 Photo: Moonhead Media Gee Atherton has created a new edit in partnership with Continental Tyres Tarren y Gesail looms over Dyfi Bike Park at the South-West frontier of the Snowdonia National Park. A grassy ridge runs down from the 666m trig point where barely 2m from the left of a natural trail the land falls away, dropping hundreds of metres. The views are stunning. It’s the kind of unique and frankly perilous situation that Gee Atherton finds irresistible. Gee said “I’ve always wanted to film here, it’s so amazingly exposed and totally unique but it was just the germ of an idea, a bit of a daydream. Over summer we were up here on the trials bikes, it was a still, perfect day and I began to see it in a bit more detail with natural doubles, step downs and gaps and I thought how sick it would be to craft in a line.  Photo: Moonhead Media From the first day up here the build was really hard. It’s so inaccessible and open to the elements. Some days we’d be hiking up here with the generator and a jackhammer on our backs in 30 degrees, others we’d be lashed by storms and soaked to the skin. It became a personal battle – trying to tame this beast, but without the dig crew I’d never have made it. The Atherton bike was amazing. Going in at these speeds I needed to be 110% confident, it’s just so strong. On the last gap of the last day I overshot and had such a savage landing, it was like dropping off a house to flat…the bike was fine, I’m still riding it."  Photo: Moonhead Media Dan Atherton said “This is probably the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen Gee do on a bike, absolutely on the very edge of what’s possible. With this type of big film project it’s often high risk but this was next level in terms of how badly it could have gone wrong. I had the medic bag, radios, stretcher all hidden in my truck. It was pretty full on to the point I dreaded every time he was going up to test.” The Ridgeline was filmed and edited by Wearepeny in partnership with Continental Tyres.  Photo: Moonhead Media Oliver Anhuth, Continental’s Global Head of Marketing Bicycle Tyres, said: “This new, breath-taking film takes mountain bike riding to the next level. Gee continues to inspire the world with his riding and the release of The Ridgeline today will be no exception to this. We were excited to be able to partner with Gee and the team on its creation and that he chose to put our Kaiser Project Pro Ltd tyres to the test to tackle the Ridgeline.”
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 Photo: Naoki Morita YouTube star Tomomi Nishikubo is known for his creative way of riding bikes. With a strong background in trials riding, the Japanese rider approaches obstacles in a unique way that never ceases to amaze. In “Ride to Survive”, his latest project, Tomomi finds himself stranded on a small, deserted island in Japan. Luckily, his trials bike got washed up there as well. For Tomomi, there isn’t a better tool to explore the island and to go on a trick-filled hunt through the woods, looking for food with lots of creative action along the way.  Photo: Naoki Morita The beginning of the video shows Tomomi lying on the island shore, half covered by water, on a rocky beach, slowly regaining consciousness. After looking at his surroundings and a failed attempt to light a fire, Nishikubo finds the island’s only other “inhabitant”: his trials bike. With a few quick pedal strokes, Tomomi is back in his element. No matter if he’s lighting a fire, catching fish or picking fruits from a tree, the Japanese Bike-Ninja uses his bike in ways that would make MacGyver proud. With technical finesse, Tomomi shows top-notch trials riding in unfamiliar terrain and tricks like a tire tap to front flip on and off a slackline.  Photo: Naoki Morita “The Front Flip off the slackline is the most difficult trick of the video. This is a world’s-first trick, so there is no guideline, no example... I had to imagine the body movements on the slackline system. It took all day to build up and test the slackline. And I landed the trick the next day!” – Tomomi Nishikubo  Photo: Naoki Morita By the end of the 7:51 minute-long clip, Tomomi climbs the highest ridge of the island and spots a ferry not too far away. Having proven his survival bike skills to the fullest, it is time for him to return to civilization on an improvised raft. Tomomi gives it the final push by jumping on it with a back flip and sails away into the sunset.  