Craziest photo we've seen in a long time - Tom Pagès Tsunami Whips his way to the Finist'Air Best Trick trophy.

Our athletes are on an absolute tear at the moment, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon: over the weekend Unit FMXer Tom Pagès and BMXer Jaie Toohey smashed the competition at the 2011 Finist'Air contest in France to both win Best Trick awards.

While Tom had jaws dropping across the venue with his amazing Tsunami Whip, Jaie blew the rest of the competition away when he rode out of his first-ever Backflip Triple Whip to dirt.


Tom (centre) celebrates his win by giving his guitar trophy a thrash-test.

The Central Coaster had landed it several times to ressy during the Nitro Circus show, but this was the first time he'd attempted - and stuck - the technical trick to dirt. Meanwhile Unit's Josh Stead finished with a third place in the same comp.

Unit BMX team manager Ryan Guettler, who was at Finist'Air to see the action first-hand, says Toohey is riding at a level he has never seen him hit before.

"Jaie is killing it over here!" he says. "Everyone loves him and his riding is so on-point right now. His attitude on and off his bike is amazing."

Check out this cool edit of the Finist'Air BMX contest that Blake Shipman put together.

• By Simon M

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We are stoked to announce that the official 'Cam White's Hillside Dirtjam' TV show for 2011 will be premiering on Fuel TV Australia next Friday night!

Unit produced the awesome feature, which includes a heap of new riding and behind the scenes footage from the event. There are plenty of laughs and a really good insight into what it takes to ride the massive jumps. No other event in the BMX world offers the same experience.

Here is the times you can see the show on Fuel TV Australia, and if you aren't lucky enough to catch it, we will be making the show available online soon.

Friday September 9th - 8.00pm (PREMIERE)

Saturday September 10th - 10.00am

Sunday September 11th - 12.30pm

Monday September 12th - 5.30am

Wednesday September 14th - 12.30pm

Friday September 16th - 7.00pm

• By Allan H

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To celebrate the launch of the our 2011 Summer Range, Unit put on a massive houseboat party for all our team athletes, models and V.I.P's.

Due to the overwhelming response from to the original range launch video, we have put together this rad little behind the scenes video, featuring a heap of the bloopers, action, laughs and good times that went down. Think helicopters, lobsters, houseboats, a disproportionate amount of bikini-clad models, FMX barrel rolls and BMX front-flips into water, wakeboarding boats, Monster girls, Nitro Circus, Crusty Demons and Dew Tour/X Games athletes and thumping DJs, and you've got a recipe for one hell of a party and video!

Music: 'Baptism' by Crystal Castles

• By Allan H

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Kyle Baldock is nothing but style. Lazy Table Three during Portland Dew qualifiers. Photo: Mellonbmx

It all started at Ocean City nearly a month ago. The pressure to make it through open qualifier for 2011 was playing on my mind, so to then come out and win the first stop at Ocean City renedered me speechless as you all would've seen haha.

After the cameras were off and I had a spare minute I let it sink in that I had just achieved a lifetime goal; I honestly wouldn't have gotten this far without my girlfriend, friends, family and of course my sponsors and fans. 

After Ocean City I was back in North Carolina for one day, before flying to LA for my first ever X Games. My girlfriend and I were bummed we didn't have enough time to sight-see, but from what I saw LA is an amazing place.

The course at X Games wasn't a course I would normally ride, but you learn to adapt to what you're given to ride and to make the most of it.

I ended up missing out on the finals but I was so stoked that I made it through to the semis on my first XG invite.

After X Games we then flew to Orange County, where Guettler, my girlfriend and I stayed with Pat Casey and his family. We played in the pool, shot some hoops, and of course we couldn't leave without riding his backyard ramp! The Caseys are such an awesome family and we had a lot of fun.

The ASA Box Jump Contest was held at Orange County Fair. It's a fun contest to just chill and have fun, but by this time I was pretty tired from three contests in a couple of weeks.

When we were in LA we were lucky enough to go behind the scenes and have a day each at the Monster warehouse, Vans warehouse and also Unit's warehouse. It was great to see how everything works behind the doors and they have a great team of people.

