Bozic's best bike ever !

Vacansoleil sprinting machine, Borut Bozic, commented his new bike for the next season.

This is what he said : "the Ridley bike is perfect, the best bike I have ever ridden in my career !" He is ready to take on the big guns in the sprint. Check out a few pictures from Bozic and his bike.

Vacansoleil training camp - Benidorm

The Vacansoleil Cycling Team are on training camp in Benidorm, Spain. The riders received their new bikes and they were super excited to start the training sessions on their Noah and Helium. Check out what team manager Daan Luijckx and Riccardo Ricco think of the new Ridley Bikes. Every single rider was happy to hit the road with their brand new machine. Look at the admiration of national champs Devolder (Belgium) and Lagutin (Uzbekistan).

Vacansoleil Team Helium

Here it is folks - the Vacansleil-DCM Ridley Helium. We literally stole this bike from the mechanic's stand so that we could get a nice studio shot to share with the world.

Extra special thanks go out to our technical partners:

Fast Forward wheels

Rotor cranks and bottom bracket

SRAM drivetrain

Selle San Marco saddle

Jagwire cables and housing

Look pedals

Vredestein tires

Tacx cage and bidon

Deda Elementi bar and stem

Lizardskins bar tape

4ZA forks

BBB helmets and eyewear

KMC chains

Vacansoleil Visit

Big day at Ridley World Headquarters today - Vacansoleil riders stopped in for bike fittings and technical partner orientation. It's always fun to spend time with the upper crust of the cycling world be it athletes and directors or bike builders and parts manufacturers. Our new partners like Rotor, SRAM, Vredestein, Fast Forward, 4ZA all showed off the latest and greatest products that were outfitting the new Vaca team Heliums frames. It's off to team camp in Spain next month and then to Australia for Tour Down Under.

A new addition to the family

Introducing...*drum roll*

Ridley the dog!

Ridley is just 8 weeks old and learning to ride with training wheels. It won't be long until he tries his first triathlon as mummy and daddy (Neil, our tri-guy at QBP our US distributor) are keen triathletes.

Ridley Ignite Team wint Crocodile Trophee

Christof Mariën heeft in de nadagen van zijn fietscarrière de Crocodile Trophee op zijn naam geschreven. Hij finishte met zijn Ridley Ignite Team op de eerste plaats in het algemeen klassement in de category M1, dit resulteerde in een 8ste plaats overall net achter Jan Kirsipuu (ook op een Ridley Ignite Team) . Lees hieronder de commentaar van Christof over onze Ignite Team.

"De Ridley Ignite team waar ik mee reed was echt super! Het parcours is echt wel ruw en veeleisend voor je fiets en ik heb met mijn Ignite team totaal géén probleem gehad! Het was trouwens bijna de enige carbonkader die niet is gescheurd of gebroken! En dat wil toch wel wat zeggen in zo’n race en bovendien ben ik ook niet van de lichtste… Trouwens Jan Kirsipuu, de sprinter van AG2R van weleer reed met identiek dezelfde fiets rond! Ik raad je zo’n fiets echt aan!"

Ridley Japan's take on Cycle Mode

Hi All,

Just a quick update as I've just landed in Seoul and my room-service pizza has just arrived. Life on the road is glamorous ;)

Check out this link for Ridley Japan's take on Osaka Cycle Mode

A big arigato to Masa-san, Nao-san and Moto-san for all of their help this week and for doing such a stellar job of Ridley in Japan.

Big in Japan

It's truly a great thing being part of a global program like Ridley. We have amazing distributors and dealers all around the globe all doing an amazing job of representing BELGIUM. The Cycle Mode show is this weekend in Osaka Japan where our distributors JP Sports are showing the latest range to the Japanese cycling public.

You know you're experiencing something unique when you see people sprinting across the trade show floor in order to be the first in line to try out the latest and greatest. Ridley had a tidy demo fleet of five bikes on hand for the folks to ride - these five bikes were tested in excess of five hundred times on the Saturday opening day of the show. 500 test rides in less than 7 hours! There was a constant line-up at the booth with no fewer than ten people patiently awaiting their turn.

