Monday, 28 November 2005
Singletrack Reader award for the Patriot 66
At the prestigious Singletrack Reader awards ceremony at the Hub, Glentress this weekend Orange were awarded the "Best New Bike of 2005" for the Patriot 66. Voted for by Singletrack Readers on the criteria of "best riding, best value, best looking bike you could own. Well we'll drink to that, and Orange's man on the spot, Michael Bonney allegedly did his fair share of that.
On accepting the award, Michael said "Thank you to the readers of Singletrack who managed to cut through the marketing speak of axle paths, acronyms and pivot points to understand that good bikes are about frame construction, geometry and function". Sounds about right.
Steve Peat was rightly awarded Mountain Bike Personality of the year, and the event where he stormed his 224 to an awsome first place, the Fort William World Cup Final netted the award for Best UK event. All in all, justice was done and a very good time was had by all. Thanks to Singletrack and the numerous sponsors for putting on such a great do.
See the rest of the Singletrack Reader award winners here here
Sunday, 2 October 2005
Fort William DH Highlights on Freecaster
Will from Freecaster has let us know that highlights of Round 8 of the UCI MTB World Cup in Fort William are now online. From a Steve Peat/Team Orange perspective it's probably well worth watching
Go to www.freecaster.com and click on the sports news feature to check it out.
If you've already got the require Apple Quicktime plug-in and a big fat broadband connection, then you can also click these direct links: Fort William DH Action | Fort William 4X Action
Sunday, 11 September 2005
Peaty finally wins a Fort William Round of the UCI World Cup
Steve Peat has finally buried the demon that haunted him at Fort William. A huge crowd was privileged to see one of the best rounds ever of a UCI World Cup Downhill, with the excitement lasting to the final seconds...
See our world cup report for more details here
Thursday, 1 September 2005
Livigno Worlds - Thursday update
We've just been in touch with top race photographer Malcolm Fearon of Bliss images who is in Livigno at the the 2005 UCI MTB World Championships.
He told us that in timed practice Steve Peat was 2nd in the Elite men, 3.21 seconds behind Sam Hill. Steve's time 4:01.70. Brendan Fairclough is first junior (his time would have been 9th in the pro men) time: 4:05:99
If all goes well we will have up to the minute reports from Livigno the Livigno event on Saturday. Keep an eye on the site.
Thursday, 1 September 2005
Livigno Worlds - Thursday update
We've just been in touch with top race photographer Malcolm Fearon of Bliss images who is in Livigno at the the 2005 UCI MTB World Championships.
He told us that in timed practice Steve Peat was 2nd in the Elite men, 3.21 seconds behind Sam Hill. Steve's time 4:01.70. Brendan Fairclough is first junior (his time would have been 9th in the pro men) time: 4:05:99
If all goes well we will have up to the minute reports from Livigno the Livigno event on Saturday. Keep an eye on the site.
Wednesday, 24 August 2005
X-adventure The Raid World Cup Andorra, Grandvalira on Eurosport!
To see how the Saab Salomon team get on, and to catch all the action
from the Andorra, Grandvalira stage of The
X-adventure "The Raid World Cup 2005" tune into EUROSPORT INTERNATIONAL
at the following dates and times:
Wednesday,
24 August 2005 at 22:45
Friday, 26 August 2005 at 08:30
And Tuesday, 30 August at 09:00
Monday, 20 August 2005
Peaty 9th in comeback World Cup, Brendan Fairclough storms to 3rd
Up on the split, a determined Steve Peat crashed out in the final at Pila, placing in ninth. As a consolation his Royal Racing protege had a fantastic race and placed 3rd in the same race. Watch this Fairclough boy go!
See our UCI World Cup Pila page for Vicor Lucas images, and the organisers official press release, in full translation package English.
Saturday, 20 August 2005
Peaty lies in 2nd place after timed Practice at Pila World Cup Round
Steve Peat made a good come-back to the UCI World Cup. Showing everyone he's back on form, with second spot for the semi-final. Only Greg Minnaar (World Cup champion for 2005 lies ahead. The final is tomorrow.
See our UCI World Cup Pila page for the organisers official press release, in full translation package English.
Monday, 8 August 2005
New Cycle Surgery Store in Holborn
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Orange Bikes are strongly feature at the new Cycle Surgery store recently opened in Holborn, London. The futuristic lookingbike shop has a large range of Orange bikes from down and dirty street steel, to the full bounce Dh Rigs. Check out the store to get the low down on the latest bikes. Hey you might even get to check out the new 224 first hand... but, hey... we can't mention that here...
