Nested away in Collingwood, Ontario, Blue Mountain hosted the 2008 Norco VPS Fest that took place on July 12th.

Started in 2003, VPS fest was created to give back to the Norco consumers and give everyone excuse to ride together. VPS has a lot to offer as they give away tons of prizes, free mechanics, as well as the opportunity to ride with the pro’s.

Inside we’ll tell you more about how the event went down and what you can expect if you attend a VPS fest event.

The Blue Mountain VPS Fest took place on Saturday, July 12th. The weather couldn’t have been much better even though there was a chance of thunderstorms they never transpired.

Blue Mountain is ran by Intrawest and their facilities are top notch. The lift system they have in place is fast and their bike trays held the bikes safely without touching other bikes. The hill itself doesn’t have a ton of elevation but they do a nice job at utilizing their terrain effectively. More trails will be opened later as revisions are made but the current open trails proved to be more than enjoyable enough for a day’s riding.

The Norco crew set off early in the morning to begin setting up various tents, booths, and mechanics areas. There was a trials show setup for pro Norco trials rider, Dylan Korba, in the middle of the village for all the spectators to enjoy.

Read the full article: sicklines.com

Another Double Podium For The Norco World Team.

MONT STE ANNE World Cup has always held a certain magic for Fionn - her first World Cup DH was won here in 2003 – and this weekend was no different! Fionn battled the constantly changing weather and schedule confusions to come out once again with a double World Cup Podium – this time 5th in the DH and 3rd in the 4X.

All weekend the DH track was a sloppy mess. It has been raining heavily in Quebec since we arrived and showed no sign of slowing until race morning. Fionn loves this track and she enjoyed playing in the mud and working out the fastest lines in the wet conditions. Qualification was solid – keeping the rubber side down and working her way safely to the bottom, placing herself 9th going into the afternoon event. Come race time the game face was on and straight out of the start gate Fionn attacked the course. She was strong all the way through the top, until going offline in the mud and hitting a tree in the track stopping her dead. Fionn quickly recovered and got her head back in the game, burning through the bottom section and throwing down a fast enough time to keep her on that podium!

4X was a mess this weekend. After all of the rain all week the track was deemed too wet to ride Thursday. Friday evening riders showed up again disappointed in the condition of the track. UCI officials and track designers worked hard to battle the mud, but a poor choice in materials used on course resulted in injured riders and Fridays practice and qualification runs ultimately cancelled again. Saturday turned out to be worth the wait however. The rain held long enough to dry the track and it was on! Only 1 hour practice followed immediately by qualification (Fionn qualied in 4th) and then straight back up the hill for racing! Women’s racing was intense! Semi-finals saw Fionn up against Anneke Beerten and Anita Molchik, two riders leading Fionn in the series overall, but Fionn was hungry for a medal and finished with a flat sprint that won her the heat and put her into the finals. She put her new Norco Hardtail to the test again in the finals against Melissa Buhl, Anneke Beerten, and Mio Suemasa and rode a solid heat to finish 3rd behind Melissa and Mio.

It was a great weekend all around! Fionn and Jill would like to thank Kevin Haviland and all the East Coast Norco Crew for their help this weekend. The bikes were dialed and the pits were super calm and professional! Thanks for all your help guys!

Source: griffithsracing.net

Congrats to Melissa Currie from Chilliwack, BC, winner of the Silver Star VPS-Fest 'Ride In Style' Contest.

Not only will Melissa be wearing over $1000 in brand new Mace gear, she is also going to be one of the first to ride a 2009 Norco Shore!

Don't forget, just because the pre-registration contest is over, doesn't mean you can't attend. Grab your Norco, grab your friends, and come up and rider Silver Star for FREE this Saturday.

VPS-FEST.com

Symmetrics racks up a few more wins on their bit towards total world domination...

Symmetrics Dominates at the Tour de Delta
The boys did a great job this weekend takin' care of business at the Tour de Delta. Each year the team has gotten progressively better at Superweek and this year they really put the icing on the cake. We won all three stages and the overall GC not to mention the $2000 crowd prime at the Delta criterium on Saturday night. Can you remember the days when Wohlberg and his Saturn team used to show up and do that? God we hated them! We hated them so much we signed Wohlberg! :-) Ok we didn't really hate them but it definitely inspired the creation of this team to a certain extent.
MORE...

