It’s not the Jolly Roger but still fun to watch.

So far 2009 has been a good year for Steve Peat. First a new baby and now a the record for most World Cup DH wins.
Check out the highlights from the usual suspects below.

Freecaster.com

Dirt Tv

MTBCut.tv

Talk about it here

Round 2 of the UCI DH World Cup takes place in La Bresse, France on Sunday. Qualifying took place today and last I heard Steve Peat was in first place with most of the fast guys already down. As always Freecaster.com has live coverage.

Based on the footage I saw of practice, the course looks pretty raw. The weather has been wet and looks to stay wet. Should make for some interesting racing.

Round 2 Practice from MTBcut.tv
(via Decline)

So who do you think will take round 2?

Pete brought out the GoPro cam today and shot a little footage of some of the new features on the continually unnamed Red Wing DH Trail.

I love the follow cam on the log ride.

What do you think?

First round of the 2009 World Cup happens this weekend. Don’t miss it!

Dana Schoppe has posted her excellent photos from the 2009 Coffee Mill Race in her gallery. Take a look.

Also Rich Omdahl has posted a bunch of helmet cam videos from the race. Here is the Final:

The rest of his videos from the race can be seen here.

I’ve been waiting to see this pop up for a long time! Stoked to see it happening! This is gonna be sick! Check it.

www.lifecyclesfilm.com

Talk about it here! Is it the next Collective???

Saw this over on the Dirt Magazine website.

This is exactly what we need for the long, cold Minnesota winters.

So who has an empty barn or warehouse that they don’t mind having full of dirt?

What do you think?

If you want to ride during the winter in the midwest you’re going to end up riding in the snow. With that in mind Tony, Buck and I headed down to Red Wing to ride after the first real snowfall of the year. Buck had just bought a new camera and he was itching to try it out.

As we pushed up the hill I thought, “I’m not wearing enough clothes.” My hands were already numb and my 5-10 shoes which normally grip the pedals so well were doing their best impression of skis as I struggled to find a foothold. We dropped in and as I fought to keep the bike on line in the first corner I wondered if this was going to be any fun. In the second turn I stuck out a leg, felt the bike drift to the outside of turn until the tires hooked up and I rocketed out of the corner and I knew it was going to be a good day.

The best part of the trail was the middle section. A sharp left hand turn leads to a straight-away which crosses the XC trail which leads to a long sweeping left turn into a small jump over a partially fallen tree and then into a right-left chicane. I was a little apprehensive about hitting the over-the-tree jump. Normally it’s not a problem but you want to carry some speed into it and the bike was a little squirrley at speed through the snow. Tony hit it first. He just barely brushed the snow of the tree with his rear wheel and blew a foot off the pedal on the landing, but he kept it together. I hit the jump the first time, got in the air, cleared the tree and thought, “Hey this isn’t too bad”. Then my wheels touched down. The two inches of snow on top of three inches of leaves didn’t provide enough grip for my frozen maxxis 3Cs. The bike went left and I went right , sliding on my back into the trees. I brushed myself on and did again, this time with more successful results.

We sessioned the section for a while and Tony executed a picture perfect scandinavian flick into the chicane. The rear wheel breaks free pointing in the wrong direction and then swings the other direction setting the rider and bike up perfectly to rail the turn. It was beautiful! Tony was killing that corner all day, easily riding it as cleanly and quickly as I have seen it ridden in more optimal conditions.

Red Wing in the snow from Buck on Vimeo.

Got your own story of riding in the snow to share? We’d love to hear it along with any other comments