NZ mtb DH Cup Round 5, Wellington New Zealand

Video fresh out of today's race track... enjoy!
more pics here on our Team Blog.

New Zealand MTB DH Cup 2012 Round 4

So we have just done out first race of 2012 and first race in New Zealand. I finished 17th place in men's open and Aaron had some bad luck and crashed in the final. It's been a very steep learning curve for us, luckily one of our biggest worries with the cold weather turned out to be a non issue. Sure its not as warm as we would like it to be but it's not killing us tropical boys either.

The race weekends here are run a bit differently to what we are used to back home, with only one day of practice and straight into racing the next day. With a track as high speed and full on as Rotorua it was obvious that knowing the track inside out would be a huge advantage. This was evident with many of the local riders taking podium spots in most of the categories. Nothing in Malaysia has really prepared us for the tracks here, but then again that's why we are here to learn. Besides being high speed and rough, they are technical too, not in the same way we are used to back home tho. Things like having to set up for a particular corner 4 corners before you get to it, just so you can get a wide line and carry speed through it.

All and all we had a great time and are looking forward to the next round in Wellington. In the mean time check out the video we put together from the race.

Till next time!

Adam Faroze
DVteq Fakawi Banshee
Follow our team's blog

UK Legend

Joe 'This is Sheffield' Bowman has been out a lot on his Banshee Legend this winter, and Duncan Philpott has been there to capture some of the fun times with his mad skills behind the lense.

Check out Duncan's photos on his website: duncanphilpott.com

Matej Charvat - 2011 recap

We are all probably getting ready for 2012 racing season, but I'm coming back to show you a bit of my 2011 racing.

I've been racing for Banshee Bikes Factory team with my team mate Adam Brayton and we had an awesome time. I spent almost all weekends of the season at the races. I did whole World Cup except South Africa, most of IXS European DH Cup, a few other races plus a lot of training and riding. It was simply fun with some solid results.

First of all, there is a video footage which hasn't been released yet. It shows some Worldcups, Dirt Jumps, MX and World Champs of 2011.

Matej Charvat - 2011 on pinkbike.com

Views:10 Faves: Comments: Add to my Favorites

For whole story with more photos and a

Views:16 Faves: Comments: Add to my Favorites

Views:16 Faves: Comments: Add to my Favorites

As a bonus, here we have some pictures:

I was a bit unlucky this season in WC qualis. I was really confident when the season started, as I qualified myself for all races back in 2010. But I put myself under a little stress too. Here is the spot in La Bresse, where I crashed in Qualification. I was simply too fast and landed too far, a little bit nosedived for sure, haha.

Another missed finals - Fort William. I was really enjoying the course this year. I was training with Brayton all the week, having fun. I had really good run in the qualis, but slipped a bit off the line at the bottom, missed the bridge and fell into the stream...a minute from the finishline, haha. At least, I was happy to get 6th at first split.

We also had some fun at Brayton's - Keswick, UK. Lovely place, really. As Adam said: "The best place in the world".

One of the races of IXS EDC also visited my home country, Czech Republic. I think everybody was loving the track, except the pissing rain following us for whole weekend. I finished 3rd in the end.

I was also having fun on Worlds in Champery. The track is one of my favorites and I enjoyed a whole week of training. I also had a solid run in qualis, finishing 21st. BUT!!, the mud on Sunday was a thing. I was really looking forward to that, because I like mud and I've been racing there all World Cups before.. But this was crazy, again. I was feeling good until I crashed for the first time...after that I crashed 3 more times. Really wild run, who has not seen this in real, can't understand how massive this is.

I didn't ride my MX bike through the season too often. I had no time. Here is one of the autumn rides.



If you are interested in more pictures from 2011, you can see the whole album at my profile.

Anybody, who is interested in what I'm doing can follow me on my fb page: http://www.facebook.com/matejcharvatofficialpage
or on my twitter: http://www.twitter.com/matejcharvat



I would like to thanks to my 2011 sponsors, which helped me a lot to make this happened.
*Banshee Bikes
*Alpine-pro
*Hant
*Maxxis
*RaceFace
*Elka
*WTB
*e*13
*HT
*Cane Creek
*Crank Brothers
*Ultim8shop.cz
*Gravitymag.com
*Krabcycles
*Bluegrass Eagle
*Inkospor
*Framewrap
*GoPro
*Five.Ten

And another special thanks to Gravitymag.com's Patrik Prochazka, who traveled with me to some races and made the most of the pictures above, the first one is by Ken81.

