The Kona professional mountain-bike team will send its six factory riders to a diverse group of races in 2008, from World Cup-level downhill and cross-country events to multi-day stage races and local events.

Veteran cross-country rider Ryan Trebon will use the 2008 season as a fitness booster for his upcoming cyclocross campaign, and will keep his focus primarily on domestic races. Trebon hopes to defend his national title in short-track title at the 2008 USA Cycling national mountain-bike championships in Mount Snow, Vermont. The Oregonian also hopes to capture the marathon national title at the Firecracker 50 race, held July 4 in Breckenridge, Colorado. Trebon will round out his mountain-bike campaign with selected events on the Mountain States Cup and National Mountain Bike Series.

Trebon and Wicks will be a formidable combo in '08

Santa Cruz resident Barry Wicks will shift his focus from the domestic NMBS series to the UCI World Cup, and will tackle World Cup rounds in Houffalize, Belgium, Offenburg, Germany, Madrid, Spain and Mont-Ste-Anne and Bromont, Canada. The 26-year-old will attempt to again qualify for the world championships. Wicks will also ride the seven-day BC Bike Race, which crisscrosses British Columbia June 28-July 4.

Kona’s premier downhill rider, Brit Tracey Moseley, winner of the 2006 World Cup, hopes to improve on her fourth-place finish at the 2007 UCI world championships in Fort William, Scotland. Moseley is aiming at the top spot at the 2008 world’s.

Trebon

Cross-country rider and cyclocross Wendy Simms capped her 2007 campaign off with a 7th place finish at the UCI world cyclocross championships in Treviso, Italy after briefly leading the race. Simms plans to balance her 2008 mountain-bike campaign between the UCI World Cup and NMBS series, and will return to British Columbia’s TransRockies Challenge race.

Rounding out Kona’s roster are Canadians Kris Sneddon and Neal Kindree. Kindree, the reigning Canadian U23 champ, will eye the Canada Cup overall title while Sneddon hopes to tackle the NMBS and World Cup series, as well as Costa Rica’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores stage race.

Clay Porter readies new DH Film
Filmmaker Clay Porter, best known for capturing the world of professional downhill mountain-bike racers in his 2007 piece Between the Tape (www.betweenthetape.com), will debut his newest film at the 2008 Sea Otter Classic. Titled F1RST, the film is the sequel to Between the Tape, and was shot during the 2007 World Cup season. Along with racing shots, the film includes detailed interviews with Gee, Dan and Rachel Atherton, Greg Minnaar, Steve Peat and two-time world champion Sam Hill.

Porter recently released the trailer for F1RST, which can be viewed at www.f1rstmovie.com.

“Between The Tape and its trailer touched the surface of what the sport of downhill racing is, but for the F1RST trailer I wanted to delve deeper into the minds of the athletes,” Porter said. “I chose all the interview clips and narration to fit a certain feel; finding out what is going through a rider's mind when racing downhill.”

The movie debuts April 18 at the Golden State Theater in Monterey, California.

Former Telekom rider to race TransAlp
Famed German rider Udo Boelts, finisher of 12 Tours de France from 1992-2003 will ride the 2008 Jeantex Bike TransAlp mountain-bike stage race alongside partner Werner Wagner. In its 11th year, the race runs July 19-26 and boasts a 660-kilometer-long course that includes 21,640 meters of climbing.

Boelts is most famous for having helped Bjarne Riis and Jan Ulrich capture Tour de France wins in 1996 and 1997. He also won the Dauphine Libere in 1997.

In 2007 Boelts confessed to having used EPO and growth hormone in preparation for the Tour in 1996 and 1997 and resigned as the director of Team Gerolsteiner.

The Jeantex TransAlp is the world’s longest-running epic mountain-bike stage race, and in 2008 will boast 550 two-person teams. The race begins in Fuessen, Germany and finishes in Riva del Garda, Italy after passing through Switzerland and Austria.

Reigning champions Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm of the Bulls team return to battle the Fiat-Rotwild squad of Thomas Nicke and Silvio Wieltschnig.

Prado’s Ticos Jam brings trick BMX to Costa Rica
Cross-country racer Manuel Prado of the Sho-Air team, the 11th place finisher at the 2007 La Ruta de los Conquistadores, is organizing the fifth-annual Ticos Jam BMX competition. The event will be held in Prado’s hometown of San Jose, Costa Rica, on February 10 and features competition between North America’s top freestyle BMX riders.

Prado made a name for himself as one of Costa Rica’s best freestyle BMX riders, winning the national championship in 1997-99 before immigrating to the United States. After competing in the X-games, Prado turned to mountain-bike racing in 2004. He won the semi-pro race at the Sea Otter Classic in 2007.

Sunshine Cup Announces Dates
The 2008 Sunshine Cup, the premier mountain-bike race series on the island of Cyprus, will boast five races and begin February 23 in Tochni Village and conclude March 16 in Limassol-Yermagosia.

As the first UCI races of the calendar year, the Sunshine Cup traditionally attracts a smattering of the world’s top cross-country racers. This year Cannondale-Vredestein pros Fredrik Kessiakoff and Roel Paulissen will use the races to prepare for the upcoming World Cup season.

Sunshine Cup 2008
February 2 - Tochni Village
February 29 - Mantra-Kionia-Mantra
March 2 - Mantra tou kampiou
March 9 - Voroklini
March 16 - Limassol-Yermasogia