Photo: Naoki Morita Building most of the obstacles all by himself, the Japanese dedicated the entire summer to bring his new project to life. Accompanied by two filmmakers, Daisuke Yamasaki & Jidai Malakar as well as photographer Naoki Morita, Tomomi had a brilliant time filming for this video and even managed to catch a fish with the help of his improvised fishing rod, which in his words was “the most delicious fish I ever had”. If you want to find out more about the process behind the work for Ride to Survive, keep your eyes peeled on Tomomi´s YouTube channel to not miss out on the deep dive Behind-The-Scenes video, which will be going live in the upcoming weeks. Follow Tomomi on Social Media:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tomomi_nishikubo/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TomomiNishikubo TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tomomi_nishikubo Website: https://rasoulution.com/athletes/tomomi-nishikubo/  ONLINE SCHOOL / OFFLINE MTB - MAX IN NEPAL ÖHLINS SUSPENSION - REVIEW HIBP - ENDURO RACE IN CHINA  #mtbmagasia #issue #71 #online #school #offline #mtb #arnavmansherchan #max #nepal #ohlins #ohlinsmtb #ohlinsracing #suspension #review #frontfork #rxf36m2 #air #shock #ttx22m #hibp #enduro #race #china #issuu
 #mtbmagasia #issue #70 #ditrapranata #bimaaldira #polygon #spartanracingteam #indonesia #enduro #downhill #mountainbiking #issuu
© Moonhead Media
Exclusive Crowdcube preview round for mountain-biking enthusiasts
Three World Cup wins, six podiums and the #firstfifty production models rapturously received by customers across the globe, Atherton Bikes have been on one hell of a journey these last 18 months and it’s about to get even more exciting. The business was established in January 2019 based upon several lifetimes of riding, racing and bike design combined with industrial experience at the forefront of technology. Their innovative approach sees additive manufactured lugs (3D printing in titanium) bonded to carbon tubes enabling a customised fit for every rider. The new company started out lean; no marketing budget, no website sales and just enough production capacity to service prototyping and the Atherton race team. In February 2020 production expanded when the #firstfifty build-slots were made available. CEO Dan Brown said “Our initial Angel investment round was so successful that we had to close it early to save enough shares for the mountain bike community, something we were all unanimous on. Now we’re aiming to raise a minimum of £600,000 through crowd-funding.on the Crowdcube platform. 
© Moonhead Media
Working with our first customers has given us the opportunity to perfect our processes and build the operational confidence to take the company to the next level. This raise will enable us to bring additive manufacturing into our own facility, to expand capacity, launch website sales, increase the chances for customers to see, touch and feel our bikes and to develop the next models in the range.
Gee Atherton said “We believe that Atherton Bikes will disrupt the mountain bike industry. Bringing manufacturing back to the UK and establishing our business with a serious focus on sustainability is a huge bonus. We are working with some amazingly clever scientists and engineers from backgrounds in aerospace, Formula1 and NASA and our fundraise is being led by (Ex BBC Dragons’ Den) Piers Linney so your investment will be in very good hands. 
© Moonhead Media
© Moonhead Media
Dan Atherton said “When we founded Atherton Bikes and started racing our own bikes it was a dream come true. Now we’re seeing all that knowledge and race experience incorporated into our production bikes and customers are sending us pictures of their bikes from trails in UK, Germany, USA, Japan and Singapore it’s actually surreal”
© Moonhead Media
Rachel Atherton summed up “We have had so much encouragement and so many connections with people over our careers, we want to make sure that the people who have been with us throughout our journey have a chance to share in the excitement and rewards! From the Atherton Project when we let people into our lives through a new style of documenting the sport, to meeting people at races and hearing their stories, I’m always blown away by the support we receive. Now we have something tangible for people to get involved with, you can invest in Atherton Bikes from around £10 and be a part of the future!
© Sven Martin
To secure the first chance to invest pre-register
https://www.athertonbikes.com/crowd-cube Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital. Please Invest Aware.
Atherton Bikes Crowdcube private round is on fire! Are you in?
