chinamtb 08

At the Trek suppliers’ summit that took place today in Taichung, Trek CEO John Burke stated that 2008 is going to be record breaking year for Trek. The company is not suffering from the financial crisis what so ever and has booked a revenue of US$ 725 million up to the end of October. In 2000 Trek had an annual turn over of US$ 300 million. At the meeting with all the suppliers John Burke said that he has high hopes for the near future of his company as well as the bike business despite the financial crisis. He expects that once again like at earlier economic crisis the bike industry will prove to be rather immune for the economic troubles. Even in October Trek worldwide sales were up 7.2%.

After some cloudy and rainy days in Huangshan, the MTB Festival blew away all the clouds and made way for the sun and a blue sky.

Almost 500 people showed up in the start, among others the Chinese bike star Li Fuyu, who was number one on 50K, finishing 46 seconds before last year’s winner Piers Touzel from Australia. However, since Li is a professional biker, he had to hand over his prize money to Piers, who also did an excellent race. Li was specially invited by the organizer and main sponsor TREK, and was very satisfied with both the race and the tracks.

Zheng Lufang was the first lady to finish the 50K race, which she did with glory by beating her main competitor Lv Taotao with almost as much as six minutes.

The arena was crowded of people, a mix of locals and bikers from more than 20 countries that were mingling with friends and other bike fans, having food and visiting our sponsors in their tents.

齐齐哈尔首届山地车比赛精彩序幕在五一这天隆重拉开了序幕。 上午在紧张有序的工作中，比赛场地和会场已经初具规模了。背景布，颁奖台，帐篷，彩旗，全封闭的赛道无不体现出赛事的专业性，让人无比期待在上面一显身手。

下午一点中开幕式正式开始了，在礼花和掌声中运动员裁判员代表分别宣誓，简短的仪式过后随着一声清脆的枪响公开组的六名精英们如箭般冲出了起点，泥水四溅尘土飞扬，追逐，飞跃，超越，加油和掌声无不体现这山地车运动的精彩和美感。

经过十组近两个小时的角逐，共决出公开组前六名和初级组前六名，车友们经过自己的拼搏和努力获得了心爱的奖品，颁奖仪式上香槟更加渲染了激情和精彩。

这次山地车比赛也开启了齐齐哈尔山地车运动的热潮，广大车友无比期待下一次赛事的到来。

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Following the huge success of the live online broadcast at last years World Champs from Fort William, MTBcut.tv and the UCI decided to continue airing live streams of the 2008 World Cup. The first live event will cover Downhill and 4X events from Maribor, Slovenia on the weekend of the 10th-11th May 2008.

For more info and to watch the World Cup online, visit www.mtbcut.tv.

13th, April,  “Round North Lake Bike Race” was held in JiNing, a city in Shandong province at the North Lake Tourism center. The race was  supported by JiNing Giant shop, local cycle and sport clubs and the Shimano Club.

It is the biggest bike race in JiNing. The was race divided in to different levels a male youth category, Seniors  and a female category. The total distant was 9.5km. In all there were 18 winners from different categories all of which received prizes from Shimano and Giant.

In the women’s cross country race, Shi Qinglan, was keeping the lead until the third lap when tragedy struck in the form of a flat tire. Gao Xiaoning, Team Shangdong took the her chance to take the lead and eventually win the race.

In the men’s , ” Under dog”——-Wangzhen,who is the youngest rider from Gansui province, took the win.

According to the association, this is the Third Stage of the National MTB Champion Race,which was held in Jinxi, Guizhou province. The first, Second Stage took place in Yunnan, Dali,and the last two will be held in Beijing, Laoshan. This final race will decide which two riders will take part in the 2008 Olympic and save points for 2009 national champs meeting.

As reported earlier this week Nordicways held their first weekly MTB Training Camp last Saturday. 15 riders took part in the camp, 10 of which decided to pit themselves against the clock. The winner of the 30K was former Olympic Champion Road biker from Sweden, Bernt Johansson, he also achieved the best lap-time with 30:39 on 10K.

The riders were all very happy with the course and conditions and commented on how it was challenging, but still assessable to more casual cyclists. The track (Below) starts with a 5km uphill grind to a 2 km flat riding section, then into a 3km steep downhill to the finish. If you are interested in taking part in this Saturday’s (12th April) camp visit www.nordicways.com to view registration details and conditions. Also check here for directions and other ways to get to the camp.

Round 2 of the China National MTB Cup finished in Yunnan at the weekend. Ren Chengyuan,Wang Jingjing and Liu Ying of Team Jiangxi are managed to place First, Second and Third in the time-trial stage. Ren Chengyuan had an amazing weekend by winning all four cross country stages. Liu Ying, who came third, took completed the time trial in 15m 56s 00, 1m 18s faster than fourth place rider Shi Qinglan.

After the race, Ren Chengyuan spoke of her happiness and praised the DaLi area.

The first stage of the China National MTB cup was held in Yunnan, Dali on the 22nd March. All the big teams throughout China took part in this most prestigious of races.

After a major struggle during the competition Jiangsu’s, Ren Cheng Yuan took the win in the womans group, and Yunnan’s, Jiang Xue won his race in the mens category.

Ren Cheng Yuan took 1:49:32 to complete the 36km race, her team mates Wang Jingjing and Liu Ying took second and third place in the women’s group.

The race for the men’s category was 42km and it took Jiang Xue Li 1:56:30 arrive ahead of the pack with Wang Zhen and Ji Jian Hua earning second and third places.

For full details and race report (Chinese) visit the Shimano Club website.