Pinner wins big in Gastown
Ah Gastown...what a race. For the past five years Symmetrics Pro Cycling has been trying to win THAT race and every year has been oh so close. Finally in 2008 we did it in style. The guys put on an amazing show and Svein clearly won the hearts of the fans with his solo attempt at the win. Unfortunately for Svein he got swallowed up on the final stretch leaving Pinner and Zach to take care of business in the sprint. And what a sprint it was.Pinner won by almost two bike lengths over the likes of Chris Horner, Kirk Obee, Hilton Clark and a charging field pro cyclists. It was an impressive display of timing, tactics speed.
MORE...

Stay tuned for more race reports from the Giro De Burnaby and the Tour of White Rock!

Only 2 Weeks Left Till VPS-Fest at Silver Star Mountain!

The clock is ticking, we're packing the truck, and the Norco staff are getting stoked . . . WHY?

Because on Saturday, Aug. 2nd, Silver Star Mountain is hosting our favourite event of the season, Norco's 6th Annual Rider Appreciation Day: VPS-Fest.

If You Ride A Norco:

1) You ride FREE

2) We'll fix your bike for FREE

3) We'll fix your flats for FREE

4) You could win $1000 in Mace gear (when you pre-register online)

5) You can watch a FREE Ryan Leech trials demo and ride with our Factory Team for...FREE of course

6) You get FREE shwag just for showing up & flashing a smile

7) You could win some of the $5000 in gear we're giving away, including a 2008 One25

Putting the FREE back in riding since 2003!

VPSFEST.com VPS-Fest is Norco's one-of-a-kind Rider Appreciation Day. It's our chance to say 'Thanks!' to our riders by providing anyone who rides a Norco bike with discounted lift-accessed riding, FREE tech support, the chance to win a few grand in prizes, and much more...

Our dealers have seen them, the media has seen them, and now, finally, it's your turn....

Check out some of the first impressions on our 2009 line of bikes! (reported by professionals who've SEEN AND RIDDEN them rather than groms who spend too much time on bulletin boards)

PINKBIKE.com - Norco Empire 5 - 2009 bikes are rolling out!

BIKERADAR.com (MBUK) - Norco 2009 Product Launch

MTBR.com - First Impressions

WHISTLERMOUNTAINBIKE.com - 2009 Norco Product Launch

NSMB.com - Norco 2009 Launch - The 6" and 5" bikes

More to come....

A bit of news from our favourite Euro...

Hi guys….just a quick update.

Well there was another competition that I was invited to a few weeks ago, the Red Bull Bike Night in Trieste, Italy.

I went there with my super cool friend, BMX guy, Jurica Barac who was also competing.

The course was amazing – a huge skatepark built in the main square in Trieste. Qualifications went well and I qualified 6th which put me directly into the quarterfinals.

The idea behind this competition was a bit different than usual. We each rode in teams of two – one mountain biker and one BMXer – competing head-to-head against other pairs.

The battle was epic but sadly, we lost that night to Adam Hauck with his BMX team went on to the finals.

Overall though, it was an amazing night and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it!

Cheers
- Mislav

I always wanted to be one of those kids who got to go to camp. My parent's idea of camp was pitching a tent in the middle of the woods, giving us a bag of marshmallows to roast, and leaving us with our bikes so we could ride through the trails or play on the beach.

Being sent to a mountain bike camp with other kids to ride and play with (as opposed to the wild animals I was used to) and being coached by pro riders was nothing more of a silly far-fetched dream I'd have as a young rider.

It might have come a little late, but finally that wish came true. I went to mountain bike camp this week! Better late than never right?

Camp of Champions and Oakley teamed up to bring myself and my teammates Brain Lopes and Niki Gudex to camp this year and I couldn't have been more excited when I heard that we'd get to ride in the camp for a whole week. Originally we were invited as guest coaches, but by the fun we had I'd wager to say that I felt more like a camper than a coach.

We'd wake up to a beautiful breakfast, go rip around Whistler bike park for a few runs, go in for a beautiful lunch, rip around the bike park some more, then cap it off with either a trip to the foam pit, shooting golf balls at the driving range, shredding the C.O.C. mini ramp, or shooting hoops and yes, I'm going to put this out there - I am a better basketball player than Brian Lopes! It's ok Brian, you're a REALLY good bike rider.

We lucked out with the weather and I don't know about anyone else, but I was stoked to ride in the sweltering heat everyday after such a cold winter. Trail conditions were dusty and fast and we didn't have to deal with muddy gear for the whole week which was an added bonus. I think we rode every kind of trail style you could think of other than muddy everyday. Fast, flowy, jumpy, rooty, droppy, rough, smooth, steep, flat, left, right, up, down - we rode it and we loved it. No campers pampers needed - these kids were tough and stoked on it all!

