Calgary Cycle DH Team...2007 Recap

2007…Another great year for the Calgary Cycle race team! This being the second season for the CC team our main goal’s were to grow stronger as a team, help advance the sport (especially in Alberta), put out some good results and most importantly have fun riding our bikes.
This year was a busy one starting out with the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California and as usual it was an amazing experience and a good opportunity for everyone on the team to “stretch their racing legs,” and race against some of the fastest racers from North America and the World.


After Sea Otter we headed back up north for a month of riding and waiting for the Alberta Cup and BC Cup series to start. Hats off to the guys from the ADHRA for bringing back DH racing to Alberta. It was a very good first year back for the Alberta Cup DH series. Both COP and Rabbit Hill were very good venues to race at and all of the races were very well run. As for the team we took top spots in both Senior Elite and Junior Ex categories with others on the team right at the heals of the leaders!


BC Cup was also a lot of fun this year. The team managed to make it to Kamloops and Panorama, where both venues had awesome new tracks for '07. The team managed podium finishes at both races as well as having a very good time on both tracks.



Mt.7 Psychosis…definitely the most anticipated, fun and most physically demanding race of the year. The team uses Mt. 7 as one of its main riding spots and every year for this one weekend, people from all over the world come to race the Psychosis. This year the likes of Tyler Morland, Steve Smith, Amile Cavalier and even Sam Hill showed up. In the 5k race the CC Team managed to fill the 1st and 3rd spot in the pro category. The following day Nick Quinn managed a very impressive 6th place in the pro category racing the infamous 14k trail right behind the likes of past Jr world champion Amile Cavalier.


Directly after Psychosis we drove all the way from Golden to Mt. Washington about 1000km away for the Canada Cup Finals. A few members from the team had already been out east to Quebec earlier in the year for 2 of the first Canada cup stops with some good results. We now took almost the whole team and the team trailer out all the way out to Vancouver Island. This was a mid week race with one race on the Wednesday and the Finals race on the Friday. The weather was not very cooperative and it rained for most of the time which made a course that was mostly covered in rocks and roots very difficult to ride. The sketchy conditions lead to one of our riders tearing some knee ligaments and the other riders took things a little more cautious in order to save themselves for Crankworx!


Crankworx! For the CC team this year the emphasis on fun was in effect for Crankworx! There are no points to be won and no championships to chase here, just 10 days of riding Whistler and some races thrown amongst it all. Pro and Amature riders from all over the globe come to compete and watch this one of a kind event. Besides another fairly serious crash from one of the team members the week was a blast! With the weather being mostly conducive to a good time, that is what we had! From watching Sam Hill destroy a world class field of DH racers in the Garbanzo DH, to watching a somewhat underdog Ben Boyko win the Slopestyle, it was a very good weekend as well as a good finish to the CC DH teams racing season!



For the 2008 season The CC team will be back and stronger than ever. We are looking to expand our wings more in terms of racing and riders and will be taking things even more serious next year! With some very promising new riders already added to the team we are very excited about the 2008 season! We will have information in the month of January for anyone interested in racing for the CC team so keep your eyes open!

On behalf of everyone on the team I want to thank,
Santa Cruz,
Troy Lee Designs,
Sram,
Block 8,
Stripe tech,
Dakine,
Pinkbike.com,
Oakley,
Thompson,
Mavic,
Kenda
and Derek Lee (CC owner) it could not have been possible without their support!

See you all in 2008!

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