The Nike 6.0 contest was also on at Huntington Beach and we were able to head down and check it out.

Then, yet again, we were off to another airport and on our way to the stop of the Dew Tour in Portland, OR. The Portland stop for me was a big one as I had both Park and Dirt to compete in. I don't normally ride Dirt, but I thought it would be a great stress reliever to take the pressure off Park. I ended up taking second place in Dirt, which was more than I expected, then also finsied second in Park.

The Park course was awesome - Dennis did a great job of designing it. I'm really happy with how I've been riding lately; this year has become a really big one for me!


Kyle (wearing the Saudi tee) celebrates his second place finish in Portland's Dew Tour Park comp. Kyle stunned the world by placing second in both Park at Dirt at the Oregon round. Photo: RideBMX

I had a few days to rest back in NC, then I was off to the King of the Mountain Dirt comp in Utah for the weekend. This was a chilled weekend, hanging out with some of my boys and riding. There was some big tricks and bigger crashes had by all. I ended up pulling my first ever Frontie Tuck to Bar which crowned me King of the Mountain!

I honestly wouldn't be where I am now without my sponsors, so I want to give a shout-out to Unit, Vans, Monster and Mirraco for letting me live the dream.

Now it's time to practise for Salt Lake City.

Till next time, peace out!

- Kyle Baldock
 

• By Simon M

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We caught up with Unit BMX rider Josh Stead for a session at his local trails in Glenbrook. Josh is definitely one of the most stylish, yet technical dirt riders in the world. You don't want to miss this...

Executive Producer: Unit Clothing

Film & Edit: Allan Hardy

Music: 'Not In Love' by Crystal Castles www.crystalcastles.com

• By Allan H

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Hello!
It's been over a month since I let everyone know what I'm up to. Basically we are flat out here in Europe with FMX4ever, but busy is good!

June:
First off was Area 47 in Austria. With around 3000 spectators the FMX riders won a battle over the divers, street bikers and skiers at the adventure park.

Straight after that we rode at the X Jam in the south of Turkey, entertaining 12,000 Austrian fans over three weeks. We do a Red Bull X-Fighters jam each week over top of the pool party.

X-Fighters Jam Germany: During out stay at X Jam I flew to Germany to ride Red Bull X-Fighters Jam at the infamous Nuremberg racetrack at a huge 24-hour race. I was pumped to ride, but we had really shitty weather so managed to do a show on a small gap in front of tens of thousands of fans.

July:
Red Bull X-Fighters: On the way back from Turkey I received a call up to ride X Fighters Madrid. I had turned down an offer to ride X-Fighters Brazil earlier in the year because I needed time to prepare, but to be honest I regretted my decision. I jumped at the chance and rode the Madrid round on the 10th year anniversary. It was great to ride at Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas again and to feel that amped Spanish crowd (and of course to ride with the best in the world). I placed 11th in the end, but came out of it really motivated and got some great media from it.


Poland X-Fighters Jam tour. We headed to Poland for a week-long X-Fighter Jams seaside tour. Unfortunately we were followed all week by a huge black cloud which held the tour back from being outstanding like in past years. Only one of the three shows was cancelled and we did our best at the other two to put on a good show.

Rally FInland: We flew up to put on some more X-Fighters Jams, this time at the most famous stop on the World Rally Championship. Finland is crazy about rally and that showed with the tens of thousands of people that attended the event over the two days where we rode. Red Bull FInland was great and were pumped on shows and crowd response.

I also attended the second to last stop of the X Fighters World Tour in Poland only as a spectator to round the month off.

Now I am in South Africa for some X Fighter Jams building up to their 2012 event, so next update I will fill you in on how it went!

Till next month, take care
-Nick

• By Simon M

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The 2011 rider lineup. Josh Stead is in the white Grid Girl tee in the middle, with Cam White, Ryan Guettler, Lluis Lacondeguy and Jaie Toohey to the right of him. Andreu Lacondeguy is in the Red Bull helmet at far right.

