The 3rd annual women only freeride competition went off the other weekend at Glentress Freeride Park.
I think it sounds like a great event to get more girls involved in the sport. Niamh Allum sent us this report:
Pictures: Simon Allum and Gordon Sheill
Words: Niamh Allum
Whilst Brendan and Gee were battling it out at Llangollen, another gravity event was underway – Air Maiden 3, the women only freeride competition at Glentress Freeride Park. This year there were 40 women (including guest appearances from Superwoman and Po from the Tellytubbies). From early on Saturday morning it was clear that the bar had been raised from last year  … Details & Pictures
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This year’s Tour de France will cover 3,600 kilometres [2,236 miles], including some of the most fearsome climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees. It’s one of the toughest Tours in years, and yet perhaps the moment the peloton has been fearing most will arrive at about 4.30pm today, in between one bleak post-industrial town in southern Belgium and another in northern France. This is when the Tour hits the cobbles. Lance Armstrong predicted last week that there would be carnage and he wasn’t exaggerating. Â
Riding on cobbles might not sound as difficult as all that, but these are far from the perfectly ordered rows of neatly carved elongated ovals you might find in any city centre seeking to give itself an olde-worlde air. Rather they will  … Details
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… I first competed in this event 2 years ago at Les Deux Alpes as Team Wales with Ralph ‘Wrecking Ball’ Jones and Michael ‘Zeb’ Gray. It was a tough weekend with crashes, punctures and we all found it incredibly physical. It was an amazing format with so much quality riding packed into the weekend but we all said we would not do it again unless we were properly prepared both physically and with our bike set up and spares.
So I’m kind of kicking myself that just the other week when asked if I wanted to go over and race the 2010 Enduro des Nations with Duncan Ferris (DMR) and Martin Astley (Sunn) I said yes and we sped head first into the abyss with zilch preparation once again. By the end of the weekend we had worked up a pretty solid list of excuses, wrong tyres, too many clothes, not enough clothes, no gears, everyone else was cheating, too many pain au chocolates and of course that one that you can never hide behind; not fit enough … Details & Pictures
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