The missing gear includes:

* 1 prototype short-travel Marin 4X bike – the only one in the UK
* 1 prototype Marin Attack Trail – different geometry to standard spec
* 4 Marin Wolf Ridge bikes
* 4 Marin Mount Vision bikes
* 2 Whyte E120 bikes
* Tools, THE full-face helmets and boxes loaded with pedals and spares

The Marin 4X bike is the only of its kind in the UK and has a custom white paintjob with gold and red graphics. It has a white RockShox Revelation fork, deep-section rims with Mountain Biking UK stickers on, and a very trick build.

The Attack Trail is bright orange and has a slightly slacker head angle than stock. It has a 38-tooth chainring with MRP chainguide up front, Hope brakes, Answer handlebars and RockShox Pike forks with Push tuning.

ATB Sales are offering a reward for recovery, or for information leading to recovery, of these bikes. If you have any information, call them on 07775 786709 or the MBUK office on 01225 442244

The riders of the White Style presented by Kona had to cope with a super-sized slopestyle course in combination with a soft and snowy surface. Not an easy job for the 23 athletes from 12 nations that made their way to Leogang, Austria. Kona Clump Team rider Grant “Chopper” Fielder designed and built the whole track with just one aim: to enable the riders to go big!

Indeed, the guys just went crazy: Thomas Zejda from the Czech Republic throwing down tailwhips at the starting drop, Amir Kabbani showing off with a backflip x-up one foot the step-up or the Swede Martin Soederstroem pulling clean double tailwhips at the final booter. But Lance McDermott performed the sickest trick. The well-known guy from Manchester threw himself into a tuck nohand-frontflip at the last jump. Unfortunately he didn’t stick it 100% clean, because he slipped both pedals. It was the first tuck nohand-frontflip shown at an international mountain bike competition ever. The whole situation might have remembered Lance of the Whistler Crankworx Slopestyle. It was the same game: Andreu Lacondeguy again put Lance into second place – this time by sending huge flatspin 360’s, real extended superman seat-grabs and backflips up and down the “inabler” (step-up-step-down box). Andreu could obviously make good use of his FMX experience:

“Man, I love those doubles. Chopper made a great job! That’s the way they should be: BIG! I hope most of this year’s comps will go even bigger than last season. The progression has to go on. We ride mountain bikes, not BMX bikes. We need huge jumps at least 10 meters + in distance!”

Amir Kabbani (3rd place), Martin Soederstroem (4th) and last year’s White Style winner Trond Hansen from Norway (5th) also showed great tricks like opposite 360’s, frontflips, 360-tailwhips, superman seat-grabs or 360 drops.

The results:
1st Andreu Lacondeguy (ESP / Kona)
2nd Lance Mc Dermott (GBR / Scott)
3rd Amir Kabbani (GER / Cannondale)
4th Martin Soederstroem (SWE / NS Bikes)
5th Trond Hansen (NOR / Specialized)
6th Grant Fielder (GBR / Kona)
7th Yannick Granieri (FRA / Giant)
8th Sam Pilgrim (GBR / Diamondback)
9th Damian Siriski (CZE / Author)
10th Niki Leitner (AUT / Kona)

All the riders rode hard, showing their skills on the tricky surface, and partied even harder. The official White Style presented by Kona after party ended at five o’clock in the morning and some of the athletes even still had the energy to party on in their hotel.

The Bikepark Leogang, KONA, CamelBak and ONE BIG PARK are proud to have presented Europe’s best riders, a lot of airtime, the newest tricks, as well as a rocking party.

Watch out for the official White Style presented by Kona video clip that is being edited by Boston Joy Productions right now and will be available mid of next week.

Tom Grundy Webisode Two from Tom Grundy on Vimeo.

The first chance to see the Lacons riding their new bikes will be at the “White Style presented by Kona” winter slopestyle comp in Leogang, Austria, on January 30th.

The Spaniards Andreu and Lluis build up the Kona Clump team together with Paul Basagoitia (USA), Grant Fielder (UK), John Cowan (USA) and the brand new team member and 18 years old rookie Graham Aggassiz from Kamloops (CAN). All Kona Clump riders will be supported by Shimano, Marzocchi, WTB, e.thirteen, Easton, Sun Ringlé, Kenda, FSA and Wheelsmith. The Lacons got additional support from O’Neal protection gear, as well as Andreu from Red Bull. So the Rock’n'Roll loving brothers are perfectly equipped for a great mountain bike season, hitting locations all over the world. The Lacondeguys will not only throw down at the biggest comps such as the Crankworx contests, the Nissan Qashqai Challenge events or the 26TRIX, but will also be filming for New World Disorder’s 10th edition.

