xc

Few mountain bike races have earned the title of “legendary,” but if one is a shoo-in for the list it’s the Leadville Trail 100. With a starting elevation above 10,000 feet, it climbs to more than 14,000 through thin, Colorado air. In a race where just finishing is a victory, this year Alban Lakata took the ...

Editor’s note: Last weekend Dirt Rag’s “sponsored” SoCal racer Lance Nicholls lined up for his first cross-country first race of the new year. While the rest of the vet pros (and open pros) were on geared bikes, Lance races only on a singlespeed. Here’s how his winning ride unfolded. Congratulations Lance and thanks for doing ...

Photos courtesy of Peter Morning/MMSA USA Cycling has announced that the 2015 cross-country and enduro national championships will move from Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Oregon, to Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, California. It will now coincide with the Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships. All events will take place July 14-19. According to USA Cycling, the ...

Hot on the heels of the the SB5c trail bike, Yeti releases a new cross country platform dubbed the AS-Rc. As much as longer trail trail bikes are everyone’s favorite topic these days, not everyone wants or needs all that travel and slackness. This new AS-Rc should fill in the gap nicely between the trail ...

The UCI released the 2015 schedule today and it includes six cross-country events, seven downhill events and zero cross-country eliminator events. The season will kick off on April 11-12 with round one of downhill in the new venue of Lourdes (France). Although new to the World Cup calendar, Lourdes has already hosted the French Cup, and ...

Friday was an action-packed day on the mountain at Snowshoe. The early afternoon saw the Downhill qualifying runs and in the evening the stars of the World Cup XCO took to the slopes for the Short Track race. Twenty minutes of all-out racing to determine starting positions for Sunday’s main event. The women hit the ...

When we arrived a few days ago in Breckenridge, CO, it was as if we came to some sort of fantasy land for lovers of the outdoors. Majestic mountains reaching far up into the blue skies, the air was dry and cool, a perfect setting for a bike race. It is now Sunday and the ...

We have made it back to the coast of California for another fine edition of the Sea Otter Classic. To get things kicked off this year the professional women’s field tackled the steep slopes of the cross country course surrounding Laguna Seca Raceway. With UCI points on the line, some of the worlds best showed ...

Santa Cruz Highball XX1 Price: $7,999 Sizes: S, M, L (tested), XL Online: santacruzbicycles.com Tester: Scott Williams Age: 32 Weight: 170 lbs. Height: 5’ 11” Inseam: 32.5” Reach: 17.7” Stack: 24.2” Top Tube: 25.1” Head Tube: 69.5° Seat Tube: 73° BB Height: 12.4” Chainstays: 16.8” Weight: 20 lbs. (with dropper) Long known as a trail ...

I’m not a huge race nerd. I’ll just put that out there immediately. It’s cool and all, and going fast is really fun, but I’d much rather be out riding myself than sitting home watching others have all the fun, and I just can’t bring myself to do the things—  train, practice, analyze my wattage, ...

Full carbon wheels are not a new idea, but this is the first from a mainstream brand that I can remember. Scott has be slowly ramping up the technology at Syncros since it was purchased from Ritchey a few years back. These wheels are a no-holds-barred implement going as fast as humanly possible on a race ...

Cross-country racing continues to get more and more technical and demanding and the new SID looks ready to continue RockShox’s winning ways in the Lycra arena. RockShox SID World Cup A no-compromise, elite-level racing fork, the new SID World Cup is a short-travel tool for winning races. FEATURES / BENEFITS New friction-reducing DebonAir™ air spring delivers ...