31.7.2012 – From Trek World Racing

By taking 5th place at Round 6 of the UCI World Cup, Aaron not only won his 2nd World Cup Overall title in as many years, but he also maintained his 100% record of World Cup podium results, 13 from 13 starts with Trek World Racing, and a record 14 in a row when the final round of 2010 is taken into account. Furthermore, the Trek Session race bike has scored an impressive 35 World Cup podiums since the start of 2009, more than any other bike model.

Having won 4 of the 6 races on offer so far this season, it seems logical that Aaron Gwin would have wrapped up the season early, and become the first to score back-to-back titles since Nico Vouilloz (FRA) in the late 90’s, but mathematically it wasn’t that straight forward. Both Greg Minnaar (RSA) and Gee Atherton (GBR) have been equally consistent so it was a matter of trying to limit the damage after a qualifying run crash nearly brought Aaron’s weekend to an early close.

The penultimate round of the 2012 UCI World Cup in DH was at a brand new venue, Val d’Isere (FRA) on a course which presented a number of challenges. It was short, at around 2mins 20secs, and this means errors of any kind were not forgiven. The limestone strewn down the length of the course was sharp and sliced many a tire and rider. Aaron and Justin both suffered injuries requiring stitches. Justin’s injury on his left arm actually required the handy work of a plastic surgeon to stitch torn muscle inside the injured arm, as well as stitches to close the wound. Aaron’s right hand was cut deeply and required 5 stitches, an injury he played down before the final but in reality, was a tough one to cope with on this course.

Aaron said: “I have no excuses for my 5th today. I had a pretty good run. For how I felt with the hand injury, I’m happy. To win the overall again, it’s so amazing, especially after this weekend. I came in feeling good and kinda had a bonehead moment in qualifying—hurt myself a little bit with that. It was better than I thought it was going to be in the finals but I just got a little tired at the bottom. So I had to back it down to make sure I stayed on and I kinda backed it down too much, but it still worked out. Everyone loses some and wins some. I have lost many more in my career so I’m just stoked to be up here in the black leader jersey for 2012.”

Aaron takes a 260 point lead into the finals in Norway in mid-September, with a maximum 250 points available. Between now and then, there are the World Championships. The Men’s Downhill World Title hasn’t been in the hands of an American since his team mate and Trek World Racing staff member Myles Rockwell in 2000, so it’s understandable that the goals for the season have now shifted to Leogang, Austria, in about 4 weeks from now.

Full results: http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzODg&LangId=1

Team website: http://dh.trekworldracing.com/ ]]> http://sdgcomponents.com/gwinworldcuptitle/feed 0 http://sdgcomponents.com/king-of-enduro-remy-absalon http://sdgcomponents.com/king-of-enduro-remy-absalon#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:28:30 +0000 SDG-chris http://sdgcomponents.com/?p=434 Commencal /  SDG team rider Remy Absalon takes 1st place in the Alpe d’Huez Megavalance.

It was another great day for SDG athletes in Quebec this past weekend at the latest round of the UCI MTB World Cup.  Aaron Gwin (USA) took home another win on board his custom I-Fly, while Sam Hill (AUS) took 5th place. Brook Macdonald (NZL) sat just off the podium in 6th. SDG is proud to take 6 of the top 15 spots!

For the women, SDG was all over the podium with Myriam Nicole (FRA) in Second, Emmeline Ragot (FRA) in third and Micayla Gatto (CAN) in 5th with her first ever World Cup podium.

The track in Mont Ste Anne had been slightly modified this year to reduce the length of the track for TV purposes, this meant that speeds in the already high speed upper sections were hitting the redline at over 62km/h. It was definitely a track where being able to get off the brakes and attack would make the difference between 5th and 10th.

Gwin was happy with his performance and was grinning ear to ear when talking about the track. “Every win is special. We’ve been working at this since I was 4 years old, my family and I going to the BMX track. Watching Ricky Carmichael and others guys win all sorts of races and wondering, what do I have to do to get there? We’ve put everything we had into it.  Each win is hard, they don’t come easy, it’s a tough sport and some rough tracks the last few weeks. Lately it’s been working out, and whether it does or it doesn’t, we’re all still having fun just riding bikes.  It’s a challenge to race on this track, but this is probably the funnest track I’ve ever ridden.”

SDG athletes are now in Windham, New York for the only American stop on the World Cup Tour taking place this upcoming weekend.