Andreu and Lluis have been riding motocross and FMX a lot during the last months in order to train their skills for big jumps with a lot of airtime and speed. Lluis is anxious to go for international contests again after being injured at some major competitions. Andreu had the chance to show what he is made of by winning the Crankworx Whistler Slopestyle with a fantastic run including a clean double backflip. But he wants to go even bigger this year: “Mountain bike jumps have to be huge … man, we are looking for 15 meters gaps and I hope that this is happening for the upcoming season. Let’s see what the White Style will be like, Chopper did a great job the last two years.”

Let’s see if Andreu will be satisfied: Chopper aka Grant Fielder, the master of the White Style’s course design and construction, already stated that he will go big. The brothers are training already on big jumps in the snow, so stay tuned what’s next to come!

For more info about Kona Bikes and the Clump team cruise over to: www.konaworld.com

Information about Andreu and Lluis Lacondeguy can be found on: www.rasoulution.com

For further information please contact:

Olivia..
UCC- Sport Entreprise
Olivia JAMBON
14 Av Maréchal Juin
F-06400 Cannes
T: 0033 (0)4.93.43.51.54
F: 0033 (0)4.93.43.29.13
http://www.avalanchecup.com
http://www.

25 riders from about ten countries join the challenging slopestyle competition. Among them are big names like the last White Style winner Trond Hansen, Crankworx Whistler winner and Kona Clump team rider Andreu Lacondeguy, Nissan Qashqai Challenge overall winner Lance McDermott or Adidas Slopestyle winner Sam Pilgrim:

Niki Leitner AUT
Andi Brewi AUT
Mischa Breitenstein CH
Pascal Breitenstein CH
Damjan Siriski CZE
Andreu Lacondeguy ESP
Lluis Lacondeguy ESP
Yannick Granieri FRANCE
Pierre Edouard Ferry FRANCE
Benny Korthaus GER
Amir Kabbani GER
Rob J GER
Andi Wittmann GER
Marius Hoppensack GER
Nick Pescetto ITA
Trond Hansen NOR
Martin Söderström SWE
Linus Sjöholm SWE
Lance McDermott UK
Grant Fielder UK
Mike Smith UK
Sam Pilgrim UK

Furthermore, three wildcards are given to very special guests that will be announced soon.

The whole track is not only shaped out of snow, but also pimped with some nice wooden obstacles. The course is located right next to the Schantei ski-lift station, which is pretty close to the town centre of Leogang. The riders have to qualify on Friday afternoon for the big finals, which take place a bit later, at 08:30 pm. The ten finalists complete two runs to determine the winners of 4.000 Euros overall prize money. Afterwards a hard rocking party will heat up the riders as well as the fans until the early morning.

The Bikepark Leogang, CamelBak, ONE BIG PARK and Kona are proud to present Europe’s best riders, big tricks, a lot of airtime, as well as a great after party.

So don’t miss the White Style on January 30th in Leogang!

Details are still thin on the ground, but the events set to take place in Fall 2008. After Red Bull launched a global search to find the perfect venue, the spot was found only 20 miles away from the original site near Virgin, Utah. With 1000 vertical feet and only defined start and finish points, the new event that Red Bull have labelled ‘The Evolution’, looks set to continue in the original spirit of the event, as riders find the most spectacular way down the mountain.

The Atherton family are already in Utah, sessioning the old site, so you can be sure that they’ll be at the event showing the rest of the world that the Brits can tackle the big stuff too!

Another great issue of Wideopen magazine is available to download for free now at www.wideopenmag.co.uk.

I haven’t read through the monster 180 page issue yet, but it all looks up to the normal top standard. Here’s some highlights:

- NPS, Pearce, Fort Bill World Cup, World Champs race repos
- Bionicon bike test
- Commencal 09 and 2Stage first look
- Heaps of products including the Gamut P40, E13 LG1 and ‘09 Saint Cranks
- Interviews with the Chicksands young guns, photographer Roo Fowler and NPS4X Champ Scott Beaumont
- Dan Stanbridge/Mojo skin suit interview

Highly recommended!

You may not have heard of the Red Bull Round Up. It was a two day showdown with a difference. On day one the riders hit a custom built dirt/street course, built in a 1930’s film set in North Vancouver, and on day two a slopestyle course set in Whistler Blackcomb Bike Park.

