Photo gallery from the first two days of competition at the Sol Vista National Championships.

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Words & photos by Patrick Branch

Wednesday afternoon, I arrived at Denver where my friend Zach Griffith picked me up. The next morning, we were off to Sol Vista. We got here at about 9:30, enough time for me to get a few practice runs on the amateur course.

"Cat 1, 2, and 3 are on one course and the pro's are on their own. The amateur course has lots of silt with rocks. The... [Read More]

We are proud to announce the launch of the ridemonkey store... click on for more details!

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We're proud to announce the official launch of the Ridemonkey.com store!

Starting right now, you can shop around for various Ridemonkey branded items. For starters we've added some sticker packs and a few different T-shirts. There will be more items added as things ramp up and more sales head out the door.

Browse around a bit and let us know what you think - if you have any sugg... [Read More]

Red Alert! Nevis Range now open for red route riders!

Nevis Red, The UK’s only red graded cross country mountain bike trail accessed by mountain gondola, was officially opened today (Tuesday 25 August) by BBC Sport presenter and avid mountain bike rider Dougie Vipond at Nevis Range, Fort William, in the heart of the Outdoor Capital of the UK.

Home to the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup the challenging terrain of Aonach Mor, in the shadows of Ben Nevis, was previously only acce... [Read More]

Monster Energy - Specialized's Sam Hill on his way to victory at the Canadian Open.

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Words and Photos by: Fraser Britton

Sam Hill (AUS) Monster Energy - Specialized has taken the win at he second annual Canadian Open, the final event at this year's Crankworx Festival in Whistler, BC.

Hill beat out a world cup caliber field by a huge eight-second margin. The track for this year's Open was a modified version of the course built by Canadian downhill pro Tyler Morland for la... [Read More]

A look at what's new and exciting in Whistler's kick-ass bike park leading up to next month's Crankworx.

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Words & photos by Dan Carr

Every summer tens of thousands of bikers descend on the Whistler Blackomb bike park to sample what is widely acknowledged as the best riding in the world. With over 50 different trails covering over 250 miles of trails and descending up to 4800 feet of vertical you might wonder how it could be any better? The 12-strong bike park trail crew nev... [Read More]

Anthill Films has just finished putting the finishing touches on Brandon Semenuk's rider profile for FOLLOW ME... along with a story on the video which was shot on location with Brandon and Stevie Smith during a recent trip to the Sunshine Coast of BC.

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Words & photos by Jonathan Shramm (www.anthillfilms.com)

The Sunshine Coast of BC is a 40-minute ferry ride away from Vancouver. The abundance of coastline and boats giv... [Read More]

Fraser Britton was on the scene and gives you the wrap-up on the Maribor WC Downhill

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The legendary Maribor, Slovenia downhill track saw scorching sun, torrential rains, hail and then more sun as the world's best downhillers tried to figure out what tires to run come race day. By the time finals kicked off on Sunday, some riders were on dry tires, some were on cut spikes and some were on full spikes.

At the end of the day determ... [Read More]

(...okay, not his WHOLE life story)

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Interview by Patrick Branch

Where did you grow up and where did you live the longest?

I was born in Vancouver, BC, but I was raised in Kamloops, BC... lived there the longest, but I lived a lot in Whistler as well. But, now I live in North Vancouver with my girlfriend and my baby girl...11 months old. And I live with my girlfriend who rides. She was riding Northshore 20 years ago.

Who is your girlfriend?

Sarah Fenton... [Read More]

A womens' only event where riders are judged on speed and style on a technical trail and jump trail.

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Words and photos by Patrick Branch

Yesterday the WomenzWorx event took place at Crankworx in Whistler. The first section was on the upper mountain towards the end of In Deep (a trail that is normally loamy and full of rocks and roots). It poured rain for the better part of the previous day so it became a mess of slippery roots and puddles. The second section was on the... [Read More]

Check out all the action from Crankworx in Winter Park, Colorado live right here on Ridemonkey!

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Ridemonkey is hooking you up with a series of kick-ass live broadcasts of all the action that's about go off at Crankworx Colorado in Winter Park.

The live broadcasts start today with the Slopestyle Qualifiers beginning at 3:30pm MST, and continue tomorrow (July 31st) with the Dual Slalom Finals at 1pm MST and the Slopestyle Best Trick at 4pm MST. Then it all wraps up i... [Read More]

Now that we're through our first round of upgrades, its time for all of us to kick the tires and put it through its paces.
We've put in a stable groundwork to build from, and are going to be looking to you to help us make it perfect!

Hello all you monkeys out there!

Welcome to Ridemonkey... uh... 2.69? 3.0? 3.7? Something like that...

Anyways, Ridemonkey has gone through a lot of changes in the past year - some for the worse, and some for the better.
Traffic has been fantastic, an... [Read More]

David Waugh and a group of eager volunteers are working hard to revive the dirt jump park that they grew up on in Bellingham, Washington...

