The Orange Monkey team went back to Dalby this weekend for the latest race in the British series. It was a return to where it all began for Chris, revisiting the venue of his first World Cup experience back in April. The rest of the team had also ridden the course before but not the full World Cup circuit and it was with a nervous excitement that the team arrived for Friday practice at a dry Dalby Forest.

After mastering the now familiar flash points on the course such as Worry Gill, medusa Drop and the dreaded bus stop the team went back to their base for refuelling ready for a big day on Saturday.

Our reigning Welsh Champion took a trip to the famous old course at Builth Wells this weekend with the hope of retaining the jersey he won last year in Pontypool.

One of the hottest days of the year was not going to make this one easy and with the renowned tough climbs and awesome descents that the course has to offer it was make or break for many riders. Monkeys are used to the heat though and some good preparation made sure that Ben went into this race with a great chance of keeping his red, white and green jersey firmly on his back!

Alex took a trip up the road to Thetford this weekend for one of the Eastern region events in the Mud, Sweat & Gears Series. A fantastic fast flowing course was just what the doctor ordered and Alex took a convincing win in this training race as he looks to put to bed the bad luck he has had at national level so far this year.

The team’s third podium spot in as many races!

Ben took a long journey down to the South West for the South West Championships this weekend as he looks to gain his Elite license direct from Juniors next year.

After a slow start to the season Ben has raced himself into the top three in the country and after a great result at the last BMBS event he is in fine form.

The third round of the British Series took us back to an old classic venue in South Wales. Margam Park has been on the XC calendar since Mountain Biking began and is a popular circuit and well known as being a hard mans course due to its vicious climbs and rocky descents. The team went into the race on the back of some great results and it was fair to say everyone as in good spirit and good form!

A new and varied course made things interesting and a pre-ride on Friday was met by positive feedback from the team who not only enjoyed the course but the sunshine and dust that was being kicked up around the way. This was to be short lived as during Friday night the heavens opened and turned a dust bowl into a mud bowl. The fun off camber sections were now grit your teeth and hold on sections and the new shoot descent was like a rocky ice rink!

The second round of the Midlands Series in the idyllic location of Mansell Lacy just outside Hereford gained a full turn out of Orange Monkey riders, which also incorporated the Midlands Championships for 2010.

This championship event had been on the list of goals for our Birmingham based rider, Chris Andrews for some time and coming off the back of two world cups and some impressive early season form it was going to be an ideal time for him to step up and take the championship.

After two tough World Cups the team set out on their third race in as many weeks – this time for the second round of the British Series at Wasing Park, just outside Reading.

Ben had taken the trip south just a few short weeks ago for the test event here and won comfortably allowing him to give the rest of the team valuable feed back on what the course would offer.

Just one week on from the controlled madness of Orange Monkey’s first World Cup experience on the new Dalby Forest circuit in Yorkshire came the biggest one of them all, The Houffalize World Cup. This race is without doubt the most nostalgic event in the Mountain Biking calendar and has now run in Houffalize for the past 18 years!

The team took Chris for his second World Cup in as many weeks to the nerve jangling town in the far south of Belgium. The people of Belgium treat cycling like the British treat football, with heart and passion and you could sense the excitement just walking around this alpine resort looking town.

After weeks of preperation the UCI World Cup came to Dalby Forest in England and for the Orange Monkey team it was to be their very first World Cup experience. The team set off on Friday morning with Chris, our featuring rider and support from Paul, Will and Alex. As a team we have waited a long time to get into this position so there were nerves all round but none more so for Chris who had worked incredibly hard over the past 18 months with the team to get to the level required to race a World Cup. Friday morning was perfect, the sun was out, the traffic reasonable and the team in bouyant mood looking forward to a great weekend of racing.

World Cup racing returning to England is no small occasion and the organisers wanted to put on a show and with that in mind they created the Pro Sprint Eliminator! World Cup Professionals going head to head in a 4 cross style race through the streets of Pickering. Orange Monkey were priviledged to have been invited to take part by the organisers and Paul jumped at the chance of competing against the very best in the world in front of a packed crowd in the centre of the Yorkshire town of Pickering.

Orange Monkey took the front feature picture on the World Cup Event Manual at Dalby Forest, England.

This weekend see's the World Cup come home to England for the first time in 11 years! And for us it is especially special as this will be the first time we have had a rider entered into a World Cup event. On Sunday at 2.30pm Chris will test himself against the very best riders in the world.

Paul, Will and Alex travel with Chris on Friday morning to give him full support on a packed weekend of entertainment and racing. This also includes the Pro Sprint Eliminator that Paul will be doing after a special invite for the team to compete in the fun event on Friday evening in Pickering Town. The event has TV coverage and big prizes and will see Paul go up against some of the best in the world in a 4x style cross country race through the streets of Pickering, a great showcase for our sponsors! See more on the Pro Sprint Eliminator here.

One thing is for sure, this will be an amazing event, not just for Orange Monkey but for the sport of Mountain Biking as a whole. Good Luck Chris - We will be right behind you!

After a week or more of sunny, Spring weather, the 2010 Midlands XC Series got underway at a sunny and unusually dry Hanchurch Woods near Stoke. Many peoples favourite XC race course of the moment, Hanchurch offers a great mix of technical single track, tough climbing (even more so after the forestry machines had cut up the fireroads) and a fast, swoopy and importantly dry course to race on.