Monday, 25 July 2005
News from the Euro Championships
Peaty nabs third, Fairclough wins Juniors.
News just in via the magic of the text message... Steve Peat let us know that he didn't have a great run... he only came third. (To anyone else, I guess that would be a great run - ho hum). Ahead of him were new European championship winner, Fabien Barel and ex-Royal Orange team-mate Marc Beaumont who is having a great run of form at the moment.
Great news though is that rising star Brendan Fairclough won the juniors by 7 seconds aboard his Orange 223, in a time that would have put him 5th in the Elite class. Watch out for this man - he's going places - fast.
Monday, 11 July 2005
Josh Bryceland storms the Highlands
Royal Racing's Josh Bryceland had another great result on his Orange 223 at the Scottish Champs up at Fort William.
A few weeks ago, at the third round of the nationals Josh got fourth when he had a problem when he caught up with the rider before him, who then fell off collectinig Josh in the process, who went over the bars... otherwise as they say he was "aving it!"
After that, Josh clearly felt he wanted to put things straight.
Josh felt good on the 223 all weekend and as you probably know this is the World Cup track so it is really fast, tough and demanding. Ini the Scottish Champs It's a "two run" race format. In the first run Josh came down happy, having made only one mistake on the track (an acomplishment in itself). He placed 2nd within 1.5 seconds of the lead and 0.5 ahead of 3rd.
Josh said: "I knew I could make up some time but would have been pleased with the position I was in. In the second run I knew what i had too do. so I was nervous at the top".
In the mean time the third place man had come down and beat Josh's time and gone into second. Josh, last at the gate because he was seeded having won everything else with this series, of course didn't know this. He knew he still had to try and go faster.
Josh again: "I set off confident and pushed hard and had an oustanding run, I got to the bottom and was not really bothered what position i had got because I knew I could have not pushed myself a great deal harder. I looked up and heard I had gone into 1st place by 0.9 seconds and in the mean time my friend Ruaridh Cuningham had beat the other lad's time and regained second place. I howether beat third place man (the winner of the National here) by 4.7 seconds so I was really happy. Me and Dad were buzzing the whole 6 hour journey home."
Well done Josh, that's the way to go... Congratulations.
Monday, 11 July 2005
Peaty's back on track
From the man himself...
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to give you all a quick heads up to say i am back on my Downhill bike. I rode at Nannerch (North Wales) on Saturday and my shoulder felt quite good, it was sore for the first few runs and a little sore afterwards but once it had warmed up, I couldn't really feel it too bad. I plan to get back to racing this weekend at Bringewood (Shropshire) for the UK National Championships.
Then its full steam ahead again with the European championships the following week then out to Whistler for two weeks.I will be racing almost every weekend from now untill the end of September, so its back to busness.
Thanks for all the support.
Cheers.
Steve
Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Mojo's Paul Murrin rides his Five to 2nd in Mountain Mayhem
Chris Porter of Mojo Suspension emailed us to let us know that Their
rider Paul Murrin did very well in the solo race at Mountain Mayhem
He writes: "We've only had one pic so far, it's of Paul (on left - ed) on the podium with a bloke called Tinker who looks a bit like an old bird! Rides well though! I think Paul was on the same lap as Tink' but we haven't had any full confirmed results yet..."
Tinker being MTB iconic XC racer Tinker Juarez. If you haven't heard of him ask ya dad!
You may remember that Paul rode his Orange Sub3 to win the Sleepless in the Saddle Men's race a couple of years ago. Who would have thougt that we would see a 5.5 inch travel suspension bike being XC raced, but as Paul proves, bigger travel XC bikes are becoming the norm. Anyway Paul and Team Mojo, congratulations from Orange. Oh, and nice hat, Chipps!
Wednesday, 29 June 2005
USA success for the Saab Salomon team.
In Bend, Oregon, the Adventure Race team took a hard fought 3rd place in the 3rd round of the 2005 World Cup. This race was the most competitive yet this year with over 35 of the top US teams taking on the best from Europe. Saab Salomon were in 2nd place, behind French team Les Arcs/Quechua for the whole race, but were piped at the post by US World Champions Nike ACG Balance Bar, with only 10 seconds separating the teams at the finish.
"We are a bit disappointed not to have beaten the Americans" said Ben Bardsley, "I think there was just a bit too much mountain biking which suited their strengths more than ours".
