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MTB News & racing round-up for December 2, 2005

Edited by Steve Medcroft

Welcome to our regular round-up of what's happening in the dirt. Feel free to send feedback, news and gossip to mtb@cyclingnews.com

Trek/VW's 2006 roster

Trek VW's all go for 2006
Photo ©: Trek

Celebrating a decade of racing partnership that produced not only the most enduring team association, but also the most successful, in off-road racing history, the Trek Volkswagen team is proud to announce its 2006 team lineup.

Building on our celebrated tradition of fostering new talent and American champions, we are happy to welcome recently crowned NORBA U-23 national champ Lea Davison to the squad. The 22 year old rider recently graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont and she is looking forward to her first season as a full-time professional racer.

Lea Davison
Photo ©: Trek

“I am absolutely ecstatic about joining the Trek VW squad for the 2006 season,” said Lea. “The Trek VW team offers the best support on the circuit and does everything possible to help a rider perform at the best of their ability. The team is extremely talented and experienced. Under the tutelage of Sue Haywood, one of the best female mountain bikers in the country, I'm looking forward to learning a thing or two from her about how to race a bike! With great equipment and excellent support staff, it's going to be a fun season. It's good to be in red.”

Lea will be joining the Trek VW Factory Pro team alongside a trio of returning riders from 2005 – each who got their start on the Trek VW Regional team. Six time 24 hour solo world champion Chris Eatough, two-time NORBA national champion Sue Haywood and Pan-American champion Jeremiah Bishop are all very experienced riders that will keep their wealth of knowledge in the Trek stable.

An experienced Trek trio.
Photo ©: Trek

“We've been watching Lea all season long,” said team director Zapata Espinoza, “and besides her obvious talent as a bike racer, we've also been very impressed with her sense of enthusiasm and spirit for racing. Originally, we envisioned Lea as a member of our Trek VW regional team, but as the season progressed she displayed the talent and maturity we expect from our factory team riders. Another good indicator that Lea was ready to make the jump to the factory team was that she has spent her formative years under the guidance of long-time junior development coach John Kemp and he's one of the best coaches in the sport.”

Look for more news coming from the Trek VW team about additional sponsors and our 2006 event and equipment roster soon.

CN diarist Chris Davidson joins Ford Cycling team

By Steve Medcroft

The new structure of the Ford Cycling women's mountain-bike team means a new opportunity for former Shimano support mechanic and Cyclingews diarist Chris Davidson. “I was with the Shimano neutral service team for eight years,” Davidson said Wednesday night from his Utah home. In that role, Davidson traveled to road and mountain bike races to provide free technical help to any Shimano-equipped athlete.

“The last four or five years, I was doing mountain-bike stuff all the time,” Davidson said. When he resigned from Shimano just before the 2005 NORBA race in Brianhead, Utah, Davidson sent a private email to friends within the industry. In reply, he got a number of job offers. Including one from the Ford Cycling team. “For a while (2002-2004), the Ford team raced on Shimano parts and since they didn't have a mechanic with them at races, we acted as their team support.” When they learned he was available, Davidson says the team members went to David Myers (Ford Cycling's Director) and asked if he could join the team.

The switch means Davidson is able to focus fully on the needs of a handful of racers instead of running a bike-shop in a tent at a major race. The new role also means Davidson has some input on the shape of the team for 2006. “I've been on board with Ford since before the NORBA season was done. I went to Interbike as a representative of the team to meet some of the new sponsors.

One of those sponsors was Scott USA, the team's 2006 bike supplier (replacing Specialized). “We're excited about working with Scott. This will be their first foray with a full mountain bike team (they sponsor solo riders like Walker Ferguson and Thomas Frischknecht, as well as road teams) and they want to be really involved with the public presentation of the team and grow their mountain-bike side.”

