Team Rocky Mountain East Battles the Best in the U.S.

For the first time the best in the United States traveled east to Beech Mountain, North Carolina for the USAC Gravity National Championships. . . Click to read on

Final Breaths of Summer - Freddie Oxley

Jill wins Sea Otter Dual Slolom

Jill Kinter and Jared Graves took Saturday's Sea Otter Slalom Victories!!! It was the first slalom win at otter for Jared, and Jill's second.

Jill commented, "Slalom day is always the best of otter. There should be more of this format ... you ride your own race, anything can happen ..."

DRD X-Fusion Announces Factory Team Roster

Dean Racing Development (DRD) and X-Fusion suspension announced its factory mountain bike race team, and continued relationship with Intense Cycles, as the team’s 2011 official frame supplier,.
Cody Warren (Alpine, CA) one of the strongest American racers in recent history, former National DH Champion joins the team bringing a strong pedigree and long list of accomplishments. 
JD Swanguen (San Diego, CA) makes his return to the team from the X-Fusion race program as one of the most talented, all-around riders in the world – from downhill racing to street riding, slalom to dirt jumps. JD will also film throughout the season and showcase his 29er project.
Jason Memmelaar (Chester, NY) an east coast fan favorite, has quickly risen in the US downhill scene giving the program much needed depth with a stellar past season winning the Crankworx, CO dual slalom and placing 2nd at the Pro GRT in Winter Park.
Brad King (San Marcos, CA) will make his pro debut having raced for the DRD program as a junior in 2010
Austin Warren (Alpine, CA) will join the team as the team’s only factory junior cat 1 rider.

Dirt TV - Bryn Atkinson films with the Parkin Brothers back in July

Aussie National Rnd- Mt Buller, Victoria

Mt Buller held the 3rd round of the Australian national series this past weekend. To not upset a trend, the weather turned to crap as we rolled into town.. We rode in the poring rain all day Friday, switching goggles and gloves every run to stay sane. The winds and rain got so bad on Saturday that practice was cancelled, we were forced to sit by the fire and play WRC on Xbox all day.. Pretty rough stuff.

As we were driving to the track for Seeding, it started snowing, it was freezing.. Thankfully the rain and snow would stay away for the rest of the day, but the track was a mess as the mud dried out, the rock's and wood got extra slimy making it a whole lot more technical.

I seeded 1st, and finished 1st, 8 seconds clear of my little bro Rhys in 2nd, and Nathan Rennie in 3rd. Jill and I have been laying low the last few months, just putting in the work, the last race we did was in November, so it's nice to see our hard work paying off.

Rhys is in good form right now, we practiced together, and he was flying. He's sitting second in the series with one round to go, would be nice to see him on top when the series comes to an end in March.

Jill had a massive crash in her final run, clipping her pedal on a rock and flipping over the bars on the fastest part of the track.. She got pretty beat up, just bruising though, so she'll be right in a week or so.

We have 2 weeks at home then it's off to National Championships in Adelaide.

Thanks for the support!
Bryn

Lars & Luke Strobel make DH short— Episode 2

Lars and Luke Strobel (Evil Bikes) set out to make DH short. This episode features super slow motion shots, pushing bikes uphill, two riders passing each other, putting on helmets and hucking DH style.

IMBA — 2011's New MB Trails

IMBA and affiliate groups are in the process of building hundreds of miles of trails that include massive trail centers. With 30 major trail projects lined up to rival destinations like Moab, we're talking extensive new trail networks in Idaho and Alabama. Also freeride skill centers in Colorado and South Dakota.

Here's the rub. We're facing a potential reduction in federal trail funding from the Federal Highway Administration  (responsible for both motorized and non-motorized trails across the country) and recreational trails might be on the chopping block.

Trail builders IMBA and affiliate have used federal money to leverage local contributions and its been a great investment that local communities want to get behind. So tapping into state and community resources may help get many of these projects off the ground.

Because so much is on the line IMBA asks that you get involved. There's more information on threatened trails, new single-track projects or memberships to join IMBA to gain greater political clout in Washington —visit imba.com

Amazing

Available Spring 2011 - heads-up from Transition Bikes

The Bandit is a true to form lightweight trail bike designed to rip up and down the mountain. We pushed the envelope of tube design and machining of frame parts to create a bike that absolutely floats through singletrack. Careful attention to pivot placement and leverage curves make the Bandit feel like a long travel bike on the descents and a XC race bike going up. Our goal was to create a trail bike that combined the ultimate uphill pedaling feel along with a playful spirit on the downhill that is a treat to throw around corners, bunny hop and pull the front end up over obstacles. The Bandit gets you the best of both worlds without compromising and will put a smile on your face going up and downhill.

Congratulations North of the Border Bike Shop

San Diego's coolest bike shop "North of the Border" has a new location.
Be sure to visit.