Needless to say, the non-Japanese amongst the Ridley crew were amazed and excited about the response to the brand as well as the overall orderliness of the lines, rides, testing and vibe of the show.

Cyclocross Season - Hurray!

No question about it - we love cyclocross season. We're up to our ears in mud here at Ridley HQ with victories pouring in from all over the world. Of course the top of the heap would be World Champ Z. Stybar maintaining a so-far undefeated season with a pair of World Cup victories and the leaders jersey in his closet. I'm thinking there is a good battle brewing between the two top Ridley sponsored Cross teams - Telenet-Fidea and Sunweb-Revor. Both teams are stacking up the World Cup podium appearances. On the ladies side of things Sanne Van Paasen (Team BrainWash) has been crushing it all year as well taking the Czech World Cup victory as well as the leaders jersey.

Across the Atlantic pond the Hudz-Subaru pb Ridley team has been absolutely throttling the competition across the continent. Tons of victories and podium appearances are in the history books spanning from California to Massachusetts with stops in BC and Toronto Canada for good measure.

The Embrocations guys (and girls) are rocking it out across the country - really representing the magazine, Ridley bikes and all of their partners. This shot pretty much says it all...

And of course no cross season is complete without the antics of the single speed crew. Newly signed Canuckian Wendy Simms produced two victories in two races on two brands newly built X-Fires. Literally the inaugural ride on each bike turned into a flying "V" across the finish line. Of course the golden bikini, wrestling belt and soon to be inked tattoo were well earned while dodging Sasquatch, mexican wrestlers, a kangaroo and numerous French maids...

And on the serious side Wendy retains the NACT National series leaders jersey and has her sights firmly set on adding a fifth (!!!) Canadian National Champ shirt to her wardrobe.

We're all off to KoppenbergCross in Belgium next weekend stop by and say howdy, enjoy a beverage and help us cheer for our favorite Ridley riding athletes no matter where in the world they're from.

A Ridley Ignite MTB for Andrea Dovizioso !

Thanks to Ridley dealer Cicli Zavarise of Cornuda (TV), a rapresentative of the Belgian bike company, had the pleasure, last month, to give a Ridley Ignite MTB, to the famous Moto GP rider Andrea Dovizioso, of the offcial Honda Repsol team, who has immediately started using it, for training and checking the circuits, before the races.

It might be a simple coincidence, but we like to believe that his new Ridley brought good luck to the strong rider from Romagna, as, in the two following races of his not too lucky season, he obtained two amazing second places, to Casey Stoner in Japan and to Valentino Rossi in Malaysia, probably gaining the opportunity to remain in the official Honda Repsol team also for next year, which was very difficult to think, only until few weeks before. As soon as this is confirmed, Ridley will make a new Ignite for Dovizioso in the 2011 team colours.

In the photo Andrea Dovizioso with his Ridley Ignite in the garden of his beautiful villa

Somekind of nature, some kind of soul.... simple rules to cycling

Hey everybody,

Felt like it was time to share some late evening/early morning ideas/thoughts with you. Short but powerful since i got to get in bed (starting early again tomorrow).

1) cycling is a bug, it definitely get's under your skin. You're in pain on the bike sometimes, working in the industry can be dam hard. But in the end you couldn't imagine yourself doing anything else.
I like cycling for quite some time know and it's been my job for 1,5 years; hard to imagine something else.

2) cycling must be fun!
Some simple rules though:

A) Wear a helmet!
If not for yourself, do it for your loved ones. Helmets are so cool and lightweight now,
no reason not to wear one.

B) there are no rules to cycling. I can go out with my dad and ride nice & calm for hours
chatting or i can train hard to reach a certain goal.
Last evening we went out with collegues making a pitstop to fuel up with a good Belgian
beer...
Maybe one rule after all... have fun


Sleep tight

Yannick

Catching up

It's been quite the long strange trip - Jo and I have been out traveling the world sharing everything there is to know about the 2011 range of Ridley bikes. After the hugely successful grand opening to our new facility in Belgium we hoofed it across the pond to Las Vegas and Interbike. I think we were all amazed at the reception we were given - no doubt about it Ridley was the buzz of the show. We were slam packed busy the entire show with dealers, media and competitors fighting for space in our booth. How good were we you might ask? Well how about a couple of quote from prominent media types:

"Hurry up and build the new bikes! Now everything else is going to seem a little plain..."

