 metre course into a slippery mud slide during qualifying, finally backed off for race day, but the damage had been done and, in some ways, the drying conditions made things worse. As the thick mud began to dry, it clung to bikes and turned to the consistency of peanut butter, doubling the weight of bikes and slowing forward momentum to a crawl.

“It was really tough,” said Atherton. “You know, some races you really enjoy, and others it’s a battle the whole time. This I was just fighting the whole way, the run was hard work; it was like a battle from top to bottom. It was a matter of just finding that line, hanging it out and having it pinned, and not pushing too hard and crashing. I guess I was right on that line and right on the limit the whole time. I was half crashing all the way down the hill, just holding on, and luckily I got it dialed.”

Minnaar had similar comments: “It was like Scalelectrix [model electric cars], it was one big rut the whole way down, so you just had to balance well and ride the rut as best you could.”

Only six riders occupied the Hot Seat during the race, starting with the first rider on the course, Ben Cathro, who held the lead for nearly a third of the field before being unseated by Ruaridh Cunningham (Chain Reaction/Intense). Cunningham knocked an impressive 16-plus seconds off of Cathro’s time, and was in the Hot Seat for 20 riders before his teammate Chris Kovarik bumped him by mere four-hundredths of a second.

“I’m pretty stoked to put that time in on that track,” said Atherton. “I knew Greg had the Hot Seat, and I knew I had my work cut out, and that it was going to be hard to knock him off. It is my second win of the season and I am over the moon right now.”

Minnaar continues to lead the World Cup standings with 830 points but, due to his poor qualifier and Atherton’s win and second place in qualifying, the British rider is only 13 points back with two races to go.

“I’m holding onto the [World Cup] lead by the skin of my teeth at this point,” commented Minnaar, “and with two to go, it’s not much of a gap. Gee and I will have to fight it out right to the end.”

For more race reports and results, go to Cyclingnews.com

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