Cam Cole finishes ninth equal at first round of the 2010 UCI World Cup downhill mountain bike series at Maribor, Slovenia.

Maxxis-Rocky Mountain team rider Cameron Cole, 22, opened his 2010 World Cup campaign with a ninth-equal at the rain-soaked course at Maribor, Slovenia yesterday.

The former world junior downhill champion shared his ninth position with good friend and fellow countryman Justin Leov, of Trek World Racing, but said the trying, muddy conditions meant he had to fight the whole way.

Cole, of Christchurch, New Zealand, said it had been a tough weekend of racing with conditions changing constantly.

"I walked the track on Thursday and then Friday I kind of struggled a bit in the morning – it was very slippery and drying out and it ended up being similar conditions to the race," Cole said.

"I had to get my bike sorted – my fork was too soft, so I had to run a new spring and then the bike felt really good. It dried in the afternoon so I put my clip pedals on and did a few fast runs and felt good."

By Saturday conditions had deteriorated again and the mountains in Maribor were cloaked in rain.

"It had rained all day non-stop so it was pretty wet and pretty tough conditions and cold at the start of qualifying," Cole admitted.

"It was hard to get warm. I was unsure of how I was going to go and I didn't feel very confident, but I did my best and qualified 13th so that gave me a confidence boost before race day."

The event was cast into turmoil on Sunday morning when racers awoke to a strong wind that had forced the closure of the access lift and cast confusion over any practice runs before the race.

"It was pretty much chaos in the pits," explained Cole.

"Everyone was running around trying to find out what was going on. We only got one run and so I didn't really have a chance to look at anything after qualifying. The track had changed a bit after everyone had been on it, but I just did one run went back to the hotel and chilled out."

"I felt quite positive, but at the same time it was difficult conditions – it was very slippery – probably the worst race conditions I have experienced. It was a mess – the clay was soft and sticky and it was really slippery on all the roots," he recalled.

The messy conditions challenged all riders with mistakes coming thick and fast through the race runs.

"I washed out on the fifth corner and started to think about the time I was losing, but I knew it would be like that for everyone so I just kept fighting and tried to deal with it and to not make too many more mistakes," Cole admitted.

"I washed out in another bit and then at the bottom I blew my feet off and only just got over the last jump. It was pretty wild times, that's for sure," he laughed afterward.

"I came across the line and thought it would have been about a top 20 ride, but I was actually sitting in fourth place – I think there were about six of us on the same second. Justin and I ended up getting exactly the same time, so that was pretty funny."

Cole finished the race in 3:30.65, just over seven seconds off winner Greg Minnaar's race time of 3:23.42.

"I think I lost about three seconds with my mistakes," Cole said, adding, the top three guys were super fast – Brendan [Fairclough] made mistakes, but he was just riding so fast everywhere else and Sam Hill pulled his tear-off and crashed into a tree, but he would have been up there. Greg Minnaar probably didn't make a mistake really."

A top 10 finish in the opening race is a strong beginning for Cole who plans to build on his performances throughout the series ... after a little post-Maribor rest.

"Last year I had an awesome start as well, but I am now keen to have a bit of a rest – I hurt my knee in the race and so I would like to rest that for a few days and do some strength work. Then I have two races before Fort William and so that will be good time on the bike for me and I will be able to attack again there."

The World Cup season opened with a larger than usual contingent of Kiwis and Cole said this will make the season a lot easier.

"I think there were 12 of us at this race so you don't have to go far and you run into another Kiwi. Even in the pits there is a mechanic who is a Kiwi," Cole laughed.

"It makes it easier – we all stick together over here. We're like a team and are one of the only countries that are like this. We all get on and are stoked for whoever does well."

Cam Cole's 2010 Race Season

2010 UCI World Cup DHI 1 Events (6)
May 15/16: Maribor, Slovenia
June 05/06: Fort Wiliam, Scotland
June 19/20: Leogang, Austria
July 24/25: Champéry, France
July 31/August 1: Val di Sole, Italy
August 28/29: Windham, USA

2010 UCI World Championships
August 31-September 05: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada

Follow Cam Cole at: www.cameroncole.blogspot.com

Ends

Email info@adventuremediagroup.co.nz for more information.

ibis Mojo with Shimano XTR build (11.2kg) http://ping.fm/8aJUF

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Brendan Compton joins Your Ride

Well here's my bike it's'a 26"raleigh m800 i think its pretty cool bike it will keep up with all at the you yangs.
It's got maxxis crossmarks,borla bars and vp pedals and maybe some nsbikes rim in the future


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Lindsay Smith joins Your Ride

I am very proud of my bike. I purchased it in December 2008. My bike is a Jamis Komodo 1, 18 speed. It has big earl tyres, race face handle bars with new lock on grips. RST Launch forks with 140mm travel, oversized bontrager stem, truvative chain guide. I also got new brake leavers to add a bit of colour.


