Race update

summers over, Young gun James has been smashing it in xc and winning it all, where are all the juniors? racing DH? James on good form and a coaching program from us but there seems a lack of fellow racers in the south west? Elbry just took 10th at the last enduro1 of the year, giving him 5th overall in the All-Mtn series! Trail Head coached Wayne ended his first year of raing in 8th overall, Look for Oli,Dom & the rest to be back in enduro action next year. great year of racing guys.

wales, part 3

op jump section

op jump section

Race update

 xc and enduro racing

Oli and Dom had there best Enduro outing to date at the last fetish enduro, Next up will be the 24 hour xc event this weekend! good luck guys!
Elbry has hit up another round of the xc2 series taking another 3rd place and also hit up round2 of the all-mtn enduros taking 22nd spot.

Rider Run Company/Trail Head devo rider James has won his cat and a second in the last two xc2 events and will now focus on smashing the rest of the series as well as getting ready to race some dh and enduro.

Oli enduro bike check

Oli has ditched the Pro-flex for this bad ass new black rig.

Lyrik DH RC2 solo air 170mm                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           FOX RC4 175mm                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            FSA Gravity Light crankset    
DX pedals                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  50mm Funn Ripper stem and 720mm Fatboy bars                                                                                                                                                                                                           Rear 135mmHope Pro2 evo/Stans flow and front 20mm Sun Ringle/Sun Charger Pro                                                                                                                                                   Crank Bros opium headset                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Charge Spoon saddle and Thomson Elite post                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Sram X0 brakes,Shifter and now upgraded to a carbon shortcage X9 rear mech                                                                                                                                                           E Thirteen LS1+ chainguide                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Intense edge AM 2.5 Tyres      


 build comes in one of the lightest uzzis

ENDURO1 UK all-mtn champs round 1

Forest of Dean held the first round of the Enduro1 enduro series, Elbry Sandland took 16th fastest time of the day after the 6 stages and fastest hardtail.

HALDON XC = 2 on the box

Two of the Ride -All team were in action at the first round of Haldon forests 2012 XC series. James Davey wins juniors, Elbry Sandland gets third in Masters. Good work boys!

RiderRunCo's Oli and Doms adventures from Rd 1 of the Fetish UK Gravity Enduro Series at Innerleithen, Scotland.

Roots, rocks, a smattering of skill and more than a fair share of pear shaped moments, all held together with a heavy dose of pure and unadulterated speed is what the RiderRunCo's team members first full-on Gravity Enduro experience consisted of!

It didn't take long for things to take an adventurous turn when disaster struck for the first time before they had even made it across the border.
Oli's gear hanger fell victim to the new B-Line trail at Coed Llandegla where the boys had stopped for a night ride to stretch their legs on the long drive from Cornwall to Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders.
A quick razz around the woods soon turned into a four hour epic with more pinch flats than patches and a mangled rear mech, meaning that when the boys eventually did set foot on Scottish soil, it certainly wasn't with fresh legs and well fettled bikes!

With just one rideable bike between them, Dom set off to check out the stages while Oli set about tracking down a replacement gear hanger, rear mech and chain guide for his Proflex.. Not an easy task when over 500 miles from home in a random carpark with no phone reception.

Dom: My first impressions of the course were how natural and technichal the trails were compared the groomed trail centre fare of the Frostbite 40 event at Brechfa during the winter. The course was of similar length but with around 2000m of climbing and five top to bottom descents it was much more demanding both physically and mentally.




Thanks to BETD for a super speedy saturday delivery, Oli's bike was ready to go with just minutes to spare before qualifying! Riding blind in true Enduro style, Oli made a wrong turn through some dubious course marking costing him dearly with a 45th place qualifier with a time of 6mins 49secs. Dom made it down in 34th with a time of 6mins 33secs.

Race Day.

A rare hot and sunny Innerleithen greeted the boys on race day morning as the boys set about preparing their bikes for the day ahead.