Adam Brayton on the Cover of Dirt Mag

Banshee Factory rider, Adam Brayton gets the cover of this month's Dirt Magazine on his Banshee Legend. He's also got an interview inside...



Get down your local newsagents & pick up Dirt #120 now!

Adam Brayton's Summer GoPro Gong Show!

Sit back, relax and enjoy the fun times on the road and in the saddle of his Legend MkII with Banshee WC team rider Adam Brayton and his mate and little bro as they travel around Europe for a few weeks of racing, fishing, and fun times!

More Mountain Biking Videos

Angus Jackson - Maldon

A short video featuring Banshee rider Angus Jackson on his MK2.

Fakawi-Banshee in the Alps - Alps MEGA Road trip 2011

3 Riders, 1 van.
Road tripping down from Bristol, England.
Bad Wilbad
Tadtnau
Crans-Montana
Verbier
Pila
Morgins
Morzine
Super Morzine
Les Gets
Les Carroz

Camping in some pretty exotic places. Lakes and tennis clubs have proven to be the way forward.
FakawiTribe.com

Genove's kill it!

When Paul and Nic team up, the results tend to be quite special... paul is a young up and coming riding talent who mainly does slopestyle, but as you can see here also shreds on his Legend MkII. Nic is the man behind the lense who has been impressing with his amazing cinematography and editing skills recently... check em out!

Matej Charvat// Autumn 2011 Vid

Season whether we like it or not unstoppably ends and that's why we took one last chance to ride in warm and dry conditions. While this edit of Matej was made on popular "Freeride" track in Spinleruv Mlyn. Video should also express a big thanks to all, who supported Matej in 2011. "I would like to say thanks to all my sponsors, who helped me in 2011 season. Just as I would like to thank to all the fans, who cheered for me along the track during the season and also to all the people who simply like what am I doing. Cheers!"

Matej Charvat// Autumn 2011 on pinkbike.com

Cruising Fuzzy Bunny Trail on Teton Pas

Jess Pedersen riding the Fuzzy Bunny trail on Teton Pass during some mid-season downtime. Jess races for the Team Geronimo/Banshee Bikes factory team. - http://www.geronimoracing.net

Cruising Fuzzy Bunny Trail on Teton Pass - More Mountain Bike Videos

Danish Domination!

The last round of the Danish DH cup took place this past weekend in the north of Jutland at a place called Rold forrest. This was the second time we were going to race at that venue. The track in it self is rather basic, with a lot of man made jumps and obstacles. The hole way down the track you are scrubing jumps, pumping holes and pedaling every were you can which is sick! The weather made the race quite interesting thus it had rained all week and the to weather prognoses said it would rain sunday as well.

Saturday practice

Since I had already wrapped up the overall title at the last round I came into the race with a mindset of having fun and putting down the best runs I could do. So I cracked on with practice which went really well on the damp track. I was still running the High Roller II´s which keeps getting better and better. Even though it is almost my home track since I live about 30 minutes drive away, I do not ride there that often. So I put in some good practice runs, with my dad who was attending to his first DH race.

Second race run

After a little delay the race began in the quite sunny weather in contrast to the bad weather they had forecasted. Run no. 1 went okay, I hit all of my lines but i had a little mechanical which cost me some time. Nevertheless I came down with a 3.5 second lead. After the first run we had the obligatory one hour practice on the second track. The 2 run went good i had a solid run with minor mistakes coming down about 1 second faster that second place, which gave me the 6th win out of 6 race in the Danish DH cup this year.

6th round podium

Mathis Lystbæk - Mike Thisted - Sebastian Jensen - Rasmus Reding - Rasmus Jensen

Overall it was a good weekend with good racing and a good season ender. Personally I still have one more race, which is the final round of the German iXS cup which takes place the 24.-25. this month in Thale.

Overall Podium :)

A big thank you goes out to Stefan Hovaldt for taking all of the pictures.

- Sebastian Jensen

OneHitWonder / Filthy Ape

This is one of my favourite features in the Whistler Bike Park. It's not difficult at all it looks rather intimidating at first. Just remember to lean back and enjoy the view up there!



