This weekend sees a lot of big things happening, so we thought we would give you a little rundown of the action, including updates on some of the Unit athletes who have been in the spotlight.

AUSTRALASIAN SUPER X

The tension is growing, and hype building, as Australia’s best prepare to do battle this Saturday night in Newcastle. Unit has an amazing team this year including Dan Reardon, Tye Simmonds, Luke George, Robbie Marshall, Cody Mackie, Luke Arbon, Ford Dale and Billy Mackenzie, who with the exception of Mac211 who is recovering fro a broken collarbone are looking strong and ready to put it all on the line.

With Chad Reed still unsure of his fitness, Dan Reardon has been titled the man to beat, and looks like the odds on favourite for the series.

Robbie Marshall is the dark horse of the Lites series, after switching back to the 250 2-stroke, and leaving a lot of riders wondering what the result will be!

DEW TOUR FINALE

The Dew Tour heads to Las Vegas for the first time, and they have put in a massive effort, securing the coolest locations. We just hope the athletes don’t get caught up in the lifestyle of Sin City before the event even starts haha.
Unit athletes Jaie Toohey and Nate Berkheimer will both be contesting BMX Dirt, and if all goes to plan, we will see some massive fireworks! Jaie Toohey has been pushing himself in a big way to be ready for the contest, and we recently saw some quick videos of him throwing down the flip triple whip, and enormous backflip superman seatgrabs over the resi, both of which have never been done before in competition.

Qualifying takes place at 12.30pm Friday Australian time, and the finals go down at 12.30pm Sunday.

CRUSTY DEMONS TOUR

The all new Crusty tour takes off this weekend in Perth, and Unit athletes Kain Saul, Matt Schubring and Beau Bamburg are all featured heavily. We got a sneak peak at the rehearsals and set-up earlier this week, and we are putting our money on this being best tour ever! So if you haven’t got your tickets yet, make sure you snatch them up and go see one of the shows. They are hitting Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. www.crusty.com

ANDREU LACONDEGUY

During Red Bull Rampage, the worlds biggest and craziest MTB event, Andreu had a massive crash while attempting a backflip no-hander over one of the gnarly natural terrain jumps. No such trick had ever been attempted on the natural style course. Andreu came away from the contest with a 4th overall, as well as a few injuries. On Wednesday this week he was still not riding, but left this message on his Facebook, “Gettin better every day... Almost back on my bikes.... Still hurting after my Rampage crash...”

• By Allan H

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Caroline Buchanan sent through a new blog, and has some big news about her recent events...

A record number of riders entered the final round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in FRÉJUS France, 198 men and from 47 women from 27 countries. With the Olympics just two short years away the interest in the world’s fastest growing action sport is rising.

The Australian Team spent a few weeks in Europe after the recent World Cup in the USA. We spent a few days at the World Cycling Center in Aigle Switzerland preparing for the World Cup. My back had a flare up from a disc injury last year which put me off the bike for a few days luckily I recovered quickly.

World Cup leader Le Corguillé crashed in the time trials and was out of competition. 2009 BMX World Champion Sarah Walker won the time trial 0.95seconds in front of myself. Placing 2nd in the time trial was really important for Olympic Country Points and my overall World Cup ranking as seven other elite women were all in the mix to claim 2nd and 3rd spot in the 2010 World Cup standings.

Racing started out good for myself until there was some carnage that I got caught up in over the 1st jump in the quarterfinal round. I crashed going roughly 50kph and got back up to progress through to the semi final. I rode the semi final with my shoulder a leg in a lot of pain. I didn't progress through to the final but having a podium result in Madrid, a consistent season and great time trial results always being in the top 5 throughout the year ranked me in 2nd position in the overall World Cup series.

At 7pm the night of racing I was walking up the stairs in the hotel and felt instant pain in my leg. I hopped to reception screaming for ice and an ambulance, I went to hospital to get checked out with a 4cm high lump on my leg. Turns out I had burst a blood vessel in my leg and I had taken some Ibuprofen for my shoulder that increased the bleeding and didn't help the situation.

I was watching the clock tick my 9pm in the hospital when I found out that my coach Wade Bootes who was at the end of year Swatch Awards night collected my trophy for 2nd in the series and also collecting my trophy for winning the people vote "Female BMX Rider Of The Year".

I am waiting a few more days in Italy at the moment till it is safe to fly home to get MRI's on my shoulder and leg and progress back to training and a rehab/functional conditioning period preparing for next years busy schedule.

• By Allan H

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