Where to begin? Vancouver is beautiful and the B.C.Flowshows were amazing. Chris Donahue, Mike Kinrade, Wade Simmons, Jay Hoots all dropped by to say hello. RipTV was filming all weekend and the flowriders kicked ass on the skinnies. Kinrade pulled nice flips and big 360's while almost being thrown out by security for tricycle radness.

Big shout to the Muddbunnies who were in force and all smiles. After the flowshows we stayed with Dangerous Dan Cowan on Bowen Island. Here's a few stunts on his secret trail. The fog was trippy.

Big thanks to the guys at Marzocchi for customizing my 4X fork and lowering it to 80mm. "Mangler" for taking us boating to catch prawn. Baker for hangin,drivin, and riding west Vancouver. Huge thanks to Dangerous Dan for being rad you cracka....

Source: mtbflatland.com

Just enjoying some dinner during my last night in Montreal. Yup, sitting by myself, waiting for food, and typing away; spinning too actually, it\'s a revolving restaurant. Anyway, I have just finished 8 shows in three days at a consumer bike show, Salon du Velo. My first demo of 2007 was last week, but this weekend proved to be good training for the start of my demo season. My trials muscels are sore after some time off the bike, and I imagine this will be the last time they\'re sore for the rest of the season, it\'ll be full on from here on in.

I\'ll be looking forward to some filming when I arrive home in a few days, I\'m excited to collect some footage and work on some new lines for my next film.

Not too much to say this time, just wanted to say hi, foods about to come anyway...

Ryan

Source: www.ryanleech.com

PRE SEASON TRAINING! With the 1st World Cup only 13 weeks away, Fionn has been hard at work with her new personal trainer (and 3x World Cup winner) – Elke Brutsaert

With the 2007 season fast approaching, Fionn has been working hard to get herself ready. After a few intense weeks at "Camp Elke" in Durango, Colorado Fionn has been busy putting the new training plans into action. After hours of gym and road work, she is happy to report

"So far, so good! I am already feeling as fit now as I did going into Sea Otter last season, which is great news all around. Elke has been amazing so far putting hours of effort into correcting some of the damage left by past injuries, as well as pin pointing and focusing in on my weaker areas. I have been impressed by her knowledge and how well she applies her own experiences training and winning World Cups in the past."

Although Fionn claims to appreciate the torture she can still be heard cursing Elke's name over and over in the gym, especially during sets of "ascending stairs" and "prone iso-ab contractions"!

Source: fionngriffiths.com

Innerleithan, Scotland – The 1st race of 2007 was a success for the whole team with both Jaymie and Fionn standing on the podium! The ladies put in an awesome weekend of riding and training although they were without proper DH rigs due to some kind of shipping hold up. However, this didn't stop either of them from racing! Fionn spent the night leading up to the race playing in the garage transforming both her Norco 4XXXX and Norco EXC (Cross Country) bikes into DH race rigs – or as close to that as she could! Both bikes turned out to be great and held up to the abuse.

Race day looked promising. With sunny blue skies and hour-long lift lines, Fionn spent the morning putting in practice runs with fellow World Cup rider, Helen Gaskell. Both ladies were surprised at Fionn's abilities to keep up to Helen on the rough track with her tiny bike. By racing time, both Fionn and Helen were excited to put themselves and their bikes up against the clock. Both of these fast ladies were curious whose bike/rider combo was going to edge the other out for the win. Helen put in an amazing race run, however, an unlucky front flat 20seconds into Fionn's run saw her skidding and sliding her way down the track. She managed to keep up right and was only one position back from Helen at the finish, despite her bad luck. The weekend was not over though. Miss Jaymie Mart put in an awesome race run getting every last millimeter of travel out of her Norco EXC and just nudging Fionn out of 2nd place. Congrats to both ladies on an excellent start to the season!

Source: griffithsracing.net

Norco Performance Bikes is pleased to announce that Kevin Haviland has been hired to fill the Norco Special Events and Technical Support Role for Eastern Canada. Kevin is no stranger to the race scene as Gears Racing Team former Coordinator and head mechanic. In addition, for a number of years, Kevin was also the owner and operator of Havy’s Bike Shop in Keswick, Ontario.

Making his home-base out of Norco’s Eastern Branch in Brampton, Ontario, Kevin will be putting lots of Kilometers on the Special Events Truck & Trailer, as he travels throughout the summer to a wide variety of events in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces

Please feel free to contact Kevin at kevinh@norco.com with any events in your area that we might be able to attend and/or with any ideas you may have to help us support riding in your area.

Norco is looking forward to an amazing 2007 season with plans to attend over 80 events!

Ryan Leech isn\'t your average mountain biker. Trials hasn\'t been \'cool\' for some time now but Ryan doesn\'t care. His fans don\'t care either and Ryan makes a spot for himself in some of the best mountain biking films around - including Roam, The Collective and Progression: Kranked 6 - despite never doing a three whip or a 50 foot gap.

He\'s not such a bad dude either. Saying Ryan is a nice guy is a bit like saying Hitler was a bit of a jerk. Ryan is one of those people who does not have a mean cell in his system. It\'s impossible to imagine him saying anything negative about anyone at all. He\'s just a sunny, happy-go-lucky guy who happens to be a wizard on a bicycle. He should be bottled and sold as an alternative to Prozac.

Recently we asked him a few questions and he was cool enough to give us a few answers.
The Full Interview on NSMB.com...

Catharine Pendrel (BC, Norco Factory Team) is quickly establishing herself among Canada's top female cross country mountain bikers following a breakthrough season during which she recently won a silver medal at the Pan American MTB Championships and placed fourth at the MTB Nationals, behind top guns, Marie-Hélène Prémont (QC, Rocky Mountain/Business Objects), Allison Sydor (BC, Rocky Mountain/Business Objects) and Kiara Bisaro (BC, Team R.A.C.E.).

Finishing second at the Pan Am Championships in Balneário Camboriu, Brazil on October 15 was "definitely an exciting finish to the season," said Pendrel, who lives in Kamloops, B.C. with Keith Wilson, her fiancée and dedicated training partner, and their two kittens. Pendrel placed fifth at the 2005 Pan Am Championships in Mexico and was thrilled at the difference another year can make. She was informed only a week before this year's event, that she had been selected to replace Sydor, but that didn't faze the upbeat 26-year-old, who laughed about her low-maintenance "flip 'n go" hairdo - which she demonstrated, using her shoulder-length blond hair during lunch at a popular café on Vancouver's West Side.

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