The Jeep® 'King of the Mountain' Series today announced that British mountain bike racer Fionn Griffiths has been added to the 12-person roster for the 2007 Mountain Biking World Professional Championships.

A member of the British Cycling Team for six years and five-time British National Champion, Griffiths is a hometown favorite of the United Kingdom, where she won her first national championship on a mountain bike built by her father. Since that first victory, Griffiths has piled on an additional four national championships, a NORBA Series championship, and an astounding 19 World Cup podium finishes – three of which were for gold.

Griffiths is entering the 2007 racing season after a grueling off-season training regimen with her new trainer, making her one of the most promising and equally dangerous racers to hit the dirt this year.

The Jeep King of the Mountain Series features 16 of the world’s top riders competing head-to-head to capture the coveted title of World Professional Champion. In addition, the athletes will be battling for a share of the richest cash payout in the sport, topping $100,000, and the keys to a new 2008 Jeep Liberty.

Source: jeepsports.com

Our time in Switzerland could best be described as BIG. The mountains were big. Really big. The food was big and made with big love. Our van was big and full to the brim with luggage. When the weather came, it came in a big way. And if big was a way to describe awesome, than our trip was huge.

After a few weeks of fromage, fromage, and more fromage mixed in with a lot of chocolate it makes me wonder how the Swiss aren’t all huge! I suppose the fact that scaling huge mountains is a daily activity for them probably explains it.

We first started out in Zurich and explored the city à vélo. Dylan took enjoyment out of scaring the locals by riding his bike along the handrail of a pedestrian bridge that spanned the river that divided town. Personally, I was pretty stoked by the make-your-own muesli press we had at our hotel breakfast. Very Swiss.

After Zurich we headed to the gorgeous Lake Geneva district and stayed in the mighty luxurious town of Montreux. This place was like the Rodeo Drive of Switzerland and you could tell this is where those guys with anonymous Swiss bank accounts hang out. Turns out Freddy Mercury was pretty fond of the place as well because he and the rest of Queen set up a recording studio there and in memoriam the town put up a huge Freddy Mercury statue next to the lake. Needless to say, we went and hung out with him for a while!

The relaxation of Montreux was short lived as we quickly headed up to the giant mountains nearby. Our first stop was Leysin which provided quite a shock to our suspension systems. After a beautiful lunch in their revolving restaurant that looks over Lake Geneva and the Alps we plunged into some of the steepest, rockiest switchbacks I’ve ever seen or ridden. It was intense but super fun…especially when we made it to the bottom without too many bruises!

The next day we got to go to another beautiful village in the heart of the mountains called Chateau D’Oex. It’s always so cool to see huge houses and whole villages in places that most people wouldn’t even consider habitable. Chateau D’Oex was one of those and actually held the World Championships way back in 96 on a course that would be considered gnarly today even with 10” DH bikes. After ripping their beautiful trails and having several up close and personal encounters with the local cattle, we packed up and prepared to go deeper into the mountains.

Mr.Tom Tom the navigator GPS led us up and up and up to our next destination in Champery. Unfortunately the sun wasn’t too stoked on shining that high in the mountains and we were greeted by rain. It was okay though because we hit up the local thermal baths and chowed down on a huge lunch courtesy of our Portes du Soleil hospitality queen, Nathalie. It was so nice to relax in Champery I almost wanted it to rain some more!

The next day we woke up very confused to the sound of both intense thunderclaps and a lawnmower. Guess people mow the lawn in torrential downpours here because the thunderclaps let loose but instead of going to the spa, we headed up the tram into a wall of rain and clouds with our local guide LoLo. LoLo ripped and brought us to one of the most fun trails we had ridden the entire trip despite the rain. All I had heard before riding Champery was that “girls really seem to struggle here,” so needless to say it was a relief when the trails turned out to be awesome!

We rode a bit more Champery then headed over the French boarder to the Chatel bike park with local trail building guru Ben Walker, his wife Corriene, and LoLo to be greeted with sunshine, fast groomed trails, and to both Dylan and my great pleasure, a quarterpipe! There were even trails there called “North Shore” and it was funny to see trails named after somewhere where I have lived.

After an authentically authentic French dinner, we capped our Swiss trip off with one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Really. I’ve done a lot of cool things, and this is near the top. There is a zip line in Chatel that is 240m high, over 1km long and sends you flying on a cable in lawn dart position at over 100km an hour. After some coercing from Cory, we hit it up and flew across the Swiss Alps. Can’t say it wasn’t scary but damn it was fun!

Now we’re in Norway, surrounded by really fun blonde people and great riding. Should be fun. We’ll keep you posted.

Source: rideguide.ca

Ever wondered what winning a Gold medal feels like? Kika blogs about her experiences at the Pan Am Games. . .

One of the frustrations of the games for an athlete used to being very independent and determining their own travel plans and schedules is the enforced structure of a Games. Rio being the 3rd most violent city in the world was pretty protective of the athletes. This meant I couldn’t bike anywhere by myself and our only riding options were the race course and a 3km loop of an F1 race track.