After setting the fastest qualifying time yesterday by more than 7 seconds, Trek World Racing’s Aaron Gwin displayed incredible poise and composure to once again win by a similar margin today in the finals here at Val di Sole, Italy. While the rest of the field were separated by tenths of a second, the sizes of Aaron’s winning margins really were the talk of the paddock throughout the weekend. The win today puts Aaron in the leader’s jersey, but tied on points with main rival Greg Minnaar (RSA).

The course here in Val di Sole, site of the 2008 World Championships, is notoriously steep and rooted and is considered one of the toughest on both rider and machine. Training accidents claimed many riders but fortunately the sunny weather ensured the racing was largely a safe affair, but the images were dramatic nevertheless. It’s hard to appreciate the incline of this course unless you’ve walked it or stood trackside.

Unfortunately Neko Mulally was unable to race as his ankle wasn’t 100% ready for the demanding track. A single practice run on Friday made that abundantly clear, but he took a radio to the course and relayed a lot of valuable information back to the team’s start crew. Starting last and not knowing what time Greg Minnaar had recorded, Aaron took to the track with a chance to win his 6th World Cup. While Minnaar sat in the hotseat it was clear that barring an accident, the win was Aaron’s for the taking. No rider had beaten his qualifying time of 3mins 16.693secs so he still had the fastest time on the hill for the weekend no matter what, but Aaron went on to beat his qualifying time by 6 seconds.

Aaron said: “I’ve been looking for a run like that for some time now, I couldn’t be happier. I was pretty sure my quali time would hold, and even though the course here is super rough and dusty, I managed an almost clean run. Greg rode amazingly well on this track and is going to be tough competition for the remainder of the season.”

Teammate Justin Leov moved up in the overall rankings from 16 to 13 after his run today, but despite the improvement was disappointed with how his final run went.

Justin said: “I overrode the first sector of the course and made an error that cost me a second. I tried to make it up in the second sector but just starting making more mistakes and had to rein it in to get down. Fort William’s up next week and I’m keen to get back there.”

Next week sees Round 3 at the classic Fort William course. Greg Minnaar has won there a number of times including last year, but Aaron has a score to settle with the track after having a lead of more than 5 seconds in 2011 and crashing with 2 corners to go. With the two of them tied on points it will be an exciting showdown at the Fort.

Team website: http://dh.trekworldracing.com/

These were made for Brendan and Sam on the Monster Specialized Team for wet and muddy conditions in the World Cup. Eventually they will be available to the public in limited numbers, but we are doing further testing to make sure it’s exactly to their specification.

A lot of people think that a gripper cover would be enough as in a moto seat, but the fact is, a motorcycle has a rear fender to keep the mud off and you are seated quite a bit. On a mountain bike, there is no rear fender and you are off your seat from the starting gate, but when you need traction, the entire seat is already covered in mud.

