I don't think a whole lot needs to be said about this.

Mount 7 Psychosis was today

We may be in Whistler but we have not totally forgotten about you guys. The Mount Seven Psychosis race took place today in Golden, British Columbia. This is the tenth year and the final year for the epic insanity. In a surprising win Aussie pinner Chris Kovarik pulled a new course record with a time of 12:35.14 beating top riders such as Tyler Morland, Andrew Mitchell and last years winner Sam Hill. If you have not heard or seen this race before check out this vid from the latest video from the Collective entitled "Seasons."

Good shit Kovarik!!!


1st Chris Kovarik 12:35.14
2nd Nick Quinn
3rd Tyler Morland
4th Sam Hill
5th Andrew Mitchell

Fontana NMBS "Down Under Domination"

Oh yeah, that's right we have a National Series. Kinda, sorta.
The Fontana NMBS kicked off this weekend and was the first stop for the NMBS series.
As you can imagine Kovarik won. He has been dialing in the Fontana terrain for a few months now and after wrapping up the overall win in the Fontana Series earlier this month he was a favorite for the NMBS win. Media was pretty sparse at the event with John Gibson shooting pics, MBA writing words and Dylan Dean covering both aspects for the rest of the world that still may show an interest.
Chris Kovarik taking the win on the new rig with a 2:19.6
Nathan Rennie placed 2nd with a 2:22.2, establishing two Aussies on the podium.

Justin Leov got third with a 2:24.6 Sam Blenkinsop (pictured above) pulled a fourth place with a 2:25.1 and Cam Cole secured fifth with a 2:25.3 That's three Kiwi's all in a row.

Duncan Riffle made his debut aboard his new C-Dale and UFO kit....paging David Smith...

Thanks to Kathy Sessler for her detailed and picture filled update, she is a god send.

Word on the street is that this will be the last year we see the NMBS in the current form. It may evolve into a race "series" that may be located at better venues, with better courses, better prizes and payouts and of course more altitude. Would'nt that be nice. Stop your griping change is on the way.

Loose ends...

For those of you who have not seen the trails at Lonnie Paxton's house, they are supreme! Heath Pinter and Lonnie have been busy little beavers sculpting huge hips and transfers with long run ins. Some people drink green beer and whiskey (David) and others boost the lip. Check out the vid. Chase Hawk is crazy, high speed, brakeless!



Claire Buchar received her new Intense Socom with a kickin paint job. Translucent brass finish over the raw metal, will it be available to the regular customer? WideOPEN has the details. Her bed buddy Chris Kovarik pulled the overall win at the Fontana Series. He won every race of the series with the exception of the last. He had sprained or twisted or tweaked his ankle a few days before the race and did not place as well as the other races. The point is, he still raced.

Gary "The Flipper" Perkins is one hell of a photographer. He covers the World Cup circuit and his images grace the pages of all the big magazines. One of his newer projects is entitled "My Bike", highlighting how the bicycle effects our lives from work to play. Take a gander.

Americans love their guns. Although it may be a controversial issue to some there is no denying the fact that we love bustin caps. Kyle Cassidy feels the need to document these people in their homes. The pictures speak for themselves.

Off the chain, so far...

So they are doing pretty good. I mean they have a stack of great riders; they’re sitting on superb bikes and having Nigel Page as a team manager, that’s like icing on the cake.

Some people said they did not think that the big “K” had it in him anymore. Well he had a lot of problems last season. Flats (tubes not the pedals) in race runs, unable to qualify in Champery and Canada giving him the shutout did not help his standings in the points field and could not have been great for the sponsors. It was not the biggest surprise though to hear that he would be leaving the MS Racing outfit. Where would he go? What would he ride?

Teaming up with Nigel Page, an icon in modern mountain biking, would prove to be a great setup. Both long-term riders for Intense, Ringle and Manitou these brands would follow Chris and Nigel to the Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense Race Team.
With new fast kids falling out of the sky these days there can be a lot of pressure on the seasoned riders to stay in the game and continue to be competitive. Sponsors have a lot of things on the brain when it comes to slicing up the money pie these days. The team would round out with Julien Camellini, Matt Simmonds and Ruaridh (sounds like Rory not Rudy , thanks for the correction!) Cunningham who was recruited by the team fresh off his World Championship win. It’s great to see a young guy like him get picked up by a team of well-versed pros.

Kovarik has been winning all the Fontana Winter Series races in So Cal and Julien just pulled out a win in the French Regional Championships beating many of his fellow countrymen, including Fabien Barel. The Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense Team has started to show their true colors. They like to win and they intend to do it often this season.

