Home sweet home, a place that is pretty foreign to me right now. Rip.TV did an excellent job of peeking in to my home with their show called Home Invasion, check it out!! (click on the image below)

Caryn has been with me for the last couple weeks, so home is on the road right now, and now we’re in Halifax, and are heading for New Brunswick. My buddy Alex Lavigne just flew home this morning, we’ve partnered up to produce a follow up DVD to Manifesto, so we’ve been filming like crazy the last couple weeks. Filming will continue in Europe in July when we meet up with Thomas Ohler, and incredible rider from Austria who will have a segment in the film.



I post video blogs every once in a while on Norco’s Website, have a look sometime!

Just wanted to recommend a book I just finished reading, it’s called “Let my People go Surfing”, by Yvon Chouinard. Chouinard is the founder of the company Patagonia, and his philosophies about business and life are so important in todays world. Well, gotta hit the road!!!

Ryan

European Dominance At The US Open

Sabrina Jonnier and Fionn Griffiths take the pro ladies class by storm this past weekend at the US Open. French rider, Jonnier finished the day with the fastest female time, leaving British native Fionn Griffiths frustrated behind her. “Sabrina is riding so well right now,” comments Griffiths. “I came over here last minute for exactly that reason. Every big race so far this year she has taken over 5 seconds out of the 2nd place rider. This weekend was no different. I made a few mistakes on course and know where I lost my time, but Sabrina was flawless again!”

Fionn decided to race the prestigious event last minute after hearing about it from Sabrina herself after the Lisbon Downtown. Fionn quickly booked a last minute flight and reserved some space at the local campground and headed out to push herself to the limit again. And Fionn has not looked back on her decision. The US Open course, filled with fast berms and drifty turns was much the same as it has been over the past years and Fee has been enjoying some time playing in the dust. To top the event off, mountain bike legend, Missy Giove turned up unexpectedly to race the event. “Missy was my biggest role model when I was first riding,” recalls Fee. “She really took me under her wing for the first few years and I appreciate everything she taught me. Having her here riding with me again this weekend has made the whole event that much more memorable.”

Fionn will be returning to Europe later Sunday night to pick up the race van and start the drive back across Spain in preparation for the next round of the World Cup in Champery. Rumour has it Fee might just stop off in France on the way though to race Sabrina once again on one of her home tracks.

US Open - Pro Women’s Results:
1. Sabrina Jonnier: 2:58.7
2. Fionn Griffiths: 3:06.8
3. Kathy Pruit: 3:16
4. Missy Giove: 3:19

Source: Griffiths Racing

Hi everyone,

I have been riding the bike park in whistler and its awesome right now! There are a couple new things on the mountain, but mainly it is in great shape. A-line is getting really good and same with most everything else, definitly worth checking out. The dirt jumps are also running good, there are alot of new lines.

I will be doing some guideing over the summer, for the bike park. Can't wait to start that.

Well this has been fun but got to go ride. More news and pictures soon!
gareth

WOW!! So many things have happened in such a short period of time I just don’t know where to start. . . thinking. . . thinking . . . still thinking, wait! No, still thinking. . .ahh there it is.

So I slept in my clothes last night because leading a busy life, I no longer have time to get dressed or un-dressed. Clothes are now simply a formality, not unlike going to the washroom. I would like to rewind, go back in time about a week and to the Junk Yard Dog Race. Way back in April all round good guy and bicycle master Andrew Cho asked me to MC a race with him. So, being an attention freak, I couldn’t pass it up.

The day started a little bit foggy, not super nice to be honest, but as the day went on and my good vibes worked it through the microphone and old Mr. Sunshine came out. It turned out to be a fantastic day of racing with well, with over 100 riders showing up to at the Surrey bike park. Racers came all the way from the Interior to the Sunshine Coast and Squamton. I was stoked calling out number plates, rider names, pumping killer tunes and generally being a wickedly cool MC. I kicked it on the microphone as Cho handled the tunes.

The day went on and some people were crowned winners and others where just happy to finish. My favorite rider of the day was a fellow who was about 6 foot tall who did the whole race on a small dirt jump bike, with flat pedals, wearing a skid lid…DEDICATION! Last but not least, I can’t talk about the race without mentioning racer girl in the stripy green shirt from Squamton… yea, you know you are hot.

