Naked bikes MTB team have been in action over the last few months . 

Naked Bikes Leading the way 

Team Rider Nick  Popham has been competing on the national XC series with solid results in all rounds , At the Midlands XC Championships Popham took the Midland XC championship title again for the 4th year running , A great achievement for anyone and a great pay off for all the hard work and training nick does .

Popham pushing on  

Ben Piringer has been racing at the midland XC series in sport cat, Ben has had a slow start to his 2015 campaign with 27th at round 1 but soon improved with a 13th at rd 2 and 9th at rd 3 Piringer sits in 11th overall , Ben is getting back to his 2014 fitness but after his injury's through out last year Ben has found it hard to get fully fit . You can be assured he will be back !   .

 Lee Bradshaw  also racing the midlands XC in go race cat has also had a solid start finishing in 7th , 13th .7th and is currently in 3rd overall in the series standings . Not bad for someone having sleepless nights with his new addition to the family , top effort Lee . 

Spanish rider Juan Rodriguez has been racing back in Spain competing on the rotor bike race in Madrid finishing 10th in elite he also raced the Clasica de Valdemorillo in Madrid finishing 11th in elite  , Back on home soil at rd 2 of the Nutcracker MTB series Rodriguez finished 7th in expert , with a DNF at rd 1 of the Scott marathon series he came back at rd 2 and finished 5th in masters cat . 

We have got high hopes for Juan and we are looking forward to seeing what he can do for the rest of the season ! 

Juan after rd 2 Scott marathon series 

Chris Gregory who has came back to racing this year stronger a fitter than before is having a great time racing the Scott marathon series with some great times , Andy Faulknall has also been in action on the Scott marathon series with solid race times and results . 

Chris loves a Hill 

Proudman on a charge 

Friday Night summer series action Nick Popham has won 3 of the 4 rounds in vets cat and has took over from the lead vets role of Chris Rathbone in this series ... Will Rathbone come and do a round ? who knows  , Mark Proudman has been in action in senior cat, Taking 4th at rd 2 , 5th at rd 3 and 3rd at rd 4 Mark admits he always starts the season a little slow but he is capable of taking the overall win at any race so he is always one to watch . . Chris Gregory has also been in FNSS action and has had top 15 results in senior cat not bad for someone just using the FNSS as training ..

Proudman

Popham

Still a lot of racing to do for the team in 2015 we will keep you updated 

Juanj Rodriguez was out racing at his home event in Dalby last weekend ... The pics look great :)

 Dalby Forest is where I train every week and I could not wait for this race .I arrived early to warm up and get focused , The race start was at 11:30am , 5 laps around Dalby International Circuit is tough going and on my  first lap I had  a few problems to pass some slower riders, so I had to wait til the first climb to pass them.. As usual, I ended better than I start, so my fastest lap was the last one, when I really started to feel good. 5 laps with a total time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. This mean, 1 minutes faster each lap that last year. Really happy with the result. Finally, 7th Expert. 

Nick Popham racing at the round 2 of the British Mtb series at Newnham Park New kit is looking great :) Nick did a great job for the team coming in 19th in a very tough Vets Cat 

A day at the beach

Nick Popham took the trip to wales to race the Battle of the beach , The UK's most unique cycling event - open to all bikes , Each lap is roughly 4km on the beach (all hard sand)

4km singletrack, 4km doubletrack or forest road

http://www.battleonthebeach.co.uk

Nick testing the cx bike out on the beach 

So the plan was set , we traveled down on the Saturday morning early after my son Alex kindly gave me cold on the Friday so I knew it would be a challenge and I've done a fair few cross races under the weather so game on still, one thing I try and teach my son Josh  is never back down from a event . 

Saturday morning the buzz of racing was in the air by 11 am the caravan was set up which was made easy with our transporter , less stress packed with 4 dogs 3 kids and packed with bikes my Cannondale team f29er XTR 1/11 and 1 Cannondale SuperX ultimate Sram CX1 , 3 pm the sun was out what a hot day it was , Josh and I made our way round the course testing our 29er's vs cross which was faster on the beach and the CX seemed good on the woodland trails. And as this race is open to all bikes I had to choose which bike to race on .

The morning of the race was cold and brought frozen landscape  but by 10 am it was heating up nicely, josh was racing the 29er at 10.30 , He had a good start to his race and he was flying till he came into the pits with a broken Xtr lever broke , So he took my cross bike !, and won with 2 and a half laps !.

The main race briefing was at 11.15 then it was down to the beach for 12 pm with my cross bike .
The gun went on time and my plan went well from the front line to go out further towards the sea and then turn and go like the wind ! Then before I knew it 599 riders were behind me and some there is some great video on the battle of the beach site of of me in slow motion leading on my cross followed by 100's on there 29ers and cross bikes !  game face was on 6 k later we left the beach behind the main Belgian group.