Newtons Nation. Mt Panorama, NSW

Pretty rad little weekend of racing up here in the Mountains. Mt Panorama, Bathurst hosted Newton’s Nation- A big music and "extreme sports" festival. Somehow this one off event managed to pull together one of the best prize purses in Australia, and with that brings good racing. Sam Hill, Chris Kovarik, Nathan Rennie, Ricky Boyer, Ben Cory, just to name a few, were all in attendance.

The little hillside meant a short track, only 1.20ish. But turned out to be pretty quality, with plenty of ripping turns, rocks, off camber and high speed sections, the combo of all this made the racing really tight. Sunday's racing was in the rain, it seem's like we can't escape it.. I had a pinner of a run and took the win over Ben Cory with Sam in 3rd. Jill was ripping, and won the women's event by a mile.

Nice to be riding Downhill again, my new thumb works great!

Thanks for the support!
Bryn

Ridin Skurd Race Report

This weekend I attended the “Ridin’ Skurd” Bootleg Canyon downhill race in Boulder City, Nevada. For once I arrived to find some cooler weather, but of course the wind decided to kick up Saturday, making it nearly impossible to do practice runs. After rolling down the rack trying to fight the wind, I found the track to be fast, fun and wide open. Since I didn’t get many runs in on Saturday, I woke up bright and early Sunday to get a better feel for the less windy track. After doing several runs with friend and fellow racer Mitch Ropelato, it was time get on the shuttle and head up for our final race run. In the gate I felt ready to put down a good solid race run. I dropped in and traversed down the first steep technical section without any major mistakes. I got midway down the course and had to start battling the wind on some of the bigger jumps. Once I got through the middle of the course, my legs were burning and I was already into the 40 second sprint to the finish line. I crossed the line with a 3:53, which was good enough for third place. Final results showed Aaron Gwin in first place, Mitch Ropelato in second place, and me in third place, less than a second off of Mitch. It turned out to be an awesome race with some A- List riders going for the win. I would like to thank all my sponsors for their continued support including GT Bicycles, Epic Stealth Cameras, SRAM, Kenda, Mavic, Fox Clothing, Funn, Ethirteen, SDG, Twenty Six Products, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, FiveTen Shoes, EFX, DarkTimbers , ODI grips, Freestyle watches, Diverse Suspension Springs, and Cadence Works.

Kevin Aiello

JD at Interbike Las Vegas

JD Swanguen standing in front of 26 Products' Booth. CadenceWORKS sponsored Intense 951. By the way, he has on one of our new hats!

Transition Racing at World Championships

Bryn at World Cup in Champery, Switzerland

Here is an update from Bryn regarding the latest world cup in Champery. If you saw the coverage of the event it looked like the worst weather possible combined with some of the most steep and technical terrain of any world cup.

Congratulation Jill—National DH Champ!

Jill's first ever Downhill National Championship in pro-women.
Full pics on Jill's facebook

Kevin Aiello Pro GRT Round 3- Northstar Resort

Truckee, CA—The Pro GRT National race series makes its third stop in Truckee California, at the legendary Northstar Ski Resort, for the biggest GRT event yet. This Awesome resort played host to some of the world’s fastest racers, including the Santa Cruz Syndicate, Giant Bikes, Transition Bikes, DRD Tomac, and KHS Factory team. With all these world class individuals attending, I knew I had to be on my game. The race track on the other hand had a wide variety of terrains that included fast, loose, high speed berms, big jumps, bridge drops, and a few nasty rock gardens. After a few course changes, riders took to the track, and started hammering in lines. I got my runs in and was feeling good for Fridays seeding run.

Down right nasty whips / Kevin Aiello on his home trails

Update from Kevin Aiello

Hey Guys,
I got a day of film in in last month with a friend and made two videos. One is a Day in the Life of Kevin Aiello while the other is a monthly video called Support the Whip. The Day in the Life video runs through all my sponsors at the end of the video so feel fee to use anywhere and everywhere you'd like. Here are the links and I've also attached a photo form last race. Thanks to all my sponsors for their continued support. you guys have been awesome!
Kevin

Valparaiso Cerro Abajo urban DH — Thanks Alan!

The course goes from Cerro Carcel to Plaza Anibal with jumps, drops, over 100 stair steps and finish line reminiscent of a football stadium. Practice and the race were held on Sunday, when the racers made their way down the course for the first time. Chris Van Dine led a strong group of North American riders and showed how experience pays off by qualifying first unfortunately CVD suffered a mechanical during his final run. World Cup racers Andrew Neethling and Filip Polc were eager to put on a good show. For Neethling the day would end in qualifying after he crashed early in his run. Polc qualified in the top ten and took his spot on the hot seat after his final run. Chilean racer Enrique Genova put together an amazing final run to take second place behind Polc. For Polc winning VCA extended his streak of urban downhill race wins that include wins in Colombia,and Brazil.

Valparaiso Cerro Abajo 2010 from ChannelMTB on Vimeo.

Riding Ellsworth in Moab