Now more importantly, I finally finished my dirt quarter pipe. It’s measurements are about 7 feet tall and 15 feet wide (not even close to that hot girl racer). I was so stoked because this was a lot of dirt to move around. It took quite a while because we encountered some drainage problems while building it that required even more digging. I was stoked to try riding it, so I grabbed my good ol’ BMXican (old… pft its an ‘08 prototype .. suckers!) and gave her a whirl. Needless to say, it was still way to soft to ride and there was no way I was going to get a flair on it that day. The dirt quarter is part of my flair progression. I started with the chip pit, now the dirt quarter, and then of course the cement quarter. . . it’s coming.

The Chip-Pit

Oh yea, another funny thing; I went to Madrid, Spain for the Qashqai Urban Challenge street event. This was a super cool and fun event that I will write a whole story on for the E-news. All I can really say about it right now is: I cannot write the story until I get my camera back from Amsterdam. . .don’t ask . . .dogs, drugs, luggage, black market kidneys, you know, that sort of stuff.

Some sick riding went down and even though I didn’t make the top 12, it was still a killer event with tight scores and phenomenal riding from everybody.
The whole story is going to be insane, or at least a good laugh. Check this: Scott Hart though my new norco was so rad he threw it up on the Decline web site so get your ass over there and check it out.

Okay, but seriously watch out for the Spain story, I am off to Jeff Lenosky’s Teva Mountain games next and clearly it is time for me to go and get my tall carmelo (as they say in Spain)no whip, no drizzle, extra-extra runny frapichino. Some call it light ice, but then you couldn’t say extra and runny together at 9 am…you know.

The COBRA (aka..Dylan Korba)

Here's her take on the race from her latest blog:

I don’t seem to be able to spend much time in Kamloops these days. I got back from the Norbas in California and decided I should really add the bromont Canada Cup to my trip to Europe. It would be a chance for me to race my hardtail before the world cup, pick up some UCI points and hopefully prize money. I’d also get to meet our new Eastern Events guy Havy and get at least 3 hourse closer to Switzerland’s time zone. I found out my parents and brother were all going to be there as an added bonus and I was going to get the chance to see 2 of my favourite girlfriends. Wicked. The only down side was that it meant only one weekend back with Keith before I was off for four weekends!

So Wednesday I was all packed up again and on my way to Montreal. I arrived to a very damp, cold and wet Montreal at midnight. Heather was there to pick me up with her sister Marina and we all headed back to her place. After a very short sleep I got a call from Mical. They arrived in Montreal at 7:30 am and could give me a ride to Bromont. SO I quicklt hailed a cab and arrived at the airport.

Once rentals were sorted out we headed to Tutti Frutti for some good breakfast. Mical was travelling with a bunch of fun Albertan DHer’s. We made it out to Bromont before noon and got the bikes together. I headed out for my ride debating between road and mtb, but it was so wet and cold mtbing was the only option.

I did 2 laps of the course and it was more of the same good stuff Bromont always provides. It seemed like a bit more climbing this year, but good descending. The course was already a river due to the rain so I was hoping for some dry weather.

I got my wish. No rain until about 30 minutes after the DH podium on Sunday. Friday I headed out for a road spin and reaffirmed my desire to spend some real time here with Keith and our bikes. I just love the area.

Anyhow, although this ride was good for my legs, it proved problematic for my race as I missed the fact that they cut out a section of a course (1 climb and 1 descent). Saturday I was ready to race. Havy had my bike all dialled in, my legs were feeling great, my fan club was set. Even though I didn’t get a call up to the line I still had my best race start ever being second out of the start after Marie Helene Premont.

The race was to follow this pattern for all but half of the first lap where I went off course. Focusing ahead on what I thought was the course, I was scanning the ground to find the least mucky route up the climb and completely missing the arrow that told me I should have turned right. Some Flagging tape would have been helpful here, but ah well. So I did an extra climb got almost to the top and realized there were no arrows pointing me to the descent. Sure enough I turned around and saw 4 girls go by below me ON THE COURSE. Well at least now I knew why I couldn’t see Marie up the climb! I was so mad I had screwed up my wicked start and the gap I had gained. I madly charged after the girls down the descent and was gaining on them fast. Emily showed me some nice lines on the descents, but I wanted the girls in front. By the last descent I was around Amanda sin and got Mical just after the start finish. I then set off to catch Marie.

