Bike Odyssey An Epic MTB Race In The Mountains Of Greece

Pindos, the largest mountain range in Greece, will host for the third consecutive year the toughest mtb race in Greece, “Bike Odyssey 2015”. From the village of Laista in Zagorohoria up to the historical city of Amfiklia, this race will be a cycling odyssey for the riders! 

The race

The route has a total length of 600 km., 25,000 elevation gains and passes through 57 villages in mountainous Greece of unrivaled natural beauty and historical significance crossing thePindos Mountains. There are few sections covered with asphalt, several paths while the largest proportion of the race route is covered by soil.

The race consists of seven stages and a prologue and has eight villages-stations. The prologue is a circuit race and has as start and finish at the square of the first village-station. At next stages the race starts from the square of one village-station and ends to the square of the next village-station.

«Bike Odyssey» is a team race and open to all (adult) ages provided they know mountain biking and have very good physical condition. Participants must form teams of two members and must ride with their team partner at all times and must not separate more than the allowable limit of 2 minutes. The valid time for a team will be the time of the last of the two team members.

Each and every rider must wear an appropriate helmet throughout the whole race. Helmets must be constructed according to safety standards. Each Participant «Bike Odyssey» is expected to be equipped according to the requirements of an 8-day mountain bike race. Appropriate attire for any kind of weather and first aid kits are minimum necessary. We recommend that you take with you additional tools and spare parts. E-Bike (power assisted) is not allowed.

During race of mountain biking has predicted from the organization to be three water supply points for athletes at each stage but each athlete is required to carry the necessary food and water that will ensure the completion of the race. 

Parallel Races

"Bike Odyssey" comes in three other versions for those who want to taste a little of magic of the 8-day version. There will be a three-day team race, «3-Day Odyssey», alongside the last 3 stages of 8-day Bike Odyssey. In addition the following one day races will take place: “Laista Circuit”, race in circuit form which will be held along with the prologue in Laista and daylong «1-Day Odyssey» to be held in parallel with the last stage. In the case of one day races, athletes can register as a unit.

Registrations 

Open from 20/11/2014 to 31/12/2014. For registrations from 01/12/14-15/12/14 you get up to 20% discount depending the participation package. Register for 8-Day Bike Odyssey or 3-Day Bike Odyssey.

More information about the whole event in race’s official webpage:
http://www.bikeodyssey.eu/en/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bike-Odyssey/164291513617269

Trek World Racing Confirms Roster for 2015 Season

Next year sees the UCI Elite Team, Trek World Racing, entering its 7th season on the World Cup circuit and will do so with 4 talented riders returning from 2014. World #9, Brook MacDonald clearly demonstrated that he has returned to form after his shoulder surgery by ending the 2014 season with a great 5th place at the World Championships as well as scoring 2 World Cup podiums in Leogang and Windham. 

Brook is joined by compatriot George Brannigan, the current New Zealand National Champion who showed his growing potential in 2014 with a World Cup podium in Leogang, an 8th in Windham and by seeding 7th at the World Championships. Scottish rider Greg Williamson also returns after his best World Cup season to date. Greg scored two 9th places in Fort William and Méribel and for the 2nd year in a row scored a spot on Team GB for the World Championships.

The three elite riders are joined again by junior phenom Laurie Greenland who will next year race the full Junior World Cup circuit after having a great finish to the 2014 season scoring a silver medal at the World Championships, and his first ever World Cup podium in Méribel.

Neko Mulally has requested to leave the team in order to pursue other opportunities.

For 2015 the team will once again focus on the UCI World Cups as well as selected European events, basing themselves out of France. The team is returning to its usual roster of 4 riders and all will be racing the Shimano/Fox equipped Trek Session 9.9 650B which many times recorded the fastest speeds in the World Cup speed-traps throughout the 2014 season. The Session has scored more than 40 podiums since it starting racing World Cups back in 2009.

Next month sees the start of national racing on the New Zealand calendar with the highlight being the National Championships for Brook MacDonald and George Brannigan on February 14 and 15, a title that has been held by Trek World Racing riders for the past 3 years. This time it will be George Brannigan’s turn to defend the Championship.

With Laurie Greenland moving into the 2015 season carrying the ranking of number 1 junior in the World, and three talented elite riders all capable of World Cup podium results, it will be another strong year for the Trek World Racing program. More news on co-sponsors and new video releases will be announced during the remainder of the off-season.