Cheers,
-Moritz Zimmermann
www.zimbros.de

Ben Power - One to Watch!

Ben Power rode for Banshee Australia for a few years in our junior development program. This summer he was offered a higher level of support than our small company could offer, and although we will miss him riding Banshee, we are very happy to see him picking up a big sponsor that can offer him a lot of support. Keep an eye on this guy for the future... he's FAST!

Ben Power's 2011 Bio from Ty Bowmaker | Captyvate Media on Vimeo.

Get stoked: Forrest Riesco

Hey,Just finished up a quick little edit I did with a local friend/filmer Jazz Chodak. It gives you a little taste of my style, and the riding here on the Sunshine Coast. Jazz and I were so stoked on how it turned out and what we had created that we thought a fitting name should be “Get stoked”.You can check it out on Pinkbike and please let me know your thoughts on it, enjoy.Again thanks to all the people that have helped me out this season and made it a great one.Thanks,Forrestforrestriesco.blogspot.com

Season Wrap Up

Hello,

This season has been amazing, not necessarily my results, but more so how much I've learned and how much fun I have had traveling across Canada racing the new tracks and being with some of the most fun and interesting people. From the coaches to team mates to people from the other side of Canada that are just as stoked as I am to ride.

I just recently added to my learning experience this season at Hemlock Mountain for the BC Cup finals. I decided that this off season I want to step it up a level, I don't want to sit around waiting for some magical thing to make me faster, so to do this I've got to take chances and push myself. And that's just what I did last weekend at my final race. I was riding great Saturday, pushing myself and getting loose, the track was wide open and was very fast. Sunday I was having a great race run and hanging it out. Halfway through though my back wheel got caught in a rut when I attempted an outside line and I ended up upside down tangled in my bike with a mouth full of dust. I jumped back up as quick as I could and continued on to finish with my brake lever bent up and my seat crooked. I finished fourth in Junior, 12th in Pro and 9 seconds off the fastest time of the day. My result wasn't what I was hoping but that's the consequences sometimes of taking chances and pushing myself. One of the Cycling BC coaches said I was one of the two fastest riders through the rock drop and I am confident that if I apply what I've learned this season than I will be able to ride that pace and faster consistently next season.

I finished off the BC Cup series in 3rd overall and placed 4th overall in the Canada Cup series. As you have probably guessed I was not selected for the World Championships team, missing it by one spot. It was an arguable decision by the CCA as I placed higher in Canada Cup points over the fourth picked junior from Newfoundland, but he did place higher than me at National Championships. A lot of people heard and thought that I was going and even just last week one of the Cycling BC team coaches sent an email to the CCA asking them to reconsider there decision as he believed I had progressed so much this year that I should be going.

Thanks so much to the people/companies that have made this season my best yet; First of all I'd like to thank Nancy Riesco Interior Design Inc. and Vancor Capital Ltd. for their financial support for my flights this season. Cycling BC, without them I wouldn't have been able to make the jump from the provincial level to the national level with all their support providing accomadation, coaching and on ground transportation for the entire National Series. Steven's Pools for their very generous financial support. Banshee BIkes for setting me up with the Legend MK2 race machine. POC helmets and armour for keeping me safe and looking good. Spank Industries for their support and Mike for keeping my bikes spinning on Spank rims. Race Face for their continuing support of me and providing me with the best components around. X-Fusion shocks for their very tuneable suspension and Suspensionwerx for keeping my suspension running smoothly. Kuat racks for their incredibly useful racks. NRG enterprises for supplying me with all my Maxxis rubber and Hope products. I'd also like to thank North Shore Billet, Five-Ten, Leatt Brace, Tyler at Twenty6 products, Gamut USA and SDG saddles. And last but not least my very supportive family that helps me reach for and achieve my goals.

I am looking forward to training hard this off season and having fun riding my bike. This off season and next race season I will be stepping it up and jumping to that next level and become closer to my goals of being an international rider and travel the world.

Thanks to everyone for making this a great season.

Forrest

forrestriesco.blogspot.com



Thanks to all the people/companies for supporting me for the 2011 race season.