I knew I was climbing and descending faster than the girls behind me so my goal was to stay as close to Marie as I could. The rest of the race went really well. The weekend of riding in Revelstoke paid off as I was riding really well and I was climbing strong. I finished the race 3:30 off MHP so without my detour that was a gap I was really happy with. I was able to put 6 minutes into 3rd which was also pretty cool.



That night I had my family over to my condo for Super. It was great to do some catching up. Next morning Geoff and I were both racing. I was doing a sprint event the organizers were putting on and he was racing the DH. I headed out for a road spin, but ended up on trails. They just looked too good. Then I headed over to check out the sprint course. It was an approx. 400m paved climb followed by a fast fire road descent. I had no clue what kind of pain I was in for! Only 5 girls were brave enough to show. Me, Mical, Emily, Julie Sanders and MC Superenant. Due to numbers the winner would be decided by best score from 3 runs. We lined up, both feet clipped in with some one holding our bikes. On the go we took off and I quickly felt the shock of a maximal effort. Mical and Emily took off and I just couldn’t match them, but Julie was pressuring me. Next race Julie saw she could have me and put out a great start leading up the climb, but being overtaken finishing third ahead of me. 3rd lap I knew I had to beat Julie to finish 3rd overall. I put it in the Big ring and was first out of the gate. With the other girls max power zapped I raced way closer to the lead this lap, but still finished 3rd. Mical took all 3 wins and Emily 3 2nds. It was super fun and I hope the event draws greater numbers at Tremblant.

The men’s races were really exciting. It was just such fast racing! The men had 5 heats of 3 or 4 racers with the top 2 from each round going onto a final. It was interesting to see how a different type of event allowed different riders to shine. Mike Garrigan won followed by Raph Gagne and Steph Widmer.

The next morning I felt like I had been run over by a truck.

girlracer.co.uk reports from VIGO, Spain

A rough and tumble weekend leaves Fionn with mixed emotions after finishing 0.24 seconds off the podium at the first round of the World Cup in Vigo, Spain. Training was mint all weekend. Fionn, who loves to jump, came down the hill grinning from ear to ear as she cleaned jump after jump on the dusty track. Trying to step it up a notch late Saturday however, Fionn had a pretty heavy crash into a tree which she walked away from confidently before using the adrenaline it gave her to her advantage and being the first woman to jump the massive doubles on the finish straight. Things were looking good for Fee.

Qualifying - not as smooth. Fionn crashed twice in her run leaving her back in the field in 16th position so Lee was hard at work for the evening building wheels and preparing Fionn's Norco for racing. However there was still time to slip out and watch the 4X. With Fionn not racing in order to concentrate on her coming DH race run, the entire team was course-side enjoying the crowds and racing on the new style 4X. Racing was good with Gee Atherton winning the men's and Anneke Beerten taking the women's.

Race morning looked grim. With heavy cloud cover and threats of rain all weekend, it was no surprise when storms started brewing early Sunday morning. But racing doesn't stop with a bit of rain and riders practiced as usual, praying for a dry race run. Racing was much better for Fee. Having a fairly clean run and only making a few mistakes on course Fionn sat in the hot seat for what must have seemed like an eternity with her time of 3:06.94. However, when the dust settled and the times came in, Fionn was on the wrong side of three riders (all on the same second) and was left off the podium with a tight 6th place finish. Sabrina Jonnier dominated the event with a stunning time of 2:52.72

Jaymie Mart also had a successful weekend ripping it up on her Norco Team DH. When time came for qualifying, Mart grabbed a seat inside the top 30 with a 25th place finish. Always pushing herself she set her mind on a top 20 finish and went for it in racing. However, the luck was out for the entire Norco/Griffiths Racing team and Jaymie was less than a second off her desired position finishing 21st. Still nothing to be sad about as 21st is Jaymie's best ever World Cup result.

Congrats to our ladies on a great start to the World Cup series!

1. Sabrina Jonnier - 2:52.72
2. Tracy Moseley - 2:59.99
3. Emmeline Ragot - 3:02.28
4. Celine Gros - 3:06.13
5. Marielle Saner - 3:06.66
6. Fionn Griffiths - 3:06.94
7. Jennifer Makgill - 3:08.59
8. Tracey Hannah - 3:08.92
9. Scarlett Hagen - 3:13.25
10. Mio Suemasa - 3:15.10

Source: girlracer.co.uk

Milan - This weekend in the latest round of the Qashqai Urban Challenge, Norco Factory Ride, Ben Boyko snatched the coveted BEST TRICK title.