2015 MS Mondraker Team

It got a bit quiet around the MS Mondraker Team since the big success in 2012, where the team was competing for the top spot in the UCI worldcup team ranking. For sure we had some good results, but we were missing the big victories we had in the past.

We run our team because we are race driven and hungry for victories, but we needed to set back for reorientation after the leaving of the two top team riders. We knew where we wanted to be, but we had to wait till our stars align for building our new line up.

We are happy to announce that worldchampion of 2011 Danny Hart will join our program and we welcome back worldchampion of 2009 and 2011 Emmeline Ragot, who was one of the main reasons for our success in 2012. Both will join our long-term member Markus Pekoll and our rookie Innes Graham.
The main focus of the team will be the 2015 UCI mtb worldcup as well as the 2015 UCI MTB world championships in Andorra. Furthermore we are going to attend selected races of the BDS series and the European IXS cup series.

Markus Stoeckl: “2012 was our best year, the team was fighting to get the top spot in the world cup team ranking and our riders developed impressively. After 2012 we had to let 2 of our riders and friends go, we focused on supporting Markus and Damien and started to look for new riders to built a new and fresh team which would be able to be on the top of the ranking again.
Now after years of talks and negotiations we are happy to welcome Danny Hart and all team members are looking forward to work with Emmeline again, she is a guaranty for great races and lots of fun while traveling and in the pits.”

The whole team will compete on the new Summum CARBON with the support of Marzocchi suspension- the further sponsor lineup will be released soon.
Now we are going into our off-season, which will be busy with testing new bike setups. We are looking forward to get prepared for the 2015 season. Stay tuned for news, videos and pictures of the team.

Norco Bicycles Sponsors Sam Blenkinsop, Harry Heath, Jack Iles and Magnus Manson on Norco Factory Racing Team

VANCOUVER, B.C., November 26, 2014 - Norco Bicycles is thrilled to announce the creation of an all-new World Cup downhill race team in partnership with Todd Schumlick/PerformX: Norco Factory Racing. The team consists of Sam Blenkinsop, Harry Heath, Jack Iles, Magnus Manson and Team Owner/Manager Todd Schumlick of PerformX Racing. Norco Factory Racing athletes will compete in the 2015 UCI World Cup downhill circuit and select major events around the world.

"We're committed to designing world class bikes in all categories, and with our Norco Race Development (NRD) downhill program, we are truly excited to work alongside such an elite group of world-class athletes - we welcome them to the Norco Bicycles family," says Norco Marketing Manager Chris Cook. "They are an incredibly talented group of riders that not only bring impressive results on race day and a hunger to go faster, they demonstrate great character with a passion, knowledge and love for the ride that they demonstrate every day.”

New Zealand native Sam Blenkinsop comes off a personal best season in 2014, where he finished 5th overall in UCI world rankings. The UK's Harry Heath had a breakout 2014 season, moving from his national circuit onto the World Cup stage and delivering solid results. Canadian Jack Iles will be moving up to the World Cup's pro classification in 2015, while countryman Magnus Manson will be testing himself against the best juniors on the World Cup circuit. Together, the team offers up a potent blend of experience, passion, drive and blistering speed.

"The guys could not be more excited to be joining the Norco family," says Team Owner/Manager Todd Schumlick. "This partnership is based on the alignment of the riders' needs with the objectives of a local, proudly Canadian brand. Norco makes a DH bike that these guys want to ride because they know it will enable them to compete with the best in the world. We're all excited to have the opportunity to grow and win together."

Hannah Barnes' Enduro World Series Report

The season began for me close to home in Scotland, Peebles to be exact. It was really cool to race such a big international race so close to home, and my parents came along to help out. The weather was pretty wet in the week leading up to the race, and come practice the trails were extremely slippery. There were three days to practice, and the race was over two days, so it all amounted to five long days on the bike. Living in the van it was hard to keep all of my kit dry, and washing everything was quite a task! No uplift and 8 race tracks meant the race was very physically demanding, with a lot of climbing each day. I struggled to get into a rhythm in the race and wasn't very happy with my result, but overall it was a pleasure to get the season underway in sunny Scotland.

 
Next on the calendar was a big roadtrip in the van to Valloire in France. Valloire is situated among some huge mountains, and the famous Col Du Galibier is only a few kilometers further up the valley. Needless to say, the tall mountains meant long, tough tracks. French Enduro rules state that you get a single practice run before your race run, so you are limited to walking the tracks if you turn up early. I decided to save my legs and stick to my single practice run. Being a mountain resort, there are ski lifts all over the place, so the trip up to the start of stage one was an easy one. The tracks were awesome, proper old-school French Enduro, with wide taping, fresh tracks and lots of options. I absolutely loved riding and racing in Valloire, it was a real challenge, with some incredibly long stages!

