Mountain bike teams list ’09 rosters
- By Kurt Hoy
- Published Jan. 29, 2009
- Updated Dec. 2, 2011 at 9:20 AM UTC
Written by: Fred Dreier
Beijing Olympians Adam Craig and Ollie Beckinsale will lead Giant Bicycles’ global mountain bike racing team in 2009.
The American Craig and Brit Beckinsale will be joined by Australian downhill racer Jared Rando.
Craig, 27, repeated as U.S. cross-country champion last season. He also collected his sixth consecutive U.S. Super D title. Consistent international results earned Craig a spot on the U.S. Olympic team at the 2008 Summer Games.
“Giant is behind me, and I’m behind them,” said Craig. “Any team that has supported me through a six-year Super D national championship streak must be doing something right and I’m looking forward to keeping the fun rolling in 2009.”
This year Craig will focus on the international World Cup series plus a handful of North American events, including the Downieville Classic in Downieville, California.
Beckingsale, a three-time Olympian, joins Craig as one of the top talents on the cross-country World Cup circuit. The 32-year-old has won the British National Championship five times (2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007) and is considered one of the world’s most consistent cross-country racers over the last decade.
“It’s shaping up to be a great year and the bikes are better than ever,” said Beckingsale. “It’s a top team in terms of support and also team spirit. I’m looking forward to hitting the World Cup 100 percent and also having a crack at the marathon world championships in Austria.”
On the gravity side, Jared Rando also plays a key role in Giant’s product development. A veteran of international downhill and dual slalom racing, Rando is Giant’s lead athlete for testing long-travel downhill bikes.
Beyond the three-man Giant Global team, Giant will also continue to support its North American squad consisting of cross-country riders Kelli Emmett and Carl Decker, as well as Canadian freeride talent Kurt Sorge.
Four more years for McConneloug and Broderick
Two-time American Olympian Mary McConneloug and her teammate and partner Michael Broderick will stay racing as professionals for at least four more years. The duo, who manage their own self-designed team around sponsorship dollars from Kenda Tires and Seven Cycles, inked a deal to keep racing for four more years with Kenda.
“Kenda Tires has stood with us through a vast transition from our pure grassroots to the program that we have come into today,” McConneloug said. “Mike and I are thrilled to be signing an unprecedented second four-year contract with Kenda that will see us through the 2012 season.”
The duo are also adding NoTubes wheel and tire components as a title sponsor for 2009. Their team will go by the name Kenda-Seven-NoTubes.
McConneloug and Broderick will again spend the lion’s share of the 2009 season racing the UCI World Cup. McConneloug will return Stateside to defend her USA Cycling national championship from 2008.
Rocky Mountain supports Marathon/Endurance team
Canada’s Rocky Mountain Bicycles has created a non-World Cup racing team for 2009. Called the Rocky Mountain Factor XC-Epic Racing team, the five-rider squad will target multi-day endurance stage races such as the Absa Cape Epic and BC Bike Race, as well as regional cross-country events, marathon and endurance cross-country races and all-mountain events.
Headlining the squad is three-time UCI world champion Alison Sydor, who won both the Trans Alp Challenge and the Cape Epic in 2008. Sydor’s role as an endurance rider marks a bookend to her successful 17-year career racing on the UCI World Cup.
Joining Sydor is former Canadian Olympian Andreas Hestler and cross-country racers Stefan Widmer and Marty Lazarski. Rounding out the squad is youngster Evan Guthrie, the 2008 Canadian junior cross-country and cyclocross national champ.
The news of the new endurance squad leaves several questions unanswered, namely the future of the rumored team sponsored by Rocky Mountain Bicycles and Maxxis tires. That team, while not announced, is rumored to be headlined by Canadian national champions and Olympians Geoff Kabush and Marie-Héléne Prémont.
Email Fred Dreier