Dropping into stage 1 after a steady 45 minute climb, the course had clearly dried out a bit overnight, providing slightly more grip on the steep root sections and rocky jumps and steps that made up the stage. However, on a now dry and loose tight turn Dom came unstuck with a small spill costing him vital seconds.

After a bad qualifying round, Oli quickly passed 2 riders despite the 30 second starting intervals before being cut up and crashing into a third, the first of several mid run tussels for position!

Stage 1: Dom: 3mins 08secs Oli: 3mins 20secs

Getting to the start line of stage 2 meant repeating the long time to stage 1 before heading up a further section of steep switchbacks. The transition time limits were quite tight and missing your start time meant incurring time penalties. Despite the warm weather, sheltered parts of the hill had not yet dried out, leaving the smooth boulders at the beginning on stage 2 coated in a layer of slick mud.. a dab of the brakes here and its straight out the front door! After a couple of inital stalls on the tight turns of slick rock section, Dom got down without further incident and Oli managed to pass the same 3 riders without doing too much damage!

Stage 2: Dom: 5mins 53 secs Oli: 6mins 03secs

400m of climbing later, stage 3 was all about holding your line on ultra steep, rutted, off-camber turns interspersed with lung-busting pedal sections and a horrible right hander onto a flat out fire road sprint in the middle. Only a few pedal strokes in and Dom was picking himself up off the floor and attempting to straighten out his controls after going OTB on a stump and bending a pedal making it impossible to clip in properly for the rest of the race! A similar fate befell Oli as he became entanlged whilst overtaking yet another rider. Fortunately for Oli this spelt the end of the day for the the offending rider leaving Oli with a bit of breathing space for the following stages but not before costing him more precious seconds.

Stage 3: Dom: 5mins 46secs Oli: 5mins 38secs

Another tight transition and on to stage 4, this was by far the longest stage full of very tight switchbacks and enormous rock gardens making it essential but extremely difficult to carry speed from one section to the next. Unable to clip in due to crash damage from the previous stage, Dom had to fight to stay on the bike on the steepest and most technichal sections of the race so far. Oli on the other hand finally had room to get into his stride, floating over roots and rock gardens and smashing out his best time of the day!

Stage 4: Dom: 7mins 36secs Oli: 7mins 00secs

After a particularly gruelling climb back up the mountain, both riders only just made their start times and without a chance to catch thier breath, were straiht into the big jumps, flowing berms and drops that made up stage 5. Keen to finish the race on a high they put the the power down and left nothing on the hill, dropping into the finish arena and over the line with identical times!

Stage 5: Dom: 6mins 27secs Oli:6mins 27 secs

At the end of the day Oli's times amounted to 36th in Senior with 35mins 17secs Closely followed by Dom in 38th with 35mins 23secs.

Megavalanche winner Jerome Clementz took the win in Elite and World champ Tracely Mosely won the Womens.

The boys will now be working hard to improve on those times at Rd 2 Coed y Brenin, Wales.

RIDER RUN COMPANY "RIDE - ALL" team, supported by Trail Head coaching and FreestylExtreme.com .

photo blog from : XC round 2 in Cornwall

Elbry : 10th in Masters

Oli : 3rd in sport.


Dom : DNF
rider run company RIDE - ALL team, supported by Trail Head skills coaching and Freestyle Xtreme. Thanks to snapper chick for the photos.

Elbry update

Elbry may race some xc and enduro, but he is still a freerider first.

devo rider photo update

Our young gun development rider James shreds his local in the spring sun shine. James gets skills and fitness coaching from Trail Head ( https://www.facebook.com/TrailHeadcoaching ) and support from Rider Run Company.

Boys gear up for some Enduro racing

Team Riders Oli and Dom prepare for the first round of the Fetish Bikes UK Gravity Enduro Series at Innerleithen, Scotland.