"...my product of the show that proved there is some true technological evolution going on at Ridley."

"Wanted to say thanks for taking the time to chat with us at Interbike and showing us Ridley's secret project... game changer for sure."

Of course Vegas just isn't Vegas without a little party program to kick off the festivities. Our Belgian brothers at Lazer debuted their new Oasis lid at the Hard Rock beach club - pretty nice and fitting location with Ridley Cross bikes at the beach. Wouldn't you guess it - the barriers ended up being fruity drinks with colored umbrellas!

Pack up the suitcase and hop a flight down under for Road Worlds and our dealer launch for Australia. We had a great launch with about 35 prominent dealers flying into Geelong to see the 2011 lineup and then watch a little bike race on the weekend. We were all a bit amazed at the number of Flemish flags and traveling Belgians amongst the crowd. Look at any finishing photo and the background is all yellow with Flandrien Lions. Big thanks to Mark, Nick, Matt, Brian and all the folks at Pacific Brands and the Bike Hub shops for making Worlds week such a Cracker of a good time!

Oh yea - there was actually racing down in OZ last week as well. Our Swedish national champ Emma Johanson opened up a killer sprint in the final 100 meters of the race to secure a beautiful bronze medal. I like to think her Asteria ISP was responsible although I'm guessing Emma's legs had something to do with it...

And our Katusha boys had a great weekend riding for their respective countries. Mr. Pozatto finished just off the rostrum in a solid fourth place on the day. I can pretty much guarantee he would have taken the bronze if the course would have been another 10 meters longer - he just ran out of real estate.

So summer is done and dusted. Time to pull out the Wellies and an umbrella - see you all out in the mud at the cross races.

To be or not to be...

A hipster? No,Yes, i finished my fixie. Finally i must say, i bought the hubs over one year ago an had other bits and pieces lying around for some while now.

The fact that one of my buddies finished his earlier then mine (even though he started later) and that i need to have something to do in the evening made me finally finisht he bike :)

other great news is that Arne Van Snick ,our promising young rider on the Arena, put down a strong performance on the European championships. We will continue to support him in his further development!

Bye

Yannick

commute to work

Hey everybody,

The opening is over, cross season is approaching and we are squeezing out the last bits out of the summer.

These last few sunny days felt damn good, it got my spirits up to commute to work.
I admit i am not climbing any infamous hills but the 18k (22k in total) long stretch of road next to the canal tends to get me down.
But i found out that the right soundtrack takes your mind off the road ahead and makes your legs spin :)
So let's try to keep this up and at least commutes a few times a week to work :)

One of our reps will be hitting the track next week on his Oval track bike. What's the big deal you might ask? Well, he has got a sweet pair of new 4ZA track wheels in his bike.
Stay tuned for some nice pics.

See you al next time,

Cheers,

Yannick

Telenet-Fidea Team launch at Ridley HQ

Telenet-Fidea team presentation at Ridley HQ on Thursday morning. Pretty cool having the reigning world champ riding our bikes, testing our bikes and winning on our bikes. Lots and lots of rainbow stripes on that dude to start the season on the right track.

bring it on...

Live coverage from the Official Ridley opening :)
Telenet - Fidea's team presentation just started, first factory tour at 13h

A few pic's from my temporary Prodev setup

(hmmm; what's under the curtain?)

Cheers

Yannick

Show time!

Howdie Ridley folks!

We're now full swing in the midst of international bike show season. We've just finished the Montreal BTAC show with our Canadian distributor - Norco. I'd like to send out a big thank you to Brandon, Marty and all the team for the support in building up the booth and supplying me with endless cups of coffee!

The timing of the show couldn't have worked out any better as it coincided with the Tour of Montreal. With the help from Skip @ Norco and Peter @ Lazer Helmets, we organised a Belgian evening for our Ridley/Lazer dealers which of course included Belgian beer and friets with mayonnaise, mmmm. Team Katusha sent along some riders to sign posters and talk about the race. The following day we had more of the team at the show. All in all a fantastic few days.