Ben was looking for progress from the Southern XC rd1 the week before when he had won but had not put together the consistent lap times he had been aiming at. The Junior race was made even more interesting by the presence of the Australian Junior National Champion, Mitchell Codner, in the UK preparing for the World Cup round at Dalby. Mitchell had finished 17th in the World Championships in 2009 and would offer a real world class test for the rest of the Junior field.

The first round of the Southern Series was held this weekend at the new venue for the second round of the National Series. Ben took the decision to take the trip South to test out the venue and also pick up some valuable ranking ppoints as he looks to jump straight into Elite next season.

As part of the teams continued progression this year Norris (Orange Monkey Director Sportif) will be taking the team to three seperate International events to gain vital experience as the team look to push their riders ever closer to the professional ranks. This year it starts in the Netherlands at a tough Rabobank Bikecentre event. the competition at these events is remarkably intense with the likes of Henk Jaap Moorlag and Jelmer Jubbeger from the professional Rabobank team and the former World Cup hero, Bas Peters!

On the 25th April 2010 Chris Andrews is set to become the very first Orange Monkey rider to compete in a UCI World Cup, and what a place to do - A home race at the newly built Dalby Forest track.

World Cups are a pinnacle of every Cross Country riders dreams and for Chris it will be his first of many as a busy schedule takes him to two WC's and a National event all within the space of 3 tough weeks.

With all this in mind Chris took the road north to Dalby for a weekend of practice accompanied by his coach and fellow Orange Monkey Elite, Paul. The weather, as you would expect in northern England in March was raining hard which was perfect as the conditions would never be worse than what faced him this weekend... unless it snowed, now their's a thought!

Once again the mountain bike season is upon us and a huge list of fixtures once again gives the team plenty to focus on and look towards as each of the four monkey's targets specific races throughout a season which stretches from February to September!

After a successful period in Cyprus mid February the team headed up to Nottingham for the now traditional season opener of the British Series at Sherwood Pines in the heart of England.

After having problems throughout the first two races the team were almost back to normal for the final round of the Sunshine Cup in Amathous near Limassol.

The race was set on an archaeological site right next to the sea and actually dropped onto the boardwalk over the sea during the short lap. The course was very rocky with some short sharp climbs and fast sketchy descents which was enough to keep even the best riders in the world on there toes!

After a reasonable set of results from the riders in round 1 of the Sunshine Cup, the focus now turned to the demanding stage race in the Macheras mountains. The format for the race was a one lap Time Trial of the XC course on Friday afternoon followed by a point to point marathon the day after and finally a Cross Country race on the Sunday followed by a huge barbeque… we were looking forward to that the most!

Help flew in on the Wednesday in the form of team manager Will along with Paul’s girlfriend to make sure the riders were fully looked after and could focus on the race in hand.

The first race of the Sunshine Cup saw us waking up to cloudy skies but it wasn’t long before the cloud had gone and the beaming hot sun was shining brightly off the chalky trails… and when you consider its snowing in the UK life couldn’t get better!

Ben was the first Monkey to go at the early time of 9.30am against a quality Junior field. The Junior race was now UCI ranked giving it an even higher significance. A bad start didn’t deter the youngster from getting in the mix and he was soon up with the leaders before over shooting a corner and dropping his chain leaving him to play catch up with the leading group. By now the sun was hot and the climbs seriously hard on a technical course. Ben came in shattered in 10th spot after a solid opening race.

Three riders from the team will gingerly pack their sparkling Cannondale Scalpels and Taurine’s into a box this week and head out to the much warmer climate of Cyprus for the European UCI opening event, The Sunshine Cup.

The team have been travelling to Cyprus for 5 years now to take part in this prestigious series. An excellently contructed race series with hard courses, warm weather and some of the worlds best riders makes this the perfect winter training camp and with races including the British opener in Sherwood Forest and World Cups at Dalby and Houffalize to take into consideration this once again fits well into the teams plans.

This year the team are delighted to be joined by national Champion Sue Clarke, top Elite Lee Williams and endurance specialist Anthony Morris.

The final preparation for the Sunshine Cup in Cyprus was the local Gorrick race in Surrey. This came at the end of a very hard block of training for the riders and was designed to be a big test to some very tired legs. The course was excellent as you would expect with a Gorrick race and gave the riders plenty to keep them amused on a surprisingly dry course.

As part of the pre-season preparation the team headed to the latest round of the Whyte Enduro at Thetford Forest. Although the season is almost upon us this is the first race mountain bike race that the team have participated in as they look forward to a long season with some important European races.

This was to be a training exercise and a guide as to how well the winter preparation had gone. It was a full turn out with Paul, Chris and ben taking on the 2 hour senior category and Alex setting himself up for the 2 hour Juniors.

Orange Monkey are delighted to introduce Hygia as a new sponsor for the 2010 season.

The Taiwanese brake company will supply the team with their top of the range braking systems which will shortly be available for purchase in the UK market. The team are excited about this new partnership and look forward to using the stylish equipment throughout the new season.

After three seasons with Orange Monkey, Nat has decided to move on to pastures new and will join up with an all new Orbea team next year.

Nat joined us in 2007 prompting the set up of our successful Youth Development Scheme and went on to race in the Youth and Junior categories...

For the fourth year running the team will be heading to the sunny island of Cyprus for a winter training camp and the opening race on the UCI European circuit - The Sunshine Cup!

The Sunshine Cup is now one of the most popular events for both professionals and amateurs at the start of the season. The star studded line up often see's riders from around the world preparing for their World Cup season!

2009 has been another new adventure for Orange Monkey stepping up their game off the bike bought some fantastic results on it. Take a look back at some of the highlights of a wonderful season!