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Words & photos by David Waugh

As everyone knows who rides dirt jumps, the jumps are more or less always in need of some kind of work to keep them running smoothly. The dirt jump park in Bellingham, Washington, is no exception. Although the park is a city park, volunteers keep up the maintenance. The park is now in its fifth year of exi... [Read More]

Brian Lopes, again showing his speed along with versatility, wins the first ever Canadian Open Enduro with a time of less than 20 minutes. Fionn Griffiths takes home the gold in the pro women's division.

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Words and Photos by David Waugh

The Canadian Open Enduro took place on Saturday in the afternoon before slopestyle. The inaugural event covered a lot of ground all over the mountain, starting above the top of Garbanzo at the gondola station. Not just a downhill event, the... [Read More]

Hello? Is this thing on?

Ok, I guess I'll lead stuff off here and pop the blog cherry on da Monkey. So, what all is the deal with this blog thing vs the standard message board set-up? I've been the message board type forever, so what are the +/-'s to this blog dealie?

-ska todd

After loading 1800 cubic yards of dirt onto a 290-foot barge, Red Bull's mountain biking squad stole the show last weekend at AT&T Park in San Francisco as they performed huge stunts in McCovey Cove.

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... [Read More]

WHISTLER, BC, August 16, 2009 – The Canadian Open Downhill presented by Kona went off today, taking over the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. The final event of Kokanee Crankworx 2009 saw nearly 300 riders take part in the race. Ea... [Read More]

Hill takes his first victory of the season and moves into the series lead here at MSA.


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Sam Hill (AUS) Monster Energy - Specialized and Sabrina Jonnier (FRA) Maxxis have taken home the wins on the behemoth of a track here in Mont Ste Anne. Rain fell throughout the night last night, started to dry and then fell again just as practice ended, giving riders a course with incredibly variable conditions. The earliest riders got slick, greasy corners, but by the last 10 min condition... [Read More]

The Brian Lopes wins the air downhill for the fourth year in a row.

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Words and Photos by: Fraser Britton

Flyin' Brian Lopes is unstoppable when it comes to racing his way down the most ridden freeride trail on earth. The former 4x world champion was in fine form taking the competition to school once again on the fabled A-Line jump trail here in Whistler.

Rain on and off all week had made parts of the trail slick, as the blue groove turned to slime making berms treacherou... [Read More]

Whiteface 5K DH Pictures, Race Video & Results + Upcoming Events

Full race report with pictures, race video and results can be found by
following this link:

http://downhillmike1.wordpress.com/2...h-race-report/

Upcoming Events:

*Saturday September 5: Ladies Day # 3 with free lift tickets for all
women. Please visit our web site for coupon.

*Saturday September 12: Whiteface Fall Classic X-C Challenge.

Plenty of time still to see ya at The Face,

Downhill Mike... [Read More]

Here's the wrap-up from last weekend's National Championships in Sol Vista, Colorado.

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Words & photos by Patrick Branch

Saturday and Sunday, the conditions reminded me of California - dry, warm, and loose. Some racers like myself preferred these types of conditions, while others hoped for rain to make things tacky. If you were like me and forgot to use sunscreen on Thursday, thinking whatever, you and I were surly wrong and suffered the consequences of the sunburn.<... [Read More]

... [Read More]

Series Leader Marco Rodolico took home the win in the "SE3" pro class at this weekends Superenduro Euro Cup fueled by Monster Energy here in Sauze D'Oulx.

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Series Leader Marco Rodolico took home the win in the "SE3" pro class at this weekends Superenduro Euro Cup fueled by Monster Energy here in Sauze D'Oulx. The torrential rains that threatened all day managed to hold off and the sun stayed out until just after the last pro riders trickled in before dumping buckets of water on the co... [Read More]

It took 15 years, but Englishman Steve Peat has finally won himself a World Downhill Championship.

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Peaty Wins!

It took 15 years, but Englishman Steve Peat (syndicate) has finally won himself a World Downhill Championship. In front of a rabid Aussie crowd, Peaty received as much of a cheer as the locals as he made his way down the short 1.6km course.


... [Read More]

Watts gets backwards off the SRAM box in qualifiers.

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Words and Photos by: Fraser Britton.


Greg Watts took home top honors tonight at the 2009 Monster Energy Slopestyle here at Crankworx in Whistler.


Watts through down a near perfect run in front of 20,000 screaming fans to take home the $15,000 cash that was up for grabs. His score of 96.0 was enough to beat Brandon Semenuk with a 95.25. Watts 360 tail whipped the drop in, talk about getting things started wit... [Read More]

This year's Mont Ste Anne World Cup is a lead up to the World Championships that will be held here in September of next year.

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Words and Photos by Fraser Britton

This year's Mont Ste Anne World Cup is a lead up to the World Championships that will be held here in September of next year. GESTEV, the organizer, is going all out to make sure it is their best event ever with everything being just a bit bigger and better.

When racing get's underway, it will be Greg Minnaar (Sant... [Read More]