On the eve of the world's craziest MTB freerider contest, the Red Bull Rampage, we are proud to announce that Andreu Lacondeguy is officially apart of the Unit family! We have been speaking with Andreu for some months now, and we think he embodies what Unit represents perfectly. We will have an official press release with more details available soon, but right now, you can check out Andreu in action at the crazy Utah Rampage course.

All of the riders have been on site for the last week, and with the qualifiers done and dusted, 21 riders will hit the hill for 1 last time at 5am tomorrow morning (Monday 5am EST) Fortunately the good folk at Red Bull are going to hook us all up with a live webcast of the event, so you won't miss any of the action. WATCH HERE

Unit team rider Kelly McGarry scored an invite for the event, and had high hopes of doing well, until a gnarly crash took him out of the qualifying round. But, Kelly is a tough mofo, so we should see him shredding again soon, showing everyone his worth! Once Kelly gets back home to NZ, we are going to try hang out and capture some crazy new footage, so stay tuned for that.

Fellow team rider Andreu is known for going big, so it is no surprise he made it through qualifying and into the finals, where we are sure to see the best stuff go down! So remember to tune into the finals at 5am EST HERE and watch the best MTB event of the year take off. In the meantime, here is some of the media and action from the event so far...

PHOTO GALLERIES

-Last Day Of Practice

-Qualifiers

VIDEOS

-Riders Are On Course!

-Qualifyiers

• By Allan H

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Unit team rider Caroline Buchanan has just been nominated as the 'Female BMX Rider Of The Year' in the international 'Swatch BMX SX Awards'!

Caroline is up against 3 other of the worlds best female BMX riders, and we all need to get behind her! Please take a minute to vote and support CB.

VOTE HERE!

• By Allan H

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Unit's Chris Kovarik recently took the snowy hills of Whistler for the amazing Red Bull 5000 Down race. Chris is one of the toughest riders we know, and aside the fact he got a solid 3rd place, we just can't believe he did the whole thing in shorts! haha.

Red Bull have a full story on what went down below... Photos by Bryan Ralph and

On September 12th, 2010 the second installment of Red Bull 5000 Down showcased one hundred thirty-one riders sustaining constant physical and mental effort in order to maintain control during the entire descent. Tyler Morland from Whistler, BC and Junior DH World Champ Lauren Rosser from Squamish, BC took the first place in their respective category. International and local elite gathered at the snow peak of Whistler Mountain, in Whistler Blackcomb resort in British Columbia and descended more than 2,320m (12.3km) and a vertical drop of 1,503m (5,020 feet) at an average speed of 76km/h to cross the finish line in the Whistler Village.

Presented by RockShox, Red Bull 5000 Down is a mass start downhill mountain bike race featuring the greatest North American and European riders, including: Stevie Smith, who recently took sliver at the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships, MX1 National Pro Dusty Klatt, and Chris Kovarik, a multiple Australian national champion and multiple World Cup winner. Over the course of two days, both men and women battled side-by-side, dealing with 14cm of snow at the peak, rain, fatigue, broken bikes and navigating through muddy and dirt trails on the cloud-covered Whistler Mountain.

Qualifying Day
On Saturday, September 11th, qualifiers where held on the lower half of the course, which took place over the famous Garbanzo zone in the Whistler Bike Park. Once the qualifiers were completed, the riders’ destinies were determined based on their results and they were seeded in rows of ten for the mass start on Sunday. Keeping the fastest men and women at the front of the pack was key as the top half of this massive course would see riders reaching speeds of up to 80 km/h. After all the men and women made it down the course, it was Australia’s Chris Kovarik who took the fastest time with 13:14:95 minutes for the male category and Whistler, BC native Brook Baker clocked in at 16:13:93 for the women’s category.

Race Day
Riders uploaded to the Peak of Whistler where they began to take position in 14cm of snow and prepare for the mass start. A shotgun start had the competitors launch a 5,000 feet descent and intense bar-to-bar racing as they battled side-by-side. Proximity wasn’t the only challenge, as riders were also navigating through muddy and dirt trails riddled with jumps, stunts, drops and root-strewn terrain. After a challenging start with four inches of snow on the ground at the start and a descent on the cloudy-covered mountain, Chris Kovarik took the lead and wowed the crowd as he charged into the Garbanzo zone with a huge pack of racers chasing him. Hundreds of spectators cheered Morland as he crossed the finish line in the Whistler Village after 21:49:82 minutes. “I love winning, it’s hard to beat. It’s exciting lining up with your friends on the front line. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Curtis Keene (USA) finished second with a time of 22:01:03 minutes and third place finisher Chris Kovarik (Australia) completed the race in 22:13:30 minutes. In the women’s category, Lauren Rosser from Squamish, BC clocked in at 27:31:59 minutes, followed by Whistler’s Brook Baker with 28:11:29 minutes and Fanny Paquette with 30:06:17 minutes. “I’ve never done anything like this before. When I got to the top I said, “there is two feet of snow – this is even better!” It was different but good, “ said Rosser.

• By Allan H

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Things are really starting to heat up right now, with the worlds biggest and craziest MTB contest 'Red Bull Rampage' going down next weekend. Units own kelly McGarry was lucky enough to score an invite. Here is some updates and information for the contest...

Watch it line online at Pink Bike - 12 Noon PST, October 3 or 5am Australia time October 4

Course preview - Check out some drawings and pics from this years course

Kelly McGarry Blog - Stay tuned to Kelly's personal blog for updates and photos as they happen.