This meant taking the bus to my event as the guys raced much later and none of the staff had bikes to go with me. So at 6:40 am, me and my 5 staff team headed to the mtb venue. Our mechanic Peter was awesome and had my bike dialed for the race. We were also assigned a therapist to be on site with us as well as our coaches and soigneur to handle the two feed/tech zones and representation.

The race loop was super fun. The ground was a mud/sand combo which was horribly sticky when wet, but hard and fast in the dry. After a fast start loop we headed immediately into the woods and up a steep climb made technical by a slick rock and several roots. The course wound its way up and down a forested hill several times offering many sharp corners and roots. We had one sustained climb of 2+minutes and a large section of over 1km of flat ground which lead back to the start finish. The course was approximately 6km and the women were given 5 laps + 2start loops.

Warming up was a bit of a challenge as I was warned to avoid all favellas (poor looking housing) as they may be inhabited by gang members. The only road available was really busy with traffic and pedestrians. On top of this I had a film crew trying to follow me and get some footage.

When the Horn blasted the start of our race we all took off. Mary moved to the front and I dropped back to 5th not being able to clip into my pedal and wanting it for the upcoming jump. The paced seemed slow so when the course opened I jumped to the front to lead the 2nd loop. Before we hit the woods however Mary overtook me and entered the single track first. She slipped on the slick rock and we all hoped off our bikes to run the first climb. After that it was me following Mary trying to see where I could gain an advantage. She seemed to be struggling on both the technical climbs and the descents so I focused on riding cleanly. On the flat stretch she was able to open some time on me, but I knew I could make it up in the woods if I kept focused. Sooner than expected on the first descent I came a round a corner to see that Mary had laid her bike down. She was up in front of me, but now I was determined to get by. The next opportunity I went to make my pass. As I did I got a stick caught in my front wheel. An annoyingly slow pass, but I got by and stepped on the gas going into a series of little climbs. I looked back on the longest climb and I had dropped Mary. Excellent! It was back into a good series of technical climbing and descending before heading back out onto the flats. Mary would claw in a couple seconds on the flats and I would put time into her in the woods…. excepting 3rd lap where I made a bunch of mistakes.

Things were going well for me. I knew I could win this race, but was glad it was actually happening. Last lap and I was given a report that Mary had burped her tire and had to pit for a quick fill up. I had over a minute at this point, but when you’re going for gold you’ll take all the breathing room you can get! I rode into the finish zipping up my jersey and thanking the flat surface so I could raise my hands and look like a pro without falling on my face!

My team was there to meet me at the finish with the most amount of media I’ve ever been exposed too. There were photographers, film crews, reporters with recorders and memo pads, you name it. I was told at this time that not only was I Canada’s first medal, but the first medal of the Pan AM Games. How cool is that!

When Mary (USA) and Laura Morfin (Mexico) crossed the line we were escorted towards the podium (with our doping control chaperones in tow). After the podium, flowers, medals, many, many photographs and interviews we were then escorted to a press conference where the three of us and some translators did a tri-lingual press conference. After this we were finally able to go pee…in front of our doping control chaperones. Although I had had little to drink after the race I was still too dilute from race hydrating and was told I would have to go again, but that I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything until that time. Luckily they relented on the no food, but held tight to the no beverages. Yes I did get a wicked dehydration headache and felt sick to my stomach from the heat all through the night. Finally I was released and got to go watch some of the men’s race. Unfortunately Ricky was already out with a slit sidewall and Matt was working his way up after a flat tire.

Interviews by phone and in person continued the rest of the day and up till 10pm. The head of the COC even let me borrow his cell to call home. Wow way to feel like a superstar. The reality of the day sunk in more and more. It wasn’t just another race.
We got back to the village around 4:30 and starved and sun burnt headed to the food hall. Each evening medal winners are called together to be recognized for their achievements. That night I stood with two other Canadians. Each had won a bronze, one in open swimming and the other in Taekwondo.

MORE. . .

This past weekend Norco Factory Team rider, Catharine Pendrel won Canada's first gold medal of the 15th Pan American Games, in the women's XC mountain biking event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!

Catharine came out strong on her Norco EXC 1.0 and took the win at 1:46:06, over a minute faster tha 2nd place finisher, Mary McConneloug, who clocked in at 1:47:44.

"We consider it an honour to support an athlete like Catharine," commented Peter Stace-Smith, Norco's PR Marketing Manager, "She is a incredible ambassador for Canada, for mountain biking, and for Norco!"

CONGRATS to Jamie Roy from Dorchester, ON!!!

Jamie will be taking home over $1000 in Mace gear, get some one-on-one training with our team riders, and cruise all day long on a 2007 Team DH! I'm pretty sure he's going to be the happiest rider on the mountain on Saturday.

Even though we have a chosen a winner for this weekend’s VPS-Fest, it’s still not too late come and ride fo at Blue Mountain, or to pre-register for our Mount Washington event on Sept 14th! Just by pre-registering for any of our VPS-Fest events you immediatly qualifty for the 'Ride In Style' contest.

For more info on VPS-Fest, or to pre-register for any of the three ’07 VPS-Fest events and be automatically entered to win the Norco ‘Ride In Style’ contest, go to: VPSFEST.COM