RIDERS WANTED: RIDE BEFORE YOU BUY

2nd February 2012 - filed under Giant

Giant launch ‘Test Ride’ – a new online demo bike finder service

Looking at investing in a performance road or mountain bike but want to test your new ride before you buy – then Giant have the answer: Test Ride.

You wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive and here at Giant we believe the same applies to your bike. We’re not talking about a sit on the bike in store, or even a quick spin around the car park – we are talking about a true test ride.

At Giant we believe in our products and we want you to ride them before you buy – so we have launched Test Ride – a new online demo bike finder service. Simply visit www.Test-Ride.co.uk - select the bike you want to try and you will be presented with a list of Giant retailers where you can find the product available to Test Ride. Then all you have to do is use the contact details provided and arrange your Test Ride with your preferred retailer.

Experience the best riding road and mountain bikes available and make a truly informed purchase decision. For consumers that have read all the great reviews of Giant products in magazines and on websites – we now offer you the opportunity to ride the same bikes and test them for yourselves. The proof is in the ride and we are confident that once you have tried you will realise just why Giant bikes are winning countless tests.

Giant’s new Test Ride service is available in the UK and Ireland with a wide selection of Giant’s latest 2012 line-up to choose from. Simply visit www.Test-Ride.co.uk and choose your Test Ride today.

2012 Giant Factory Off-Road Team Unveiled!

1st February 2012 - filed under Teamsriders

On the heels of its most successful year ever, the Giant Factory Off-Road Team rolls into the 2012 season with new goals, the rainbow stripes of a World Champion, and plenty of momentum.

Danny Hart, the reigning Downhill World Champion, returns to lead the DH division of the squad. In just his second season on the pro circuit last year, Hart rocketed through the ranks on his Giant Glory. The 20-year-old Brit scored three World Cup podiums and won the World Championship with an electrifying ride in Champéry, Switzerland.

“It was a wild ride in 2011,” Hart said. “I’ve been training hard in the off-season and I’m looking forward to another great year with Giant.”

As in years past, the 2012 team represents the diversity of mountain biking in all its forms. In downhill and cross-country, from the Olympics and World Cup competition to sell-out festivals, marathons and enduro events, the team covers the broad spectrum of off-road racing.

Hart is joined on the World Cup circuit by Andrew Neethling, who had his best season ever last year after joining forces with Giant. Neethling won the South African National Championship and the Jeep Air DH event at Crankworx Whistler, and he found his stride on the World Cup circuit, scoring a career-best third-place finish in Windham, New York. Neethling finished 15th in the World Cup and is aiming for a top-10 standing this year.

The XC team is led by four-time British Champion Liam Killeen. The 29-year-old joined Giant last year to boost his bid for the 2012 London Olympics. He raced his XtC Advanced SL to the U.K. National Championship and has big goals for 2012. With the Olympics being held in his home nation, Killeen is hoping his third appearance at the Games will be one to remember.

The other two male XC riders are U.S. veteran Carl Decker and Australian Josh Carlson. Decker, a longtime Giant rider, had a successful 2011 season that included wins at major U.S. events including a repeat victory on his Anthem X 29er at the All-Mountain World Championships in Downieville, California. Carlson is new to the team this year. The 25-year-old was third overall in the 2011 Australian XC Series, and, like Decker, is an all-arounder who excels in both XC and Enduro/All-mountain events.

The team’s lone female racer is all-around talent Kelli Emmett. The American was second overall at All-Mountain Worlds in Downieville last year and raced a variety of events including the Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado. Throughout her career, Emmett has won races ranging from short-track and Super D national titles to Single-Speed World Championships, and this year will continue to focus on a wide range of off-road events.

“Last season was a breakthrough year for Giant Factory riders and staff, highlighted by Danny’s now legendary run at Champéry,” said Giant Global Marketing Director An Le. “We’re coming into 2012 with one of the most versatile squads in off-road racing and will be gunning for victory in everything from short-track and marathon XC to enduro and downhill races. We also have several new secret weapons in the works to give the riders the best tools to win.”

As always, the team has a variety of Giant bikes in its arsenal, covering every type of course and all types of terrain—from lightweight composite hardtails to full-suspension XC, enduro and DH bikes. Cross-country riders will start the season on Anthem X Advanced SL, Anthem X 29er and Trance X Advanced SL bikes with Maestro Suspension, as well as XtC Advanced SL and XtC Composite 29er hardtails. For downhill, the team will rely on the World Championship-winning Glory and Reign X.

