On Friday we had practice scheduled for both events but only got 30 minutes cause of some crazy rain. I woke up on sat and it was open skies and a great day for slalom. Slalom went well, track was fun and technical. Great racing with a full rack of 32 and I made it to round of 8. I slid out and was not able to make it up so ended up with a 6th overall.

On Sunday we had 4x, track was fun but there was not to much passing room. It had some weird obstacles such as a 2 level spine, which was so fun riding something different. We had another rack of 32 and I was doing great getting through motos fine. In the round of 8 I was battling for the lead into the first corner and bumped and unclipped. Then finished that round in 3rd so had to go into small main, which was pretty tough and it went Adrian Kiner (swiss) then Ross Milan then myself and rounding out 8 was Sean Neer. So I’m stoked on the weekend and just going to keep riding and getting ready for angle fire coming up.

-Jake Kinney
       

-Jacksonville Super D April 24th-

 This was a first year event, and hopefully will become an annual event! The organization was top notch, the town was super friendly and all in all a nice experience. This race was a real tester for me as it was really my first ever true "Super D" race, as it was also my first race aboard the Ventana trail bike and first ride with the new X-Fusion suspension! The Course started with a really fast flowy section with some tricky corners and real gnarly ruts for about 2 minutes with a real short climb to a false flat, Followed by a quad exploder of a 2 minute grinding super steep climb that forced some people to walk. That went onto a real rough access road that continued to climb while traversing over to the singletrack, about a minute later you were dropping into wet loose shale stone then going to a real high-speed freeway section! Transitioning right into almost 8 minutes of high speed flowing singletrack with a few jumps lots of berms and even a few decent sized drops!

 My race run felt great! made a little mistake right in the beginning but hammered the climb super hard! Actually made up the whole 1 minute interval and passing the guy in front of me on the road traverse, leaving the DH wide open! I nailed all my lines blasting the course until disaster happened about 2/3rds the way through when i blew out of a tight switchback and went down the hillside, about 15-20 seconds later getting back up to the course the rest of the run went well and i continued to hammer across the finish line to place 3rd in Pro!! Very exciting! Can't wait to get back for next year!

-Cool, California, May 1^st-

Well...This was my first endurance race...lots of learning. Also the first race on my XC bike with the new X-fusion shock and it was the perfect test! Lots of sustained climbing where the stiff platform proved very beneficial and suited the bike and my riding style very well! This race i teamed up with my friend, Mr. Kenny Burt, we split shifts and did 4 hours each basically doing hot laps with a 1 on 1 off format which seemed to work well for us. Kenny chose to go first so that he didn't have to be the last one on course and would be able to get into the beer sooner! Just as i expected he came in with wheel to wheel with other local fast guy Cody "the kid" Kaiser off the first lap. I went off with a short warm up and felt great! Rolling with steam, laying out a real fast lap, which actually held as the fastest lap of the whole event by over 2 minutes! With my team mate not expecting that he was no where to be found as i came in! a few minutes go by and i spot him up on the road warming up! He got back into the race with some real speed! Long story short we were both feeling great and laying out consistent times on the course, eventually taking the victory over 32 minutes ahead of 2nd place with me taking the 1st and 2nd fastest laps of the entire event! Very Exciting and a great way to start the season...

-Ashland Oregon, May 15-16-

 Continuing with my season of firsts... This was my first trip to Ashland, and boy was i in for a treat!! I'll just get out and say that this weekend did not go well for me for racing, but proved very beneficial, tons of fun! and all in all was just a great learning experience and i was most delighted to have been able to go!

This weekend started with an XC race on Saturday. I did not have a chance to preride this track and only knew that it started with a very long climb! Yikes... Also not having a chance to ride at all the day before, spending it all in the car was just not good for me! The race starts early and straight into a near 8 mile steady fire road climb, turning to singletrack and getting really steep for the last 10 or so minutes. After cresting the climb and dumping back out to a fireroad I was then realizing that i had a long fire road section in front of me... the "Traverse" a 12 mile long rolling road section where I could see that teamwork would be crucial. Unfortunately i was a solo rider working for myself the whole time! My legs just were not with me on Saturday and i came in with the back half of the pro field. Congratulations to WTB's Jason Moeschler who hit a podium spot with a 3rd place finish!
 

Sunday DH: Taking my first runs ever on the DH course Sunday morning before the race i was able to get 3 runs in, having to avoid the shuttle wait to get those runs in i was forced to pedal the 25 minutes back to the top! A good warm up for the race normally, but after the XC the day before it really hurt! Barely getting familiar with the course, which was super fast and very flowy with a real tricky switchback section basically making up the second half of the course I hit my race run. It felt clean, although a bit cautious...it was for sure my fastest run of the day, feeling a bit satisfied with that i was crushed to hear after i finished that there was a timing malfunction and we had to go again! Only affecting the first 6 riders we went back up and tried to repeat. I was pretty exhausted at that point and really did not feel good about my second race run landing me about mid pack in the pro field.

