Galaxy All Stars Downhill MTB Club

CONTENTS

Membership

All About GAS

Course Build

DH Events

Images

Downhillers

GRAVITY SUCKSThe Unofficial Gravity All Stars Down Hill Mountain Bike Club Journal

It’s All Downhill from Here

COVER

Content is Copyright© Gravity All Stars DH MTB Club.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Contributors Images/Text are Copyright© respectively.eMagazine “Garvity Sucks”© eDIGImag® USA

Image Copyright Steve Mancini©of Neville Duggan. Round 1 ofthe British NPS which was held atInnerliethen, Scotland.

eMagazine Design & Layout by GP Lindenberg©2010EDITOR eDIGImag® USA.Published by Maentwrog®, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Gravity All Stars is a new downhill and gravity specific Mountainbike Club. We are affiliated to Central Gauteng Cycling and Cycling SA.

2010 MEMBERSHIP NOW OPEN. VISIT out WEBSITE http://www.gravityallstars.co.za/2152.html.

Membership DetailsFour (4) types of memberships are offered, being:

* Premier Membership This membership is aimed at riders wanting to maximise their riding and compete in as many of the races as possible. Cost: R 500 per year - this includes R75 Affiliation Fee paid to Central Gauteng Cycling (CGC) Benefits: Only pay R80 race entry at all Provincial Cup and Champs events - usually R100 so saving R120 - and FREE entry to the GAS Team series saving another R400 - so savings = R520 * Standard Membership This membership is aimed at riders only focusing on the Provincial events and normal Jan-Jul race season. Cost: R 250 per year - this includes R75 Affiliation Fee paid to Central Gauteng Cycling (CGC) Benefits: Only pay R80 race entry at all Provincial Cup and Champs events - usually R100 so saving R120. * Family Membership This membership is aimed at additional family members of a Premier or Standard member who wishes to join GAS. Let the whole family join in the fun! Cost: R 150 per year - this includes R50 Affiliation Fee paid to Central Gauteng Cycling (CGC) Benefits: Only pay R80 race entry at all Provincial Cup and Champs events - usually R100 so saving R120 - plus membership saving on Standard of R100 - total savings = R 220. * Junior Membership This membership is only available to Juniors under the age of 19 who is not already a Family member. In other words they are the only member of their family who joins GAS. Cost: R 150 per year - this includes R75 Affiliation Fee paid to Central Gauteng Cycling (CGC) Benefits: Only pay R80 race entry at all Provincial Cup and Champs events as well as the GAS Team Series - usually R100 - so saving R 200.



How to Join?Fill in a membership application form ( available on http://www.gravityallstars.co.za/2152.html ) and e-mail it to GAS. Then pay your membership fees into the Club bank account - see details below -and then e-mail proof of payment to [email protected] OR FAX it to 0865751701.

When making an electronic payment please use your Cellphone number as your Reference Number so we can confirm receipt of your payment.

Bank Details:Bank: First National BankType: Cheque AccountAccount Number: 62245699923Branch: Clearwater WallBranch Code: 251141

Objectives of the Club

* To promote and develop downhill, freeriding, fourcross and dirt jump mountain biking in South Africa. * To develop and nurture riders in all age groups and all competitive levels with the focus to grow the sport of downhill, fourcross, freeriding and dirt jump and making it accessible to the benefit of riders, enthusiasts, sponsors and other stakeholders. * To negotiate and secure access to suitable venues for the organisation of Club activities with a primary focus on venues suitable for downhill, four-cross, dual slalom, freestyle, “northshore” and freeriding cycling activities. * To represent the best interests of the Club Members. * To comply with the constitution, rules, regulations and by-laws of CGC, Cycling SA and any other body to which the Club may affiliate, as existing from time to time. * To build and maintain good relations with CGC, Cycling SA and with the provincial and local Authorities as deemed necessary to foster cycling and the activities of the club



Activities of the Club

*

The Activities of the Club shall be any activities that will further the interests of downhill, fourcross, freeriding and dirt jumping and of the Club Members including, but not limited to, the following:

* Riding areas - The Club shall create, build, maintain or organise access to suitable riding areas for downhill, fourcross, freeriding and dirt jumping. These riding areas shall be established primarily for Club Members but, in the interest of fostering the specific riding disciplines, the riding areas shall not exclude non-members. * Teams and race entries - The Club shall co-ordinate team and individual entries for organised cycle and adventure races in support of the sponsors, organisers, and cy-cling. * Races - The Club shall organise at least one Club Race per quarter for downhill and for fourcross, which events shall be open to all cyclists and be Gauteng provincial sanctioned races. The Committee shall decide before the end of each year in which discipline and on what dates the races will be organised, with sanctioning by CGC and Cycling SA. See our 2010 Race Calendar here! * Education and training - The Club shall organise events and engage with reputable stakeholders in the sport to provide skills training clinics and education on the sport, skills, fitness, health and respect for the environment and ecology to further the objective of rider development and nurturing. * Engagement with industry support and sponsors - The Club shall engage contractually and otherwise with companies, bodies and industry to provide financial support, product sponsorship and infrastructure assistance to the Club to enable the objectives of establishing riding areas, organise race events and develop and nurture riders or any other Club objectives.