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Tony Davies joins Your Ride

Just thought i'd send some pics of my 4x race bike.

So far its only done one season of racing elite 4x over here in Perth, with a few good results. Unfortunately a big crash on her the week before 4x champs saw me sidelined and entering rider details into a computer all day. Not half as fun as i've had riding it.

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Kristina joins Your Ride

Kristina writes




Originally an '08 STP 0, but most of the parts have changed including:
BB from Race Face Ex type to Shimano LX Ex Type
Cranks, were Race Face Diabolus, now FSA Afterburner
Bar & Stem, Syncros Bulk 2014 and Syncros FR
Fork: Rock Shox Totem 318 (180mm lowered to 150mm)
Free Agent BMX seat
DMR V12 Pedals

I've just sold my downhill bike, and old and much loved Orange 222, I really enjoy wrenching on my bike ...

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Tech Q&A: Do Avid brakes come with the hose?

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Tech Q&A: Installing Hayes Stroker Ace Brakes.

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Cannondale Prophet joins Your Ride

Hi PureMTBer's

After 4 years of use and abuse my Cannondale Prophet was beginning to show some serious signs of neglect.
The trusty lefty had lost about 40mm of travel. A problem that could not have been solved without a serious rebuild. I judged that it was begigining to get a little too dangerous after one too many trips over the handlebars on trails that should have been a walk in the park. The Hayes Elcamino brakes reminded me of driving a vintage tractor - and were equally as difficult to pull to a stop once a little momentun had been build on two wobbly wheels and
completely bald rear tyre. Like I said this beautiful bike had suffered some serious neglect...

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Point of View Racing at the Australian MTB Nationals with Joshua Sek

Good Afternoon Che,

I got back from the lovely city of Adelaide on Monday night after 6days of training, course familiarisation and racing.
It was hot, mid 30’s daily, the location was in eagle quarry which meant no shade and dust...lots of it!

We arrived on the Tuesday, late and on Wednesday I got to head out to the course for my first look. After completing a 2laps with my coach and her assistant it quickly came evident that this course suited me very well as it was full of short pinch climbs that demanded both a large amount of strength but also required constant technical attention through the endless rock gardens. The descents were long and highly technical, and as I quickly found out; few riders were able to navigate down at high speeds, I was a lucky one and after only a short time practicing I had the majority of the course nailed, so to speak.

Thursday brought my first race of the championships, the club team relay, invited only 12hours before by my good friend Mel, I was promptly signed to my clubs only representation team for National Championships. The team consisted of Myself, Melinda Jackson, James Kennedy and Adrian Jackson and being one of the strongest teams out there we were looking good for a podium. Adrian lead out our first lap returning back to transition in 1stplace approximately 2mins up on 2nd place, next out was James Kennedy, one of the older riders on course he sure showed the younger riders a thing or two about racing coming back in first place with the Adelaide team hot on our heels, Melinda Jackson was next out, with only seconds back to Terri ‘Stink’ Rhodes and only short minutes back to the charging Andrew Blair we were all sure we would lose our lead this lap. Standing in transition I looked back towards the final climb trying to make out the oncoming rider, sure enough it was Andrew Blair, however this was no surprise, what really surprised me was Melinda managing to keep Terri at bay (Terri is a part of the Merida National Team) for the whole lap. I was tagged and full of adrenaline I headed out on my first lap, about 1min down from the leader, who currently was Shaun Lewis (Mongoose National Team) and only 1min up from Adelaide’s rider I attacked the first climb in full view of the event village, I managed to gain time on Shaun but I could not shake the Adelaide rider off my wheel and the proceeded to pass me on the next section of fire-trail. I continued my lap seeming to get faster with every minute gone by I ripped through the descents making them feel like I was on rails, as I progressed up the final climb and sprinted through the finish with my team cheering I realised we had just placed 3rd in the National Club Relay Championships, we all were very pleased with this result. After a quick recovery it was down to the beach for some R & R!