As for Ruaridh and his recently injured knee, he’s a kid; they are made out of rubber.

Kovarik wins again, Memmelaar scoops up 2nd!!!!

Got this press release from Nigel Page concerning Kovariks crazy winning streak in Cali.

The most impressive thing about it, Beast of the East Jay Memmelaar getting second taking out Warren and Dave K. We have been keeping a keen eye on Jay and we here at Tractionmag are super pumped on the 2nd place finish. Keep pinning it Jay!

Fontana Winter Series #4 DH
Chris Kovarik keeps his win streak alive by crushing the competition by over 8 seconds! This was the first time Chris was on his new Chain Reaction Blue Intense M6 with all the teams sponsors parts. The new bike seems to be even faster! Nice one Chris.

1. Chris Kovarik - 00:02:33.93

2. Jason Memmelaar!!!!!!- 00:02:42.07

3. Cody Warren - 00:02:43.54

4. David Klaassenvanoorschot - 00:02:44.80

5. Waylon Smith - 00:02:45.03


Nigel Page
Team Manager - ChainReactionCycles/Intense

Sponsors:
Chain Reaction Cycles • Intense Cycles • Black Market Bikes
Mantou • Hayes • Maxxis • Sun-Ringlé • CaneCreek
Royal Racing • SixSixOne • THE • RaceFace • SDG • e13
Winter&Summer • Pedros • Burgtec • High Five

Kovarik back on a Dorado, sweet memories...

Chain Reaction Cycles has received their new 2008 Intense M6 race bikes. Kovarik will be profiling some new kit on his race bike such as Race Face, Maxxis, Hayes and the new Manitou Dorado to be released in 2009.  Thanks Nigel. Now watch Kovarik 360 on Litter!

Kovarik to be tested for HGH

Just kidding about the hormones. He won with pure kangaroo power!
This press release from Nigel Page.
Chris Kovarik took the win and the money again at the 3rd Fontana winter series today. The conditions were back to the usual dry and dusty terrain usually found at Fontana. Even with a bobble entering the rock garden and missing the fastest line through Chris was able to take the win mainly due to his corner speed which was visibly much faster than the rest of the field as you watched them coming down a large percentage of the course.

The Fontana put on another great winter event keeping all the racers happy and also providing the pros with some nice big cheques.

Chris Kovarik 1:47.64
Aaron Gwin 1:49.35
Waylon Smith 1:49.50
Ian Odom 1:49.51
Ryan Condrashoff 1:50.12

Claire Buchar 2:02.60
Katrina Strand 2:10.58
Gabriela Williams 2:14.33
Lauren Peterson 2:14.58
Jenna Kowalski 2:16.84


--
Nigel Page

Here is Chris's new Chain Reaction Cycles paint job.

Kovarik may be checking the classifieds

If you think really hard, so hard you have to squint your eyes you will slowly remember those early days of Team Qranc out of Big Bear back in 1999. All right now that you have that memory concentrate on those GT Lobos they were riding, you know the one with the Hope hub, Rock Shox disc brakes and the quintessential red Boxxer. Now that I have got your synapse firing it should be easy to remember a young Chris Kovarik on this team. Wide-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to destroy anything that Norba threw in front of him.

Well that was one of my first memories of the guy, seeing him destroy the course and the bike. He then moved onto Intense, an American powerhouse company with an Australian powerhouse rider. He would hit the Norba and World Cup circuit with friends Nathan Rennie of Yeti as well as Steve Peat and Kirt Vories of GT. His most standout race would come in 2002 at Fort William, Scotland. He crushed the field of pro men, winning by 14 seconds. Which still stands as one of the most impressive wins and displays of bike handling ever. In 2003 he suffered a badly broken ankle from a motocross accident, the accident and an offer from Haro would put his career in jeopardy with Intense. Steber brought him back and in 2005 he began racing the World Cup circuit once again.

His career lately has been rocky, with mechanicals and flats he sunk down the standings. It didn't help that the Canucks wouldn't let him into the country taking away his chance at Mount Saint Anne, which he won in 2006. So it is no huge surprise to hear rumors of him leaving the MS-Intense race team. The speculation has been floating around of possibly Matti Lehikoinen filling his shoes on the team with his recent departure from big ole factory Honda.

One thing is certain it is a marvel to watch Kovarik ride, he shows such utter disdain for the terrain in front of him and makes the trail beg for forgiveness. Scott Hart said it best about his riding style "evil".

He will soon land another ride if he needs it and we will all have to get used to seeing him on something other than a Steber bike. Of course if you look hard enough, you know enough to squint you may just see him on his old Lobo.