2010 Club Committee

Position Name E-mail Cellphone

Chairman Christiaan Viljoen [email protected] 0825130799Vice Chairman Francois Swanepoel [email protected] 0846362225Secretary Barry Kemp [email protected] 0824139620Treasurer Temp: Christiaan Viljoen Race and Event Organiser Temp: Francois Swanepoel Media, Public Relations and Marketing Officer Vacant

Club Contacts FAX Number 086575170



Mountain Biking, no, scratch that - Down Hill Racing!

The club, newly formed, hosts a diverse membership of Down Hill Rac-ers and those that wannabe DH Racers. A friendly bunch, quick to help up and coming members, have an ambitious DH programme for 2010 what with course building (of their own), team participation in National MTB Events and full-throttle involvement in all things MTB.

The Gravity All Stars (forever known as GAS) have amongst their ranks, with a membership count on Facebook® of 964 to date, the following of-ficials: Brent Carpenter The Tech Master Kayn Woolmer MTB Guru Francois Swanepoel The Downhill King Eric Wyatt Palmer MTB Photo Guru Christopher Pearton Trials Guru Malcolm Ford MTB Guru

However, GAS is also involved with ‘other’ aspects of MTB - Trials (foot-ups) and real Mountain biking - racing, multiple-day events, and trail riding for the not so energentic.

The clubs’ overall view on life in MTB territory does cover family and friends and will cater for more social eventing located at their clubhouse

in Krugersdorp. I hope.

So we can see why a club of this mix - all DH events, including the Na-tionals and World Cup, occur either in Cape Town or Pietermaritzburg, KZN. The poor cousins are here in Gauteng but with the most active MTB riders, surpassing all the provinces put together - GAS is attempt-ing the near impossible - to make a mark on the MTB DH territory so that Main Sponsors and UCI perhaps recognise that the massive MTB, DH events should not be restricted to coastal towns. What, competitors scared of a little altitude?

If you are a mountain biker here in Gauteng - please join these hard working club members if you live near the West Rand, or, if you belong to a club North, East or South of Krugersdorp, hassle your chairman to at least become attached to this near legendary club, GAS. How about inter-club events? Certainly will raise the Bar amongst the MTB crowd here in Gauteng - maybe challenge the KZN, WC MTB’rs. This is one way to get noticed by the larger powers, the higher authority.

It’s all about Trails and Courses - DH, Fast single Track, Closed Circuit. The GAS membership are actively looking for venues from friendly land-owners and municipalities - but it takes commitment and hard work and one voice, the MTB VOX POPS.

Paul LindenbergEDITOR eDIGImag® USA



Neil Evans poses on “The biggest feature on the new Krugersdorp course. +- 4m high, 45 degree angle.”

Mike Kemp said“think its more like 65 -70 degree, might be wrong”

Brent Carpenter said“Yoh Yoh Yoh eish this look big... what do you say real deal evans at the top?”

Neil Evans said“sad news...access to the course has been stopped....the guys put alot of work ino it...had great potential....Francois finding a new course now...”

Jason Martin said“Well...that blows...” Photo Francoise Swanepoel©The DH Course that never got to be.

Castle Steps + Bridge



URBAN DOWNHILL

Urban Downhill Cycle Race - sponsored by 'Fat Face'

Urban Downhill! In Edinburgh. From what I saw, it was fast and furious - on the tar, on the pavements, on the stairs (or should I say Down The Stairs?).This type of MTB Event is gaining popularity, from Mexico, the USA, Europe and maybe South Africa soon. Here is a selection of images from the Edin-burgh event, GAS - maybe an event to arrange here in Krugersdorp? Will get noticed if the marketing conditions are right.)

Castle Esplanade

Images Copyright Peter Stubbs©All Rights Reserved

Bridge over Johnston Terrace



URBAN DOWNHILL

Images Copyright Peter Stubbs©All Rights Reserved

Scotland's capital city faced an adventure race with a difference, a competition which claimed the honour of being the world's first urban downhill race to take place at night.

On the night of Saturday 6 Oc-tober, a field of more than 250

mountain bikers competed against the clock, racing through the streets, down the city's steep stairs and through its vennels.