After the 1st day of dirt jump qualifiers, the top five riders were invited to have three runs through the course, where they were instructed to pull their best trick on the last jump.

Greg Watts came out strong with a 360-double barspin. Ben Boyko was next and he did a trick that confused even the announcers of the event — an attempt at a downside whip opposite three-sixty!

Boyko's downside whip opposite 360 - Photo: carroux.com

Then Darren Berrecloth attempted a 720. He pulled a little bit too hard and nearly ended up landing in the crowd! Lance McDermott tried a threewhip and Andreu Lacondeguy came through with a perfect superman backflip.

The next round of the best trick started with Ben Boyko landing his
downside whip opposite 360 (the trick is half tailwhip, half decade...bikes and body flying in every direction)! Boyko landed perfectly to pedals and the crowd went crazy.

The only other rider to challenge Boyko’s trick was Greg Watts, with a 360-double tailwhip. Technically the trick is very close in difficulty, but Watts was not able to stick the trick to his pedals and had to ride out of the trick on his seat.

Boyko was awarded the win for best trick, with a big bottle of champagne and 1500 euros. After aiming the champagne-spray at the riders, he took a big gulp of the champagne—just like the previous best trick winner, Phil Sundbaum.

Boyko's downside whip opposite 360 - Photo: carroux.com

Visit the new Qashqai Urban Challenge website with information about each city, the events, rider bios about the invited tour riders and also the listings of the specialist riders for each discipline.

Photos courtesy of Yorik Carroux

One question we get fairly often here at Norco Team HQ is, “What’s the deal with Gareth Dyer? Where is he? What’s he doing?” Well, after many, many emails, and quite a few more phone calls, we finally managed to catch up with him and get a few words and photos.

Very few people know this, but Gareth recently went through some pretty intense surgery to repair a long-overdue and badly diagnosed broken wrist.

No-foot can. This is me (Gareth) riding in Prince George at my buddy Kyle's. There is a lot of great riding here. This jump is awesome, it's a sand landing so you can crash a lot with no injuries.

Although he’s been hiding out up in his old Prince George, BC stomping grounds for a few months, you’ll soon see him back in Whistler, where he plans to settle for the summer. Anyhow, here’s what he had to say about his past year:

********
Hey!
I have been healing up from a broken scafoid. I had surgery on Oct.2 in Vancouver (so Interbike wasn't possible), but I am ready to go now.

This is Kyle Norbraten. I have been hanging with him and his family at his house (Thanks again to the Norbratens, the food is amazing). Watch out for this kid this year, he’s good!

This was crazy, I found out from the local whistler doctor that my scafoid was broken towards the end of last bike season, but here is the bad part. We went through and checked all the x-rays to see how far back it had been broken. It turns out that it was broken for almost TWO YEARS and the doctors had missed it so now surgery was the only way out.

Barely a scar now, and stoked to be back on a bike.

The doctor who did my surgery said that the bone had started to die and was moving in two separate pieces. He took a bone graph from the top of my hand, scooped out the dead bone from the scafoid, made a paste with the new bone, stuck it in there and bolted it together. And after 4 long months I was feeling great.

I’ve also been working this winter as a traveling salesman, going from Costco to Costco selling knives, pots, and pans. This was not for me. Pretty funny though, I was like an infomercial on TV with my hair combed over and an apron that said ‘AAA Costco Chef’. Sometimes it’s best to stick to what you’re good at and I am definitely not good at that.

Can't wait for the summer time and biking in Whistler!
See you there,


Gareth

So this is my first update for the Norco site. The other day I got an angry e-mail telling me that it was time…time for the saga of Korba aka. COBRA updates to begin. The venom is so fierce and beautiful it will paralyze anything that gets bitten by the COBRA UPDATE...so enough of that, lets get on with it already!

Last week and weekend was pretty pumped up. I filmed with Alias Lab for the up-and-coming Leech feature film, and rode some pretty gnarr-core demos at the Caps 75th May Anniversary sale.

The filming was pretty much going horrible, with everything from me breaking my bike to not completing lines. All in all it was brutal - yet fun. My favorite line of the days was one I was trying to complete yet couldn’t stick, even after over 50 attempts. Imagine a steep 20 foot down rail, round of course and me trying to bunny hop to manual on it at full speed. Needless to say, there was some shoe-losing, body-imploding, wrist-cracking carnage. It got the better of me but I will be back for it next week, once I can walk again.