Third place in the USA stage has catapulted Saab Salomon to 2nd place overall in the 2005 World Cup rankings.
Closer to home, the Saab Salomon running team have been racing too. Simon Booth was successful in winning round 4 of the British Mountain Running Championship, the Culter Fell Race.
Rob Jebb now leads the rankings in the World Sky Running Championship after taking 2nd place in round 2 last week in Valmalenco, Italy.
More info can be found on the team website www.teamsaabsalomon.com
Monday, 13 June 2005
Bren Fairclough finishes well in his second world cup
Newly recovered from his recent ankle injury, Brendan Fairclough continues to make steady progress back to full fitness with a sound 24th place in the Schladming world Cup Downhill Round. The race was won hy Sam Hill in a time of 4:03:58, 8 whole seconds ahead of second placed Chris Kovarik.
Steve Peat still has to watch with frustration while his shoulder injury heals.
Monday, 13 June 2005
Success for Saab Salomon at Rat Race
Britain's first urban adventure race series got underway at Bristol this weekend and proved a successful event both for introducing new people to the sport of adventure racing, and for Team Saab Salomon who came out on top The race started on Saturday evening with a three hour orienteering prologue around the streets of Bristol where Tom's local knowledge helped the Team to complete the full course in two and a half hours - thirteen minutes in front of the next team.
"The whole weekend went like a dream" said Helen "It was one of those races where nothing went wrong - no punctures, no missed controls - and the other two were both great."
The second day saw Team Saab Salomon leave first and keep their lead throughout the race. Because of the chasing start it wasn't always easy to tell who was lying in what position but the Team came in to the Race Village to the sound of popping champagne corks and television interviews. It was another ten minutes before somebody remembered that they were supposed to dib to stop the clock! In second place were Macpac followed by Sleepmonsters.
"It was a great weekend" said Helen "Great fun but testing. I'm sure it will have attracted a lot of new people to the sport." The series moves on to Edinburgh next month with the third race in Manchester in August.
But that's not it for TSS, next Saturday the team leaves for Bend, Oregon for the third round of the Raid World Cup where we will be hoping for a bit better luck than that we have had in rounds 1 and 2, we'll let you know how it goes.
Tim Lloyd
Manager, Team Saab Salomon.
Tuesday, 7 June 2005
Brendan Fairclough in the top 20 in his first World Cup DH
With Steve Peat sidelined with a shoulder injury, Brendan Fairclough steped up to the plate to deliver a top twenty result in his first ever world cup event. He placed in 19th, tipped by many to be a future top level winner, this is a good start. Congratulations Brendan.
Tuesday, 7 June 2005
Peaty's Downtown Lisbon Run on Freecaster
A quick note to say, that if you want to see Steve Peats winning run from the Red BUll Downtown in Lisbon this year. You can. Here: Freecaster. Groovy soundtrack too.
Tuesday, 7 June 2005
MBR Magazine rates the Orange Five 9/10 in Ultimate Trail Bike Test
The July 05 issue of MBR magazine makes essential reading for anyone serious about buying a trail bike this summer. We're pleased to say that MBR testers found the 2005 Orange Five one of the very best trail bikes out there... Not strictly news to us, but it's always nice to receive worthy praise for our hard work.
You can nip round to the Five page on the site and download a PDF file of the test... Better still whilst it's hot off the press the July Issue of MBR is on the Newsagents shelves right now.
Tuesday, 7 June 2005
Arctic Challenge for Team Saab Salomon
Team Saab Salomon has been racing in the Swedish Arctic last weekend, and was faced with some unexpected challenges.
Race organisers had planned for a race with around 30% of snow activities, but with the recent high snowfall in the area it was necessary to make last minute changes to the course resulting in around 80% of the race course being snow covered. This meant that Team Saab Salomon found it very difficult to compete at the same level as some of the French and Scandinavian teams who had many Olympic and National team ski racers amongst them.
Under the circumstances we were very pleased with our final ranking of 9th, particularly as we were in 19th place after a long skiing stage on day 1. 2 stage wins from the 9 stages was reassuring and bodes well for the remaining 2 races in the 2005 World Cup.
Next weekend will see the team competing in the first of the 2005 Rat Race series in Bristol.
Wednesday, 1 June 2005
Freecaster Showing World cup on-line!
We've just found out that Freecaster is now hosting video clips from Round 1 of the UCI MTB World Cup. Check it out, we're impressed! The obvious attraction is seeing our very own Steve Peat whup ass, but there's over 50 clips, trailers and Downhill runs to see on the service.