Atherton Bikes does everything fast. Whether that’s on the race track or designing and building their ground-breaking new bikes. It seems that fund-raising is no different. After just 3 hours on the Crowdcube platform they have already smashed their initial target of £600k Rachel Atherton said “First of all a massive thanks to more than 5500 people who pre-registered an interest in our Crowdcube raise. And to more than 900 investors who have already pledged well over £750,000; we are overwhelmed by your support and your desire to be a part of the future . In this video riders, business brains, designers and engineers talk about what motivated us to take this massive step, why we're approaching bike building in this new way (what’s so great about additive manufacturing), how we plan to develop the business… and how we’re planning to make it a huge success for our investors.
A bit about Crowdcube
Crowdcube is a leading equity based investment platform that enables private investors to receive equity (shares) in return for their investment (our minimum investment starts at around £11). As we are raising finance at such an early stage of the business, there is huge potential for growth and as the company prospers value is created for all of our shareholders. This private round is only available to followers of mountain-biking and will be available for a limited time (we’re potentially talking hours rather than days) before it’s released to the general public. We are already overfunding but we are still accepting investment. The exact extent of the overfunding is to be decided once we have had time to take stock. 
© Moonhead Media
 COFFEE WITH DITRA & BIMA - INDONESIA MINI BIKE FESTIVAL - CHINA TAN SOON SOON - INTERVIEW - MALAYSIA PHOTO RECAP - UCI WORLDS - AUSTRIA  #mtbmagasia #issue #70 #ditrapranata #bimaaldira #polygon #spartanracingteam #indonesia #minibikefestival #bikefestival #dirtparkningbo #dirtpark #ningbo #china #looseriderschina #tansoonsoon #interview #kulalumpur #malaysia #enduro #downhill #xco #uci #worldchampionship #2020 #mountainbiking #leogang #austria #issuu
 TOUR DE INDIA Mesum Verma #mtbmagasia #issue #13 #2014 #tourdeindia #adventure #kolkata #mumbai #pune #dehli #ladakh #manali #india #incredibleindia #mtb #enduro #downhill #freeride #rakeshoswal #prateeksingh #akshaychaudhary #paulinewald #anthonybrzeski #bryanbell #mesumverma
 Photo: Moritz Ablinger In less than one week the EPIC Bikepark Leogang will welcome the mountain biking elite to this year's UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in the disciplines Cross Country, Downhill and E-MTB. The second World Championships to take place in Saalfelden Leogang will run from October 7 to 11 - but this time under slightly different conditions. Local matador and Austrian Downhill star Vali Höll knows: "Everyone is happy that something will take place this year after all."  Photo: Moritz Ablinger Getting everything ready for this year’s World Championships was a major challenge for the team around the organizers Marco Pointner and Kornel Grundner. However, with their carefully elaborated hygiene and prevention concept, they laid the foundations for a successful realization of the event. The preparation for a major sporting event such as the World Championships begins many months, if not years, in advance for the athletes. Usually, other races play an important role and often serve as an indicator of their own form.  Photo: Moritz Ablinger Downhill top candidates Vali Höll and Loic Bruni about their preparation for World Champs 2020 This year's exceptional situation, which resulted in a lack of competition and increased the focus on individual training, makes it difficult to predict the outcome of the races. In addition, the extension of the Downhill course will provide additional excitement. Surprises are practically guaranteed here. The local matador Vali Höll (AUT), who is competing in the Elite Class for the first time this year and is especially looking forward to her family "finally being able to watch her live on Red Bull TV", experienced many things differently this year. The lack of racing sometimes challenged her motivation a little. Especially the outlook on the World Championships at home and the anticipation of being back in the start gate soon have been the driving forces in extremely exhausting training sessions. "My focus clearly was on training: gym three times a week plus road bike, indoor trainer or Enduro and of course bike park laps," Vali replied to the question of how her preparatory work and the amount of training hours she had been able to follow compared to other seasons. The current and four-time World Champion in the Downhill Elite category, Loic Bruni (FRA), is looking forward to the fight for the rainbow jersey again. However, he has