Mountain Biking UK

editor’s letter

You may think MTBing is just about heading into the woods with your mates and having a good muck-about, and fundamentally, it is. But there’s something really compelling about racing The long wait is finally over – race season is here again! You may think mountain biking is just about heading into the woods with your mates and having a good muck-about, and fundamentally, it is. But there’s something really compelling about racing – whether you’re lining up on the start line yourself or watching the world’s best test their skills and fitness to the limit on bikes that really aren’t all that different to the ones you and I ride.Even if World Cup downhill racing (catch it live on Red Bull TV) or the Enduro World Series…

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off with a bang

It always feels like Crankworx Rotorua marks the unofficial start of the race season (even more so this year, when the New Zealand bike fest coincided with the opening round of the Enduro World Series – see page 22), and what better way to kick things off than with one of mountain biking’s most-loved festivals?This year, six events – including crowd favourites the dual slalom (pictured) and whip-off – were spread over a week of awesome riding, delivering one hell of a mountain biking bang. Once the dust had settled, it was Tomas Lemoine who led the King of Crankworx standings, while Vaea Verbeeck headed up the Queen of Crankworx leaderboard, after consistent performances across multiple events. Results aside, Rotorua has got us really stoked for the year ahead!…

king of the mountains

With its shady roll-ins, off-camber limestone slabs, dinosaur footprints and volcanic loam, the Kingdom Enduro is a race like no other. This EWS qualifier in the tiny African kingdom of Lesotho is a huge test of bike and body, with 13 stages spread over three days.“Days one and two had morning uplifts, but we were still liable for around 1,600m of climbing and covering 45km of ground each day,” says our tester Tom Marvin, who took part in this year’s race. “Every stage required a hike-a-bike lasting from 20 minutes to an hour.”It wasn’t all hard work though. “Rene [Damseaux, the organiser] and his team spent four months sculpting some of the most intense, beautiful stages I’ve ever seen,” explains Tom. “These varied from flow trails dug into mountainsides…

safety-conscious style

Fox have dropped an updated version of their premium downhill helmet, the Rampage Pro Carbon – and the US brand have focused on putting safety first, as well as boosting ventilation.The lid features a new technology from a company called Fluid Inside, which uses fluid-filled pods to ‘decouple’ the helmet’s outer shell from your head. This is claimed to help reduce both linear and rotational forces during a crash, similar in principle to the MIPS system.To further reduce potential rotational forces, the peak attaches using magnets – a concept that Fox pioneered on their motocross lids. The benefit of this is that it allows the peak to detach on impact, but be easily fixed back in place afterwards. Another practical safety feature is the dual-density EPS foam liner, which…

closing the gap

Although the gender split in our sport is more even than it used to be, it’s still less common to see girls boosting dirt jumps and throwing down tricks than guys. Joey Gough is one who does though, and the 38-year-old grew up in a BMX-racing family so she isn’t scared of flying high.After several years racing 4X (she finished fifth at two World Champs), Joey’s BMX results got her selected for Team GB in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. This might sound like a dream, but it was actually the least she’s enjoyed riding bikes. “I realised that I don’t ride to be the world’s best,” she told us, “and only when I hit some real mountains did I discover what I’d been missing!”Living in Norwich, Joey…