You can access Freecaster via some of the leading MTB web sites that host our access button (see attached example). You can also launch the clips from www.freecaster.com
Once Freecaster has opened, use the scrolling menu to access the top 3 Men's and Women's runs and 4X finals. Please note: your player settings should be set to "High" to get the best playback. Quicktime 6 required.
This is the first time the UCI have granted permission for the MTB World Cup to feature on the internet like this. Hopefully it will help the competition side of the sport to become more accessible to both the fans and a wider audience...
Monday, 23 May 2005
Steve Peat injured!
Fort William looks like it continues to be unlucky for Steve Peat. (A Gremlin I'm sure he'd like to see well and truly squashed). In the practice for the 4X, Steve crashed heavily and suffered a third degree separation of the shoulder. This injury is somewhat of a hiccup on his season, which was off to a truly flying start. Steve is seeing specialists as we speak, to bring about as speedy a recovery as possible. I'm sure you'll join us in wishing him well. We'll bring update as soon as we know anything more.
Monday, 23 May 2005
Team Transcend Orange sticking it to Canada!
Team Transcend Orange showed up ready to race at the first Canada Cup event of the season this weekend. IT was the first team event for the 2005 Incarnation of the team.
It rain intermittently on an all new, super gnarly course, all weekend long. By Sunday morning it had turned into a sloppy mess. By Sunday afternoon however, the rain had let up enough to turn most of the course into hero mud, allowing riders to lean the bikes at ridiculous angles and take huge chances.
Transcend Riders had no major mechanical difficulties or bike problems all weekend, owed much in part to the great gear our sponsors have provided for the year. We were also fortunate enough to have e.13 components neutral support on site, helping to sort out any bike setup and drive train issues (thanks Jonas.)
Full results were not ready at the time of our departure due to technical difficulties with the timing output system, however unofficial results had Giant Canada Rider and all round nice guy Luke Kitzanuk taking his very first national race win. Fionn Griffiths (Norco) won for the ladies.
Tuesday, 17 May 2005
Orange Web Store Live
Due to popular request we have sorted out our own web store. If you want Tee's posted direct to your door then head on over to the clothing page, you can order them directly from there.
Amazon.com look out!
Sunday, 8 May 2005
Steve Peat wins Red Bull Downtown, Lisbon 4 times in a row
News just in from Portugal. Peaty has triumphed for the fourth year in succession in the Lisbon Red Bull Downtown race with a time of 1.31.99. His smooth style and super fast pace meant Mik Hannah (1.33.81) and Greg Minnaar (1.33.92) had to settle for second and third ahead of the rest of the field.
It was a Brit podium in the girls race. Rachel Atherton, Helen Gaskel and Tracey Moseley in the 123.
There's a poetic account over at Singletrack world's web site.
Tuesday, 3 May 2005
Peaty in mistaken identity arrest saga
We just spoke with Peaty. He has only just phoned because he's been in prison since Sunday evening.
Apparently there was some of the crowd who got inebriated during the after race celebration party and ripped up some 'plants'. Four people were arrested including Steve who had already left the party before the incident had occurred. All four people had not been involved.
As you can imagine, after been 'banged up' from Sunday until an hour ago (midday Tuesday), he is a little upset. What aggravates him more than anything else though is the way the Spanish media, both mainstream TV and newspaper press, immediately jumped on the bandwagon making it headline news. This has meant that Steve, who was due to travel back to the UK today, has had to delay his departure for another press conference due to take place in the next hour, where Steve, plus the WC Event organisers, will 'put the record straight' and explain to the media his innocence.
Steve Peat's Statement:
"I haven't done anything, it was horrible being in the cells without anyone telling me what was happening. I haven't done anything. It was the other people in the street that caused the damage. I didn't see anything. Now I'm free. I apologise, and feel bad for the mountain bike organization because this is not the image we want to project of mountain biking."
Monday, 2 May 2005
Steve Peat smokes 'em at the Vigo World Cup Round 1
Hot news from Spain is the Steve Peat has done it again and won the opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill. Beating Greg Minnaar by 3 seconds!
Check out the Vigo page in our World Cup 2005 section for details.
Monday, 25 April 2005
Peaty Wins BC NPS Round 2 at Cwmcarn
In the second round of the BD NPS series, Steve Peat won out on a gnarly course, which suffered badly from untimely rain and a hammering from the riders.