 
I continued trucking in the van to La Thuile in Italy for the next round. With views out to Mont Blanc, La Thuile was an epic destination for a race. Open practice and Ski lifts meant I had the opportunity to do plenty of great riding! La Thuile has some incredible trails and they were so much fun to ride. Even though we were in central Europe in June, the temperature never lifted much out of single digits, and it was a battle to keep warm at times. Even if it wasn't too cold at the bottom of the hill at the van, by the time you had climbed up to 2600 meters it was freezing. Getting off the top of the lift to do my first practice run I was greeted by a proper snowstorm! It was quite strange to go from baking sun in Valloire to winter conditions a week later! I got down off the hill as fast as possible and had a lovely Italian cappuccino to warm up. With the weather being so bad, in between practice and race runs, all the racers ended up spending a lot more time than usual sheltered in the cafes of La Thuile over the week. The race was a real challenge, the trails were incredible to ride, and it felt great to have raced well and got through this tough weekend with a solid position.

 
After trucking home to Fort William, I parked the van up and hopped on a plane to Colorado for the next round of the EWS. Winter Park is a small ski town high in the Rockies outside of Denver. Denver is already at quite high altitude, but Winter Park is something else, with the pits sitting at 2800 meters, higher than the top of La Thuile! Just walking up stairs was enough to tire me out, and it was such a strange feeling! Combined with the jetlag, the altitude was a real challenge, and after my very first practice run I went back to the apartment and had a four hour nap! The trails in Winter Park were very different to what I am used to in Europe, much flatter and more physical, and they were much more constructed with lots of berms and jumps. There was still a real mix, with both a full on DH track and an extremely long pedally stage. It was a real novelty to be in the USA, with the coffee coming in much bigger cups than in Italy! The race was spread out over 3 days with practice interspersed with race runs. I like it that each race has such a varied format, depending on country and race organiser.

 
From Winter Park I flew to Vancouver to head up to Whistler for a couple of weeks. I was somehow daydreaming in the departure lounge and missed my flight, so got there a day later than planned. There was a 2 week gap between the two races, so I got a little apartment with Anka Martin and we rode bikes, practiced yoga and swam in the lake every single day. Heaven! By the time the race came around, I was really excited to get stuck in. Whistler has some of the most fun trails anywhere in the world, but the trails used for the race were among the hardest in the whole area. There were lots of sections that scared me, and I had quite a few big crashes in practice. This turned out to be a common theme, with lots of the guys racing struggling as well. The race in Whistler was all crammed in to one huge day, with 5 race stages and some huge liasons. Add in the 36 degree heat and it was a real effort to keep from blowing up. The race went really well, and I rode much better than I expected to after my tough time in practice. I felt strong all day right to the end of the final stage 'Top of the World', I had raced well, and I felt a genuine sense of achievement having finished such a tough race! I loved my time in Whistler and can't wait to go back!
 
After Whistler there was a long break until the season Finale in Finale! Finale is one of my favourite places in the world, and I love going there at the end of the season as Autumn is arriving. The weather is usually great, the sea is warm and the gelato is delicious! Last year in Finale the trails were fast, open and incredibly technical. This year they changed it up completely and the stages were much more tight and not as fast, apart from the flat out final long stage. I really enjoyed practice in Finale, and was looking forward to the race beginning on Saturdaymorning. On Friday afternoon I began to feel a little ill, and by Saturday I felt awful. I soldiered on, but it was a pretty horrible day, feeling hot, then cold and shivering despite the heat. That night I crawled into bed at about 8PM and didn't wake up until the next morning. On Sunday I felt even worse than the day before and I made the tough decision to pull out of the race. It was such a shame to have to miss the days racing, and to get a DNF for the last round of the year, but I feel it was the right decision to make. I would have made myself much worse had I tried to race.
 
The season was a year full of contrasts. I have lots of great memories of racing in beautiful places, incredible riding and making great friends along the way. The one thing that stood out was how tough the races were. Every weekend I was challenged in a new way, technical riding, extreme weather and huge climbs all added up to a real test! After a Winter in New Zealand, the 2015 race season will be here before we know it!

Hannah