Well, what an amazing weekend of BMX we've just experienced. On top of Kyle Baldock winning the King Of The Mountain contest in Utah, fellow Unit BMXers Jaie Toohey and Cam White have stamped their authority all over the 2011 Lord Of Dirt contest in Tosse, France.

From initial reports we've heard from the event, Jaie won the prestigious event, with 208 Dew Tour champion and comeback king Cam White posting an impressive second place in just his second contest back from a knee injury.

We had an unprecedented number of Unit athletes competing at this year's contest, with MTBer Andreu Lacondeguy dropping down to the 20-inch bike for the contest, and Josh Stead and Ryan Guettler also making the trip over.

Initial Lords of Dirt 2011 results: 1 Jaie Toohey; 2 Cam White; 3 Tristan Musso.
Best Trick: Markus Hampl|


Check out this amazing sceengrab of Andreu's hyper-edtended Superman. Remember Andreu usually rides MTB, not BMX...!

Jaie shows off the spoils of war outside his second home - Maccas.

RYAN GUETTLER'S WRAP-UP
Yesterday was the Lords of Dirt comp. Very BIG jumps and huge roll in - the pics do not show how big theses thing are. There were 9ft lips and 15ft landings.


This gives you a slight idea of how big the jumps were, and all immaculately scuplted.

I came from Dew Tour very sore and nursing a bad knee that needs rest, but competed and just missed the finals. I had a rough time pumping the sets with a bad knee, so gaining speed was so hard.

Josh Stead rode well and did the run of the day that climaxed with a Double Flip, but it with two of his runs counting towards the final score he ended the event in sixth.

Cam White rode solid and even flip superman seatgrabbed the 30ft+ second jump on his way to second place.
Jaie Toohey killed the event - every run was a winning run. He rode faster and higher then the rest and won the comp and placed second in the Best Trick with a 360 Triple Whip!!

Jaie looked at home on these massive jumps and it's obvious his time with the Nitro Circus is really paying off.

This week we are doing Monster demos in the downtown area then on the weekend is The Vans Kill The Line contest.

I'll keep you updated again soon

It wasn't all strawberries and cream. Falling off at Lords Of Dirt HURT!

• By Simon M

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Photo: All photos courtesy Fat Tony / Ride.

Today we saw the first ever (hopefully annual) 'King Of The Mountain' contet go down at the Powder Mountain ski resort just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. The event sounds like it was a lot of fun and all of the 12 athletes were decked out in a cabin for the weekend.

As oppose to the regular contest format, the 'King Of The Mountain' was held in a jam format and included a bunch of categories such as 'Best Tabletop', 'Best 360' and 'Best Trick'. Unit BMX team rider Kyle Baldock ended up walking away with the 'King Of The Mountain' title, as well as the 'Best Trick' award for a frontflip no-hander to barspin!

Kyle is on fire right now and currently leads the Dew Tour Park championship, and is 2nd in the Dew Tour Dirt standings.

Stay tuned for videos from this event early in the week, in the meantime check out the full PHOTO GALLERY thanks to RIDE.

In other BMX news, Unit BMX team riders Cam White, Ryan Guettler and Jaie Toohey are all over in France right now for the Lords Of Dirt contest, and by the sounds of it they are all killing it. Unit's crazy Spaniad MTB rider Andreu Lacondeguy even showed up and is riding a BMX for the weekend haha. He can ride anything! We will get the videos and photos online as soon as they come online.

• By Allan H

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Will Kyle Chisholm return to the Pro Open fray at Southwick? We think there's a good chance. Photos: Simon Makker

After sitting out most of the 2011 AMA Monster Energy Supercross Championship after a horrific crash in Houston, then dropping out of the Lucas Oils AMA Motocross Championship after four rounds to focus on recovering fully, things are looking promising for Unit's Kyle Chisholm to return to the starting gate next weekend in Southwick, MA.

The Floridian MotoConcepts Yamaha racer tried to make a comeback at the start of the 2011 series, but struggled with breathing issues during the opening clashes. Chiz dropped out of the series after Thunder Valley (CO) to undergo further surgery and focus on returning once he was 100 per cent.

