Standing in the noisy throng of spectators amid the overcast yet mild Yorkshire evening of the Dalby XC World Cup’s Pro Sprint Eliminator, I decidedly ‘got’ the new discipline. Plastic pint in hand, a load of mates around me roaring and shouting at a previously alouf racing discipline turned almost sexy and infinitely more accessible. This would be worth a watch next season.

Round one of the new XCE series rolled off a purpose-built start ramp at the Houffalize World Cup. The ever-shifting two-wheeled chameleon that is Brian Lopes took the victory on a short punchy track which saw riders hunched low over their front tyres snarling for air. It may have lacked the festive vibe of the Dalby event but it was a good start.

When I sat down after lunch on Friday with a much-needed end of week coffee to watch the replay of the second round from Nove Mesto though, I couldn’t help but feel deflated. The course seemed to comprise entirely of tarmac whilst the only real ‘feature’ was a fire-road section with a ditch dug in the middle of it. The lengthy run-in to the finish past the vacant grandstands told it’s own story.

The Tweetosphere promptly erupted – Lopes (who finished 29th) queried whether the UCI would ever run a road race on a 90% dirt track before vowing to race on. The most vocal criticisms however came from the 4X community who still feel aggrieved to have gotten the chop from the World Cup roster at the end of last year. The knives were pointed squarely at the lack of action, the tarmac course and the lack of any real spectacle.

A certain US mag was even prompted to declare that the course had been designed specifically to prevent a Lopes win. Anti-US and anti-Lopes sentiment dripped derisively from the article which was generally lambasted for its blinkered and unsubstantiated claims.

So what happened?! Did the UCI simply drop the ball? Were the Czech organisers not arsed about the new format or was there just nowhere to build a decent course? Only those involved in the events planning know the truth but one thing that is obvious is that Nove Mesto represented a massive step backwards for a discipline which needed a seasons-worth of leaps forwards.

 I haven’t really kept the DH racing ball-rolling so this weekend’s Forest Of Dean Mini-DH is going to be a welcome reintroduction to sweaty palms, cocking lines up and generally being a bit panicked!

That said, I do get an anoraky joy out of getting my bikes sorted for races. Maybe that’s the future, maybe I should leave the actual riding to somebody else and just concentrate on spannering?

Anyway, the Morewood is sorted so here’s a quick run down of the stuff I’ve got on there.

Burgtec Penthouse Mrk.3 pedals – you can’t go wrong. I’ve spent the last year or so swapping between clips and flats and after some deep debate, have decided to plump with flats. The Burgtecs are just about the best pedals I’ve ever used – comfy shape (not too big or small), great pins and more than man off to take the odd knock.

Nuke Proof ShockWave Ti spring – this was the first mod I ever made to the Morewood and couldn’t recommend it enough, I’m sure anyone whose ever felt the weight difference between a Ti and steel spring would agree and at 450lb x 3.0 it’s perfect for my lanky, heavy bones.

I’ve recently swapped my cockpit about from my trusty Renthal Fatbars and Integra stem to this new Direct-Mounter from Burgtec coupled to their 15mm rise, 780mm wide RideWider bars. I’m running an extra spacer on top of the crown too just in case things feel a bit low.

Manitou Dorado Pro fork. There’s just no denying how good these look and the dampening feels second to none. I need some more time on them to really get their number but they were always getting the nod over the standard RockShox BoxXer RC’s.

Specialized Butcher tyres. Throughout 2011 I opened my mind a bit to different kinds of tyres (I used to be staunchly Maxxis) and among the best that I’ve found are these Sam Hill signature numbers. The ‘Sam Hill’ bit is purely a width thing as these clock in at a spot-on 2.35in. Sadly, like Arthur Guinness, he doesn’t sign them all himself… The wheels are the ever-true Hope Hoops which are still click-clicking away on their second bike. Here’s my initial review too.

