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...

Ohjoyohjoyohjoy

Ohjoyohjoyohjoy,

I got the frame!!! My customized Damocles ISP left the paintshop this week and is now ready for assembly.
Believe me, the picture doesn't do it justice.



I was hoping to ride this bike next week during the Eurobike show, but it won't get assembled in time :( But have no fear, the Ridley gang is still planning on riding from the hotel to the fair and back every day. We will use the Noah RS frames we took to the Demo Day. If least if the weather is not so crappy as it is here in Belgium...

This week we got a whole bunch of Britisch, Scotisch, Irisch... dealers over, i took the opportunity to join one of the group rides. Good weather, nice roads, good companionship... As a little extra pro- rider Geert Omloop joined us.
It is fun to get to know the people who buy and sell our bikes.
The highlights of the ride were the passage at the Grasbos in Diest and the sprint at the Ridley factory.

Before i forget i want to congratulate Arne van Snick with his performance at the track world championships in Montichiari (Italy).
We are glad that our new Arena frame helped Arne to achieve his goals. An overview of the races in which he competed with the Arena

• 9th place overal scratch
• 10th place overal omnium

2nd place sprint 200m TT in a new national record 13.6sec
20th place points race
9th place sracth
11th place elimination race


This is looking good for the European championships in St-Petersburg! A big thumbs up from the Ridley team!!!

Stay tuned for live coverage from the Eurobike show next week.

I'm off

Cheers

Yannick

Now Bikes CX Ride

Now Bikes in St. Paul, Minnesota hosted a CX clinic as part of their regular Thursday evening group ride this week. Todd and I brought our demo X-Bows, X-Rides, and X-Fires for the first timers and Lazer's Mike Pederson brought practice barriers and provided instruction for the group.

Ridley's Todd Schmidt and Lazer's Mike Pederson provided expert instruction.

The group listened intently to instruction on how to successfully negotiate the barriers.

Bob from Now Bikes demonstrating his alternate side dismount.

Putting instruction into action and showing good form on their first CX outing.

Skills improved with practice throughout the evening. I look forward to seeing many of our new CX riders at the local events this Fall.

countdown to Eurobike

Yesyes girls and boys,

Eurobike is approaching,stress is building up. Not that i have doubts about the new range, the team has done a good job, product tests were good and i expect positive feedback from the consumers.

Dealers have been over the past weeks, but in the end it's all about you people... how will you all like the bikes? We will be ready to inform, explain what's not clear or simply talk about cycling in general.

Be sure to stop by at the demo day. A new version of the Noah & Orion, the Dean Rs, a new MTB... we have got some stuff to show off and test:)

I also have some personal reasons to look forward to this years Eurobike. I am trading in my faithful companion, a custom painted Compact, for a new beauty on 2 wheels. A Damocles ISP with colors chosen on the 2011 customizer. Yes i am a lucky b@*$sterd :)
Second of all its fun to see the familiar faces of the industry again.

Some stress to get the showbikes ready on time but even more to get the 2012 range up and and running. Better to be one step ahead :)

Oh yeah, good new Apple has posted a patent regarding bicycle accessories and companys like bosh are really entering the E-bike business..

Until next post, have fun, ride your bike

Over and out

Yannick

As is said in my previous blog: The market for aero is going in a direction to hide and integrate the brake.
Since then we have performed our first official test on the road with ex Belgian champion Geert Omloop. Although I asked him to use the integrated brake system only during test rides he was so enthusiastic about the new fork that he used it in the race in Westrozebeke and guess what, he immediately won.

Leysen the next generation !

hello all,

This week-end Bart Leysens' son will dispute the Belgian championship U14 on a................Ridley of course. Bart, sportdirector at Katushateam and former pro rider, was a great inspiration for his son. Ridley Bikes painted his Ridley Excalibur. Senne Leysen customized his Excalibur himself and look at the great result. Bart's son only started last year to race and already picked up 6 wins this season. It seems that the next generation Leysen is ready to rock the peloton; Watch out for the boy on his very nice and fast Ridley bike. We wish you lot of success this week-end for the Belgian nationals in Herenthout ! Watch out for the result and I will keep you posted.

back to work

Hey everybody,

Holiday is over, 2 weeks out of office were good for body, mind and soul.
Even when you like your job and do it with passion it's good to take some time off. Spend some time with family, friends... good times.

None the less i haven't been without my bike the past two weeks. I was lucky enough to test the fork Jochim mentioned in a previous post. Some testing was done in West-Flanders (did some hills from the tour the Flanders) the second week of testing took place in the south of France.
Facing the strong Mistral winds during my daily ride is like riding in an open wind tunnel.

My personal experiences and those of the pro rider currently testing the fork already learned us the fork functions perfect but we still need some tweaking. The final phase in this project is approaching (fine tuning, testing, fine tuning until it's perfect)... what a way to get back to work after 2 weeks of holiday.

This was it for today's post.

Stay tuned!

Yannick

Another sneak preview befor the holiday: The Fandrien

It’s the last week before our annual Holiday.
During the end of July we close the company for 2 weeks. It’s very strange but those 2 weeks I make more mileage on my bike then normally in half a year.
Every year I go to the south of France and ride my bike in the mountains. I love to ride in the sun, I love to climb, for me it’s the perfect bicycle environment. For a lot of Belgians it’s a bit crazy that people love to come to Belgium and ride their bikes on our cobble roads, in cold weather with some (or a lot of) rain. I think it’s mainly because we are used to cobble roads and we have rain and bad weather all the time. But I can imagine somebody who only saw the Tour of Flanders on tv, with those “warriors” on their bikes flying over the cobbles all dirty, soaked, … as a cyclist you need to experience that feeling at least once. For us it’s all day life, it’s like we say in our catalogue etc the center where we developed our bikes.
Anyway I am happy I can go to the sun and the mountains to ride my bike. It the perfect preparation for the Spa 24 hours an important car race I am participating in at the end of the month and where I have to defend my last year’s victory.
For those who have holiday enjoy the sun, rain, … whatever, … but far more important enjoy your bike rides ;)
….

Obviously as in September we launch our new catalogue and I gave a sneak preview last time, here one of my personal favorites in the 2011 range: The Ridley Helium FLANDRIEN: designed to withstand the most brutal races on earth, the Classics ;) Every detail has been chosen with the traditional classic’s rider in mind (high mileage comfort and durability).