Unit also have some big news on it's way, and are proud to be announcing more and more MTB involvement over the coming months.

Kelly Mc hit us up in the last few days, with a blog regarding his preperations for Rampage and what he has been up to, so check it out...

HI, Kelly McGarry here.

Since last time you heard from me I've been up to all sorts of shinanigans, I'm living up here in Whistler BC, Canada. Definitely worse places to find yourself stuck! Me, my girl and a couple of mates are renting a sweet pad right next to the chairlift so i have been thrashing the mountain on a regular basis! The summer is coming to an end and there is a bit more rain about so the trails are sick.

I went to Alaska at the end of August for a 10 day filming and shooting trip with the Gravity team, it was so good out there. We flew into Fairbanks and 1st stop was wallmart to get some supplys for the mountains, the rest of the team were getting pretty serious with Grizzly bear defence. With most people opting for bear spray I opted for a $1 whistle and a large machette.. haha. The Grizzlys didn't stand a chance!

We found some pretty cool stuff to ride in the zone we had been researching and we built some more stuff to shred with world class photographer Harookz and filmer Don Hampton there to capture everthing, so look out for some more cool stuff to be coming out in mags and on the web over the next few months. One of the highlights for me was seeing the northern lights blazing... Insane green and red solar flares swirling and bending in night sky. Trippy SH*T!

Alaska is an amazing place, big mountains, lakes, rivers, and big wildlife, I was blowin away. I definitely want to head back there.

The riding in Alaska was a good lead up for my next big event the Red Bull Rampage in the Utah desert which is scheduled for oct 1-3rd, I am pumped for it. A good finish could land me in the top ten in the FMB freeride world tour as I am sitting in 14th right now, so I will be SENDING IT out there trying to do well!..

You can view all the pics from my trip here to Alaska HERE, and also check out this video the good dudes down at UNIT clothing put together of me riding bikes in New Zealand.

Cheers
Kelly

• By Allan H

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Kelly McGarry is one of Australia and New Zealands best MTB dirt jumpers. However his skills reach well beyond the dirtjumps, and Kelly proves here that he is a world class rider.

We follow as he kills spots all around his home country of New Zealand, before heading overseas for the northern summer. Locations include Queenstown, Winton, Christchurch, St. Bathans and Blenheim.

For more information and updates on Kelly visit his blog at www.kellymcgazza.blogspot.com

Courtesy: Unit Clothing

Producer: Allan Hardy

Filmers: Pieter Reichwein and Toby Nowland-Foreman

Music: Lo by Brazil www.braziltheband.com

• By Allan H

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Photo: Caroline Buchanan leads Jana Horakova into the finish of the womens final.

Caroline Buchanan found a gap in her intense BMX schedule to compete in the MTB World Cup this last weekend at Saint Mont in Canada, and the efforts paid off, as she walked away with her 2nd MTB 4X World Cup Title!

Congratulations Caroline!

For a full photo recap of the event, head over to Pinkbike.com

• By Allan H

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We haven't brought you to much lately on Chris Kovarik and Claire Buchar, but they have been up to a hell of a lot over the past few weeks, and are just finishing up in Whistler now after a series of Crankworx events. Here is a little rundown of their travels and results...

Crankworx Garbanzo DH

Day 2 of Kokanee Crankworx was the Garbanzo DH, there were 320 athletes in the pro and amateur categories taking to the 12km long course, In the men’s pro category, Chris took first place with a time of 13:22. Congrats!

Crankworx AIR DH

"The Air DH is an unusual race that involves an excavated hard-packed track full of jumps(48 to be exact)and berms. The goal is to stay low on the jumps, stay off the brakes in the berms and sprint your butt off"

Claire had a great race, and despite the wear and tear on the body, came out with a 6th place which she is really happy with. All of the worlds best women DH riders were competing, so congrats Claire!

Chris didn't have quite as much luck, and ended up crashing out. You can check out cool videos from the event HERE and HERE, as well read up on Claire's full blog and results from the event HERE.

Candaian DH Open

It was a hot and slightly humid day at Whistler, 33 degrees to be exact, and dusty, really dusty. Claire put in an awesome effort and came out with a stunning 2nd place. You can read Claire's blog from the Canadian DH Open HERE.

• By Allan H

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Hey bros ,

On the weekend was the Crankworx Whistler Slopestyle final, it is the biggest and baddest event on the slopestyle calendar so I was stoked to get a spot in the final. The course was pretty GNARSTY! Big jumps, big drops and the unforgiving rocky hard whistler dirt.

I headed up for practice at 1pm ready for a 5.30pm start, at 4.30 the crowd really started rolling in. I was blown away wih the amount of people who showed up to watch! Seeing the crowd and also thinking that the event was live on the web had me feeling a bit nervous and pumped at the same time!

5.30 came around and it was time to send it! My first run was money. I landed all my tricks clean and smooth, I took an alternative line on the Kona feature with a wallride to table out thing and came out with an 83.00 score and had me sitting in 4th after everyone did their 1st runs. There was so much carnage in the comp! i wrecked my second run along with alot of other people! After run number two I was in 5th and through to the "Super Final". I was so pumped! I was considering getting rowdy off the 30ft X 25ft drop mid course but decided against it as the consequences were so high and I didn't feel confident enough about spinning it. My 1st run score carried me through to 5th place overall which I am really pumped on! I picked up a well needed cheque and headed out to celebrate! Thanks to everone for the comments and messages, my FB page caught on fire! Haha cheers guys! And thanks to all my great sponsors for making it possible for me to ride my bike.

Cheers. Kelly

• By Allan H

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