After a healthy 26th overall at the Frostbite 40 enduro at Brechfa, a race that Oli missed due to illness, this year Dom and Oli decided to take on the full UK Gravity Enduro calendar.
With the likes of UK Champion Rob Cooksley, World Cup Champion Tracey Mosely and multi Megavalanche winner Jerome Clementz taking part at a great line up of venues in some seriously far flung parts of the UK this represents a real challenge and a big commitment to the westcountry riders!
Round one on the 24/25 March is now just round the corner and Dom and Oli have been stepping their preparation up a gear in anticipation.

Dom: It's a long way to Scotland from Cornwall so we're planning to break up the journey by leaving early and taking in some of the countries best trails along the way! Hopefully we won't be too busy enjoying ourselves to make the most of saturday practice and make our final tyre choices depending on the weather.

Bike wise Doms Devinci Hectik has remained reasonably unchanged from the Brechfa Enduro, sticking with a 160mm suspension set up, 32t single ring and dropper seatpost, the only changes being a freshly mojo'd Fox 36 Talas fork and stiffer E thirteen DH cranks.
Oli's Proflex on the other hand has been seriously beefed up with the addition of some 170mm Rockshox Lyric air forks and a new Rockshox Vivid air shock as well as a new dropper seatpost.
Both bikes will be sporting Sensus Salmon Hook grips.

Find out how the boys do as soon as we get the news!

XC race report : woodbury rd1

After a week of dry weather the rain came over night and the track was a mud fest, Elbry was first of the team to turn up and it was clear his aspen dry hard pack tyres were not the one, dom and Oli soon turned up, Dom had no cash and miles from a cash point they hunted deep in the vans to find some race entry money for him and it was all go.

Dom and Oli would race sport and 2 mins later the stacked Masters class set off with Elbry getting a good jump in the first group in masters, Oli and Dom let the barging go on before cranking out a fast second lap, as for Elbry his fast start was the best part the race as he hit the mud of the singletrack and shot out the back from the lead group down to 15th. Lap 3 and Oli and Dom were past by a charging Elbry that was doing his thing, finding lines and being smooth, Elbry made a wrong turn and dropped to 16th while oli was killin it on the dh and saving his energy on the flats, Elbry made his way back to 15th on the steep drop dh section on the last lap but was past back on the short up hill when he was foced to get off thanks to a lack of grip, Sitting in elbry was game for a sprint finish, Last climbs in 2 parts before the finish, but as they hit the climb a large section of tree went in to his wheel and mech, getting it out and away Elbry had dropped 30 seconds, pushing hard on the last climb but finished less than a second short of 15th.. Oli and dom rolled in for some solid points thanks to a great 7th and 8th in our first xc race for the Ride- All team, Elbry put his bike in the van and was off to pack a landing down for a new huck, Oli and Dom had a pasty,beer and a smoke before heading home.

Boys will be back in xc and enduro action in a few weeks time.

Team supported by Rider Run Company , Freestyle Xtreme.com and Trail Head skills coaching.

xc woodbury, full sus rd 1

above : Dom 8th in sport, time of 1 hour 53.46
above: Elbry 16th in Masters, 1 hour 48.02

below : oli 7th in sport, 1 hour 50.00
thanks to snapper chick for the photos.

full race report up later this week.

Rider Run Company: Ride - All team, supported by Trail Head coaching and Freestyle Xtreme.com .

James Davey Rides XC

Tippies RaceFace ShoreShred with wade simmons

got love a bit old skool fro rider action.

ENDURO 1 SERIES

Elbry Sandland gears up to race the Enduro 1 round one .

Oli Symes bike check part 2

Team rider Oli has been aking some changes as he gears up to race his first full year of xc racing.

Elbry on the rat run @ haldon

first ride down here in about 4+ years, not a bad trail still.

Elbry goes XC

Elbry just got his new XC weapon built ready for some XC racing this summer.. http://elbry.blogspot.com/

Frost Bite 40 Enduro

The Frost Bite enduro took place last weekend at Brechfa Foret in Wales,This has to be one of the UKs top riding spot but has been kept off the radar for many riders as its a long way from anywhere. So with Oli out with illness it was down to Dom and Elbry to do battle in this ALL-MTN enduro for the team and our sponsors : Freestyle Xtreme.com , The Bike Shop and Trail Head.