SDG I-Fly Storm saddle and I-Beam post. Another nod to the monosyllabic Aussie trend-setter, I tested this a while ago and it’s stayed put ever since. Ok, it’s just about as hard a perch as you’ll find but I love the racerhead functionality of it. The I-Beam system has been faultless and has stayed steadfastly up to torque since the day I fitted it.

There we have it then – she’s ready to go. My aims for this weekends racing? Stay on, have fun and go faster in my second run. I’ll try and strap a camera on to my head at some stage too so stay tuned for that…

If ever there was an excuse to be out of bed at 6am on a Saturday morning, racing bicycles is probably it. The Vito Sport had been washed, fuelled and packed the night before, I’d safely made it through my ban on my usual Friday night beers and was feeling pretty fresh. Resisting a cup of coffee, I threw one last ball for the dog, wheeled my Whyte 19 out of the shed and fired up the Vito – it was time for Oktoberfest!

Ashton Court was bunged – packed even. After some near-catastrophic wheel-spinning and inch-perfect parking Jamer, Coxy and I took a wander over to registration to collect our race boards and to sign away the rest of our Saturday. Next stop was to go and see Matt at Torq who very kindly sorted us out with enough energy drinks and gels to power an invasion of some kind. Their new vanilla drink is amazing by the way – a nice break from citrus.

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The start was a running one. Uphill. Through wet grass. Nice. Jamer and I managed to stick together and in a move that would echo our approach to the rest of the day, we ignored the cattle-like stampede to go the long way round and rather under-handidly cut into the main group as it thundered towards the opening singletrack section.

This is one of the biggest challenges of racing the new look Ashton Court – it’s tight. There’s little room through the enclosed, flowy singletrack get stuck behind a slower moving rider or get bunched up and there’s little you can do but pump round and wait for an open section to pass on. As soloists you then face two distinct types of problems;

a) The full-Lycra XC warriors – These chaps do this sort of stuff all the time and are very good at it. They go very fast for very long periods of time. The vast majority of them are polite and will charmingly blip past you when you find a space. Some of the others though, seem to get rather frustrated.

b) Teams –  The sensible option and to be fair, what we should have been doing. Beast out a lap as hard as you can then simply hand over to a mate and have a rest for an hour afterwards. They don’t then need to get stuck behind a muppet like ourselves three or four hors in…

That said, it may have been competitive in places out on the loop but in the pits the atmosphere was top drawer as the smell of BBQ’s inter-mingled with kids chasing dogs, dogs chasing kids and all to the rather odd sounds of Oompah music. It was Oktoberfest after all…

Anyway, as Jamer and I started to suffer from severe back pain at around lap seven, Coxy got on with the task in-hand and beasted his way to 28th overall with a mighty 11 laps under his belt. A top effort worthy of his first ever race. Jamer made it to nine whilst I called her a day at a lowly seven. I rested the back for half an hour and on deciding to go back out again, went to stand up and basically fell out of the back of the van. Game over – get tidying.

Good weather, good racing and even the odd celebrity (see the Bike Riders United boys including Peaty) – Bristol’s Oktoberfest was a top way to spend a Saturday after all! Thanks to Mike and the boys at Bristol Bikefest, Mercedes Vito Sport as always, Matt at Torq for keeping us fuelled up and the bloke who helped us escape the mud on the way out!

Here at MBUK, you can end up being pretty promiscuous when it comes to selecting a steed. We swing our legs over more bikes, whether they be bike test machines, First Rides or prototypes  than is probably healthy. As a result, it pays to be pretty open-minded when it comes to set-up – you’ve got to be able to adapt and report back in an objective fashion.

When it comes to your long-term test bike though it’s important to form a more mature, considerate relationship. It’s got to be set-up just right for you to allow you to use it to it’s optimum as a test-bench. You’ve got to be able to swing a leg over it and go fast right from the off.

