Hutchinson UnitedRide Team Report Val Di Sole

Hi everyone,

Val Di Sole is over! It has been a rough week end for everyone.

Unfortunately, Tim broke his collarbone on Friday during practice, he went back to South Africa to get a surgery, we all wish him a quick recovery and can't wait to see him on a bike again. Apart from that everyone was having a good time on this dusty steep track and in he hot sun of Val Di Sole.

Saturday, it's qualification time. Guillaume and Fabien crashed and didn't make it into the 80th, but Fabien being 19th overall he is a protected rider, he's still qualified.   Fabien was struggling with arm pumped issues and finished 75th.   

Mick had an average run and qualified 23nd.  Come race day, Mick had a few mistakes in his run and ended up in 32nd; he's now 6th overall. 

Tracey crashed pretty hard in the fastest section of the track and qualified 8th.  Sunday morning, pressure is on for the finals. Tracey was on a good run until she crashed, she finished at 9th place. She's now 2nd overall! 

It's the first hard week end for the team this year, we know it's part of racing and we are already looking forward to Fort William where we will try to get back our team leader rank.

Thanks to all the staff for the hard work and thanks to all our partners like Morewood and iXS for the support.

See you in Fort William next week,

Hutchinson UnitedRide

The Mad Haderer takes Port Angeles

Sea Otter was over and it was a quick trip home to stop by work then off to meet up with the Harmonys and the boys up at Unique in Oregon so Steve and I jumped in the van and headed up to Central Point. Got in right around breakfast time and rearranged some seats and bikes and we caravan-ed with the DeathStar North towards Port Angeles. A whole bunch of the big guns from Sea Otter decided to come up to the venue as well. The Syndicate, Brendan, Steve Smith, Team Yeti, Norco, KHS, DRD Intense, Mick Hannah, and Trek World Racing were all on the same road as us to ride the first real DH of the year. Long day of driving and a camp out in the local Walmart parking lot and we were at the venue ready for a course walk.

Steve the Official Pit Wolf.

Track was a good mix of everything the northwest had to offer. Some highspeed slick rock and turns up top with some rooty rutted turns in the middle that we have raced on before going on to a whole new wooded section with lots of fresh loam and BIG holes. They finished up the track with another new steep and loose section nicknamed the  "Chunder Dome" and with waist high braking and suspension bumps the name fit quite well. the team had just bolted up some of our new rear shocks from Cane Creek so it was time to do some tuning and testing on the first day of muddy practice. Put on the fresh new IXS Pants and hopped in the first shuttle truck for afternoon practice. The track rode fairly slow with the early morning rain so it was going to be a struggle to keep speed up. After a few practice runs it was time for some good old fashion BBQ for dinner. The motley crew headed out to the Blue Flame BBQ joint in town and was fed entirely too much dead animal. Back to the deathstar for the nights rest going into seeding day on Saturday.

Saturday morning woke to some light showers overnight which actually helped keep the track from getting to sticky but made it a bit slick. We all decided to go with dry tires and the Hutchinson Barracuda was the tire of choice for the weekend. A few clicks and turns on the Double Barrels and the bikes felt great. Now it was just time to keep speed up and try to stay out of the holes that were growing bigger every run. I hoped in the truck to grab one last practice run before seeding when near the top the truck started to shake and move and before we all knew it the Uhaul van started to roll. Being inside of the box we really had to reference to what was going on other than the floor was now at nearly a 45 degree angle I felt as though i was going to flip over and land on top of Mick Hannah who was now below me. After the were finally let out of the truck we could tell that the driver must have been facebooking while driving and slid us off the side of the raised shuttle road and had it not been for all the logging recently done on Dry Hill we might have kept rolling down the side of the mountain. After this little incident the track didnt seem at all scary anymore. Seeding runs came around and lets just say I did my best impression of a full motion Sunny Bono and smacked right into a tree coming to a stop. Ran a time somewhere in the top half but knew I had a LOT more to take off for finals the next day.

