Team Real Cycles / Commencal

Real Cycles are pleased to join forces with some of the best riders in Ireland and some of the best brands in the world to launch Team Real Cycles / Commencal.

In this part of the blog you can keep upto date with all the news and results of Team Real Cycles / Commencal, and also find out more about the team, the riders and the brands behind us.

Dry, fast and very technical was the way everyone described the new Cloon track which played host to the first round of the Irish NPS. Some were even heard to be complaining about the track being too hard, wise up!

The Real Cycles / Commencal team were out in force barring one rider who has now "officially" retired from DH racing (more on that down below), and in every contested category our riders were contenders.

The course itself was very flowing with little or no need to pedal: Working the track features and pumping the course were the order of the day, demonstrated no better than by top Irish rider Ben Reid who astounded everyone by appearing to float the trail and win Elite with an impressive 6 sec lead.

However Team Real Cycles / Commencals Elite Stevo Beattie was not to be out done by attacking the course in his usual style to pull in third spot behind Ger Wolfe who took second. Stevo was carrying a hand injury on the day. Shortly after the race Stevo, who is already no stranger to the world circuit, got selected to ride for the Irish squad. Great news for Stevo and great news for the Team. Well done big lad.

In Vets Stevie Davidson took the win, by 6 seconds, and he says he was taking it easy! Stevie is becoming accustomed to winning, how long will it last?

Karl O'Sullivan our junior rider had a blistering day putting in a fast first run, then even faster second run to take 3rd. This was Karls first race on his new Team edition Commencal Supreme DH bike only having gotten it 2 days previous, so the result is all the more impressive. Karl also got selected to race on the Irish squad, well done.

Peter McDonagh marked his return to competitive racing with a fantastic 4th position in Senior, Pete has more or less been off the bike for 18 months due to an injury and has scared everyone with his imediate return to form. The podium awaits Pete for sure.

And finally, SteveB has anounced with immediate effect his retirement from DH racing. To date this year he's suffered a broken rib and bust knee and has decided, in his own words "I'm too old for this shit". He was last seen training on a local XC course and has started weighting his bike, lots.

The Irish Winter League, the opener to the irish DH race season, culminated in a fast and challenging race at Cloon Wood Ireland at the end of Feb 07. The course was every bit as technical, fast and flowing as the first Cloon race of the year, only the weather added an extra dimension. It was slippy! The medic on the day spent more time at the local A&E dept than race side, always a good sign.   more »

When I went to the Winter Leauge race at the Moneyscalp I had to take my camera. I'm not good at being a spectator. I have to be doing it. I figure, if I'm there to take pictures - then at least I'm doing 'taking pictures'. Read on for the rest.   more »

Sunday 4 Feb saw round 3 of the Irish Winter DH League return to Moneyscalp forest in Northern Ireland, the weather was fine, the ground was firm (ish!) and the riders were ripping. None more so than Team Real Cycles / Commencal, with 3 riders racing and 3 podiums on the day. It don't get much better than that!   more »

Super J aka JonnyC came to the first round of the Winter League to filme the lads (and me) doing their thing. The result is our first Vidcast of the team.

Excuse the fact that I'm not on my team bike. The excuse is I actually hadn't planned to race on the day and it was a last minute thing, also my race bike is STILL not finished (Blame Pete!).

Round one vidcast (Right click and save as).

Please note as with all our vidcasts it's in .MP4 format, so you can play it on your Video iPod and PSP and such gadgets. Use Quicktime player to watch it on your PC.

StevieD's new team helmet has landed   more »

Want to know more about the man with more anodised bits than Robocop? Well here is your chance!!   more »

So who pulls the strings on the Real Cycles DH team? Or more to the point who just provides the bits and lets the boys get on with it?   more »

Want to know a little more about the Elite rider in the Real Cycles DH team, then have a look in here as we grill Steven Beattie good and proper!!   more »