“We started talking seriously about the season and the team four months ago,” Davidson said. “We've had a couple of changes but with four riders this year, we're one racer stronger than last year.” With the loss of 2005 team member Jay Henry, the Ford Cycling mountain-bike team is now all female; a deliberate move says Davidson. “The genesis of the team really comes from the origins of the original program; which was formed as an all women's grassroots team. This is one of the reasons we feel so good about adding a development rider (Melanie Myers, who finished 2005 as the top woman in the NORBA Expert class). We're also taking on one of Ford's charitable missions; the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure (www.fordcares.com). All of which swings the focus to women's cycling.”

So what are the team goals for 2006? According to Davidson, “the World Cup schedule for the month of May, with three races in twenty-five days, is attractive. For that, Kelli (Emmett) will be going overseas. The rest of the team will be focused on the two North American World Cups, NORBA's and regional racing. You'll also see the team at road races.” Team camp is yet to be scheduled but, Davidson says, “the first event for us will be Sea Otter with possibly Redlands before that.”

Davidson joins team Director David Myers and will act as one of two team mechanics (the other being Chris Magerl) for Ford Cycling in 2006. He writes diaries for Cyclingnews about life as a pro mechanic. The complete Ford Cycling team roster is comprised of Kelli Emmett, Sara Bresnick-Zocchi, Kathy Sherwin and Melanie Meyers.

Hans Rey to lead charity bike tour to Kenya

Former cycling world champion Hans Rey will lead a select group to Kenya in support of fundraising for conservation. The group will be attending the Bill Woodley Mt. Kenya Trust '10 to 4' mountain bike challenge down Mt. Kenya in February. The challenge will cover 56 kilometers through some of the most spectacular scenery in Africa. Beginning at the 10,000' level (the mountain is over 17,000' high), the participants will descend 6,000' to end in the bushland, home of the Masai people.

In addition to the race, the tour participants will visit the famous Mt. Kenya Safari Club, track elephants in Samburu, dine with world-famous conservationists, stay in luxury tented camps and lodges, and enjoy some of the best mountain biking on the continent. The race is being organized by Friends of Africa International, based in Colorado, and affiliated with The Bill Woodley Mt. Kenya Trust, Save the Elephants and the African Conservation Foundation. Travel arrangements are being made by Abercrombie & Kent travel, safari specialists. Interested parties should contact Friends of Africa International at www.FriendsofAfricaInternational.org or www.hansrey.com for additional information.

Gigantic wedding celebration: the Gunn-Rita Dahle diary

We've won many a gold medal on our bikes during the last seasons, but the greatest event was celebrated with a big wedding feast in Stavanger on the 15th of October. With lots of help from our families, led by Kenneth's older sister, Hege, we had an unforgettable wedding ceremony and feast. Three days of enjoyable wedding celebrations were rounded up with three fantastic weeks in Mexico.

As I write, we're sitting here at Lanzarote (Club La Santa). We've been here since Thursday for a photoshoot for PowerBar, who sponsors both me personally and my team (Multivan Merida Biking Team). We had a week at home in Stavanger after Mexico, days which were used for getting into a more normal routine, catching up on work, and struggling to overcome the jet-lag. The greatest contrast we experienced when we came home was bitter winds and bucket-loads of rain after three weeks of blue skies and temperatures above 30 degrees centigrade!

An unforgettable day

I can't quite manage to convey to you how fantastic our wedding was in writing, but I'll try to give you a small impression of what the day was like. We said our "yesses" to each other, loud and clear, in the Stavanger cathedral, one of Norway's most impressive medieval churches from the 1100's, during a very personal ceremony.

Straight after the wedding ceremony we had a short bike ride...on a three-wheeler which Kenneth had to pedal and I got to sit on like a lovely princess. The reception was held at the Radisson SAS Atlantic Hotel in the centre of Stavanger. There was never any doubt that our wedding was going to be a success. Everything was so well prepared and planned down to the smallest detail in an impressive setting.

Read the entire Gunn-Rita Dahle diary here.

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