All that being said, my long-term Morewood Izimu has had me scratching my head a bit recently. After years of dropping upper crowns to headtubes, building up stack after stack of spacers on steerers and running ever-lower bars all in the quest for a lower front-end I was suddenly confronted with a bike that felt as though it would glide easily under most draught excluders.

Manufacturers have clearly caught on to the trend of the low front end and DH bikes are now creeping ever-lower. The problem is, the Morewood‘s low head-tube combined with the Spank flat-bar really hampered handling over the rough stuff, on braking into turns and made getting on the gas back out of them  feel like my knuckles were down below my knees somewhere.

I’ve been having a bit of an experimental couple of weeks in the shed trying out differing bar heights and after extensive testing have come out with a winning set-up – Renthal’s Fatbars in a 38mm height. The highest they do!

Ok, so my forks are still dropped through slightly and the top crown is slammed to the tube but that extra bit of height has transformed the front end of the Morewood. You can still leach it through turns but the increased stability everywhere else is massive.

Tech Ed. Weaver went racing this weekend on another set of 38mm bars and came back raving about them. Some bloke called ‘Sam’ something is also running them too… Not that’ll influence anyone, of course.

Could this be the year of the rise?!

Last year, Cav looked to be in with an excellent shout after a sensational Tour de France in which he took six stages, became the first Briton to wear the leader’s pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia and won the Milan-San Remo classic. Despite this he lost out to ageing – he’s one year younger than me… – Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs. Giggsy is, undoubtedly, a brilliant footballer but 2009 wasn’t by any means his best year ever. It felt more like a lifetime achievement gong.

This year Mark has, after a slow start, had another pretty fine season – five stages at Le Tour and becoming only the second British rider to win the points jersey at the Vuelta a Espana – so he should again be in with a chance of winning. My, pretty safe, bet is that he won’t.

Vote for me!

Cycling doesn’t really register in the minds of the wider public. Only two cyclists have ever won the award – Tom Simpson in 1965 and Sir Chris Hoy in 2008. Formula One, athletics, boxing, Winter Olympic sports and football obviously mean more to Brits than bikes. Is Amy William’s skeleton gold more deserving of an award than Emma Pooley’s World Time Trial gold?

Of course, it could be argued that it’s a pointless award – although most recipients do seem to be genuinely moved when they win – and then there’s the whole ‘Sport’ and ‘Personality’ thing. (Cav is one of the few who qualifies for the latter.) As a cycling fan I would like to see Mark win, but he’d probably have to win the Tour de France for that to happen. I’ll vote for him, of course, but then there’s also part of me that’d love to see darts legend Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor win it too!

I’ve never denied it, I like Aaron Gwin a lot. His rise from injured MXer dabbling with big bikes to the third quickest rider in the world has been meteoric. American cycling needs Gwin, he’s hands down the fastest rider they’ve produced in a decade and the only US racer who can seemingly really tackle the super steep and wet European race courses.

All that said, he’s off to Trek in 2011.

“I’m really excited to be joining Trek World Racing,” he said. “I’ve looked up to Trek Bicycles since I was a kid watching Lance Armstrong win the Tours so to be a part of that same American brand and adding to that racing heritage is pretty cool. The support this team provides is second to none and I believe I’ll have all the tools I’ll need to achieve my goals.”

So, a typically star-spangled statement from a happy American on Trek. Less happy presumably is the man he replaced, South African Andrew Neethling.

Trek made rumblings about wanting a top five rider for 2011 to accompany the Women’s World Champ Tracy Moseley and now they’ve got one it would seem.

So who’s going to step-in to the vacant Yeti slot? Joey Schussler struggled at World Cup level last time out and doesn’t look ready to make the step up to senior rider on the team – Needles for a straight swap anyone?

Stay tuned to the MBUK blog and Facebook for more as we get it…

On Sunday morning I had two choices – go and race my bike or spend a day spending money in Homebase before returning home to spend hours decorating. Simple really.