Now it appears he's well on the mend: today he successfully completed two 30-minute-plus-two-lap hard motos in the brutal Croom sand dunes and felt his speed and fitness was returning rapidly.

"I'm not sure if I'll be ready for Southwick yet," Chisholm told us today, as if to play down his chances of returning for next weekend. "I'm going to keep riding and see how it goes."

However it's no secret Kyle is a sand specialist and the sandy Southwick track has been a happy hunting ground for him in the past: at the 2010 event he had a career-best fourth overall behind championship winner Ryan Dungey, Mike Alessi and MotoConcepts team-mate Matt Goerke.

Watch this space!

Kyle Chisholm in action at last year's Southwick, where he finished a career-best fourth overall.

• By Simon M

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As part of the Kokanee Crankworx event in Whistler, Unit's big-mountain freerider James Doerfling teamed up with MTB photographer extraordinaire Margus Riga for the Deep Summer Photo Challenge.

After a week of scoping out epic country, finding new lines, setting up flashes, pushing triggers and dropping mammoth descents the pair submitted their entry and awaited the results. They were awarded second place in the prestigious contest, and the photo essay has had tongues wagging across the mountain-bike industry. You can check out Margus's full photo essay by clicking here.

Enjoy!

• By Simon M

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Unit's Ryan Guettler has just had himself and his sweet-looking new purple Colony BMX featured on Rde BMX's website.

Ride's Fat Tony asked Ryan a bunch of curly questions about his new rig, including what we can expect from Guettler's new signature Colony frame that will be released in the near future>

Check out the detail shots and the full interview by clicking here.

Ryan is wearing the new Unit Skippy tee, available on our online store.

• By Simon M

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Photo: Cam White looking good on the Dirt course. This is Cam's first contest back after a long time on the sideline with a badly injured knee. See the full gallery at RIDEBMX.COM

This weekend the Dew Tour is in Portland, where we get to see Unit rider Kyle Baldock try to win the 2nd stop of the BMX Park contest, and Cam White make his long awaited return in the 1st stop of the BMX Dirt contest!

There has already been a bunch of qualifying rounds in the lead up to the finals, here is the results so far...

BMX PARK

Kyle Baldock was pre-qualified for tomorrows final, while fellow Unit riders Ryan Guettler and Mini both had to fight it out in qualifiers. Mini had a bit of bad luck and missed the cut, while Guettler stepped up and has proven he is definitely back from the mammoth double shoulder surgery he underwent in 2010. Guettler will be joining Kyle in the finals tomorrow.

BMX DIRT

So far we have only seen the Open Qualifiers for Dirt, but with only a handful of spots available alongside the top guys from last season, the riding was solid! Basically the top guys from OQ are heading through to Prelims tomorrow where they will meet the likes of Cam White, Brandon Dosch and the rest of last years best guys.

Unit riders Jed Mildon, Cam Pianta and Kyle Baldock were all in the mix to earn their spots, and at the end of the day it was Kyle Baldock who once again stood out from the crowd, taking the win in OQ. This is pretty much the exact same result that ended up leading him to victory in the Park discipline last month, so let's see if he can do it all again in Dirt this round.

Jed Mildon and Cam Pianta rode solid and put everything on the line, but at the end of the day it just wasn't quite enough to see them advance, we are seriously stoked to see those guys over there putting it in. Best of luck next time guys.

FINALS

So coming up, you will see the BMX Park Finals go down tomorrow, as well as BMX Dirt Prelims. The top guys from Dirt Prelims will compete in the BMX Dirt Finals the following day. Unit have Kyle and Ryan in the Park finals, while you can expect to see Ryan Guettler, Kyle Baldock, Cam White and Jaie Toohey in the Dirt contest.

FULL RESULTS

-Check out a video of the BMX Park Qualifiers HERE

-You can find full results, photo galleries and videos over at WWW.RIDEBMX.COM

• By Allan H

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Unit FMXer Matt Schubring has just teamed up with his fellow SP Tools'-sponsored sportsman, V8 Supercars driver Shane Van Gisbergen for a few hard laps around Eastern Creek, before Schuie rendered the team mute by jumping and flipping the SP Tools truck.