Finals day. Woke up early to find the whole hill Socked in completely with fog as well as a fair amount of rain which turned the already scary fast top section into a small stream and extremely slick at speed. We are allowed one practice run on race day with nearly 500 racers going off that day it became a day of HURRY up and WAIT. Sitting around the pits for about 5 hours before finals really took a bit of a toll on me and i dont think i was really ready for my race run. Finally it was time to ride and headed up the hill just in time to roll into the gate. Set off on my run and just couldn't quite get my rhythm in the first few turns. I tried to get things back under control but after about half the run I was still struggling to ride smooth. Overbraking in turns and having some very interesting encounters with roots it was probably my worst race run in memory without coming off the bike. Finished in the same second and my qualifier with a whole lot of disappointment on my mind.  All and all it was a good learning race for me and gave me some new fire to spend alot more time just on my DH bike. On to the next one. Stay tuned for some new bike news!

Read the Harmony's Race Reports HERE.

Now, go here and click "Like": Facebook.com/UniqueMTB

NW Cup #1

The Enduro contingent headed for the NW Cup #1 in Port Angeles this weekend.  Jared Hobbs was rocking the #4 plate in the Pro Division.  Jared rode his Morewood Makulu to a final time of 2:57.02 which was good enough for a 17th of 39 Pros at the event.  This was Jared's first race on the Makulu.


Jared protected himself with an interesting combo...iXS Hack Knee Pads and iXS Hack Shin Pads.  The Hack Knee Pads are the ultimate in Enduro protection and lightweight.  He added some shin protection and hit up the DH.  Nice idea!


Scott Punt hit up the Cat 1 race with his Makulu, stay tuned for an event report from Scott on this blog.


Be sure to "Like" the team on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UniqueMTB


See the full results here: http://nwtechanddesign.com/nwcup/files/DH-Results-Overall.pdf

Photo by dsedivy on PinkBike.  Check out his other photos HERE    

Chasing The Dust - Hutchinson UnitedRide VIDEO

This Winter, Europe was pretty cold so we decided to chase dusty trails and headed to Queenstown.  The best place for training at this time of the year so we could get ready for the 2012 World Cup Season. Big thanks to Skyline, Brad Rowe, Jono de Queenstown Bike Taxis, Florent Carreyron, James Tilbury and Stew Greig for their help and to our sponsors : Hutchinson, Morewood, iXS, Alltricks, E13, Bluegrass, Spank, Zodiac, Mavic, Blackmountain, Formula, Crank Bros., ODI.

Chasing The Dust from UNITEDRIDE on Vimeo.

DH New Zealand Cup Wellington - United Ride Trip

Here is a summary of the 5th National NZ cup in Wellington from the inside of the Hutchinson United Ride. The team hit the road for 1 week to get prepared for the 2012 season. It was a good race weekend for us with Fabien's victory and Guillaume's 4th place (U19).   Yet another win for the legendary Morewood Makulu.

Enjoy this little video which shows you how Kiwis drive a scooter!

Results:
Elite
1 - Fabien Cousinie / 2:08.14
2 - Brook Mc Donald / 2:08.49
3 - Markus Pekoll / 2:08.50
4 - Richard Leacock / 2:10.34
5 - Bryn Dickerson / 2:10.54

U19
1 - Louis Hamilton / 2:15.08
2 - Reece Potter / 2:16.36
3 - Kurt Summerfield / 2:17.42
4 - Guillaume Cauvin / 2:17.54
5 - Lawrence Cawte / 2:20.05


DH New Zealand Cup Wellington - United Ride Trip on pinkbike.com

Hutchinson UnitedRide Team Rumors...

You: Who's that Pink Izimu frame for?  

(Fabien sneaks into room)

Me: Oh, oh, pick me, pick me, I know!  It's for...

(Fabien, drops the cloth dosed in ether and walks out of the room)

Merry Christmas from the iXS Morewood Factory Team and the usa.morewoodbikes.com elves!