Neko Mulally Takes Personal Record Points Haul At 2013 World Cup Round 3

The third round of the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup took place in Vallnord, Andorra in front of loud and enthusiastic crowd estimated at around 15,000. Sitting in 3rd place overall coming into this round, Brook MacDonald (NZL) had a difficult week battling a serious shoulder injury that hed incurred a week ago in XC training back home in New Zealand, and only managed 6 complete runs of the course. His team mate Neko Mulally however scored his first ever top 10 in qualifying and backed it up with a solid 16th in the final. This gave the young American 80 points and pushed him up to 15th in the overall standings.

George Brannigan who still races in knee braces following surgery late last year, scored a 29th place, moving him up in the rankings as well to be top 40 for the first time this season. Greg Williamson was impeded in his run when a spectators red backpack was dropped onto the course forcing some evasive action. That, and some personal errors, saw him finish a personally disappointing 33rd.

Neko said after his run: Had a great start but just got a little tight towards the end of the run, but basically achieved what I set out to do. Im happy to move up to 15th and be really close to the guys in front. Mont-Sainte-Anne is the track I look forward to the most all year, so I cant wait for Round 4.

Brook said: My main goal this weekend was to minimize the damage and be 100% for one of my favourite tracks, Mont-Sainte-Anne, in 2 weeks. The shoulder was a lot better today and thanks to my coach and Greg Minnaars Physio, I was able to ride. I kept it smooth and stayed out of trouble but just wasnt able to run at full speed. Im still in the Top 10 overall and I will be chasing points in Canada!

The team will stay on in Andorra for the next 2 days and do some valuable testing, trying out some new things that they plan to have on board for Canada. With 2 riders in the top 15 overall, and all 4 in the top 40, the team is looking forward to the 2nd half of the World Cup season.

Greg Williamson Takes Great Podium at The 2013 British Nationals

Following on from his break out performance at the opening World Cup round in Fort William, Trek World Racing's Greg Williamson has taken an important podium at the 2013 British National Downhill Championships held in Bala, Wales.

Prior to his 3rd place on Sunday, Greg's best ever result in the elite category at the Nationals was 8th last year (and he finished 12th in 2011). The British National Downhill Team is one of the toughest to be selected for with so many of the World's Top 20 riders being British, and only a maximum 7 being able to race for the nation next month in South Africa. Greg is hoping to represent Britain for the first time in his career and Sunday's result certainly helped the cause.

After qualifying 10th in the dry and dusty conditions, on a course he's never raced before, Greg stepped it up for the final:

"After a smooth and steady qualifier I was hungry for my final race run. I started off strong to nail every section with a few loose moments mid-way down the track, then I pedalled hard to the finish which put me 3rd and made me a very proud Scotsman. I ran the Bontrager G5 tires which were perfect for the conditions, and the bike performed brilliantly."

Greg is currently in Andorra for World Cup #3, happening this weekend.

Neko Mulally Takes Another Pro GRT Win

Making it now 3 wins in the series for 2013, and 5 in his career, Neko Mulally continues his great 2013 season by winning in Snowshoe, West Virginia, and by another solid margin, this time it was 6 seconds.

The win picks up Neko another 60 points in the series and by our calculations, he moves from 4th to 2nd overall, though the title is not his main objective.

Neko said: "These races have been providing me with an excellent opportunity to train. My training has been largely strength and skill based lately. I've been going hard in the gym and cross-training with XC, BMX and motocross. My coach and I saw this event as a great chance for some skill specific work. I felt like I got a lot out of racing at Windham a couple of weeks back and this race was another great training race for the upcoming 2 World Cups.

We had surprisingly nice weather all weekend because that place is in a rain forest, so I was expecting more mud. The track was a good lead up for the next World Cups, 4 minutes long with really high speeds and pretty rough terrain which made it very physical. Snowshoe was one of the first places where I spent a lot of time racing but I haven't had the chance to race there since 2008, so It felt great to be back.

I am really happy with the pace I'm riding right now and I can't wait to take this feeling into the next 2 World Cups."

Neko will be at the upcoming US National XC Championships this weekend where he plans to race the Super D.

Neko Mulally Takes His 2nd Pro GRT Win Of The Season

Fresh off his strongest start to a World Cup season, where Neko is currently ranked 16th in the Overall, the Trek World Racing rider went to Windham, New York, to race a round of the Pro GRT Downhill Series. After winning in a round of the Pro GRT in Plattekill in late May, Neko was aiming to use this race more as training during his World Cup summer break, but was happy to take a nice win of more than 7 secs over US rider Logan Bingelli.

After the race, Neko had this to say: "There wasn't a huge field here for the event, but it was a fun and a great training race for me. A lot of my friends were there and my brother raced as well. The organizers used another track, not the World Cup track, but it was really fun and seemed to be more technical and a slower average speed. I won the Super D on Saturday night beating a bunch of the XC guys! I was actually last after the first climb then passed them all on the downhill haha! In the Downhill I had a relaxed and great run, and was proud to take the win, and I was stoked to have my brother on the podium with me in 3rd."

Neko used the event for training and is looking forward to coming over to Andorra at the end of this month for Round 3 of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, which will be held on a brand new track in Vallnord.

Things Are Heating Up At Trek World Racing

During the recent opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William, Trek World Racing unveiled the latest tool the team will have on hand for their riders in the 2013 season. The TWR HotBox as pictured is essentially a bike warmer for use at the top of the mountain prior to race start.

In a similar vein to the systems used in motor sports to have various components of their race machines at optimum temperature in race conditions, the team studied various scenarios and compiled data pertaining to the performance of the Session 9.9 in cold conditions and determined that heating the bikes to a particular temperature would allow the rider to have the bike feeling responsive immediately from the get go, supple over the initial hits and read for the first heavy compressions with complete traction. This has an impact on suspension, hydraulics and some tire compounds.

Designed by 23 Degrees Sports for the Trek World Racing team, the HotBox is totally portable and can be easily taken to the top of the mountain by chairlift and/or gondola, and erected in less than 10 minutes. The team will have the HotBox on hand for key races later in the year, namely in Norway and Leogang, where they'll be used should the ambient temperature at the top of the mountain fall below a pre-determined number.

Team Owner Martin Whiteley commented: "We've had races where the temperatures at the start house were down as low as 5 degrees Celsius, and there is clear evidence that the bikes and technology we run now are simply not operating as they should in these conditions for up to 4 major compressions. There'll be some who think this is going too far, but there are those who said that in motor-sport some time ago and now it's the norm. I spend a lot of time around motor-sport and the advice and information I've been given has been very helpful in arriving at the current design of the HotBox and the various temperature parameters we used both in heating, and start mode. I'm keen for the riders to use it now in race conditions".