Check out the video!

• By Simon M

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US BMXer Nate Berkheimer sent us this awesome clip of himself and the rest of the Diamondback crew sessioning a multitude of spots in Brazil. Some of the footage is killer, and Nate's massive transition at the end will leave you bellowing involuntary obscenities at the computer screen.

Nate is also one of the guys who has spent a tonne of time swinging off the shovel and barking orders to get the BMX Dirt course for Portland stop of the Dew Tour up and running. Check out some of his handiwork in this photo jaie Toohey took yesterday from the top of the roll-in.

• By Simon M

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Maikel Melero's run at Poland. Is this not the biggest sequence you've ever seen? Download the wallpaper at the Freerider MX website!

This weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the fifth stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters 2011 series in Poznan (Poland). It was the third invitation I received this year after competing in Rome and Madrid and honestly, I am very satisfied with my work.

The course was very technical, probably too much in my opinion, and that was reflected from the first day of practice in which almost all riders had difficulties to adapt. Fortunately, once again, all my hours of practice paid off and I was one of the few riders to make a round without big mistakes and I got my best result in a qualifying, fifth position. This good result gave me the pass-through to the quarter-finals.



My Head to Head in the quarter was against Eigo Sato, a hard opponent but are there any riders you can beat easily at X-Fighters?? I came out very focused on the track knowing I had chances to beat him. My round was solid and good, without mistakes, but I can also improve with more practice. Unfortunately, in the judges opinion, Sato’s round was a bit better than mine and gave him the victory by a tiny difference. This result meant I had to settle for fifth place. Finally, fifth position in the most prestigious FMX championship worldwide is very important, so I am super happy and satisfied.

Well, now I just have to keep training hard and let’s see if I'm invited to ride the final in Australia! Let’s hope a podium at X-Fighters will come soon…

A big hug to all those people who follow and support me.
-Maikel

 

• By Simon M

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PART 5: Tom Pagès X Games Adventure

Just in case you haven't been following, Unit FMX rider Tom Pagès recently ventured from his home in France to the big bad U S of A, where he had recieved an invite to compete in the Best Whip contest at X Games. His good friend and filmmaker Michel Never went along for the ride, and produced this cool series of videos for the trip.

Highlights include a ride session at Robbie Maddison's, hanging with Andre Villa, practising for Best Whip Ronnie Renner's FMX compound and of course, all the highlights of X Games. Twitch ended up taking the gold medlal at X, despite alot of controversy around the 'fan based' judging system. We are still stoked for Tom though, who definitely stood out with his ridiculous whips.

Here is the rest of the series, parts 1 - 4.

• By Allan H

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Photo: Ryan Guettler massive tailwhip on the end qaurter. Courtesy www.ridebmx.com

Over the last week, Unit BMX riders Jaie Toohey, Kyle Baldock, Ryan Guettler and Jed Mildon have all been riding at the Megaramp ASA Triples contest at the OC Fair in Southern California. The contest is basically a set of 2 box jumps in a row, finishing with a massive qaurter. This event really appeals to the riders who can ride park and dirt equally well, as the technical aspect of park can be used to full extent on the massive box jumps.

 

The actual format was really mixed up to ensure there was enough action to cover the 5 days of the OC fair, but in a nutshell, there was 2 main events.

Jaie Toohey rode amazing, and scored a 2nd place behind Brett Banasiewicz in one of the main events. While Ryan Guettler has proven he is back in a big way, scoring a 3rd place in the other main event behind fellow Australians Matt Whyatt and Vince Byron.

PHOTO GALLERY + FULL RESULTS

Coming up next weekend is the 2nd round of the Dew Tour, which will also include the first dirt contest of this years series. Almost the entire Unit BMX team will be there to battle it out, including...

-Cam White

-Kyle Baldock

-Jaie Toohey

-Cam Pianta

-Jed Mildon

-Ryan Guettler

-Andrew 'Mini' Ahumada

• By Allan H

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Young Spanish FMX phenom Maikel Melero has continued to stamp his authority on the 2011 Red Bull X-Fighters series after qualifying fifth for Sunday's round of the series in Poznan, Poland.

