Video’s from the Andorra World Cup

Andorra Valnord UCI Saturday

<p><b>Andorra DH Practice </b><br />
</p

Andorra Mens DH Finals

Live and direct from Andorra…

I’m feeling frazzled, wet ‘n cold. 

Left home at 11pm last night – drove ’till 3 – laid out my sleeping bag in the car and slept four hours.

Woke up, slid in the drivers seat and ragged along some stunning mountain roads… The only hairy moment was suddenly noticing that the fuel gauge was at empty…

Luckily I’d just crossed into Andorra, and (as it’s a tax/duty-free haven) there is a petrol station/ciggy shop every 200 meters here.

I’ve never been here before, and the weather isn’t turning me on much. All in all it’s a bit like Scotland, only colder, wetter and even hillier…

Which is of course why we (the motley crew of MTB spectators, racers and industry blaggers) are here; for the mountain at the Valnord Bike Park. More specifically still; for the UCI XC, 4X & DH race.

When I got here at 8, I headed sraight up the hill, wandered arround the paddock and saw a few old faces. Then back down into town, find a hotel and a few other errands. 

I’m now sitting in Cedric Gracia’s very own bar, the Podium lounge, which is where the photo was taken. The hill in the background is the bottom of the hill the race is taking place on.

Right, got to get going, off to do some work and find out what’s happening tonight / tomorrow. Apparently I’m going to be jumping into the commentary booth for Freecaster at some point… yikes!

 

US Open video

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Backlogging and Updating

OK, there’s a few things happening to the site at the mo… I seem to have re-discovered a desire to blog, and so:

There is an update to this template on it’s way – the lovely Mr Mig Pilot is hard at work creating something special…

I’ve copied over the most interesting / relevant blog postings from 06 and 07… they have now all been tagged and I am slowly going through re-inserting links and photo’s. Check out the category cloud or the calendar on the RHS to find what I was up to…

For Sale: Trials Bike

  

Page_1.jpg, originally uploaded by the VeloFello.

I’m selling this nice little trials bike – ideal for anyone looking to get into riding on a budget.

Trials Bike

There are more photo’s over here on Flickr

For Sale: KHS Folding Bike

    

Page_1.jpg, originally uploaded by the VeloFello.

I’m selling a KHS folding bike, with some great components for a bargain £400.

There are more photo’s over here on Flickr

KHS Folding Bike

 

For Sale: Marin Mount Vision

   

Marin Mount Vision, originally uploaded by the VeloFello.

More Photo’s are here:

Marin Mount Vision Pro

Marin Mount Vision 2005
Rock Shox Reba SL for from 2006 (serviced in ’07)
Shimano XTR: Rear Mech, Wheels
Shimano: LX Shifters, new Chain & cassette
Formula: K18 Oro brakes with 160mm rotors
Truvativ: Firex cranks
FSA: XC280 Riser Bars
Ritchey: WCS stem
Shimano: Dura Ace seatpost (same as the classic XTR post)
Other: Lock on grips, Bontrager tyres, Fizik Saddle

£1200 Ono – postage included.

There are more photos over here on Flickr

Rumble Ride

Rumble Ride

Just me out on the bike to clear some headspace on the nice little XC loop out back of my house… Peace.

Universally good

Fred Machabert is a guy I’ve known for a few years, a well known face on the French MTB scene as he used to work for Bike mag over here. 

On the way down to last years Roc d Azur I gave him a lift – spent a nice few hours chatting over stuff; life, work, bikes (of course) and his ideas for providing a better MTB racing information site. 

Well, he’s now gone off and done it, and I have to say that after a few months of fine tuning it’s proving to be a very useful reference – after today’s UCI DH WC he was the first to upload results (yes, before the UCI itself…)

My only “complaint” – and one I warned him about – is that by writing in French he’s rather limited his audience, however if you don’t mind trying to decipher another tongue, do go and check it out, it’s well worth it.

Where is it? oh… how about here?

Keetch and Big Bike get it on…

There is something great about the Swiss, behind all that accuracy and paranoia (did you know ever bridge in CH is built with dynamite in the pillars ready in case of invasion…?) there is a whole scene of music, sports and general insanity that I really enjoy. Spending time there keeps me sane… 

I’ve know the guys at Keetch Clothing for a few years now, they are a kind of cool co-op group of friends based in Lausanne who started making some T’s for themselves and their mates about ten years back. Now they are hooked up with some superb factories that means their clothing is about as technical as you want it to be, with a dash of the underground Swiss shredder.

In turn they have hooked up with leading French mag Big Bike, which is one of my must-read’s for the extreme MTB sector – similar to dirt but a bit more academic.

Anyway, they have got together and come up with a super little T, with a cool wrap-around graphic that I’m digging. 

Foux da Fa Fa….

‘Foux Da Fa Fa’

Frikkin’ genius! Cheers Mig for sending this through to me, it’s pure frikkin genius!

I’ve been trying to find out the name of this series for ages – I saw one episode at about 3am on a long-haul flight, and had to bite the person in the seat next to me to stop myself laughing…

Anyway, here is Flight of the Conchords Episode 8

Manitou’s new Dorado fork for 2009

      

Manitou’s new Dorado fork for 2009

Originally uploaded by Velo Fello

I’ve not seen anything in the press, so they might be wanting to keep it under wraps, but then again they were showing it at Taipei show so it must be public right…?

Anyways, possibly breaking some sort of embargo or not, here in all it’s glory is the “new” Dorado fork from Manitou. Possibly the only product I have ever lusted after – though I don’t really know why.

Sure it looks pretty, and if they have sorted out the dampers (as they promised me they have) then why shouldn’t it work just as well as it looks?

Looks darn fine to me, with those big lairy decals it’s pornographic even. I’ll be trying to strip off the decals as soon as I get my hands on a set – I’m going for the underground ninja look this season….

Verbier Dreaming

Verbier is just one of my favourite places to ride… this is why:

I’ve just spoken to Sam at Verbier and he tells me that the snow just keep on dumping there – unheard of at this stage of the season… and bad news for getting those trails all dusty… 

Spreading the love….

 

RIMG0134

Originally uploaded by Velo Fello

one WordPress page at a time…

Since Mig Pilot got me switched onto WP, I’ve dumped all my stuff out of .Mac (which i will keep using but more for family stuff) and built up this here WP site.

My old buddy Ben has been suffering from not enough Mac time, and too much riding, so I noticed that his website was down… so I decided to spread the love and threw together a quick site for him.

If he’s not yet managed to turn on the domain forwarding, then the site will be here, otherwise it might be here?

Fort William Video

Fort William MTB DH World Cup ’06

I was just looking through my YouTube account, and saw that this vid is far and away my “blockbuster” with almost 14.000 views!

An oldie but goodie…