had a hard time getting used to the new circumstances and the season with only a few races under his belt: "To be honest, everything was quite chaotic for me and the adaptation was very difficult in the beginning. I had an injury at the end of May, so I couldn't get on the bike for six weeks. When the bike parks opened later than usual, I had to be patient. Now, I feel really good on the bike again and I'm ready for World Champs!” The defending World Champion, Loic, won already the World Cup in Saalfelden Leogang in 2019. He is extremely motivated and knows that the competition is strong and says that it will most definitely be an exciting event. “I know I can win in Leogang, but I also know how incredibly high the level is, as well as the strength of the competition”, Loic said about the tough battle for World Championship gold.  Photo: Sigel Nino Schurter and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot about the pressure, the new track and this year's training Peak excitement is a given due to the new track for the Cross-Country races, built specifically for this year’s World Championship. The pressure on the athletes is high – due to the lack of races, riders will not have the normal momentum going into World Championships as in previous years. The World Cup in Nové Mesto, which is taking place at the moment, could shed some light on the athlete’s performance levels and show everyone how they stack up against each other. Nino Schurter (SUI), eight-time World Champion and seven-time overall World Cup and Olympic champion has "never trained as much as in 2020" and hopes to be able to harvest what he has ambitiously sown in training in the few remaining races at the end of the year. The Swiss top favorite for the Cross-Country title clearly sees this as his advantage in terms of the new and completely unknown tracks: "Although all athletes have the same conditions, I think I can rely on my experience when it comes to the ideal preparation for this situation." After Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's (FRA) last year ended with victories in the World Cup races in Val di Sole and Snowshoe, 2020 began in a tough way health-wise for the defending World Champion. She can hardly wait to return to the start line now that she is fully recovered: “I love the atmosphere at competitions, especially at World Champs. The warm-up, the excitement at the start line and my burning legs that let me know I'm giving all I got.” As for the new track, which is unknown to all riders, the conditions couldn't be more balanced: “It's the same for everyone. The cards are shuffled and redistributed. So, let's play cards,” says Pauline and makes a statement to her opponents, leaving no questions unanswered: “I am absolutely determined to defend the rainbow jersey. It really means a lot to me.” In order for the World Championships to be a success, a high level of commitment will be required from the fans this year as well. Due to the regulations, nobody is allowed to follow the event on-site and fans are asked to stay at home. To everyone’s delight the World Championship title fights will be broadcasted in TV in several countries around the globe and – with some exceptions – made available worldwide on Red Bull TV live stream. And let’s be clear about this: Despite all the circumstances, the excitement for the UCI 2020 Mountain Bike World Championships in Saalfelden Leogang to take place could not be greater.  Photo: Ale Di Lullo #worldchampionships #leogang #austria #uci #mtb #xco #downhill #2020 #mtbmagasia
 PHOTO: Sebastian Sternemann Weather conditions were less than favorable in Innsbruck during the Crankworx Slopestyle finals, but riders battled through the windswept conditions and slopestyle fans from around the world witnessed multiple Slopestyle masterclasses. When it was all said and done, with Emil Johansson (SWE), Tomas Lemoine (FRA) and Erik Fedko (GER). The podium was a clean sweep for RASOULUTION.  PHOTO: Sebastian Sternemann At the first Crankworx Slopestyle contest since Rotorua, in March 2020, Emil Johansson and Tomas Lemoine only needed their first runs to prove that they hadn’t missed a beat. With runs scored at 94.00 and 90.00 respectively, both riders put on a clinic despite the windy conditions and put down runs that would see them finish in first and second place. While Erik Fedko was not able to finish his first run due to strong winds picking up while he was on course, he was also one of the only riders that was able to dramatically improve his score – scoring an 88.00 in his second run, in part due to his signature 360 Indian Air Seatgrab.  