Voodoo/WTB racer Tim Allen shares his experience of the U23 World Championships in Italy, where he was the top placing American. Tim was rocking WTB Raijin tires, a WTB Silverado saddle and WTB LaserDisc Lite hubs. Tim has been battling with Italy’s top pros for several weeks (including Giro d’Italia winner Gilberto Simoni) and returns stateside for the U.S. National Championships in Mount Snow, Vermont. Good job over there Tim and Happy Fourth of July.

You can read Tim’s report here.

Adam Craig–America’s great hope for a medal in the Olympic XC race–shares his experience at this year’s world championships in Val di Sol, Italy. The WTB-sponsored rider had a lackluster result, but he teaches us a valuable lesson about making lemonade when life hands you lemons (and the value of challenging an Italian guy on trials motorbike). Read Craig’s report here.

The Novato Advance newspaper recently wrote a three-part story about WTB employee and pro rider Mark Weir. His dedication and passion for cycling are making a real difference in the community of Novato, California. Click here to read the newspaper stories.

Greg Minnaar, WTB-sponsored rider and 2005 downhill world champion, shares his tips for downhill speed in this BikeSkills video. Minnaar, and his Santa Cruz Syndicate teammates, recently dominated downhill world cup number five in Fort William, Scotland. Syndicate riders took up three of the five spots on the podium with Minnaar on top, Steve Peat in third and Nathan Rennie in fourth. Minnaar’s saddle of choice is the WTB Deva SLT in white.

WTB team riders have been on a roll. Brad Benedict returned from his first European world cup at Maribor, Slovenia and, five days later, took the biggest victory of his career at the NMBS downhill race at Santa Ynez, California. The following weekend saw Benedict on the podium at the Chile Challenge in Angel Fire, New Mexico. This weekend he’s representing WTB and the United States at world cup #2 in Andorra.

Mark Weir is on form as well. He’s been putting in major miles and dominating virtually every race that he enters. Weir overcame a nasty bout with the flu to take third place at the Spring Thaw in Ashland, Oregon. He was bedridden for 36 hours and shed 12 pounds in three days. But he came out for the downhill, racing with toilet paper in his jersey pocket (fortunately, he didn’t need it). The race was won by Ashland local, Jared Hobbs. WTB team rider Curtis Beavers finished less than one second off of Hobbs and Weir was another 1.5 seconds off of Beavers. Since the flu, Weir has been on fire, winning a string of local races in preparation for the Downieville Classic and the French Enduro series.

We just received this photo from Claudio Caluori, manager of the Tomac Factory Team. The team is in Maribor, Slovenia for the first downhill world cup of the season. The Tomac team is one of many that will be rocking WTB components in the world’s most challenging conditions.
 
 

Words of Adam Craig

Basically any time a week of racing bikes somewhere kicks ass, I’m going to do a Ten Reasons piece. There’s just so much to tell on these perfect weeks that there would be pages and pages for you, the unfortunate reader, to wade through. We’ll just condense things a bit here…

You can read the complete ten reasons here.

In case you’re wondering, Adam’s saddle of choice is WTB’s Shadow V SLT.

What do the top five gravity point leaders have in common? They all ride WTB Wheels, Saddles and Tires and are looking strong as the season has officially kicked off. Check out the excerpt from the latest e-newsletter from USA Cycling below.

WTB enjoyed a successful weekend in California’s Inland Empire at the official NMBS season kickoff in sunny Fontana. Starting two weeks before the Sea Otter Classic, this early-season national created an interesting vibe as dozens of international, world cup-level athletes showed up and new bikes were still being built. WTB racers Ryan Condrashoff, Brad Benedict and Amado Stachenfeld had been racing the Southridge Winter Series in Fontana prior to the event and were ready for a little extra competition.

Saturday’s mountain cross went well for Stachenfeld who took 5th in his first Semi-Pro race. Condrashoff, who had been racing a similar track throughout the winter, made it to the second round of 16 where he was in a stacked heat with the legendary Eric Carter.

Sunday was action packed. With rain coming down as we left the hotel, it was more reminiscent of a pro finals at any other national, but the track was unaltered, still dry and duffy. With a technical issue in his qualifying run, Benedict qualified in dead last, making him the first rider down the track in finals. He put up a blistering time of 2:27.85 and was in the hot seat for several minutes. Benedict’s teammate, Condrashoff, came in with 2:27.24 just in front of Benedict and putting them in 11th and 12th. Condrashoff says, “I’m stoked! Being just behind the guys that race the World Cups is great, not to mention me and Brad were the 3rd and 4th Americans. I couldn’t be more excited”

Condrashoff and Benedict both utilized WTB’s light and durable LaserDisc FR wheelset, Devo SLT saddles and a combination of Prowler MX Team DH and Prowler XT Race tires. Running the single-ply Prowler XT tire was an unorthodox, bold choice on the rocky course. But the weight savings allowed the two riders to speed along the relatively flat second half of the course known as the “wall”.

Not to be left out, WTB’s marketing manager Dain Zaffke took the win in the expert/open class in the Super D in convincing style. Check out the linked video above and pinnedmtb.com for the day-by-day break down of the weekend.

         
 
   
 
Photos: JDD/pinnedmtb.com unless otherwise noted.
 

photos: Ron Sawicki

WTB sponsored rider Monique “Pua” Sawicki just took 7th at the first World Cup Marathon of the season in Manavgat, Turkey. With a time of 3:45.37, she was just over 17 minutes behind the leader Pia Sundstedt of Finland. Sawicki has been a dominant force in domestic mountain bike racing, but this was her first time racing on the other side of the pond. Sawicki rides WTB Devo saddles and, depending on conditions, WTB Nano Raptor, Vulpine, Prowler MX or Raijin tires.