Banshee bikes.
POC helmets and armour.
Vancor Capital Ltd.
Nancy Riesco Interior Design Inc.
Cycling BC
Spank industries.
Race Face components
X-Fusion shocks
Kuat racks
Suspensionwerx
North Shore billet
Five-Ten
Leatt Brace
Twenty6 products
NRG enterprises
Gamut USA
SDG saddles

Dirt TV - Val Di Sole

Beggining with the Brayton!




More Mountain Biking Videos

Matej Charvat - Val di Sole

High temperatures and dust, that was the main characteristic of World cup finals in Val di Sole. The roughest track of the whole circuit pushed the riders and the material to their limits. I managed to equalize my best result from Windham(USA). After a bit slower upper part I smashed a bit harder at the bottom and finished 32nd again.



It was the last World cup this year, so I didn’t take the things easy. The conditions were hard, tho. Extremely hot and a lot of dust. Sometimes it felt like riding in snow. You hit the deep stuff and get out of control because you really didn’t know what are you going over. That’s what happened to me in last woods, I was a bit wild and wide over there. I’m actually happy with my run except I overbraked a lot of lines to stay safe and try not to fall.





I will hopefully be able to upload a video of me and Adam in Val di Sole soon. Stay tuned!



Matej



(Adam Brayton also got his best WC result of the season finishing in 29th)

Three weeks of racing in the Rockies

The past three weeks I have been in the interior of BC racing at the Canadian National Championships, the Canada Cup finals and the Western Open BC Cup.



I stayed with the Cycling BC team for just under two weeks at Panorama, which was great and a lot better than camping. Nationals was the first race in Panorama. We did a course walk Thursday and had a bit of practice in the afternoon. Friday was a full day of practice and then Saturday was seeding. For seeding I had a good consistent run, I pedaled hard but kept it steady through the tough sections. I seeded 3rd in Junior which I was satisfied with. Sunday I had a good run and kept it consistent and finished in 7th. I wasnt too pleased with my time or placing and figured out that I just didn't push it enough, I was thinking about my placing and who I had to beat too much which distracted me from having fun and going fast.



Getting loose during practice at Nationals (FYI I rode out of it)



The next weekend was the Canada Cup finals also at Panorama but on a different track. I learned from the mistakes I made at Nationals and made some changes to my mental game. There was no seeding for the Canada Cup, so we got two days of practice and then raced Sunday. Sunday the Juniors and Elites were mixed and placed in the start list by ranking. I was within the last 20 riders to race. My run was great, I pushed it and got quite loose on some sections. I didn't get too serious before or during my run because I ride the fastest when I'm having fun. When I came across the line I had the third fastest time if the day. I finished 4th in Junior less than two seconds off the win and 4 seconds off the fastest time of the day. I was very happy with my time as it placed me with the 12th fastest time of the day.



Race run at the Canada Cup finals



The next weekend was the Western Open BC Cup at Kicking Horse Mt in Golden. My parents came up for the last Canada Cup and than I stayed with them for the week and weekend of the BC Cup. We camped out in our Westfalia van. The course was the same as last year except a bit rougher and drier. It was a lot of fun practicing and racing on the course because it's so fast and loose. My race run was very good, I got a bit loose and put everything I had into the last horribly long pedal. When I came down I had the second fastest time of the day and fastest in Junior. I stayed in the hotseat until the last junior, a local racer Riley Suhan, came down and bumped me out. I was very happy with my result because it was Riley's home track and he's unbelievably fast on it. At the end of the day I finished 2nd in Junior and had the 14th fastest time of the day.



2nd place podium at the Western Open BC Cup



After all these races I finished 4th in the Canada Cup series, 1st seventeen year old in Canada. I am also leading the BC Cup series in Junior with two more races to go.



I am still waiting to hear if I've been selected for the National team to go to World Championships in Switzerland. There are four Junior riders going and I am in contention as I finished fourth in the Canada Cup series, but nothings official yet. That was one of my goals this year was to make it to Worlds and I am anxiously waiting to hear if that will become a reality.



I'd also like to give a shout out to NRG enterprises for helping me out a couple times on my trip. I was stuck and needed some parts twice and both times they pulled through and got me the right parts when I needed them.



Thanks



Forrest





Be sure to check my blog at forrestriesco.blogspot.com for more updates and photos.





Thanks to Dave Hord for all the awesome photos.

Euro Trippin'

Dirk has been on the road with his legend and his GoPro...




roadtrip part 1 von Irvine78 auf MTB-News.de