The Weekend That Was?

Sheffield stealing the limelight...

Saturday morning brought a murky clinging mist to God’s own County, but no amount of swirling damp could stop the festivities at the Steel City downhill race.

A wet start made for a slippy track at Grenoside...

Massive respect to everyone involved, the organisers, course builders, riders and spectators. There was a fair amount of banter flying around, pans rattled, cow bells shaken; a great atmosphere in the muddy woods at Grenoside. No suprises on the day, Steve Peat rolled away over eight seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Among the Orange Bikes contingent was trail building extraordinaire Rowan Sorrell. Racing with a summer ready crossmark tyre, he slid his way to fifth place in Pro-AM men.

What tyres for muddy forest singletrack, ask Rowan Sorrell...

Fighting it out in the media world was a three strong contingent from Singletrack Magazine. Matt took third in vets, tenth for Jon in Seniors, and 30^th for Benji in Masters. Jamie Edwards from Wideopen Magazine took 31^st on his team green Orange Five.

Full results here. Keep an eye on This is Sheffield for everything going on in the area.

Sam Davies uploaded this great edit on Mpora;

Demo Daze...

Sunday morning brought glorious weather (and a hangover if you're Jamie Edwards) for most of the UK, perfect timing for a demo with the guys from Leisure Lakes and Buckingham Bikes. Lee Quarry brought loads of people out to enjoy some great trails built by the guys at Back-on-track.

Looking at a new bike, get yourself booked onto a demo

Thanks to everyone who came along to either demo day, and check our events listings to get involved at your local Orange Bikes dealer.

Gravitating to Kielder...

Further North towards the border it was race day at the Kielder Gravity Enduro. The event was based around the catching Mega Avalanche style of racing, a mass start with riders battling it out to get to the front before the singletrack starts. The race includes 450 vertical meters of descent, with 60 meters of climbing to separate the loafers from the lithe. Qualifying was based on six groups of 30 racing down the hill to make the grade. Top ten from each heat went through to the A final, positions 11-20 qualify for the B-final.

James Shirley, going for Blood...

Cycle Jersey Orange rider James Shirley made it into second place, ahead of Dudes of Hazard regular Liam Moynihan in third. Nice work.

Keep an eye out for the results on Roots and Rain.

A Patriotic Comeback...

Further North again and the Alpine Bikes winter series took to the hills of Innerleithen. MTBcut giant Ben Cathro was off injured with a swollen pinky, leaving the Elite race wide open. Ruaridh Cunningham took a convincing win, with Fergus Lamb and I-Cycle’s Peter Williams finishing the podium.

A Patriotic return, the bike and the rider...

Respect goes out to Joe Barnes who was racing for the first time since breaking his rib. Taking his MTBcut pink Patriot prototype to fourth place, he’s putting some serious testing into the new frame. You want details? You’ll have to wait...

MTBcut team mate Fraser McGlone took fourth in Juniors, rumour has it they'll all be on a new single pivot DH proto sometime soon...

Check out Ian Linton’s race report over on Descent World, the usual corking shots accompany it. 

Thanks to Sam Flanagan for this quality edit.

Make it a National holiday...

Elsewhere in the world, MTB Centre in Finland were playing in the snow. Orange Bikes day saw a good amount of Yorkshire Tea and a whole smattering of neon coloured bike action. Thanks to all the guys there for their continued support.

Orange Bikes day in Finland, they should make it a National holiday

More pictures you say? Take a look through the gallery below, Mr Bonney has been keeping busy with his flashes…

Image Gallery