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Schladming, Austria- Monster Energy Specialized racing ended the 2009 Mountain Bike season on top at World Cup Finals held this weekend.  Sam Hills win today allowed him to secure the overall UCI World Cup Downhill Title, while Sam’s teammate Brendan Fairclough also made a trip to the podium in 5th place leading to 8th overall in the series.
The track in Schladming is legendary, dropping 601m over a distance of 2.2km.  The entire length of it is incredibly rough, filled with massive braking bumps and is littered with slick roots throughout the extremely long woods sections.  The track pushes riders to their limit, forcing them to push their own personal envelope to the very edge; the perfect venue to end a very tight points race and crown a champion.
Hill took the momentum from a large 3+ second qualifying margin into the finals and never looked back smashing the field by 2.33 seconds. The usually calm and collected Australian was nervous as he waited for his chance to put a finish touch on a successful season.
“I was pretty nervous at the top. I could see Jacy getting texts and I knew what time Minnaar had run.  I could see Jacy looking at his phone every rider and not saying anything so I knew he was still leading.  I was getting more nervous the more I thought about it.  The first half of the run all I could think about was, I’d be coming into turns and I should be turning, and I also found myself thinking about the overall.  About half way down, I could hear the crowd cheering and this snapped me back into it.  The cheers got louder when I got out to the open grass section toward the bottom so I knew I was on a good run.  The bottom grass turns sorta felt like a celebration lap. It’s pretty awesome to get the win as well as win the overall.
Sam on the gold jacket; Palmer’s an idol of mine and we are good buddies, basically at the World Cup in Ste Anne, Palmer said that if I had a could get close enough for a shot at taking the overall, he’d lend me his old gold jacket that his mom made him that he used to wear on the podium when he rode for Specialized. “That jacket was the real deal and I’m pretty proud to be able to wear it up there for him.”
Fairclough was the man everyone was talking about all week, with much of the media commenting that he looked even faster than Hill through the woods. A race morning practice run mishap may have ended his chances when the Englishman went down hard on the first set of corners on the track after losing his grip on the bars.  Sore ribs and a banged up shoulder meant that staying on the bike while running ragged would be nearly impossible, and forcing him to tone it down for his race run.
“I can’t ask for much more than a podium. I went off the start and hit the first bump and started really hurting. What can you do?  I shot myself in the foot by crashing this morning and hurt my shoulder and ribs. I felt so good on my bike all week. I was smashing stuff, the bike was running awesome and I felt great. The crash really knocked me back a few steps, it was a bit of a bummer.  I am gutted knowing I could have been up there with Sam and given him a run for his money.”
Team Manager Sean Heimdal says “I’m so happy for Sam that he could secure the overall. Sam has trained harder than ever this season, and it’s all paid off for him in the end. We all know what he’s capable of doing, but to pull off the overall title after his mishap in Andorra…that’s a testament to his strength as true champion. While Brendan had a roller coaster ride this season, 3 podium finishes is something he should feel good about and I’m looking forward to seeing Brendan and Sam standing 1-2 next season.
With this race, the season ends for the Monster Energy Specialized Team; Sam, Jacy and Sean head to Vegas for Interbike, while Brendan will head over to Vancouver to film a few days before everyone’s season officially wraps up.
The season wouldn’t be a success without the support of our co-sponsors; Monster Energy, Specialized Bicycles, Mad Catz, SRAM, Truvativ, Rock Shox, Avid, SDG, FUNN, Troy Lee Designs, Alligator, Cane Creek, Crank Brothers, DT Swiss, e-thirteen, Five Ten, Maxima, Obtainium, Freestyle, Kicker, KMC.

Review: Road Bike Action Tests SDG
The SDG I-Beam System is already popular on the Mountain Bike scene but more and more riders are rocking the system on their road machines due to the high comfort and very low weight. Here Road Bike Action reviews the system.

STORY
The SDG I-Beam design has been on the mountain bike scene for a couple of years now and has earned a reputation as a tough and durable setup that virtually eliminates bent seat rails and broken seatpost heads. In 2008, SDG brought the I-Beam concept to the road market with the 951 Road Micro Carbon seatpost and their top-of-the-line Formula FX saddle.

TECH
The I-Beam Micro System on the 951 Road Micro Carbon allows for the widest range of fore and aft adjustment when combined with an SDG I-Beam saddle. The Micro System uses a single, easy-to-access, 5mm bolt for quick and simple adjustments or saddle changes. The new micro head design allows precise angle adjustment and is constructed from 6061 cold-forged aluminum. To keep weight low, the I-Beam Micro System head is mated to a carbon post.

The Formula FX is SDG’s flagship saddle and features a leather cover and dual-density foam for added comfort and support. The base of the Formula FX saddle is constructed using SDG’s latest injection technology. The injection-molded I-Beam runs close to two-thirds the length of the bottom of the saddle to allow a wide range of fore and aft adjustment. Small fore and aft adjustment numbers are molded into the plastic and are helpful in setting up one’s saddle position. A Topeak Quick Click System Bag Mount is included but can be removed to save a few extra grams.

RBA SAYS
The I-Beam design has several advantages over a conventional saddle and post setup. First, the fore and aft adjustability is phenomenal. This feature makes the I-Beam a good option for any rider who has issues getting his proper position. The 951 Road Micro Carbon seatpost and Formula FX saddle are also incredibly easy to set up. There is no fighting with multiple pieces or separate bolts for angle adjustment. It really is as simple as tightening a single, 5mm bolt. The biggest advantages to the system are its strength and durability. If you are a larger rider who has bent or broken saddles or seatposts in the past, the I-Beam offers a great solution. The biggest downside to the I-Beam design is the lack of saddle options. The Formula FX drew praise from everyone who rode it, but it will not fit everyone. SDG does offer a full range of saddles, but most gravitate toward the larger and heavier side.

The SDG 951 Road Micro Carbon seatpost and Formula FX saddle make a great combination for larger riders or those struggling to get their position set up properly. We loved the easy setup, but would like to see more saddle options.