Maikel finished the previous round in Madrid, Spain with his career-highest result in fourth place, and is gunning for the podium tomorrow morning.

With Andre Villa crashing out of the qualifying after posting a fourth-overall result, Melero will move up to 4th place and take on fellow Spaniard Javier Villegas in the head-to-head knockout competition.

You can check out all the action live on www.redbull.tv from 5am on Sunday morning.

Good luck buddy, we'll be cheering for ya!

 

• By Simon M

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Check out this fun little video featuring Unit riders Kyle Baldock and Andrew 'Mini' Ahumada. These guys are so good, and as you may kow Kyle won the first round of the Dew Tour this year.

The 2nd round of the Dew Tour goes down next weekend, so make sure you follow Kyle as he tries to make it 2 in a row.

• By Allan H

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We have just finished sorting through the 'behind the scenes' photo gallery from the Unit boat party, and it is fair to say we wish we were back there right now! So many good times and laughs with the crew.

Check out the full gallery HERE.

• By Allan H

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The new issue of FRMX is available now, and comes with a free covermount DVD titled 'Mystery'. Unit team riders Robbie Marshall, Kain Saul and Jack Field all have great parts in it, so be sure to check it out.

Jack definitely stpped things up alot, and took trials riding to a whole new level, hitting some unbelieable spots!
Great job mate, you are really making trials riding something to get excited about.

• By Allan H

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The moment it all came apart for Caroline (#68) after getting taken out at 53km/h in the World Championships.

The 2011 UCI BMX World Championships were held in Copenhagen Denmark over the weekend. The atmosphere at the track was amazing. World Championships is always the best race of the year.

Last year in South Africa I time-trialled in second position and then on the gate in the semi final my pants got caught on my brake lever. The year before last I was injured for BMX Worlds. This year without injuries and bad luck I wanted to race to the best of my ability and show the world what I'm capable of.

The time trial is now a World Championships medal event :)
I qualified through the first round into the top 16 time trial super-final. I had a great lap; all of my lines were dialled, gate was good and jumps were smooth. I posted a lap time of 37.6 with Shenaze Reade (GBR), last year's World Champion, just beating my time by 0.2seconds with a 37.4. It was such a great feeling to stand on that podium collecting my silver medal with Mariana Pajon (COL) winning the bronze medal.


Caroline nervously waits in the hot-seat to see if her time would get beaten in the time trials. It did, but only by 0.2 secs - good enough for a silver medal. Photo: Kristoffer West

After the time trial it was race day and down to the business end of things. In the first race I felt awesome. Honestly I was feeling the fastest that I have ever ridden in my life.

In the second qualifying race Mannon Valentino (FRA) jumped across in front of me over the first jump, squeezing me out. We were going roughly 53kmph and I had nowhere to go - Ariel Martin (USA) and myself hit in the air and crashed, I scrambled to get back on but had skin off everywhere, was feeling pretty sore and shaken up and I didn't qualify through into the semifinals.

Probably the one word I could describe how I felt after crashing was devastation. At this level of racing we put 110% commitment, time, focus and energy in….everything on the line and a whole year’s worth of preparation to try win that World Title. Knowing that I was fit, fast, strong, skilled and ready to race that final and get myself a spot on that podium has made me so much more hungry and determined for the next World Cup race.



The Australian Team are now staying in Holland to train for the next two weeks before we fly into the 2012 London Olympic Village for the World Cup/Olympic Test event. :)


Caroline is all smiles on the Time Trials podium. Photo: Kristoffer West

• By Simon M

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To celebrate the launch of the our 2011 Summer Range, Unit put on a massive houseboat party for all our team athletes, models and V.I.P's. Check out some of the action and good times in this video, along with a preview of the new range.

New products are available now at the Unit Online Store

Music: 'Not One Of You' by Dangerous!
www.d-or-die.com
From the album Teenage Rampage, available September 16
Courtesy Epitaph

• By Allan H

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