It was not a warm weekend at the first BC Cup at Kamloops Bike Ranch but fun, learning and success was had! Check out our team video by Noah Allman.

Stoked to be a part of this brand, this launch and to shred with Voreis! Fox Head stepping it up every season with their gear. Check out the edit for some dust and drift action:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/kirt-voreis-chris-kovarik-railing-bend-oregon-video-2016.html

We are stoked to announce that Magura will be supporting our Rider Development Team for 2016! Chris and Claire first got on Magura brakes early on in 2015 and have been blown away by the quality and performance. And also by the people and heritage behind the brand. We are beyond proud to be representing such a cool company.

We’d like to thank all the great brands that recognize the importance of Development projects like these. Thanks for your support Intense Cycles, Magura, Fox Head, Chromag, Smith Optics, Five Ten, Scorpion Bikes Stands and Evolution Whistler.

Our Rider Development Team has grown another member for 2016! We’d like to welcome 15(soon to be 16)year old Jessie McAuley from Squamish BC to our rad little roster!

Growing up playing in the BC mountains, Jessie fell in love with riding at an early age and after recently trying his hand at DH racing, has shown some real talent. Together with his passion, personality and attitude, we see some great potential in him.

Jessie will be racing U17 this year and then heading on up to Junior so we are excited to be able to guide and mentor him as he works his way up the ranks.

Jessie joins Seth Sherlock(13) of Squamish BC, Piper Allman(14) and Noah Allman(17) of Sooke BC to make up our wicked little line up of shredders. All great kids with a lot of heart, we are proud to have them under our wings.

Huge thank you to Intense Cycles for seeing the importance of projects like these and for making this possible. For 2016, the team is also supported by Fox Head, Chromag, Smith Optics, Five Ten, Scorpion Bike Stands and Evolution Whistler.

It is really special to be a part of these kids dreams and development. Here is our spring team camp video from last year to give you an idea of what this program is all about:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/kovarik-racing-rd-team-video-2015.html

Looking forward to a great season!

It has been well worth the wait. The M16 is the newest generation of the heritage rich M Series that artist/genius/husband/father/friend/all round rad guy Jeff Steber of Intense Cycles created. And it is now available in Carbon. Check out the full review on Dirt. ‪#‎preparetohaveyourmindblown‬ ‪#‎dhweapon‬ ‪#‎racingmachine‬‪#‎thisaintnoV10‬ ‪#‎realheritage‬ ‪#‎realdeal‬ ‪#‎respect‬ ‪#‎ferrariofmtb‬

Laurence Crossman-Emms photo.

We were pretty excited to be racing at crankworx rotorua and the event didn’t disappoint. The event itself is set around the base of the skyline gondola with amazing scenery, with the manicured slope style course amongst the huge redwood trees, the dual pump track basically in the pit area and the downhill finish just above that, and honestly, i don’t think I’ve ever seen a better finish to a downhill course ever, really entertaining for any spectator!

Claire and i had entered both the downhill and enduro and little did we know what we were in for. We managed to get a few enduro laps in the first day and i will say I’ve never ridden anything as technical, off camber, rutted, rooty, blind, wet, blown out, sketchy, blind , wet, blown out sketchy you get the picture, and did i mention the transitions and climbs! These are amazing trails but after a taste of what the Enduro and the DH track had to offer we decide it was best to take a step back, as the enduro and DH practice over lapped each other it would have been quite a big ask to perform %100 at both so we decided to focus on DH.

The DH track looked like the crew had put a lot of work into it with some decent sized jumps, berms, off camber sections and man made rock gardens and it was super fun to ride not to mention the dirt in the woods was amazing, super loamy.  Claire and i were both pumped to dial in our last 2 runs before racing in the afternoon, claire hit a hole and went over the bars in the woods on her first run and got sent venturing into the jungle pulling muscles in her back and neck, i went over the first man made bridge at the top section, slid on the wet wood and went flying down the other side like a penguin into the grass, gotta love that combo wet wood!  Second run was great untill we both suffered rear flat tyres on the second man made rock garden, not the best start to a race day but thats where the tough prevail and re focus, right.

For race run claire said she toned it down as she was sore and not her best performance but managed to stay on pretty clean, she was killing it on the big jumps and even womaned up to hit the huge step up hip jump before the finish one of only 3 girls to attempt it, big effort and a 4th place. My run was going well and i was enjoying the loose conditions but again suffered a rear flat tyre on the second rock garden, i was pretty dissapoionted as i was really looking forward to coming into the off camber finish section hitting gaps with that crowd buzzing!

Considering the circumstances we had a blast here, the trails and woods are unreal and everything is pretty close to access, it always really cool to see all the gravity riders in one place shredding,hanging out with mates and having a good time.

James Allan photo.

Here’s some footage on Vital that will give you a good taste of what we were enjoying:

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/Vital-RAW-Crankworx-Rotorua-DH-2,28532/sspomer,2

Chris.

ATTENTION BRISBANE!!!! Do you own an Intense trail bike? If so, you are invited to come out for a free skills clinic followed by BBQ and refreshments with Professional MTB Athletes, Brand Ambassadors and PMBI Level 2 Instructors, Chris and Claire of Kovarik Racing.

When: Saturday February 28
Where: Gap Creek Reserve

Planned Itinerary:
1pm Ride/Skills with Chris and Claire.
4pm BBQ & Beers in covered picnic area.

Spaces are limited so please register your interest by emailing us at contact@kovarikracing.com

****This is an exclusive and FREE event for Intense trail bike owners only!****

Hope to see you there!

We are excited to be pairing up with Perth based Rock and Roll Mountain Biking and WAGE(Western Australia Gravity Enduro) for an action packed weekend of gravity. We will be teaching 4 clinics and racing the first WAGE round. Thanks for the invite guys, looking forward to passing on some tricks of the trade, meeting more rad people and shredding some west coast dirt!

Jeff Steber and team has done it again. This bike is beautiful and we can’t wait to go fast on it. Alloy, new geometry, new i-box and 115 to 130mm adjustable travel without affecting geometry. This bike is a trail weapon. Check out the full review on Pink Bike! Of course, ours will be spec’ed with all of our amazing and preferred component sponsors: Chromag, Magura, Fox and DT Swiss!