All Factory Team bikes will be “Powered by SRAM” featuring the latest cutting edge components including SRAM drivetrains, Truvativ componentry, Avid brakes and RockShox suspension. Other sponsors include DT Swiss for wheelsets and tires by Schwalbe. And new this year is DNA Cycling, which is supplying race kits for the XC riders.

For photos, videos, news and other inside information on the Giant Factory Off-Road Team, follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/giantfactoryteam.

2012 Giant Factory Off-Road Team
Josh Carlson (Aus), XC, Enduro
Carl Decker (USA), XC, Marathon, Enduro
Kelli Emmett (USA), XC, Marathon, Enduro
Danny Hart (Great Britain), DH, Enduro
Liam Killeen (Great Britain), XC, Marathon
Andrew Neethling (South Africa), DH, Enduro

Team Sponsors
SRAM drivetrain
Truvativ cockpit
Avid brakes
RockShox suspension
Schwalbe tires
DT Swiss wheelsets
Fox Head apparel
Contour cameras
DNA Cycling XC race kit
MRP chain guide
Fizik saddle
Crank Brothers pedals
ODI grips
Honey Stinger nutrition
Park tools
Finish line lubrication
Thule racks
NoTubes.com tubeless technology

Giant Named Official Bike Partner of Whistler

1st February 2012 - filed under Giant

Whistler Mountain Bike Park and Giant are excited to announce they will be working together for the 2012 season. Giant will become the official bike partner of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park.

“Giant Bicycles is one of the biggest, and arguably best, mountain bike manufactures in the world, and the Whistler Mountain Bike Park is stoked to work with them,” says Bike Park Manager Brian Finestone. “Giant’s line of gravity mountain bikes are second to none, and we are extremely happy to partner with Giant."

Whistler Mountain Bike Park’s rental fleet of Giant bikes will consist of 150 Glory and Faith models. 50 will be set up for the expert or bike “fanatic” who wants to rent a top of the line race or gravity machine, while 100 Glory and Faith models will be set up for the novice to intermediate rider.

“Whistler Mountain Bike Park is not only the biggest and best lift-accessed bike park in the world, but it is also a great place to connect with riders from around the world,” says Paul Nash of Giant Canada. “The incredible terrain in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park is the perfect testing ground for our mountain bikes.”

The Giant bikes will be equipped with the latest DH specific components from SRAM, RockShox, AVID and TRUVATIV. The addition of Easton Havoc DH wheels and Maxxis tires results in an exceptional rental fleet for any type of rider. Each bike will be meticulously maintained by Whistler Mountain Bike Park mechanics who will be completing SRAM Technical University (STU) training and will have a thorough knowledge of the Giant bicycles.

The Whistler Mountain Bike Park is currently under a few feet of snow but expect to see the all-new Giant bicycles in Whistler Blackcomb’s rental stores in the spring of 2012. Opening day for the Whistler Mountain Bike Park’s 2012 season is expected to be in May.

NEW GIANT ATHLETE BLOG: INTENSE START TO 2012 FOR GIANT FACTORY TEAM RIDER LIAM KILLEEN

1st February 2012 - filed under Teamsriders

Giant Olympic Cross Country Mountain Bike rider Liam Killeen reflects on his 2011 season, discusses Winter training and talks us race by race through an intense start to 2012.

This year will see Liam compete on home soil for Great Britain at the London Olympic Games as well as competing for the Giant Factory Off-Road Team on his XtC Composite 29’er and Anthem X Advanced SL – it’s going to be a big year. What does an elite mountain bike racer do in the off-season? Grabs his TCX Advanced SL and get’s ‘cross!

The 2011 season was a mixture of highs and lows – but overall at the end of the season, I was feeling positive about the year ahead.

In November, I started my winter training with a programme of gym sessions and a good amount of outdoor riding: a combination of on-road and off-road riding. The gym sessions were planned with Andy Wadsworth and targeted core strength work that would add to my cycling specific training. Andy’s “Mylife” gym in Bristol is popular with professional and aspiring sportsmen and women including a number of cyclists – not surprising because Andy himself is no mean cyclist...

Four weeks of this regime and I was in good shape to fly to South Africa for some warm weather training. Although I love riding around my home counties, it is a real bonus to have guaranteed African heat! The training camp in Stellenbosch was right up my street: warm weather, wonderful food and a bunch of international riders all keen to get up and get on the bike for some long rides. It’s a world away from a typical British December - muddy bike cleaning and indoor turbo pedalling!

Back to Britain just in time for Christmas – no snow this year and altogether such milder weather than usual. The Christmas holiday was real family time and a chance to see friends who are scattered around the world these days. However, there wasn't much downtime because I had a short but intense Cyclo-cross season planned.