I'm now in Vancouver visiting local bike shops for a few days then heading down to Vegas for Interbike. Life isn't bad ;)

ridley bikes proudly presents...

haha, no scoop this time.

But we did get on tv :)

http://www.tvl.be/nl/2010-09-13/fietsenproducent-ridley-breidt-uit/

Oh yeah, official opening of the new company on Thursday and Friday, sweeeet
Include the press-presentation of the Telenet - Fidea team with world champion Zdenek Stybar and the final straight line towards the cross season is in sight :)

Adios

Yannick

Back home... Eurobike was a blast!

Hey there,

How have you all been? I'm fine thank you, a bit tired yes but happy. Yesterday evening we loaded up the show bikes in the van and set off to belgium. 9h's later we rolled in Hasselt.

But let's start the story on Monday. We set off to F'Hafen at 4h30 in the morning. A big white van packed with over 23 show bikes, 18demo bikes, 2 Belgians and 1 American. After a long ride we arrived in Ratzenried. Pouring rain, 9°c... no need to say we were a bit depressed.

But when we woke up on Thuesday the weather was clouded but no rain and during the day it even cleared out and the demo day was a big success! People loved the Noah RS, Blast 29er and we also got a good response to the Noah.

After the demo day we set off for 4 days of trade fair. 3 days of meetings with part suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. The perfect moment for me to go more in to detail about our 2012 range and push were needed for the 2011 range.
For what i can tell, exiting things will happen in the next few years...

There's a time for work and a time for play. We relaxed by riding our Noah RS to the trade show and back, listening to some music and have dinner together.

A good vibe, a great show and a dedicated team.
Ridley will continue to spread his vision on cycling and leave a mark in the industry!

Cheers!

Yannick

Tough, but fun Sunday on the mountains

I figured yesterday would be one of the last Sundays, with reasonably good weather in the mountains, before I put definitively my Ignite Team FS away, being September the hardest month of the year, with all international shows, so I accepted the invitation of a friend of mine to bring my family over to his place up in the mountains of Val di Scalve, about 1 hr and 15 minutes from where we live.

Actually the weather was not as good as Saturday and as today, but fair enough.

So, we got to Colere around 10:30 and we took the lift to the top of the ski-slopes (impossible to get there in such short time by bike and with our very little training) and Giovanni, Carlo and myself did some short tours on the paths, around the Refuge Albani. To name them "path" does not make really understand what they are like, it is sufficient to say that most of the time we were carrying our bikes on our shoulders, not only because they were very narrow, but also (and this was most disturbing), because they were covered with a thick layer of gravel and rocks and it was so easy for the wheels to slide toward the scarry gorge...

Anyway we got to a almost dried lake, just under a big mountain used as gym, for climbers, where we took some shots, on everlasting snow

and we went back to the refuge, where our families where waiting, for a big lunch. Pizzoccheri, polenta, brasato, porcini mushroom.....good red wine....and some grappa, in the end. Nothing missing there, but you can imagine that the return to the top of the mountain to follow the ski slopes, downhill, back to Colere, was not the easiest part of the day, either, also because, in the meanwhile, the temperature had dropped quite a bit !

At least, we lost some of the kilos, we had just gained, with the lunch.

As a matter of facts, downhill was quite hard, as well. All on gravel and rocks, which made very difficult the control of the bikes (especially when braking).

The set-up of my front fork and rear shock, was definitively too hard, but, after 2 flat tires (Gio' and Carlo)

and a couple of quite scarry falls (Giovanni), we made it to Colere, where we had some more grappa (to recover) and a nice dinner, all together, after which we hit the road back home.

Prototype testing - World Champ Style!

Our reigning CX World Champ stopped by yesterday to have a look at some fancy new hoops and a specially designed new frame we've prepared for him. Sub-950 grams for a pair of cross wheels should be good for Styby's winter campaign and adding a second Arc-en-Ciel to his wardrobe. You can't quite make it out but that top tube says X-Fire Prototype...