 In the end, it was a great race, amazing trails, and a great learning experience. Can't wait to return to Ashland next month for the 12 mile Super D!

J-Rad

Check out AT's Custom 2010 Marin Hardtail featuring the 2010 X-Fusion Vengeance HLR fork.

The Video can be view HERE!!!

More on ANDREW TAYLOR

ODI X-Fusion team rider, JD Swanguen put together this high energy edit of their time at the Sea Otter Classic. ODI X-Fusion brings a unique vibe to the races which we are sure you will see as you follow their travels throughout the year. Visit FORMASONE.COM for the most recent team updates.

ODI X-Fusion Sea Otter Video

The downhill season on the east coast started a couple weeks ago as the lift-accessed trails have been opening up. Like every spring, I've been growing very anxious to get out there and rip the trails with my buddies. I've been working all spring at Diablo Freeride Park building new trails and revamping the classics. So I was extra psyched to ride the stuff I worked so hard to build. I couldn't be happier with my custom painted Jamis DH bike this year (thanks LD Designs). I have the 2011 Vector HLR rear shock set up on my bike and it's been awesome so far. My Jamis Parker is also set up really good this year with the Vengeance fork and the new O2 air shock. I've been shredding this bike all spring on trail rides, shuttle runs, and some jumping.

Last weekend was the first race of the Diablo series. The race almost didn't happen as extremely high wind gusts shut down the lifts for half the weekend. The racing was fun when it finally started up. The Giant Slalom is like a mini-DH race, with a best of two run format. I raced my Parker for this and it couldn't have gone any better for me. My two runs down the course were the two fastest times of the day, securing the win. I was pumped to win my first race of the year. The next day was the downhill race. The track was fast and flowy winding down the hill on some of Diablo's classic trails like Asylum and Waterboy. The DH was fun but it didn't work out as well for me this day. My legs were fatigued from the slalom and from hiking to the top of the mountain while the lift was out. Although I had a good run, it was a bit slow as my body didn't want to stand up or pedal. I ended up in 7th. I wasn't too bummed about that though, as there are plenty of races to go this summer.

Next up, I will be heading to Plattekill for the Pro GRT race that is coming to town, and right after that is my favorite race of the year, the US Open at Diablo. After the Open, I start to hit up some freeride events and some roadtrips. Also, keep an eye out for more web videos to start popping up as the summer progresses. Keep up to date with my travels, event updates, and videos at my website www.gearsnroses.com or follow me on Twitter - @gearsnroses


Ride hard, die free,

-GR

Check out Clint's Dominion Riverrock edit here!!!!

Here are the top finishers, but for full results, visit www.dominionriverrock.com.

X-Fusion Kills the Competition

Native Eyewear Freestyle Bikes
Slopestyle
#1 Adam Hauck (X-Fusion)
#2 Rocco Quintiliani
#3 Aaron Chase (X-Fusion)

Best Trick
#1 Clint McMahon (X-Fusion)
#2 Adam Hauck (X-Fusion)
#3 Rocco Quintiliani

A video of Clint and a few of his friends on their Mothers day shred session.

Check out the Video Here!!!

More on Clint Here

Hello from Colorado,

After leaving Moab, we made our way to the Golden Bike Shop Demo Day in Golden, CO. Sunday was  a beautiful day and the demo had a turn out of around 400 people. We heard about the demo from Stikman at Intense Cycles just before leaving for Moab and decided it would be a great opportunity to talk with riders who are interested in upgrading or setting up something new. We were able to set up our easy ups and display our bikes. Through out the day many riders stopped by and were able to chat with the team about bike set up and the products we run. We met a lot of cool people and everyone was interested in demoing our bikes, but we decided it was best to limit to a few laps around the pits with our team bikes.
Brad and I got out on a fun ride with three guys from the demo. The trails around the demo were steep, fast and littered with slick wooden water bars. We had a fun time descending with the guys, but then we found out that they had  parked at the bottom. They pointed us toward the fire road back to the top and we parted ways. The fire road turned out to be one of the nastiest climbs I have done in a long time! It was steep, loose, and relentless. We were laughing at what we had gotten ourselves into, but all and all we had a great ride and met some other nice people out on the trails.
Going to the demo was a good time. It was fun to bro down for a day with the riders and the guys from GBS. The trails were awesome the conditions couldn't have been better. Excited we had the opportunity to make it to the event.
We stayed with some friends last night in Boulder. We are all going to go check out some dirt jumps before starting our move to New York for the next round of the Pro GRT. Hopefully get some good video and pictures from this morning before we begin our drive.
 