We’d been on a shoot with Chris Smith earlier on the week and he’d mentioned that he, Chopper and Jim Davage amongst others were all off to a race at Longleat on Sunday hosted by the Black Cannon Collective. I gave Chris a bell, got directions and stuck the Transition Covert in the car.

This was going to be my first DH race and I couldn’t have picked a better event – everyone was really sound, it only cost a tenner and I even got a number board made out of a paper plate.

The riding was tricky though, there were three tracks with an hour on each during which you had to record a time. The person with the quickest cumulative time by 4pm was the winner.

I worked myself out an equation pretty early on of five runs per track broken down into one cruisy ‘sighting’ run, then three to build up speed and the fifth being a timed one.

The first one was a bit of a mare as I managed to lose my chain half-way down and couldn’t take advantage of the Covert’s light weight and great pedalling in the open bottom section. Still though, I was down in one piece.

The second track was a lot more fun and featured a gap drop, some nice turns and a mini rock garden. By now I was enjoying myself and had what in my head felt like the quickest run I’d managed on my timed. It wasn’t and it was still a good few seconds of the pace. Swearing.

The last track was long, flowing and relied heavily on hitting a couple of sandy berms just right. I lost a clip half-way down and managed none of the above. In my defence though, I did put a big old sideways in in the mud of the final turn for the highlight reel. Sadly though, there was no highlight reel.

I’d survived and drove home with a mixed bag of emotions – I’d ridden smoothly if not well yet I was still happy to have come away feeling good about the race. More racing this winter? Yeah, definitely!

Also worth noting though was just how good the Covert was – smooth, agile, grippy, easily picked up, slack, quick and long. Oh yeah, and I rode it all day XC the day before. What a bike – what a time to be alive!

Sam Hill’s mechanic Jacy has always made sure that the Antipodean flyin’ machines bikes have been imaculately prepped. His Iron Horse Sunday was famous for having more little tricks and polishes than the rest of the World Cup fields’ put together.

Ok, so a square inch of moto-foam here and there does not World Champions make but it all adds up. In a sport where the Overall title was decided by just three tenths of a second, little differences can have huge consequences.

We ran into Sam’s bike on the Specialized stands at both Interbike and at London’s Cycle Show and every time you look at it it seems like you see another ten little tweaks that you missed last time. Here are our favourites…

Custom cable-guide – This neat solution deals with keeping the gear and brake cables snug and out of the way. It’s missing from the production bike but may make a cool little mod.

Micro-drive gearing – We guarantee that there’s very little that would feel ‘micro’ about this gearing once you were pedalling it. A lot has been made about the tiny six speed block on the Monster Energy/Specialized bikes this year but apparently it’s just to enable them to run a smaller front ring which in turn provides a touch more ground clearance.

Custom E*Thirteen bash-ring – This trimmed down bash also helps to  make that extra ground clearance possible.

Custom SDG saddle – Another one which rumbled the forums earlier in the year. You can read more about this ‘Jacy special’ in MBUK very soon…

Trimmed shifter – You know that you’re operating in hundreths of a second when your mechanic starts filing down the edge of your SRAM X0 shifter. Pro-only name etching obligatory.

Double cut tyres – The tricky conditions at Mont St. Anne had everyone second-guessing their tyre choice. Sam’s bike was running a double cut (straight and slanted) front and a straight cut rear.

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?

A wet start to the day and a tyre change was in order straight away. I headed up for my first run and the track was fast and fun but it was clear things were going to be tight come race day.

By the time I hit hill for my third run I was keen to get the speed up. I hit the second step down into the berm and had a big over the bars. I knocked my head pretty hard which resulted in a nasty lump and completely wrote off a new Mavic Deemax Ultimate wheel.

All I can say is thank God for the Troy Lee D3 helmet and Leatt neck brace. Those things are life savers. With a headache, a very broken wheel and dented pride, I gave the racing a miss, which was gutting.

Remember kids… play safe, wear a helmet and don’t do nose dives!