EVENTS: The second-biggest talking point this week (after the Anastasis video drop), Red Bull Hardline, takes place alongside Maydena’s Gravity Fest (click for weather update), which has downhill racing, a jump jam, live music and spiders. After rumours of the Hardline course being too, er, hard, a few tweaks seem to have made it perfect – big, burly and brilliant. Riders are loving it. Tahnée Seagrave, Gracey Hemstreet, Louise Ferguson and a host of women have ticked off the course’s massive features, proving again how far women’s freeracing has progressed. We’ve got almost-live coverage by Sven Martin on our IG and there’s a gallery of mind-bending shots on our site.
Last week’s Cannonball MTB Festival in Thredbo, Australia, had enduro, slalom, pumptrack, whip-off and downhill. There were international stars aplenty, including Nina Hoffmann, Myriam Nicole and Amaury Pierron; Hoffmann and Jackson Frew won the Oakley Australian Open Downhill. Finally, Whoop, a ‘wearable performance coaching’ wristband is the new title sponsor of the MTB World Series – meaning the entire UCI MTB World Cup (XCC, XCO, XCM, DH, EDR). Other series sponsors not yet announced.
TECH: Hardline brings MTB propulsion into question – one chain, two chains (Kerr’s Pivot), no chain (Blenki’s belt drive Zerode), no nothing (Morton’s drivetrain-less new-old Specialized). Who knows what’s best?
Dan Atherton is pictured on a new aluminium Atherton Bikes option on the cover of the latest MBUK. And YT has something under wraps.
INDUSTRY: Mass redundancies at Wiggle and Chain Reaction. Evil Bicycles also let some staff go last week. Wishing the best to anyone affected. Markus Flossmann is back at the helm of YT Industries.
TEAMS: Richie Rude is confirmed continuing with Yeti. Aaron Gwin buys into bike brand Crestline. Maydena trail builder and all-round rider extraordinaire Dan Booker just signed for SRAM and the Santa Cruz Bicycles Free Agents, joining the likes of Danny MacAskill and Vero Sandler. Ineos, the petrochemicals company that sponsors some of cycling’s fastest riders, is being challenged over its plans to build Europe’s biggest plastics factory.
TRAILS: Revolution Bike Park will reopen for pushing and riding up this summer. Volunteer trail crew Ride Sheffield is crowdfunding to repair the fun-for-all Cooking on Gas trail that helps introduce more people to the sport.
EXHIBITION: For the next month or so you can check out photos by Misspent Summers photographers (including Boris, Seb and Sven) at the Selwyn Bicycles pop-up in Samoëns, France (just over the hill from Morzine). Drop in for a coffee and to look at some nice MTB stuff.