Ryan Condrashoff
ODI/X Fusion/ Intense

Hello from Moab,

We are on our way out to the east coast for the second round of the Pro GRT and the US OPEN. We stopped off to get some riding in on the legendary trails of Moab, UT. So far we have ridden Kokopelli linked down to Porcupine Rim, we couldn't do the "Whole Enchilada" because the snow level is still to low, it was an awesome ride and we got some cool group photos. Yesterday we rode the Slick Rock main loop. Even on a thursday the trail was packed. We had a great time riding together and got a ton of POV cam footage with our new Epic HD cameras. We came across many different groups of riders and everyone was very friendly and interested in our bikes. We even talked with a few people that we had seen out on Porcupine Rimmer the day before. Camping as been a lot of fun too. The weather has been a little on the cool side since we are still in early season, but everybody is surviving. Probably the coolest thing about camping in the Slick Rock campground is that most of the other campers are also riders. Everyone has been very friendly and stopped by to see what the logos on the van are all about. People seem excited when we tell them what we are up to and Kevair, our trusty mechanic, even sold a set of grips before 8 am this morning.
Moab is an awesome spot and well surpasses it's outstanding reputation. I hope to make this an annual trip for years to come. Thanks to everyone for making this possible!
 
The team was featured in a video that was compiled durning a photo shoot in San Diego, CA. Check it out!

 http://www.formasone.com/?p=231

Then share it with your friends!
 
Ryan Condrashoff
ODI/X Fusion/ Intense

Last weekend was the first ever Upsidedown and Underground at Jamie Goldmanʼs house in Bend, OR. So Greg Watts, Tyler McCaul and myself drove up from Santa Cruz for the contest. Our buddy Jaymo hooked us up a sweet condo with some amazing views at Mt. Bachelor Village Resort for the weekend so it was easy living. Unfortunately the first couple days were super windy out at Jamieʼs so we didnʼt get much practice on the contest jumps but we did get to check out some other cool riding spots near town and that gave me some downtime to film a “how to bar spin” video for real.com/bike. We started the how to at the skate park and then went to some fun jumps near the slalom course on the edge of town. Since the first few days were windy Jamie decided to hold the contest off until Sunday and luckily when it was time for the comp the wind was gone and the jumps were ready to shred. The contest was really laid back so we started practice in the morning and rode until everyone decided they had enough practice and it was time to get it done. The format was three runs best of the three counts for your final score. I was stoked my first run went how I wanted and put me in the top five so for the second I wanted to up my run. I upped the score on my second run and still kept me in the top 5. I knew for my final run I had to step it up so I went for a trick off the first drop and ended up losing my speed to trick the next jump so that meant I would use my second run score. After everyone had finished their runs the judges tallied the scores the final result for the top seven guys were

1st Jamie Goldman
2nd Eric Lawrenuk
3rd Paul Basagotia
4th Grahm Aggasizz
5th Me (Andrew Taylor, X-Fusion Athlete)
6th Greg Watts
7th Tyler McCaul (X-Fusion Athlete)

To end the trip we met up with the Marin guys on the way home at Bobʼs Cycle Center in Fair Oaks, CA to welcome them as a new dealer for Marin and show off all the sweet rides from Marin. It was cool because the shop was huge and all the guys that worked there seemed stoked to have Marin in their shop.

Overall it was a good weekend in Bend and an awesome contest thanks to Jamie and everyone else that helped out. Now Iʼm home filming for “Barred for Life 2” then Iʼm off to the France for the Fise contest in Montpellier. Should be another awesome trip!

-AT

Last weekend I took a road trip up to Bend, Oregon with my buddies Greg Watts and Andrew Taylor for the first annual "UpsideDown and UnderGround" dirt jump contest.  It was put on by Jamie Goldman and was actually held in his backyard.  The course was pretty rad, it started out with some big features and then gradually got smaller and more tech towards the end.  There was also a race on one of the more flowy lines there.  It weaved all around the property with berms, jumps, hips and wallrides.  Brandon Semenuk ended up taking the win, followed by Greg Watts, Cameron Zink, Jordie Lunn, and myself coming in 5th place.  It was a pretty unique course and I was stoked to be up there in the top 5.  The dirt jump comp was the next day and I ended up getting 7th place in that and winning the Vital MTB Best Trick award for landing a double tailwhip on the biggest jump in the line.  Unfortunately I got blown around by the wind on the jump after that so I wasn't able to make it through the set and I had to stick with my first run score which was just kind of a safety run.  If I had stomped the whole run that I had planned out I definitely would've ranked a little bit higher in the end.  All in all though it was a good trip and I'm glad that I went.  I got to support a comp that was put on by one of my good friends and I even walked away with some pretty good results too!  Look for a story on the contest coming up in future issues of Decline and Dirt magazines.  I've also pasted a link below to a video that I made from the event.  It's nothing special as I just set the camera up on a tripod the whole time and then cut out all the boring stuff but it will still give you a good feel for what the contest was like.

