Mountain Biking UK

editor’s letter

Adventure doesn’t have to mean jumping on the next plane to South America. Even visiting a new bike park can feel like a trip into the unknown when it’s built by the man behind the dauntingly gnarly Hardline course! This issue’s all about going on adventures, but that doesn’t have to mean jumping on the next plane to South America, as Scotty Laughland, Thomas Vanderham and crew do on page 57. There are plenty of challenges closer to home, from exploring the Scottish Highlands (p40), to scaling Snowdon before sunset (p115) or just seeking out new challenges in your own backyard. Even visiting a new bike park can feel like a trip into the unknown, especially when it’s been built by Dan Atherton, the man behind the dauntingly gnarly Red Bull…

wild in whistler

The annual Deep Summer Photo Challenge is a competition where invited photographers have to produce slideshows from three days’ shooting in and around the Whistler area, which are then judged by an expert panel in front of a big crowd at the Crankworx festival. British photographer Jim Topliss was one of six who got the invite this year – and he won! “It’s an intense challenge, with every photo being taken and edited in 72 hours,” Jim explains. “The 50to01 guys and Andrew Clark were my core riders, with Braedyn Kozman acting as our local guide. Dan Paley, Amanda Dexter, Katy Woolley and Ryan Middleton added some extra flair. We even got the Whistler youth involved – shooting the kids’ train with the Santa Cruz guys at the dirt jumps was…

endurance has a new name

Lael Wilcox is a name many of you won’t have heard before, but this badass young woman from Anchorage, Alaska, has been making waves in the brutal discipline of ultra-distance mountain biking, where she’s been beating male as well as female competitors since she started racing back in 2014. In 2015, Lael set a new women’s record for the Tour Divide, a 4,417km race from Canada to Mexico. She then went on to set both men’s and women’s records for the Baja Divide, from San Diego to Mexico. In 2016 she won the Trans Am, a race that crosses the whole of the US, from west to east. Two years later, Lael became the second woman to complete Switzerland’s Navad 1000, which climbs more than 30,000m over 1,009km. She took just…

victory in val di sole

We were blown away watching Laurie Greenland win his first DH World Cup at Val di Sole in Italy. The young Bristolian’s (we’re not biased!) race-winning run was a perfect demonstration of all-out-attack riding with pinpoint precision. As a former Junior world champion, he’s no stranger to the podium, but his first win in the Elite ranks is a massive moment in his advancing career. “I love racing bikes and, for me, winning a World Cup is the absolute pinnacle of that,” Laurie tells us. “It’s a cliché, but man, it’s amazing to see that if you really put the effort in, then a childhood dream can come true. The real prize was reflecting on the journey so far. The sport has done so much for me and the people around…

everything’s new apart from the name

Cannondale haven’t just given their e-bike an update, it’s now a brand-new machine. There are four models, starting from £4,499.99. The Moterra 1, 2 and 3 have a trail-swallowing 160mm of front and rear travel, while the SL upsizes to a 180mm-travel RockShox BoXXer fork. All use the same frame, with a carbon fibre front triangle and an alloy rear end. Cannondale’s ‘Proportional Response’ design means that the suspension linkage is modified for each size, to keep anti-rise consistent. Pedalling assistance is provided by a Bosch Performance Line CX 2020 motor. Proprietary mounting points sit it low and forward in the frame, allowing for short 450mm chainstays. The integrated down tube battery comes in two specs – the Moterra 3 uses a 500Wh version, whereas the others come with a higher-capacity 625Wh…

out of office

Jutting out into the sky, 700m above Lake Ringedalsvatnet, Norway’s Trolltunga rock attracts over 100,000 Instabanger-hungry visitors each year. Virtually none of them come on bikes though, which inspired Will Gibson and his Portuguese friend Armando to pedal up the 1,700m climb from the fjord. This appetite for adventure is what, in 2017, inspired Will and his partner Klara to quit their architecture and engineering jobs and move to Norway to start an MTB holiday company, befittingly named Any Excuse to Ride. They settled on a farm in the Hardanger›ord region, east of Bergen, in an area that’s apparently “full of unexplored riding potential”. Over two summers, they’ve put hundreds of hours into renovating old trails and cutting in new ones by hand. With around 30 now open and ridable, their…