“To support the launch of the August Edition of Red Bulletin in the UK, out on Sunday August 1st, Red Bull have given us this brand new clip of Red Bull Rampage, Launched in 2001 and held annually through 2004, Red Bull Rampage brings the creative, unrestricted ethos of freeride mountain biking to the contest arena while staying true to the sport’s core ideals. Poised on a sandstone ridge in the brutal landscape near Virgin, Utah, riders were free to choose whatever line they dared between an established start gate and the finish line 1,500 vertical feet below. Exactly what happened between those two points has become legendary.

Check out more insane, life threatening stunts, only in the Red Bulletin. You can read it and find out how to pick up a copy at www.redbulletin.com – plus watch this video as part of an awesome augmented reality montage taking the magazine to Print 2.0!”

As some of you may be aware myself, Jeff and Shane are members of Ride the Peak. ‘What is Ride the Peak?’ I hear you say.

“Ride the Peak is a group open to all with like-minded interests in maintaining and enhancing mountain biking in the Peak District”

A couple of weeks ago now we went to carry out some basic maintenance to the Derwent Edge bridleway. There was only a small group of the four of us. With Martin Sharp, who works for the Peak Park, keeping us in line we were able to achieve what we set out to do. Which was to unblock the ‘bomb holes’ so that they could start to dry out.

Anyone who has ever ridden there before will know that in the winter it get extremely muddy. Which leads to users (not just cyclists) trying to find alternative routes around the worst bits. But even in the summer some of the deeper bomb holes just don’t dry out. So we were trying to drain some of the largest puddles/pools of water. Although we did leave a couple as there were full of tadpoles.

We (Ride the Peak) are going to be carrying out more 'quick fixes' to other bridleways so stay tuned for more updates in the future.

09-04-21 Derwent Edge Maintenance, 5 Pictures by Jeff

Okay so as most of you will of known i have been without a bike for the last couple of months. But last week i finally got hold of my new bike, It is a 08 Giant Glory with Fox 40’s up front and DHX 5 on the rear. I am very pleased with it so far, it is going to take some getting used to as it feels very different to the VP-Free.

So on Friday, James W, Jeffrey, Shane (who was borrowing James W spare Rocky Mountain Slayer) and Myself (James) went out to test it out. The weather looked very ominous but it just about held off all day, with the sun even making a brief but welcome appearance good old British weather After a long push up onto the top of Mono we found that it was very wet indeed making the top section very interesting sliding from rock to rock. So much so that we decided not to push up again, instead just to start from half way. As the bottom steeper parts are in much better shape. By this point the sun had disappeared and it was starting to get a bit chilly so we headed down off Mono in search of somewhere else to ride. We remembered the woodlands around Heatherdene so off we went.

We had a session riding the rock drop, with James W pulling some whips as you can see above. And after a blast around the woods we decided to call it a day.

09-01-17 Mono6ti+Heatherdene JI+JW+ST+JK, 25 Pictures by Jeff

Just finished watching the DH World Championships live on Freecaster, one word: DRAMA.
Josh Bryceland won in Junior Men 7.5 ahead of Sam Dale. Rachel Atherton took the win in Elite Women, by 12 seconds ahead of Sabrina Jonnier of France!
Then the mens, there had been a lot of talk about Fabien Barrel being very fast but intentionally seeding in 33rd place, it was suspected he thought it would rain later on. He came down what was a very steep and technical track to place 4 seconds ahead of the previous fastest rider. Peaty came down with +3 on Barrel, was this finally going to be his chance to win a much deserved World Championship having been 2nd three times before?
As Sam Hill, the favourite, came down he was flying, -5 seconds on the first split, then -6 on the split before the flat out motorway section. It seemed he’d easily beat Steve by a large margin, then on the last major corner his front wheel sides out and goes down, the man who never crashes had gone down!, losing his 6 second lead and the win! He got back on and crossed the line still only 0.5 of second slower than Steve. The next real competition for Steve was Greg Minear, but he was 2 seconds slower than Peaty.

At this point a Great Britain victory was assured with only Gee Atherton left on the hill. He’d seeded 1st, but Steve was 10 seconds up on his seeding time, he had a great run, finishing 2 seconds up on Steve, making it a double Atherton victory. Peaty had got his fourth 2nd place at a World Championships, bad news for the man that said 1st is all that matters to him.

A somewhat bitter sweet result, not only as Peaty didn’t get a World Championship win, but also Sam was on track to be 3 seconds faster than Gee’s wining time when he crashed. But that DH racing.
Is this the closest Steve will ever get to his elusive World Championship win? Will Sam’s crash erode his confidence and chances of winning races? and how much are the Athertons going to dominate the sport in the future?

The 4X is on later: http://freecaster.com/live/
Dan Atherton has broken his shoulder, so won’t be racing, removing the chance of an Atherton triple World Championship win.

Course length : 2250 m / 1.40 Mile

DH Men’s Seeding Results: (Full)
1. ATHERTON Gee GBR 3:24.81 Average Speed : 39.55 Kmh / 24.57 Mph
2. MINNAAR Greg RSA 3:28.52 +3.71
3. LEOV Justin NZL 3:29.95 +5.14
4. HILL Samuel AUS 3:32.32 +7.51
5. BLENKINSOP Samuel NZL 3:35.72 +10.91

DH Women’s Seeding Results: (Full)
1. ATHERTON Rachel GBR 4:05.72 Average Speed : 32.96 Kmh / 20.48 Mph
2. RAGOT Emmeline FRA 4:16.14 +10.42
3. JONNIER Sabrina FRA 4:22.16 +16.44

DH Men’s Final Results: (Full)
1. ATHERTON Gee GBR 3:12.12 Average Speed : 42.16 Kmh / 26.20 Mph
2. PEAT Steve GBR 3:14.74 +2.62
3. HILL Samuel AUS 3:15.27 +3.15
4. MINNAAR Greg RSA 3:17.34 +5.22
5. BAREL Fabien FRA 3:17.92 +5.80
6. LEOV Justin NZL 3:17.96 +5.84
7. PASCAL Mickael FRA 3:20.12 +8.00
8. CAMELLINI Julien FRA 3:21.31 +9.19
9. PEDEMANAUD Fabien FRA 3:21.46 +9.34
10. OULEGO MORENO Ivan ESP 3:26.86 + 14.74
…
14. FAIRCLOUGH Brendan GBR 3:29.06 + 16.94
26. CATHRO Ben GBR 3:33.74 + 21.62

DH Women’s Final Results: (Full)
1. ATHERTON Rachel GBR 3:03.60 54.02 3:49.92 Average Speed : 35.23 Kmh / 21.89 Mph
2. JONNIER Sabrina FRA 4:01.91 + 11.99
3. RAGOT Emmeline FRA 4:07.03 + 17.11
…
6. MOSELEY Tracy GBR 4:12.30 + 22.38

UCI All Results

Check out www.mtbcut.tv now for live DH, in pretty good quality too.

WOW Gee Atherton beat Sam Hill!, by 0.31sec. Rachel won the women’s DH, and Dan won the 4x apparently, so the Athertons are doing pretty well. If you missed it, it’ll probably be on www.mtbcut.tv later.