1. Steve Peat - Orange/Royal
2. Gee Atherton - Giant
3. Dan Atherton - Giant
For the full low-down check out the report at Descent World
Oh and... if you want to know about the Josh Bryceland "suicide" at the Maxxis Cup round, tickle this
Monday, 18 April 2005
Peaty Second at 2005 Sea Otter Classic
The Sea Ottter Classic results are in. Steve Peat finished second.
1. Jared Graves (USA) Unattatched - 2.20.1
2. Steve Peat (UK) Royal/Orange - 2.20.9
3. Fabian Barel (FRA) Kona/Lesgets - 2.21.4
4. Mick Hannah (AUS) Haro Bikes - 2.21.5
5. Jonh Kirkcaldie (USA) Team Maxxis - 2.22.3
Friday, 8 April 2005
Hey, no bikes, but a great result for Saab Salomon!
Saab Salomon athletes had a fantastic performance at last weekends opening round of the British Fell/Mountain Running Championship.
The race - the Spelga Skyline in Northern Ireland is a gruelling 13 miles with over 6000 feet of climb. For the first time ever, Saab Salomon athletes achieved a clean sweep on the podium with Rob Jebb taking the victory, Simon Booth 2nd and Nick Sharp 3rd.
This is obviously a very pleasing result and is a fantastic start to the 2005 running season. We are all very much looking forward to the World Sky Running championship which starts next month, hopefully we will continue with this great form.
Monday, 21 March 2005
Steve Peat off to a good start for the 2005 race season!
New dad, Steve Peat is showing no signs of slowing up just yet. In his first two competitive outings of the season he has resumed his usual position i.e. "1st"!
A week last Sunday he raced it for the 1st time in the local Midland series
and won by 9 seconds. (Beating Marc Beaumont into 2nd on his Santa Cruz.)
Last Sunday he raced in the first round of the Maxxis cup in Portugal and won.
Beating World Champion Fabien Barrel (in second) by 5 seconds!
Good on ya Steve!
Monday, 21 March 2005
TV Tips and Tricks with Steve Peat
Want to learn how to do lots of things the "Pro way"? Then check out the tips and tricks series of short programs currently running on the Extreme Channel. Amongst the Skate, Snowboard and BMX tips, the series also features our very own favourite Steve Peat, demonstrating some Phat MTB techniques. Schedule changes aside, here's when he is slated to be on:
Saturday 26th March, 23:00 - Tricks And Tips
Mountainbike jumps. Former downhill World Champion Steve Peat is on hand to teach you the correct method of jumping (and landing!).
Sunday 27th March, 09:55 & 23:00 - Tricks And Tips
Mountainbike jumps. Former downhill World Champion Steve Peat is on hand to teach you the correct method of jumping (and landing!).
Check the web site for other programmes/times. PS We noticed the "Former" bit too. As we all know he's "current" UCI World Cup Downhill Champion - What are they like? Sheesh!
Monday, 28 February 2005
Saab Salomon start 2005 with victory in Spain
This weekend Team Saab Salomon has been racing in the Servidrum
Adventure Masters invitation race in Catalonia, Spain.
Pete James was joined by two new members for 2005, Phil Davies and Bruce
Duncan. Not only did they win the race overall, but also took first
place on every stage of the 2 day race.
This result is a very promising start to the 2005 season for us, and is
a good indication that our winter training schedule is moving the team
in the right direction. Our main focus for this year will be the Raid
World Cup and World Championship final. Round 1 of the World Cup will
be in Australia at the end of April.
Tuesday, 1 February 2005
New addition to the Peat family
Everyone at Orange would like to extend their congratulations to Steve and Adele Peat on the birth of their bouncing bundle of joy, baby Jake, born on the 21st of January 2005.
We're sure it won't be too long before Jake is taking on his dad in the "pinning it" stakes.
Well done Steve, Adele and of course Jake.
Tuesday, 11 January 2005
Airing of The Raid World Championship 2004 on Eurosport
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TEAM SAAB SALOMON. Now that the Christmas and New Year is over the team are busy planning for the 2005 race programme.
You may be interested in a TV programme of The Raid World Championship 2004 in Argentina on EUROSPORT. The TV company has produced a 52 min. programme which is aired in two episodes of 26 min. on EUROSPORT International on the following dates:
Episode 1: Wednesday, 12 January 2005 at 23:15
repeat: Thursday, 13 January 2005 at 09:15
Episode 2: Wednesday, 26 January 2005 at 23:00
repeat: Friday, 28 January 2005 at 09:00
Time is CET (Central European Time).