Macclesfield Supacross, 27th December 2011.
I try to race Macc' each winter. It's a tough course, always makes for a good workout and provides an indicator of 'form'. I'd put in a solid block of long endurance work in South Africa but not very much race specific training. Nevertheless my racing legs had not deserted me - I felt fit and in the end I finished 2nd. I couldn't quite match Paul Oldham but felt I was in a good place to develop race condition in time for the National Championships 12 days later.

West Midlands series Top Barn, 1st January 2012.
Although fairly local to me it was my first time to Top Barn near Worcester. I was really impressed with the race course and organisation and it was cheering to see a big turnout of over 400 riders. The senior race was fast from the start, Roger Hammond, Dan Booth and I came to the front and raced together for the first half of the race, then I made a move with 2 laps to go and held on for the win ahead of Roger.

National Champs Chantry Park Ipswich, 8th January 2012.
Before the race I was chatting to Nick Craig about the conditions and we agreed it would be ideal to have a light sprinkle of rain just to soften the ground and make the course more technical and conditions slightly heavier going to split the race naturally. But the slight breeze remained and the course stayed unchanged. I knew there would be a few guys to watch, Paul Oldham, Jody Crawforth and Ian Field would be competitive from the start. Although you never know what's going to happen until the gun goes and everyone is fighting for positions, I had a plan to try and make it to the front as quickly as possible and enjoy riding hard and see what happened... with 2 laps to go Ian Field and I were together and racing for the win. It was all going okay and I was confident going into the final lap. We were still together with a few hundred metres to go when Ian made a move to overtake me before an off camber corner. Unfortunately he hadn't completely overtaken me before turning into the right hander and clipped my front wheel. I went down and although I remounted as quickly as I could, the few seconds he gained were enough for Ian to hold on for the top spot. 2nd again for me...well that’s racing.

National Trophy final Shrewsbury, 15th January 2012,
Dave Mellor does a great job in organising the event in Shrewsbury and I'd raced this course in December. I was expecting a dry, fast, frozen course but how I was mistaken. When I arrived there were bikes thick with heavy mud - so much for my one bike race plan...
With the muddy conditions well established, it was going to be a tough hour of racing and with inescapable sections of running each lap. I set out at a good tempo and gained a lead on lap one. I rode cautiously on the slippery corners and put the power down on the straights, always aware of the guys behind me fighting it out between themselves. I had good support in the pits and opted to change my bike for a cleaned one most laps. The win was sweet – and it helped make up for the previous weekend’s disappointment.

Til the next post – keep rollin'
LK

Keep up to date with all Giant’s teams and riders in our Teams and Riders webpage. Follow the latest Giant news at Twitter.com/GiantUK and Facebook.com/GiantStoresUK.

Vos Wins Record 5th World CX Title!

29th January 2012 - filed under Teamsriders

For the second day in a row, a Giant rider struck gold at the 2012 Cyclocross World Championships. This time it was Marianne Vos of the Rabobank Women’s Team.

Vos put on a masterful display in Koksijde, Belgium, beating fellow Dutch rider Daphny van der Brand by 37 seconds to win a record fifth world title. U.S. National Champion Katie Compton of the Rabobank-Giant team finished fifth.

After a missed pedal at the start, Vos quickly got back into the groove and made her way to the front. She slowly built a gap over the chasers, stretching her lead to over a minute by the start of the last lap.

Compton lost time and positioning when she crashed on the first lap, and was forced to chase back from outside the top-15. While Vos maintained her lead, cleanly negotiating the difficult sand dunes of the Koksijde course on her TCX Advanced SL, Compton was in a fight to move up. The American steadily passed other racers to finish fifth, within a minute of her fellow Giant rider Vos.

The win was a historic one for Vos, whose fifth title surpassed German Hanka Kupfernagel’s four world championships.

In the elite men’s race, Rabobank-Giant rider Bart Aernouts had one of his best rides of the year, finishing an impressive fifth. Aernouts was part of a dominating show of force by the Belgian men, who swept the top seven spots led by the winner Niels Albert.

Van der Haar Repeats As World Champion!

28th January 2012 - filed under Teamsriders

Rabobank-Giant cyclocross racer Lars van der Haar is a World Champion again. The 20-year-old Dutch sensation won a tough battle in Saturday’s Under-23 race at the 2012 Cyclocross Worlds in Belgium, donning the rainbow stripes for the second consecutive year. Van der Haar was joined on the podium by fellow Dutchman and Rabobank-Giant rider Michiel van der Heijden in third.