The Caps Westwood demos were super fun. I got to put on the Brittany Spears headset mic and pretend to be Ryan Leech for six 20 minute shows over two days. CFOX was there and you may have head them saying my name on the radio several times *Cough Cough*. That’s right they talked about me on the radio (why must my life be so self serving and narcissistic?)

The best part aside from the sweet sale and the coolest people from Norco being there hanging out and demoing bikes, were the free, that’s right FREE hotdogs. I was so stoked because I got to eat.

When I wasn’t filming or at the demos, I went out at night and tried to learn flairs into a chip bank. Flairs are kind of hard and weird. I hit my face a couple times (loose cannon style) but watch out, they are on their way. I also phoned 26 rental properties in Whistler so I can live up there for June, July, and August (got my fingers crossed on Norm’s four bedroom house with oak floors…. Yes!).

Well, you’ve officially been injected with the COBRA’s venom. Seriously why do I think of this stuff?! I am off to get a no-whip, no-drizzle, extra extra runny Carmel Frappuccino.

This Saturday (May 12th) you can find Andrew Cho and I, MCing the Junk Yard Dog Race at the Surrey bike park. That’s right! Two freeride-types with a loud PA system announcing an XC race...That will go well I’m sure...

- Dylan 'COBRA' Korba

Just been up the 4X track to check out Phil's newest creation. It is SICK. Such a cool track. Totally different from anything I have seen lately.

Apparently he was asked to build it more like a mountain biking track, less like a BMX and he has done that. Top half of the track is full of big boulders, loose turns, loads of lines to choose from and some great technical stuff. The bottom half is open with loads of big jumps. There was a huge double that he had in there that one of the local riders tried to jump. It was a bit too steep though and apparently the kid just kind of fell out of the air! Phil has flattened it out a bit now and it looks really good. I think he might get some complaints about the course from some people. It should be totally long and grueling! It will be excellent for spectators as well since they are opening the track up so that people can be close to the action!

We have Lee here now. Picked him up safely after a few hours of being lost in Portugal! He arrived he in the accomodation in the dark and I think he was quite stoked to wake up to sunrise over the beach. I don't think he had any idea where we were going to be spending the week! He is here now, busy building up a set of wheels for this weekend! He already has a rippin suntan to match the rest of us. Jaymie is here as well. Parked herself comfortably down by the pool, trying to catch up to the rest of us! She should be a lobster by sunset.

To read more of Fee's regular blog check out: fionngriffiths.com

In Norco Factory Team Rider, Jay Hoot's latest blog, he's included tons of photos of his new and improved 'Hoots Gear' for 2007.

Rumour has it, he'll be launching his new store any day now, but for now, you can check out some shots on his website.

Check it: Hoots.ca

Ths past weekend, 25 Riders and 10,000 spectators alike were absolutely blown away by the elevated level of riding in the finals of Newcastle’s Qashqai Urban Challenge.

Norco Factory Team Rider, Ben Boyko solidified his spot in the finals early on by being the first rider to 360 off of the start ramp. After Boyko 360’d off of the start ramp, the flood gates opened up and more riders started pushing it. By the end of qualifying, the crowd saw nearly every trick unleashed on the drop.

Boyko's practice run

In the finals, the judges were shaking their heads over the nearly impossible task of sorting out the riders’ results. Even Paul Basagoitia and Bearclaw admitted that they had no idea who would take the first title of the five-stop Qashqai Urban Challenge series.

Ben's 1st run in the finals

Riders and spectators milled around while the judges deliberated the results. Everyone slapped high-fives and shook their heads at what was undoubtedly one of the craziest final rounds in the history of freeride mountain biking.

Ben's 2nd finals run

At the end of the day, Ben landed a solid 4th place finish with his smooth, confident style. Darren Berrecloth took the first win of the tourm wguke Paul Basagoitia and Kyle Strait rounded out the podium with 2nd & 3rd. Champagne was uncorked and the riders celebrate their victories thru the night.

The next stop for the Qashqai Urban Challenge is Milan, Italy, where riders will be tested on their dirt jumping aptitude.

For more information about the Qashqai, check out: Qashqai Urban Challenge

Congrats to grassroots Norco rider, Tyler Gorz, who took 1st in his category (Junior 17-18 men) this past weekend at the Rat Race!

Check out photos on Decline's website featuring Ben's bike set-up for the Qashqai.

CHECK IT OUT