Details are emerging regarding newly crowned XC World Champion Christophe Sauser’s new Specialized S-Works Epic. Kept under wraps until the start, the bike is a redesign of the immensely popular full suspension bike which sees a change in shock placement more reminiscent of the Stumpjumper and a drop in weight of a reported 700 grams [...]

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Shimano recently announced a change to their mid range MTB group sets. Long time standard bearer LX has been relegated to become a touring group set. In its place comes the new rookie, SLX. This is not the first time Shimano has done something like this. Back in the 90’s the released STXRC, a racing [...]

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THE THREE TENS SERIES 2008 (endurance cross country mountain bike events):

These races are run on an endurance format with teams and individuals competing to see who can complete the most laps in the 10 hours. Participants can compete as a solo or in relay teams of two, three or four. Run [...]

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Last weekends World Championships are now history, but entertaining history at that. A fantastic Saturday for the British saw them win three rainbow jerseys, while Sundays cross country was all about the Swiss.
Cross Country
The men’s race saw a hither to unknown quantity when Julain Absalon climbed of his bike but the day belonged to [...]

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The downhill event is more unpredictable than Cross Country due to the high rate of crashes. Last years event was marred by mechanicals, crashes and weather which accounted for many of the top seeds. With no Olympics on the horizon this is the event for the downhillers in 2008.
Mens Downhill
Sam Hill
The king of [...]

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An article posted today on RTE Sport makes mention of the three road cyclists being sent to the Olympics but doesn’t mention Irish MTB qualifier Robin Seymour.
The article states that ‘Irish Cycling have announced their three-man team for the Beijing Olympics’. Once again Mountain biking is overlooked by both the main stream media and [...]

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This weekend sees the MTB World Championships take place in Val di Sole in Italy and in this the first of two posts I’ll examine the contenders for the Cross Country races. This years event has added significance as many nations will use it as part of their selection process for the up coming [...]

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3 major cycling teams have announced new title sponsors in the last few days as big name corporate sponsors return to cycling. This is a welcome development for raod cycling after a number of disasterous seasons which has seen major title sponsors disapear in droves following drug related scandals. T-Mobile, and Phonak were [...]

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Dan Atherton has broken his collar bone on the first day of training for the World Championships to be held this weekend in Italy.
Winner of the 4 cross at the Andorra round of the World Cup, the injury rules him out at a time when he was expected to be a serious contender for the [...]

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We are usually the first to put our hands up about prices in Ireland but a recent trip to France revealed some surprising info. Apart from the fact that we are between 20 -30 cent cheaper per litre on petrol, mountain bike components are considerably cheaper.
For example an XTR M970 crankset is €480 [...]

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Recently Ireland hosted a stop on the Giant demo tour from the UK to Ballinastoe woods in the Wicklow mountains. A fleet of Anthems, Trances and Reigns awaited with a technician from Giant who custom tuned the suspension for each rider. The beauty of demo days is that you get to ride bikes from across [...]

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This Sunday the 15th June, Epic MTB will host the 4th round of the Irish Nationals XC NPS in Djouce Woods, Co.Wicklow. The site of the earlier K-Capital race the course differs in some sections, most notably as it seems that the GC section has been dropped.
Sign on and pracitse will be available on [...]

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Following a request from UCI president Pat McQuaid, the French cycling federation have been suspended from the UCI by the management committee. While this at first appears to be a relatively toothless gesture by the sports governing body, as riders are unaffected, it prevents the French federation from voting or participating in how the [...]

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Following a positive out of competition control for cocaine, Tom Boonen has been excluded from the ‘08 Tour de France by ASO. The organisers seem to be making an example of Boonen claiming that he should be beyond reproach.
Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour explained the rationale: “He didn’t take forbidden substances in [...]

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