PHOTO: Sebastian Sternemann With only Lemoine and Johansson still to do their run, both riders decided to do a victory lap together – a Victory Train. With his win in Innsbruck, Johansson has now completed the Crankworx hattrick – winning the last three Crankworx competitions, taking the top spot at Red Bull Joyride in 2019 and at Crankworx Rotorua earlier this year, firmly cementing his spot at the top of the Slopestyle world.  PHOTO: Sebastian Sternemann Crankworx Innsbruck Slopestyle Top 10: Emil Johansson (SWE) | 94.00 | TREK Tomas Lemoine (FRA) | 90.00 | CANYON Erik Fedko (GER) | 88.00 | ROSE Timothé Bringer (FRA) | 85.33 | COMMENCAL Lukas Knopf (GER) | 83.00 | ROSE Thomas Genon (BEL) | 80.33 | CANYON Max Fredriksson (SWE) | 79.00 | NS BIKES Lucas Huppert (SUI) | 77.00 | RUFF CYCLES Alex Alanko (SWE) | 75.33 | CACHET BIKES Torquato Testa (ITA) | 73.00 | ROSE Missed the action or want to see the highlights? The Crankworx Innsbruck Slopestyle LIVE replay is now available on-demand on Red Bull TV. For the full Results please visit: www.fmbworldtour.com #crankworx #innsbruck #austria #fmbworldtour #redbull #rasoulution #mtbmagasia
 Photo: Sebastian Gruber The only race of this year's iXS Downhill Cup was also the German championship. About 150 licensed athletes came to Steinach in the Thuringian Forest to take part in an exciting competition under difficult conditions. From the event industry’s point of view, the year 2020 is more likely to be forgotten and therefore sports competitions were also rather rare. There were hardly any mountain bike downhill races in this country and the iXS Downhill Cup had to announce one cancellation after another. At the beginning of July, the NotARace in Schladming, Austria, was able to organize a pandemic-compliant format with worldwide attention. But even the attempts to repeat this event failed for various reasons. It was therefore very gratifying that the Steinach Bike Park in the Thuringia Forest was able to show, by hosting a Specialized RockShox Rookies Cup race in August, that a mountain bike downhill race is possible in close cooperation with the responsible authorities and at a somewhat greater expense.  Photo: Sebastian Gruber The idea quickly emerged to hold a race of the iXS Downhill Cup in the Thuringian low mountain range. Unfortunately, one condition was a limited number of participants, so that a normal race with up to 500 starters was out of the question. Since the German Championship was also vacant due to the cancellation of the Bike Festival in Willingen, the idea was quickly born to save this nationally very important race for 2020 and thus at the same time to have the criterion for the selection of the athletes. With the help of some sponsors, the support of the BDR and a constructive cooperation between the organizer and the authorities, the organization of the championship could be secured and thus around 150 licensed athletes came to Steinach on the last weekend in September. The racecourse was already taped for normal bike park operations on Friday, so that some of the riders used the time to familiarize themselves with the 1,750-meter-long and 250-meter-deep course. In the late afternoon, the Track Walk was the first official item on the program before the start numbers could be picked up. And just in time for the route inspection, it started raining.  Photo: Sebastian Gruber Saturday began much like Friday had ended. The external conditions with which the field of participants was confronted were cold and wet. The track was a lot softened and it was clear that not much would change about that. After training in the mud, things got serious for the first time in the afternoon and the seeding run provided the first yardstick for the level of performance. Not surprisingly, Max Hartenstern (GER - Cube Global Squad) and Nina Hoffmann (GER - Nina Hoffmann Racing / Stif) set the fastest times in the elite classes and made it clear that they were the favorites with a lead of around six and eight seconds respectively was rightly attributed.  Photo: Sebastian Gruber For training on Sunday morning, the riders were again greeted with cold, wet weather. The track was now pretty beaten up and badly damaged. Punctually at half past twelve, the first class started with Masters 2. In the over-forty-year-olds, Markus Bast (Propain Bikes) won ahead of Maik Höhne (Bike24 Racing Squad) and Knut Zentraf (RSV Adler Arnstadt). In the Masters 1 class that followed, Benjamin Herold (Giant Germany Offroad Team) secured the championship jersey with a two and a half second lead over Willi Lützeler (Cube). Third was Daniel Schamul (Werxboden ILRC).  Photo: Sebastian Gruber Next, the younger classes went on the course. First it was the turn of the U17, in which at least twenty young athletes were on the list. Henri Kiefer (Canyon) clinched the title with a wafer-thin lead of just a tenth of a second, who celebrated his first major success outside of the Rookies Cup. Second was Nico Schlebes (BSS - Devo Team), followed by the fastest of the previous day Elias Heil (Yo-Trail Racing).  