The sponsors of the race gathered a field of world class mountain bike riders to race in the darkness of an October night.

Chris Roberts, director of the night ride, said all 250 competitor slots had been taken within two days of opening registration.

World championsRuaridh Cunningham downhill bike (Pic courtesy of Bike Love)

The field was impressive, and included Scotland's Ruaridh Cun-ningham, freshly crowned Junior World Champion at the World Championships in Fort William in September. The 18-year-old raced to victory in front of almost

10,000 spectators in Fort William.

World Silver medallist Rachel Atherton raced alongside her brothers Gee and Dan Atherton, and mountain bike legend Tracey Mosley had also signed up to compete.

Gee Atherton had won a bronze in the Elite Men category in last month's World Championships.

Carl Lottering-Geeson, bike shop owner and current sponsor of Ruaridh Cun-ningham, explained that the course only took a minute or two to run. He said the spectacle of bringing downhill racing into the city centre had given people a rare chance to witness the skills of the riders.

A former Londoner, Carl said the race was an opportunity to highlight Scot-land as a venue for all kinds of biking. He said: "Scotland is about the only place in the UK where you can ride any form of bike to all levels."

According to Carl, the urban course offered its own challenges to the riders, with concrete and tarmac presenting a harder surface than the usual downhill courses.

Some riders chose not to use typical downhill bikes, selecting instead the strong hard tail or freeride bikes.

Top secret course

To keep up suspense, the organisers kept the official course "top secret". This also served to prevent any pre-race practising. However, they let it be know in advance that the course was going to be extremely challenging, taking in steps, jumps and a bridge.

Before the event, Mr Lottering-Geeson said: "Every rider has their own per-sonal taste, and no-one yet knows what the course is like. We don't know if there are any wooden drops or ramps built in to the city streets. The winner of a similar Paris event didn't use a downhill bike at all."

Britain's Steve Peat won the urban downhill race in Lisbon, Portugal for the sixth consecutive time in May.

Historical landmarks

Thousands of spectators travelled to Edinburgh for the event, which had a prize pot totalling £3,000 for the professional riders as well as thousands more for winners of the competition's age categories.

Organisers planned the focal point for the day to be the finish line in the Cattle and Grassmarket, so spectators could get close to the top riders as they raced through the city.

The Grassmarket has a mix of housing, shops, restaurants and bars, and is a landmark in Edinburgh city centre.

Locating the finish line and prize giving in this area raised some concerns as


It’s All Downhill from Here URBAN DOWNHILL

the area is currently under renovation, with the fitting of CCTV cameras and re-laying traditional cobbled road surfaces as part of a £5.1m programme.

However, according to the City of Edinburgh Council, the work site areas were made safe to accommodate the race.A spokeswoman for the council said preparations for the event had begun months before with the setting up of an Events Planning and Operations Group (Epog).

The Epog included emergency services and the event's organisers as well as other agencies affected by the event.

The race organisers were obliged to meet the conditions set by the Epog, and also had to create safety and contingency plans.

The council's spokeswoman said: "Edinburgh is popular venue for differ-ent types of events, and the council is keen to actively work to make sure the events can go ahead."

Race organisers

Ian Williams, events manager for Fat Face, said the race had been a fitting finale for the company's series of night events in 2007, bringing "all the ele-ments of the off-road sport to the centre of one of the most iconic cities of the UK."

He added: "It has been a pleasure working with the very proactive team at the Edinburgh Council to pull this off."


It’s All Downhill from Here URBAN DOWNHILL

Mountain bikers try city downhillNight rideAbout 250 bikers took part in the eventSome of the world's best mountain bikers have taken to the steps and closes of Edinburgh centre.

Crowds lined the route for the world's first night-time urban downhill biking race, on a course from the Castle Esplanade to the Grassmarket.

Organisers Fat Face kept the route for The Urban Downhill at Night a secret until a few hours before the race on Saturday.

Competitors were then allowed to walk the route ahead of the race.

There was £3,000 in prize money.

About 250 riders took part in the Urban Downhill in Edinburgh

Downhill cyclist in city (Pic courtesy of Fat Face)


It’s All Downhill from HereCourse Build

The second biggest feature on the new Krugersdorp course

It crashed! According to Francois Swanepoel, in a conversation with the editor, the new much anticipated Downhill course being built in Krugersdorp had to be halted/abandoned due to a mis-communica-tion between the course builders and the land owner.It seems that a leg of the course cut through sensative land, which had to remain ‘pristine’ and unaffected by development, which brought about the no-go situation. All permissions were granted initially for the course building exercise, after meetings with the various conserva-tion groups and land owner(s).This is unfortunate as Gauteng definately needs a prime DH venue, without having to travel 60Km out to the Magalisburg. I’m sure a com-promise will be reached eventually, or a new course area found, after the looming Nationals just ahead.

