Crankzone

I’ve been traveling a lot for work lately (hence the lack of posts) but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been riding.  I have found some great (and not so great) rental shops in almost all of my destinations.  In most places, I was able to rent decent quality bikes, but the ride is just not the same without some of my own “essential” equipment. Even when I was lucky enou…

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Rick and I were talking with one of the Ellijay locals at Bear Creek last month and he mentioned riding the mountain bike trails around the Stanley Gap area just outside Blue Ridge. This guy claimed the trails there were “better than Tsali” so I knew then and there that I had to check them out.
The trip from Atlanta to Blue Ridge ended up being a little less than 2 hours which was a ni…

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Todd Gilchrist posted a good article on his blog titled ‘Lessons from Mountain Biking’ that got me to thinking about the times I’ve foolishly decided to ride when my equipment wasn’t really ready to go. For Todd this meant sticking out his ride despite a bent low-gear sprocket just 10 minutes into the ride - a real dilemma if something like this has never happened to you.
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Man, you guys who live in Colorado Springs are lucky. Not only do you have miles and miles of kick ass mountain bike trails within minutes of downtown, your newspaper actually writes articles about mountain biking! I’m pretty sure the last time the Atlanta Journal wrote about mountain biking was when the Olympics were in town back in ‘96
Anyway, Andrew Wineke posted a great article i…

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Trevyn Newpher took home the victory in the men’s pro downhill contest at the Capital Cup in McHenry, Md. on June 21. Kristin Cousin earned the win in the women’s race. The fifth event on the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Gravity Calendar will include the downhill, mountain cross and super D contests at Blast the Mass in Snowmass, Colo., July 12-13. Original post by asmith@usacycling.org

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Don’t get your hopes up, at least that’s what a USA Today article leads us to believe. Cross-country mountain biking was added as an official Olympic event just 12 years ago, almost 20 years after the sport itself was invented. Of course you could argue that the original mountain bikers who clunked down Mount Tam were more interested in downhill than cross country riding but that̵…

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I was amazed at the myriad of mountain bikes out there to tempt all levels of ability and certainly all sizes of wallet. I admit to being confused at that time as to where to start and I expect I was not, then or now, the only one. The categories detailed below may help you as they helped me to cut through the jargon and the sales pitch so that you buy the right Mountain Bike for you.Original post…

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The 12-hour race at the Cowbell Challenge in Charlotte, N.C. marked the fourth event on the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Ultra-Endurance Calendar. Joshua Tostado came away with the men’s pro victory while Rebecca Rusch won the women’s pro race. The next event on the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Ultra-Endurance Calendar will be the USA Cycling Mountain Bike 24-Hour National Championship…

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The 15th race on the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Cross Country Calendar, the 3 Legged Dawg, took place June 22 in North Little Rock, Ark. Luke Porter took home the men’s pro win in a sprint to the finish, while Suzanne Henne earned the women’s victory. The Deer Valley National is the next contest on the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Cross Country Calendar. The category-one event will t…

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It seems like the mountain bike newswires are full of mountain bike race news these days. Rather than bore you with race results I thought I’d talk about a couple upcoming races you might want to plan to attend, including one in 2012.
Yep, UK mountain bikers are (still) crying foul over the planned 2012 Olympic mountain bike course planned for Essex - an area generally lacking mountains (or …

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