Andreu Lancondeguy Signs With YT Industries

As of right now, the enfant terrible of the freeride scene, Catalan Andreu Lacondeguy is riding with a new bike sponsor: YT has signed the young Spaniard and is looking forward to working with one of the most colorful personalities of the mountain bike scene.
 


The 22 year-old freerider from Barcelona is definitely the most flamboyant of mountain bike stars. Andreu is well known for his exceptionally high, far and super extended supermans, unmatched in style and elegance. This is why Andreu’s bikes are always under a bit more stress than those of other freeriders and have to withstand extreme gravity forces; one of several reasons why Andreu chose YT-Industries, a brand that stands for quality and innovation.
 


Andreu says about his new sponsor: "I feel really great on the new bikes. Especially the Dirt Love looks really cool and is great to ride. Perfect for big jumps, just like a dirt jump bike has to be! It wasn’t that easy to find a brand that fits my style perfectly. But when I looked at the 2012 YT-models, I found some amazing bikes that almost seemed to be custom-made for me. YT was definitely the right choice.“ 
 


The young team of the bike manufacturer from Forchheim (GER), which has been awarded several prizes for their unconventional and innovative design, is also looking forward to the cooperation with Andreu Lacondeguy. Markus Flossmann, YT-Industries’ CEO comments: "We are extremely proud Andreu chose us as his new sponsor because of our products. We can’t wait to work with him! Anyone who knows us knows that Andreu and YT are the perfect match. Just like him, our brand is kind of unconventional and a bit different.“
 


For the next season, Andreu will ride on the YT-models DIRT LOVE, PLAY and TUES 2.0. To embrace his style completely at every point, Andreu will actively participate in developing these bikes. For YT and Andreu the 2012 season can already begin!

2012 FMB Tentative Schedule

With the Red Bull Rampage and the Red Bull District Ride, the past two FMB World Tours had two truly spectacular final events. Of course, we would like to continue that run and from the way it looks right now, we just might. Our goal is to have another grand finale but before anything can be confirmed, there are still several details that need to be worked out. We'll keep you in the loop! Beside that, all other Gold and Diamond events of 2011 have already confirmed their dates for 2012 and it remains to be seen what shape the World Tour will take coming season. Below you'll find the preliminary schedule for 2012 but keep in mind that we are still talking to several other events so the number of stops is bound to increase. Among other venues, a number of FMB World Tour athletes are taking up the challenge to follow in Darren Berrecloth's footsteps and are planning to hold their own events. Grant Fielder, for example, is putting together a new event in the UK, which would put Great Britain back on the FMB World Tour map after they were missing from it this year. If those new events manage to meet the criteria of an FMB World Tour event, this will definitely make for an interesting addition to the 2012 FMB World Tour.

2012 DH1 Race 1 Announced

Maribor, Slovenija will host the first DH1 race on 12th - 13th May 2012.

Reaper Madness At Bootleg Canyon

Online registration will open on November 1st. Watch for BIG savings for pre-registered racers. The course will be Armageddon to Reaper , and this race will be a USAC State/Regional Championship event. Meaning it will be the 1st qualifier in 2012 for the Nationals

2012 Reaper Madness At Bootleg

Uci launches 2012 European Series In Cooperation With IXS

The iXS Downhill Cup organisation has been working very closely with the UCI for several years now. This cooperation has now been strengthened even further with the iXS European Downhill Cup recognised as the official UCI European Series.

A number of UCI decisions have received a lot of coverage from a wide range of media recently and there has been much discussion about the sport’s future. Even if the reasons behind developments are not 100 percent clear to laymen, it should be emphasised that the International Cycling Union has done a lot for the Downhill discipline in recent years. There has been a World Cup series for two decades now and its value is priceless, despite some ups and downs. Without a doubt, not everything is perfect but the success story can only be continued through a constructive partnership.

And that’s exactly what the iXS Downhill Series organisation is trying to capitalize on by continuously expanding the cooperation. It is, furthermore, taking advantage of the opportunity to provide the UCI with important grass-roots input – in other words from competitors, teams and, of course, the individual venues – based on the experience gained from putting on up to 20 races a year in order to reach a general consensus.

In this context an important step for the future was gaining official UCI European Series status for the iXS European Downhill Cup. In the final analysis the UCI is gaining a partner who has been actively involved in the sport for 10 years and has generated unbroken success for the Downhill discipline not only at national level in Switzerland and Germany but also at continental level.

Peter van den Abeele, Off-Road Disciplines Manager, says in this regard: “We are pleased to have such a reliable partner who has been working for many years to continuously improve race events in accordance with UCI wishes and is further developing mass audience awareness of the sport through targeted PR work.”

Andreas Stöckli, event manager at iXS Sports Division, is also very positive about the close partnership: “Recognition of our Cup as the official UCI Europe Series confirms the significance we’ve developed together with our race organisers over the last four years. The goal was to create a prestigious series located between the World Cup and the national race series to thus provide athletes with an easier but nevertheless professional means of entering the world elite.”

Next year the iXS European Downhill Cup will be held in seven different countries, taking place at top level venues offering the relevant country’s most challenging courses. 2011 saw a high media profile being achieved, for example the five half-hour reports broadcast by Red Bull’s in-house TV channel Servus TV.

Last season saw 2 570 competitors from 41 countries at the starting lines of the various iXS Downhill Series. In this context the European Cup is focusing more strongly on top world professionals, as confirmed by the participation of major teams. Among others, many names from UCI elite teams appeared on the start lists, including world rank Top 20 riders such as Troy Brosnan (AUS), Brook MacDonald (NZL), Cameron Cole (NZL), Markus Pekoll (AUT), Brendan Fairclough (GBR) and Florent Payet (FRA). In order to further increase attractiveness for top class international riders there are plans to raise the media profile even more and to adjust the rules to reflect top athletes’ needs more. All additional information is available at ixsdownhillcup.com

iXS 2012 European Downhill Cup dates:

• #1        28.-29.04.2012           Rivera - Monte Tamaro (SUI)
• #2        26.-27.05.2012           Leogang (AUT)
• #3        16.-17.06.2012           Innerleithen (GBR)
• #4        04.-05.08.2012           Pila (ITA)
• #5        11.-12.08.2012           Špičák (CZE)
• #6        08.-09.09.2012           Châtel (FRA)
• #7        22.-23.09.2012           Todtnau (GER)