Photo Francois Swanepoel©

Paul LindenbergEDITOR eDIGImag® USA

There will be 2 sets of Series events and 1 Championship event for 2010, being:

* TSG Gauteng Provincial Cup DHI Series This series will consist of 5 Cup events, each time with Cash Prizes for each of the qualifying* race categories as well as product or voucher spon-sors as available, with all the points of each race accumulating to an overall Cup Series winner for 2010.

* TSG Gauteng Provincial Championships DHI This will be a single event with a single downhill run determining the Gauteng Provincial Downhill Champion for 2010. One run takes it all!

* TSG Gravity All Stars Team Series This series is aimed at the DH "off-season" and will consist of 4 events. The format will be finalised later in the year but will include both an in-dividual and a TEAM format. Entries will be in the format of Teams consisting of a specific size and profile (a mix of Elite and Novice for example) where the COMBINED times of all the riders will determine the winner of each event as well as the Series.

NOTE: Team Rider's times from the Gauteng Cup Series will also carry forward to determine the overall TEAM winnner for 2010. The idea is also to have teams from other provinces and other Clubs competing in this series.

* qualifying categories - requires minimum 2 riders in a category - if 2 riders then only 1st gets cash prize, if 3 riders then 1st and 2nd only, if 4 rid-ers or more then 1st, 2nd and 3rd gets cash prizes.


It’s All Downhill from Here EVENTS

The 2010 Race Calendar is tabled below:The dates and venues have all been mostly confirmed but changes are possible and will be communicated.

Date Event and Venue Comment

TSG Gauteng Provincial Cup DHI Series

31 Jan Cup Series #1 - Krugersdorp - Bosvark 4X4 Track National Track of 7 Feb 21 Feb Cup Series #2 - Roodepoort - Helderkruin Track 21 Mar Cup Series #3 - Pretoria - Klapperkop 25 Apr Cup Series #4 - Johannesburg - Gillooly's Farm Long weekend 24-27 Apr 30 May Cup Series #5 - Nelspruit - Mankele National Track of 13 June

TSG Gauteng Provincial Championships DHI 27 Jun Gauteng Champs - Pretoria - Klapperkop New Track - Nationals 18 Jul TSG Gravity All Stars Team Series

25 Jul Team Series #1 - Roodepoort - Helderkruin Possible other venue 22 Aug Team Series #2 - Krugersdorp - Bosvark 4X4 Track 25 Sep Team Series #3 - Durban - Giba Gorge (and PMB) Long weekend 24-26 Sep 24 Oct Team Series #4 - Fouriesburg - Destiny Castle New Track - still to confirm


It’s All Downhill from HereEVENTS

Other GAS events

31 Jul Gauteng Provincial Prize-giving 14 Nov GAS Fun DH - Johannesburg - Gillooly's Farm 20 Nov GAS AGM and Awards Party MTN National DHI Series

7 Feb National Cup #1 - Krugersdorp - Bosvark 4X4 Track "GAS" build the track 11 Apr National Cup #2 - Pietermaritzburg - Cascades 16 May National Cup #3 - George - Saasveld Announce SA Team 13 Jun National Cup #4 - Nelspruit - Mankele 18 Jul National Champs - Pretoria - Klapperkop "GAS" build the track Greg Minnaar Mongoose KZN Provincial Series 31 Jan KZN Series #1 - World's View 28 Feb KZN Series #2 - Cascades 28 Mar KZN Series #3 - TBC 2 May KZN Series #4 - Upper Ferncliffe 29 May KZN Series #5 - Cascades 4 Jul KZN Series #6 - Howick Fire Tower


It’s All Downhill from HereEVENTS


It’s All Downhill from Here IMAGES

From the Camera of Eric Palmer©2010.

I love these images ... a depth of insight and imagination ..along with bags of talent.

Personally, I have shot many images of Bicycling - MTB, BMX, ROAD and, as the picture Editor for eDIGImag® USA, I have had many pic-tures across my desk from the world’s top genre specific photographers. Eric Palmer’s presentation here ( a small sample) make him a valuable member of the club and a pos-sible contributor to this eMag-azine. World Class indeed. I should’nt compare these images to ‘others’ from pro-fessional photographers who make their living following the MTB DH Circus for example - but I will - these images are as good as any dedicated profes-sional.

Images are Copyright Eric Palmer©All Rights Reserved

Eric Palmer©

Eric Wyatt Palmerhttp://www.pinkbike.com/ph



Eric Palmer©



Eric Palmer©



Eric Palmer©



Eric Palmer©



Eric Palmer©



Eric Palmer©


It’s All Downhill from Here DOWNHILLERS













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