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/136457/

Now I'll just be riding and training at home for the next few weeks and getting ready for the US Open in New Jersey at the end of this month where I'll be racing Downhill and Giant Slalom.  Definitely looking forward to that and I'm planning on putting lots of hours in on the DH bike before then.  Other than that, the water in my pool has finally heated up with all of the nice weather that we've been having here in Santa Cruz so I've been able to hit my pool jump which I've been waiting a long time for.  I'm super focused on learning new tricks for the FMB World Tour contest schedule this year so I'll be putting a lot of effort into that the next few months.  I'll keep ya guys updated on how all of that goes for me...

-Tyler

Escape From Granogue, May 2, 2010

Mid-Atlantic Super Series, Montchanin, DE

With temps hitting the 90 degree mark and humidity even higher, Granogue was the first scorcher of the season.  It had me thankful for all of my early season traveling to Florida and California and would hopefully give me an edge over the other 25 Pros lined up at the start.  Looking around, there was no one that I knew I couldn’t beat, but there were a large handful of riders that would undoubtedly make me earn the win for the day.  I decided to line up near the back row to give me some practice at working through traffic for the fast approaching ProXCT events and soon found myself sitting in third place after the first section of singletrack. 

         Since every race needs some sort of drama mixed in to keep it fresh and make sure I never get too relaxed, my handlebars came loose somewhere during the first lap just after I had worked a descent gap on the field.  Great… I pulled over, tightened the appropriate bolts, loosing about two minutes and 5 or 6 spots in the process. 

         By the end of the first lap I had made up for the snafu, was back in front, and being about all the excitement I could take for one race, cruised through two more less dramatic go arounds of the 8 mile course for the win, two minutes up on second place Wes Schemf.  Still undefeated in Mid– Atlantic Super Series events for 2010!

Greenbrier Challenge AMBC, April 25, 2010

Frederick, MD

Frederick, MD was the site of a minor meteorological miracle.  Leaving home in the morning with a slight drizzle, the clouds parted farther as we got closer to the venue.  By the time the race started temperatures were getting close to the 80’s and the sun was shining strong.  Perfect conditions! It didn’t last long though, as the skies opened back up on the way home and poured the rest of the night.

         Greenbrier is always a hard book to judge by its cover.  With its high USAC status, it usually draws riders from a little bit farther.  A few guys from the south and a couple Canadians always keep the race interesting.  Today’s toughest competitor was Pro road and MTB rider Nick Waite. 

         From the gun Nick set the pace with only myself and yet another Virginian, Matt Bailey could match.  Fighting stale legs, I pushed as hard as I could to keep in sight of the leader, keeping the gap to only a minute while dropping Bailey at the same time.  Each lap I brought back considerable time on the rock gardens and descents, but couldn’t maintain it on the climbs.  Not a bad day considering the way I felt.  I am looking forward to the coming weeks, getting some rest, and rippin’ it up!

Follow me on my blog–

www.a-ron-a-ron.blogspot.com

by Jordan Holmes (Pinkbike)

Source: Aaron Chase

You know the friend that always has the coolest toys, well for me that “friend” is the boys at Red Bull. They offered to let me run wild with the International MXT military/party machine and I jumped at the chance. I mean seriously, this thing has it all; full DJ set up, sick speaker stacks blaring some Maiden, flat screens, hydraulics and coolers full of perfectly chilled Red Bull. Um, yeah, it was going to be a good day.

You know, there’s always a catch, right? Red Bull was looking to capture some cool video shots of the MXT in action and challenged me to “think outside the box”. That’s where the infamous “Mr. Stang” comes in. This dude flies remote control planes for a living, that’s almost as crazy as riding a bike for a living. “Mr. Stang” custom built me a plane, “Chase Plane” that would accommodate my Go Pro HD cameras and he was willing to fly that thing into the ground to get the shot. Check out ChaseLife 15 and see the madness for yourself and don’t worry a new plane is already in the works. Check it.

Full Story and VIDEO!!!!

Team Building Golf Video HERE!!!

To follow other ODI X-Fusion adventures check the constant updates on the team's website.

Formasone.com

 In the land of online personas and keyboard hotheads Griz receives nothing but positive remarks on a photo that was shot during a shoot for Dark Timbers, our team’s outdoor gear sponsor. This photo was taken in the hills just behind the house that Griz grew up in. He has been building out there for over a decade and his creations have shown up in many photos in print media and multiple video segments. Griz is a trail boss, it says something about a rider when they build the trails they ride by hand.

Check it out at- http://www.formasone.com/?p=204

Thanks,
 
Ryan Condrashoff