Friday brought a relaxing day, headed out to the course for some final technical work to just run over some tricky sections before race day.

Saturday came and with my race scheduled for 2pm I welcomed the relaxing start to a day, outside it was looking to be quiet a hot day in the saddle with temperatures already in the mid 20’s only shortly after 10am. Heading out the course around 12pm to get a full hour on the wind trainer of warm up the anticipation was building and I was sure getting nervous. Come 1:45pm we (all the U/19s) were in the marshal chute awaiting call up. Riding with plate #226 I was placed roughly in the middle and I had to ensure a good start to make places early on. The gun went and the start was intense, elbows were out everywhere and it was one of the roughest starts I’ve ever experienced with elbows going everywhere!
On the first climb I lost places, merely because I knew from previous races that I wasn’t to go out to hard. I sat patiently at my own pace hoping that as the lap progressed I would quickly take wheel to a chase group of about 6riders that had formed about 1min behind the lead pack. Sure enough as I hit the decent and powered on knowing I would make up time I quickly regained a visual with the chase group and as I thought it was only a matter of minutes before I was a part of it. That was when disaster struck, mid way on the final decent after a difficult rock garden my chain snapped. When I went to sprint up a small rise I found myself chainless, without repairs both on me and back in the tech zone. A simple chain failure had ended my XCO race at nationals, after a year of intense training. Cursing my misfortune I begun the slow walk/roll back to finish. It was not what I hoped for. We quickly returned to our accommodation so I could strip the bike down and give it a full check in the hope I would make up for my bad luck in the following days short track.

An early start come Sunday morning for a 1030am short track start time I was already practicing the course by 830am in the hope I could get the track down pat and hope for a strong finish in spite of yesterdays performance. After circling the track for what felt like hours I finally needed to clear it as sport categories were about to begin racing. Watching and making note of passing lines while the sport race continued I was leaving no stone unturned. It was not long before I was standing in the chute awaiting my call up. A slightly smaller category of 30ish riders I was plated second row with #220. I knew I had fresh legs after my misfortune the previous days and had to make sure I got clear of the messy starts that short track were prone to. As the gun fired I quickly found myself clear out on the right and already up around 19th place. The laps ticked on and I was taking riders with a small personal challenge I had set myself; one rider per lap. The minutes ticked past and like the laps, so did the riders. I made my move around the 10min mark and found myself away from a small group who were quickly trying to ride me down. I managed to hang in for almost the whole race but in the dying minutes (13min mark of a 15min +3lap race) I was pulled by the marshal due to the lapping rule (if the leader is going to pass you in your next lap you get pulled from the race to allow a clear run for the leaders)
I was one of the last riders on course so I was happy with my result and ended up with 12th place, under19, for a first year and first time at nationals I was thrilled to say the least!

So after a year of training, a week in Adelaide I came away with a bronze medallion and a lesson learned about carrying a chain breaker on course. I know what I’ll be buying now!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, hope it was enjoyable.
Most importantly thank you for your continued support and help.

Yours Sincerely,
Josh Sek

Ian Richman Joins Your Ride

http://www.puremtb.com.au/articles.php?id=43

Hi there Pure MTB guys,

Being a pure MTBer myself, what better way to pass away the cold Canberra evenings last winter (when it was just a little too hard to get motivated for a night ride) than to pull apart a filthy road bike and turn it into something completely different. That way you can spare your MTBs any pain and embarrassment, while still having fun on/with two wheels.

So, 'my ride' is a Fidusa Record - a custom-made Greek bike that started life as a pretty straight and conventional roadie (as far as hand-made Greek bikes go) with Columbus CroMo frame and relatively subtle blue paintwork. It has since been transformed into a not-so-straight purple, gold and silver blingfest. Lots of fun along the way, discovering all about Italian thread bottom brackets (I thought all BBs were reverse direction - wrong) and screw-on cassettes (Mavic, in this instance) necessitating a screw-on BMX cog rather than single-speed kit. But the Campagnolo drop-outs worked a treat - so I didn't need a tensioner. Nice straight lines. Cool....

... To view the entire article click here.

Click on comments below if you would like to ask Ian questions or advice on his project.

http://www.puremtb.com.au/articles.php?id=38

Click here to take a look at our December news letter:

http://www.puremtb.com.au/articles.php?id=38