The course in Koksijde, a town that last hosted Cyclocross Worlds in 1994, is known for its sand. The dunes present a formidable challenge; technical skills and maintaining momentum are critical.

Riding his Giant TCX Advanced SL, van der Haar battled with Belgian Wietse Bosmans, who had the support of the home crowd. Van der Haar was the first to make a move and break off the front of the group but Bosmans bridged up, followed by van der Heijden. The three stayed away, trading turns at the front until the final sand stretch, known as “X-Dune.”

As they his the sand, Bosmans and van der Haar bumped shoulders but van der Haar emerged first, holding his advantage to the line to take the win for The Netherlands. The victory put an exclamation point on another magical season for van der Haar, who, for the second year in a row, won the European, World Cup and World titles in the U23 category.

The Cyclocross World Championships continue on Sunday, with the elite women’s and elite men’s races.

New P-SLR1 Earns Praise From road.cc

26th January 2012 - filed under Product

The website road.cc put the new Giant P-SLR1 WheelSystem to the test, concluding that the lightweight road wheels “accelerate fast, spin along easily on the flat and climb noticeably quicker than wheels just a little heavier.”

The review detailed all the technical features of the P-SLR1 including the extra wide, tubeless ready scandium rims, wide-flange hubs and asymmetric rear hub design.

“The wheels perform impressively out on the road,” wrote the reviewer. “They’re stiff too—not crazy rigid but there’s certainly not a great deal of rim deflection when you lean the bike over. They’ve remained completely round and true, not even requiring the odd tweak after the initial bedding in period.”

To read the complete review, please go to the road.cc website.

Video: Katie Compton's CX Life in Europe

26th January 2012 - filed under Teamsriders

Rabobank-Giant rider Katie Compton is having one of the best cyclocross seasons of her career. She climbed to the UCI No. 1 ranking with a handful of major wins in the U.S. and Europe on her TCX Advanced SL, and earlier this month won her eighth U.S. National Championship. With the World Cup season coming to a close and the upcoming World Championships in her sights, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Katie in action.

BikeRadar.com Calls New Defy 1 "Superb"

25th January 2012 - filed under Product

Bikeradar.com posted a review of the 2012 Giant Defy 1, giving the aluminum-engineered performance road bike an excellent rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The review, which also appeared in the U.K.-based Cycling Plus magazine, states that the Defy 1’s “superb chassis creates a responsive but flowing ride backed up by balanced handling and excellent components for the money.”

The editors of BikeRadar.com claim the bike’s light weight “is another big factor in how well the Defy defies gravity, picking up speed immediately and encouragingly in any gear.”

To read the complete review, please go to BikeRadar.com.

NEW GIANT ATHLETE BLOG: OLYMPICS IN SIGHT FOR GIANT TRIATHLETE HELEN JENKINS

25th January 2012 - filed under Teamsriders

Giant Olympic Triathlete Helen Jenkins writes about a successful 2011 season which saw her crowned World Champion and the final countdown to the Olympics Triathlon event in 2012 in the first part of her Olympic countdown blog.

I had an amazing year in 2011, winning the Olympic distance Triathlon World Championships again and winning the World Champinship series event in Hyde Park on the Olympic course. It was an incredible year and is very motivating in the drive towards August 4th this year, the day of the women's Olympic Triathlon.

But at the moment its January and in South Wales where I live it’s pretty rainy and miserable! The Olympics still feels quite a long way away, lots more kilometres to be swum, biked and run. This is the time of year I love, you are getting fitter your body is getting stronger and you are moving forward with your goal in your mind. There are the tough days, when I don't feel like getting out of bed at 5am to go swimming, or it starts raining just before I'm about to head out on the bike but that's when my motivation to do the best I can kicks in and I just get on with the training!

I am lucky enough to be heading out to Club La Santa in Lanzarote soon for a training camp, to have a few weeks warmer weather will really break up the winter months. And give me a chance to get back on my Giant TCR advanced SL road bike, for a consistent few weeks riding. As the weather has been bad at home I have been doing a lot more mountain biking than road riding, I have been loving my Giant Anthem X mountain bike, although I'm not the most skilled downhill rider! I have a great bunch of guys to ride with at home, including husband and coach Marc; it’s certainly helped me get in my training over the last few months.

Thanks for reading and I'll keep you posted with news over the next few months in my lead up to the Olympic Games!

 Keep up to date with all Giant’s teams and riders in our Teams and Riders webpage. Follow the latest Giant news at Twitter.com/GiantUK and Facebook.com/GiantStoresUK.