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Start: July 6, 2013 End: July 14, 2013 Location: Les 2 Alpes, France www.crankworx.com les2alpes@crankworx.com In its second year as a major freeride mountain bike festival across the Atlantic, Crankworx Les 2 Alpes will be host to one of the season’s biggest, most critical events for the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour (FMB), one stage of the new Enduro World Series and the annual Free Raid Classic.

WATERLOO, WI (BRAIN) — When the Planet Bike Cup kicks off the biggest cyclocross series in the country in a few weeks, Trek Bicycle will have a major presence in the fast growing sport for the first time. Trek recently stepped in to become title sponsor of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, a four-weekend series that kicks off September 22 just 15 minutes from Trek’s headquarters in Wisconsin.

Three cycling events over one weekend is the perfect opportunity to put your summer training and fitness to the test, and we think round five of the Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series will do the trick.

Powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport, the final round of the season will be held in Ruthin, Wales on the 15-16 September 2012. For the first time in the series’ history, the round will feature three events:

• Vitus Sportive: The road sportive will open the event on the Saturday morning and feature 45 and 80 mile options around the rolling Clwydian hills area.

• Exposure Lights Big Night Out Night Marathon: Taking place on the Saturday night at 7.30pm, it follows the same principle as the standard marathons. They’ve put together a 40km loop loaded with single track, open moorland, forest roads and fast flowing off road sections making this event a real challenge. The route is pretty much ridden entirely in the dark, so strong legs but equally strong bike lights are a must.

• CRC MTB Marathon: Taking place during the day on Sunday, the marathon features four different distances (80km, 70km, 55km & 29km). The route starts out heading onto the Clwydian hills, incorporating fast flowing single tracks, technical forest sections, tough climbs and breathtaking descents. The course climbs up onto both Moel Arthur and Moel Famau, giving you spectacular views of the surrounding Clwydian hills and North Wales coast.

See the event listing on BikeRadar Training here.

The final round of the series is to be held in Ruthin, Wales.

Entry open – make sure you get in now.

Entries to all three events are open now. If you’re up for doing two events over the weekend, there is a reduced ‘weekend ticket’ available for ?47.

To enter the Vitus Sportive please go to the entry page and to enter the ELBNO and/or the CRC marathons please go to the marathon entry page.

If all this riding sounds like your ideal event but you don’t think your fitness is up to scratch, take a look at our new?Flat out Fit?mountain bike training plan. Designed exclusively for us by?Pro Ride Guides?(the official coaching partners of the?Megavalanche), the regime is?meant for intermediate and novice trail riders who want to improve their fitness levels. It’s based around three rides per week and one or two home workout sessions that require no equipment.?

Intrigued by the Flat out Fit plan? Head over to?BikeRadarTraining?and check out some of the free sample sessions.?You can purchase the?full training plan?for just ?9.99.

BikeRadar Training?is a free online resource for you to?record and analyse?all aspects of your?training, log your?training routes, get yourself tailored?training plans, see how you’re doing on our?leaderboards, set goals and plan your season with a comprehensive?events guide.

WATERLOO, WI (BRAIN) Tuesday June 26 2012 3:00 PM MT— Trek Bicycle on Tuesday announced a refreshment to its road bike line, with an updated top-of-the-line Madone model and a more complete line of Domane bikes, featuring the company’s de-coupler comfort feature. The Domane line, introduced for this spring’s cobbled classics in Europe, now includes an aluminum-framed model starting at $1,430.

The French town of Orbey in the Vosges mountains was the location for Commen?al’s 2012 mountain bike launch. Following on from last year’s release of the Meta AM, this year sees an expansion of the Meta range, including a new 120mm-travel trail bike and 29er.

Developments have also been made to Commen?al’s ‘gravity’ range, with a new Supreme FR being revealed along with updates to the Supreme DH v3. More news about the bikes will be coming next week. For now, take a look at our image gallery for a sneak peek at what’s to come.

You can view full specifications below, though prices, availability and claimed weights are still to be confirmed.?For more information, visit?www.commencal.com.?

The Supreme FR, Supreme DH, Meta AM 29 and Meta SL will also be available as framesets, including VIP versions with upgraded shocks (FOX DHX RC2, DHX RC4 and Float RP23 Boost Valve, respectively). Two 24in-wheeled bikes will be available for younger riders?– the Supreme 24 and Supreme JR.?

Here’s the sixth and final part of the series following British cross-country mountain bike racer Oli Beckingsale’s rehabilitation from the broken leg he suffered on the circuit last season.

The 35-year-old fractured the neck of his left femur in what he described as a fairly innocuous fall during the Nove Mesto World Cup round last August. He has spent much of his close season building back up from what was a serious injury, with hours of Wattbike training and gym sessions now behind him.

In the final installment, we visit Beckingsale’s nutritionist to learn about the foods he introduced into his diet that had the anti inflammatory properties needed after his crash.

Courtesy of Jon Riley/Humdinger.tv

In the third video of our 26 vs 29er video series, we look at how 29er mountain bikes handle tricky terrain. By that we mean slippery climbs and descents where traction is hard to come by.

Our experts Doddy from Mountain Biking UK and Justin from What Mountain Bike take turns in riding both types of machines in the Forest of Dean. As you can see, they rate the 29er’s ability to roll over roots and not dig into the mud as definite advantages in these situations. According to Doddy they might feel slower, but they’re not.

Stay tuned for more videos in the series to be shown on BikeRadar in the coming days.

Seeing as today is the leap day, we thought it was the perfect time to kick-start 29er week on BikeRadar. Throughout the coming days, we’ll be bringing you coverage on the bigger wheeled bikes, including Pro Bike features, tech news and reviews.

Overarching the entire week will be a series of videos starring Mountain Biking UK and What Mountain Bike magazine gurus Doddy and Justin Loretz, examining the differences between 29in- and 26in-wheeled bikes, and hoping to dispel some of the myths and rumours surrounding the two.

Below is an introduction to the series, with part two coming later this afternoon.

Here’s part four of the series following British cross-country mountain bike racer Oli Beckingsale’s rehabilitation from the broken leg he suffered on the circuit last season.

The 35-year-old fractured the neck of his left femur in what he described as a fairly innocuous fall during the Nove Mesto World Cup round last August. He has spent much of his close season building back up from what was a serious injury, with hours of Wattbike training and gym sessions now behind him.

In the latest installment, Beckingsale’s surgeon talks in-depth about the cross-country star’s injury and why they had to tread carefully in his recovery process.

Courtesy of Jon Riley/Humdinger.tv

Here’s part 2 of our inside look at British cross-country mountain bike racer Oli Beckingsale’s rehabilitation from the broken leg he suffered on the circuit this season.

35-year-old Beckingsale fractured the neck of his left femur last August. He is now putting everything into recovering during the off season with the aim of getting fully fit for the 2012 Olympics. In part 2 of the series, strength and conditioning coach Andy Wadsworth (My Life PT) explains how he’s working with Oli to rebuild his muscles so that he can ride a bike normally again.

We’ll be bringing you more from his recovery in the coming weeks.

Courtesy of Jon Riley/Humdinger.tv