Photo: Sebastian Gruber After this award ceremony was over, the U19 female class entered their competition. As a short explanation, the respective honors of the top three were always carried out directly after each class in the target area to avoid accumulations. The female U19 class was made up of seven athletes and shows that things weren't so bad with the youngsters. In this category, Anastasia Thiele (BSS Devo Team) was able to secure the medal of the German champion with a time of 3: 01.245 minutes. The young athlete from Bavaria was able to prove that she is not wrongly seen by some as a great talent and, for example, was completely rightly invited to this year's NotARace. Lea Kumpf (VfR Waldkatzenbach) came in second. Antonia Enderlin (MTB Südbaden) completed third place on the podium.  Photo: Sebastian Gruber The fifth start class was then the male counterpart with the U19 male. Heinrich Süchting (Lahari) became German junior champion with a time of 2: 30.702 minutes, which was two seconds faster than the previous day's best time in this class. Luis Kiefer (Canyon) was relegated to second place, just under a second behind. Third place went to Steffen Smets (Commencal Co Factory). Now it got really serious, because now the championship titles of the elite classes have been awarded and these prestigious jerseys are fiercely contested every year. After all, this year it was the 28th German championship in the mountain bike downhill discipline. Big names are in the winners' statistics, for women among others Regina Stiefel with five titles in a row in the 90s, Antje Kramer with seven titles in the 2000s and Harriet Rücknagel with another five successes from 2010 to 2014. Currently hardly seems to be in Germany to be such a great hope for someone like Nina Hoffmann, who one would trust that she could one day be immortalized in this list in a similarly impressive way. But so far she has only been able to achieve one title in 2018, but maybe only because she was injured last year. So she started the race as the big favorite and the scoreboard actually revealed a minus of over 11 seconds, which earned her her second German championship title. Sandra Rübesam (Nukeproof) was able to leave the place with the runner-up title, while a relatively unknown Justine Welzel with third place showed that she might be expected in the future. The last class was then the Elite Men. And to rummage through something in the box of history, the most famous protagonists of the past should also be named. One of the great German names in the downhill discipline is Jürgen Beneke, who was the measure of all things in the early days. Then, however, an athlete came onto the scene who had shaped the German scene like no other, because with no less than 13 titles, he was the biggest favorite for the annually awarded championship jersey for almost two decades. However, Marcus Klausmann is now part of history and no longer active. However, since 2016 there has been a young athlete who seems to have a similar constant grip on the competition. The only question was whether Max Hartenstern could have the conditions under control again this time so that none of his opponents would dispute his fifth title in a row. He was the last rider on the course and the times he had set before were still a few seconds away from his previous day's best time. So if he didn't make a serious mistake, it should be enough for the title, and in fact everyone present knew from the moment he crossed the finish line that it would be enough for the 2020 German championship title. With a time of 2:21.601 minutes he won the race by over three seconds.  Photo: Sebastian Gruber Hannes Lehmann (MRC Saracen Racing Team) secured second place in his first elite year. Nico Lamm (Pivot Cycles Gravity Team) finished third and achieved his best elite position. With Simon Maurer (Assault Racing) in fourth place, none of the top four were older than 21 years, which is very encouraging in terms of the future prospects of the German athletes.  Photo: Sebastian Gruber All in all, one has to say that even if 2020 was probably not a great season for mountain biking due to the corona, it was at least managed not to interrupt the consistency of the title awarding of the German Downhill Championships since 1993. With a solid race organization, Steinach has shown, even under difficult conditions and adverse weather conditions, that a lot is possible with passion. The season seems to be over for the iXS Downhill Cup, but the hope is that next year a relatively normal racing season will be possible.   #ixsdownhillcup #steinach #germany #german #championships #uci #mtbmagasia
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