The riding was great, the other coaches ruled, but the thing that I couldn't get over was the amount of swag that these kids got when it was all over with! Not that it's all about the swag...but when you get loaded up with enough gear to fill an extra duffle bag you've gotta be stoked. I'm pretty sure these kids left with full body armor, a new full face helmet, a hoodie, t-shirts, Oakley gear, and thankfully, a Dakine backpack to cart it all away in. One camper even left with a new dirtjump frame! Now their kit is as steezy as their newly developed skills. I'd have to say, even though I'm 24 years old and already a pro rider, my first trip to camp was better than I could have ever imagined. The wildlife was still there (as we discovered one day when we found ourselves watching two bears having a little lovemaking session under the chairlift...who would have expected that sex-ed was part of the Camp of Champs?) but instead of a bag of marshmallows we ate gourmet food, and instead getting lost in the woods with fully rigid bikes covered in rust we got to ride in the best bike park in the world on a fleet of top-of-the-line fully functional Norco bikes! Thanks to all the kids and coaches for showing me the pro-rider camp newbie such a great time. I'm coming back next year for sure (if my mom lets me). -Darcy

Just Announced! This weekend 2x World Cup Championship Silver Medalist & Norco World Team DH racer, Fionn Griffiths will be attending the Blue Mountain Resort VPS-Fest.

Come out and learn a few tips and tricks from a top racer, or just take a lap and try to keep up (good luck with that!)

And, don't forget, Jay Hoots and Dylan Korba will also be on hand to teach, guide, and mostly ride with YOU!

BE THERE! (VPSFEST.com VPS-Fest is Norco's one-of-a-kind Rider Appreciation Day. It's our chance to say 'Thanks!' to our riders by providing anyone who rides a Norco bike with discounted lift-accessed riding, FREE tech support, the chance to win a few grand in prizes, and much more...

Norco-sponsored, Team Symmetrics rider Christian Meier has won his first national championship as an elite at only 23yrs of age. Just like Cam did last year.

Today's race was pretty intense, as we suspected it would be. It was a large field and a relatively short course at only 9.8km around with a steep hard climb each lap.

This was the same course we did on stage 5 in the Tour de Beauce, so we knew it well. We were very worried about the course, but it was also very suited to our abilities. With the heat and the distance though… you never know what is going to happen. The plan in races like this is really kind of simple-you do what you can, work the numbers.

Jake and Eric covered the first move of the day. Zach went up. We had 3 in 9. Good numbers. Some stuff happened, then Jake and Christian were off the front in a group of 6, two in six is good numbers. Some guys behind counter attacked Eric, Will and Sherby had that covered - good numbers 2 in 6 up front and 3 in 12 behind. Then attrition started to take its toll. Guys started to drop out of the break, it was 2 in 5 up front. Walters from Team RACE wasn't working, Roth from Team RACE was in the chase - working hard. If the two groups had joined we would have had 3 in 9 again and RACE would have only had 2 - good numbers.

Then Derek St. John dropped out of the break followed by Walters. The gaps seemed stable, the heat, the distance were taking there toll. The gaps were not changing. We were pretty much in a death march at this point. We had Christian and Jake up front with Bruno Langois. Bruno was not working, was he 'done' or was he playing? We weren't sure. Then disaster struck - Jake got a cramp. His leg seized up totally and he was dropped. It was just Christian and Bruno in the lead. Kevin F went up to Christian in the car and said he had to get Bruno to help - the time gaps were safe, there were no immediate threats. Jake was recovering, it actually would have been good for us to have Jake rejoin Christian and Bruno. But Bruno started working.

In the end that was it. Christian and Bruno rode it to the finish. Christian attacked with about 500m to go and gapped Bruno just enough to hold it to the line. Last year Christian won the National Espoir title on the exact same finishing hill in a very different type of race.

We are all pretty happy with how things worked out for us this weekend with Svein taking the TT Championship and Christian taking the Road.

Watch Christian's post race interview with Rob Jones from Canadian Cyclist.

The Norco-sponsored Typically Canadian Tour riders are nearly on their final leg, and have already raised nearly $60,000 towards cancer research.

So, what is a Typical Canadian?
A Typical Canadian is not defined by one's background, birthplace, culture, age, or interests. A Typical Canadian is defined by one's determination, willpower, courage and compassion when faced with adversity such as cancer.

The Typically Canadian Group (TCG) was formed to honour all those who have exemplified the attributes of a Typical Canadian and to rally Canadians in the battle against all cancer.

We believe that to honour is to inspire.

For more information, blogs, stories from the Typically Canadian Tour, check out: typicallycanadian.com