Paris Downtown Race

On the 18th and 19th of June, the Morewood UnitedRide headed up to Paris for the Montmartre downtown downhill race. This was the second time the event has happened, the first being in 2007.


This event is a urban race where only a few riders are selected to ride. The race took part in one of the most beautiful and touristic parts of the city passing through the stairs and streets near the amazing Church of Montmartre. The beautiful scenery and the thousand of people visiting Montmartre were going to make it a very speical race.

Day 1 kicked off with a meeting of all the invited riders followed by a briefing for the plans of the weekend. We then headed out to walk the track for the race.


The track looked really good with some big jumps, drops, wooden burns and stair sections. It looked like it was going to be a fun track. After this the riders where taken on a small tour of the area and in Pigale where we visited the Paris Erotic museum. Everyone was quite suprised with what we saw. We finally ended the day off with a tour up to the very top of the Eiffel tour.

Day 2 was race day and both Fabien and Tim were excited to ride while their teammate Mick Pascal was training at home for Mont-Sainte-Anne world cup. Practice started and all the riders got time to check out some lines.


Fabien and Tim felt good on their bikes and were really enjoying the track, especially the double stair drop.


As the day went on the crowds got bigger, it was nearly time for the seeding runs. The seeding runs went well, but the timing was a bit confusing. Eventually the results came out and Fabien was 4th and Tim 5th.


Finally it was time for the race, all the riders were riding in front of the massive crowd.


Fabien and Tim gave it their all and both had good runs. Fabien ended up with 3rd in front of the downtown race specialist Philip Polc, Tim finished with a nice 6th .

Results :

1 – Romain Saladini – Commençal (53.334)
2 – Thibault Ruffin – Riding Addiction Commençal (54.364)
3 – Fabien Cousinié – Morewood United Ride (54.915)
4 – Filip Polc – MS Evil Racing (55.320)
5 – Kamil Tatarkovic – Scott FDF Team (56.274)
6 – Tim Bentley – Morewood United Ride (56.718 )


The team had a very good weekend and really enjoyed the experience of riding in Montmartre. Not only was the race good, but also they got to see the amazing city of Paris, visiting places like the Eiffel tower and the Champs-Élysées.

Tim Bentley says :
"It was an amazing experience for me to see all those famous Landmarks and even better to ride in the city in front of the people, I hope next year I will be able to come back."

Fabien "CousCous" Cousinié says :
"I really enjoyed this race, I think the race is a good chance to show all non-riders what downhill riders are capable of. I really do believe that Paris Montmartre race has a big potential and I hope next year the organisation could step up on another level, I hope the track is going to be even harder and more impressive, and finally I hope our video will give the will to lot of world cup guys to come to make the race more exciting. It would be great if our sport could have an Urban race series aside of world cups."

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In EXCLUSIVITY here is the teaser of the short movie video of the team which is going to come out next week, enjoy !