Unlike most UK Enduros this 40k event has three timed stages, a DH,

XC and hill climb and would test around 200 of the UKs finest at this sold out event and prove to be a great all-mtn event. Dom would put in a solid ride to take 26th overall and Elbry finished the day in 43 spot.

TIMES:

DH stage: Dom 3:24

Elbry 3:15

XC stage : Dom 7:30

Elbry 7:50

Hill Climb: Dom 7:56

Elbry 8:35

Elbry

" Having failed to make the 60k enduro a few weeks ago and just about make 40k it was clear that i was going to have to dig deep this early in the year just to get round let alone post some ok times. We got to the first stage and it was clear from the talk that a lot fast locals had a good idea of what the stage was like, others had set off a long time ahead and rested and scooped out the track before there run, For Dom and i we were doing it proper enduro style and racing it blind, The DH stage was slick but not that tech, i was blowing on this short stage and pumped a large section of it rather than pedal and am happy to see that still gave me a time inside the top 20 overall for this stage. Stage 2 was a rolling xc stage and i got stuck behind one rider on the fast last section and had to do a block pass, lost some time on this stage but was happy with it and had past two riders on that stage, Final stage i thought was a xc stage with a up hill in it, but it soon came clear it was a hill climb, i past 4 riders but lost lot time trying to save some energy to make the finish,

Dom

"I found the 1st downhill stage pretty windy at the top and a bit greasy, could have done with some softer compound tyres. the 2nd stage didn't go too badly, overtaking 3 riders but felt drained at the end, wasn't looking forward to the final stage but managed to find a second wind overtaking 5 riders and ending a fairly respectable 26th overall. A practice day on the saturday would help level the field so the locals dont have such an advantage over us riding blind!"

Frostbite 40 enduro rigs part 3

Frostbite 40 enduro rigs part 2

Dom will be racing his trick Devinici Hectik at this weekends Frostbite event.

Frostbite 40 enduro rigs

First up.. Elbry Sandland will race a Cannondale with his much loved and rated Marzocchi 44 ti forks , Kore bar, stem, saddle,wheel set, Sensus grips, xt/xtr drive train with MRP device, hOPE MINI MONO BRAKES, Nuke proof post, Mucky Nutz fender and Bontrager XR4 team issue tyres.. Elbry runs a Medium frame with a super short 35mm Kore proto stem so the bikes low and slack .

Oli Symes new XC whip

Team bike check :

spec ROCKSHOX Sid WC 100mm Carbon
Shock absorber: ROCKSHOX Monarch RT3
Brakes: FORMULA R1 160mm
Shifters: SRAM X0 10 speed
Cassette: SRAM XG 1080 11/36
Front derailleur: SRAM X0
Rear derailleur: SRAM X0
Pedals: SRAM X0 2.2 28/42
Tires: HUTCHINSON Piranha AL 2.00
Wheels: AMERICAN CLASSIC MTB 26 tubless
Handlebar: Ragley Wiser
Stem: UN Premium SL
Saddle: SDG I Fly RL Titanium

2012 kicks off for the ALL-RIDE team

(photo: Oli slaying it in the mud fest )

Oli Symes stomped to 11th in the 60k enduro last monday. Oli was set to do battle with the leaders on the last lap till a flat tyre forced him to run the last 6 miles and drop him just outside the top ten, New rider Dom also put in a solid ride in the 60k finishing not far off oli come the finish, Elbry also joined the guys and coming off a two month illness faded badly on the the second lap and called it a day at the 40k finish line, Still finishing inside the top ten in the 40k race. All three riders will now be gearing up for the Frost Bite 40 enduro at the end of the month.

RIDER RUN COMPANY ALL-RIDE TEAM supported by Trail Head, Freestylextreme and Rider Run Company import/distro.