Mitch Chubey (www.nsmb.com) landed himself in first place, earning himself a place in the Bearclaw Invitational and the $6000 prize purse. Graham Agassiz and Curtis Robinson landed themselves in second and third.

But it turns out that the Red Bull Round Up isn’t just looking for good riders. They’re after top amateur videographers with a flare for filming and editing. Obviously the events now been and gone, and few of us from the UK could have afforded a long weekend in Whistler (as nice as that would be). But, Red Bull are actually providing raw footage of the event so anyone can have a go at putting together an edit! The footage will be downloadable from www.pinkbike.com from Wednesday July 30th.

So fire up your favourite video editing software and see what you can do. Further details on the event can be found here.

Here’s a round up of what we’ve missed in recent weeks.

Firstly, massive congratulations to Steve Peat and Josh Bryceland who are our new National Champions. The final took place recently on the famous Bala track in North Wales, with Peaty taking the win over Marc Beaumont by an impressive 4.5 seconds! It seemed that the only other man who could have taken the title was Gee Atherton, who unfortunately lost it towards the end of the course, forcing him out of the top 10. Check out Steves site for a full report www.stevepeat.com.

If you’re a slave to fashion you can also check out Peatys new Troy Lee design over at Dirt Magazine.

Although its not a mountain bike event, the Red Bull Empire of Dirt is taking place this weekend. After being cancelled last year, it looks like the BMX slopestyle event has had fantastic weather this year. Unfortunately I was unable to go along, but we’ll hopefully have some pictures up very soon. In the meantime check out the site @ www.redbullempireofdirt.com.

After being controversially dropped back along by Kona, Robbie Bourdon is now back on a deal with Intense riding on of their Slopestyle frames. It’ll be interesting to see if the deal will help famed freerider capture the limelight once again. More info @ www.pinkbike.com.

The Mega Avalanche has been and gone for another year. It was won by Scott rider, Rene Wildhaber. Huckmonkey Crew member Chris Seager was also raced; if you missed his report check it out here.

Any set of goggles will protect you from these things, so I guess its down to the little things that make a great product.

Firstly the fit and feel of the goggles is great. The foam has a nice non abrasive material which sits on your face and wicks away moisture. They’re shaped to give you optimum vision and the lense is fog resistant. This is another product I had the pleasure of using last year in France, and I can tell you that they really don’t fog up easily. The strap stays firmly in place on your lid thanks to lines of silicone. I tested these with may Fox Rampage lid, but also tried them with a Troy Lee D2 and they fit just fine.

On top of all the essential details, they also look good with Fox branding on nose bridge and the strap. To check out the full range of colour options head to www.foxeurope.com. At only £29.99, these aren’t going to break the bank, and they get the job done in style.

On arrival Saturday we kitted up and went to meet the guys from TT Freeriders and check out their site. We received a warm greeting, having met some of the guys before, and headed to the 4X track. Originally built as a mountain board track, the jumps have been tweaked to make them more suitable for two wheels. I’ve never ridden 4X before, but the tracks got massive berms, whoops, tables and doubles and flows really well. The hip to berm at the bottom gives you a massive boost, allowing to carry your speed into the final straight.

The track with put to good use later in the day during a relaxed race. There was much debate about how the race should be done, so in the end a race format was devised so that everyone would get at least three race runs. Despite talk about ‘just rolling down’, everyone got in the competitive spirit and ended up giving it there all down during their runs. The final was a close call with Glen winning, Ed Lambert coming second and ex BMX racer Darren Curtis coming third. There was an eight man uplift to take the pressure off on the journey back to the top of the hill.

Late on Saturday we went down to check out the jump area. High winds meant any serious airborne action was out of the question, but the areas strewn with massive jumps, half pipes and a step up box. Tom from TT Freeriders told me they’re going to be making some changes in this area. True to his word, the guys made some amendments on Sunday, digging a wooden kicker into one of the big tabletops and creating a bowled landing to allow a transfer from one jump onto the landing of another. The areas got masses of potential, and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do with it in the future.

Sunday turned out to be a super chilled day, with riders alternating between the 4X and the jump area. A few more riders turned up on Sunday, including Huckmonkey junior tester and downhill rider Charlie Ross and his younger brother Lewis. Improvised races were held and generally everyone had a laugh.

We’d like to say a massive thanks to the guys at TT Freeriders for not just putting on the event, but also providing such a great atmosphere. I’m currently aching all over, but I’ve got a sneaky feeling that the pain in my ribs may be down to the amount I laughed.