Leading the main pack 

Gravel roadway led to fast single track my group were just behind the front group of riders  , going through the arena someone had switched the sign so loads of us took a detour and soon got to the road then the beach again and I was able to get tucked in behind the same guy for laps 2/3 which was great due to horrible head wind .

On the last lap I took a wrong line and managed to do a full 360 buckling my front wheel but I carried on and got 15 in vet , Great event one that I would do again 

Nick Popham ​

Marriott takes second overall at Thetford winter series

Ross Marriott made the last trip over to Thetford for the last round of the winter series .

Marriott had another great result and took 2nd place in cat and in doing so moved into 2nd overall in the series ! Massive well done and keep that form going for the 2015 xc series

First European Race For Rodriguez

Naked Bikes Team Rider Rodriguez made the trip back home to spain to compete in the RotorBigRace a MTB marathon race in Madrid , The race is one of the toughest Marathon race's going and has been a success every year . The number of participants is always very high, With  nearly 500 Riders racing , The quality of riders has was amazing some of the top  top riders in Spain would be fighting for the top positions and from Rodriguez point of view this was great ,  This was the hardest marathon Rodriguez has ever competed in and with Really very tough climbs and technical descents it would test all Rodriguez skills .

Rodriguez 10th elite time 3h.29m.44

At intermediate point Rodriguez was placed 13 minutes from the race lead, and among the top 20 riders , and 6º place in elite category , Rodriguez  decided to save his energy for the last 15 km, But in one of the last sections of a climb before starting the long descent to the finish line Rodriguez  punctured the tire, losing some pressure but the liquid sealant did its job., But at the beginning of the descent the tire started to lose air again, but with no liquid sealant to stop the tire going down Rodriguez finally had to run on foot the last few kilometers to the finish line. 

41º overall, 10th Elite, time: 3:29:44 

Velo Coaching Team day at Sherwood Pines

New team sponsor velo coaching kindly held a day at Sherwood pines for the team and brought along Martyn of coaching revolution to help for the day  .

It was great to get together with most of the team before the season starts and have some fun in the woods and the usual team banter and also meet up with some of the new team members Matt & Mark and Mark Grange of velo coaching .

The day was very informative and Mark and Martyn had the day planned to the minute . 

Morning session's where race practice , Starts , Corner positioning , Planning your race lap per lap , Mark and Martyn had planed a small course for us to race around in groups of 2 or 3 to put into practice what we had just learnt .. To say the competitive spirit of all the riders came out was a understatement and it was great to see the lads go all out testing each others pace and fitness  . 

The afternoon was bike skill's and what fun we had doing this , Mark had said flat pedals and apart from Chris Gregory no one else listened ! Mark had a set plan of what skill's he wanted us to do and we all had great fun trying to do most of them . 

If you are looking for a coach get in touch with Velo Coaching , Mark knows what he is talking about and the way he explains everything is great , Everyone in the team came away learning something new . 

Thanks Mark & Martyn for a great day .

Mark Grange is a level 2 and 3 Road and Time Trial Coach with British Cycling  Level 2 and 3 MTB Coach with British Cycling. 

He is also a National Standards Cycle Instructor Trainer. Level 2 Cyclo Cross with British Cycling Strength and Conditioning Level 1 Coach Sports Massage level 3 Trail Cycle Leader with SMBLA

Mark also carry's out tutoring and assessments for British Cycling Coaches across a wide range of disciplines.

Velo coaching packages are aimed to be reasonably priced so that coaching is available to novices and experts a like. I only work with a maximum of 4 riders on one to one coaching plans.

They deliver ‘first class bespoke cycle coaching’ for any level of cycle ability.

The gang from the coaching day 

Thetford MTB's Winter Series

Ross Marriott in the new 2015 kit on his way to 2nd at Thetford winter series round 3 

Rathbone & Popham CX Mallory park

Rathbone & Popham at Mallory Park cx Race ..

Chris Rathbone getting in the zone before the start , Would you want to line up against these riders.. Chris Rathbone will be competing down south in 2015 in xc & cx , Which I am sure will please a lot of Midland riders in 2015 when the cx season starts .. Not so good for the boys down south :) .. 

Bronze for Popham at WMCCL Cyclecross presentation

Nick Popham WMCCL CX season end with a Bronze medal

Well done Nick great effort , Roll on 2015 XC season !

Bronze for Popham at WMCCL 

Great Photo of Popham racing CX 

New Year New Look New Sponsors

After a great 3 years in our traditional red/white/back kit, the team will look very different in 2015 .

Impsport have again supported the team with there new range of pro cycling kit which is absolutely great fit and quality , Hewitt Ladders of Leicester have jumped on board as the team main sponsor for 2015 and with this the team colors have changed

Naked Bikes isn't a pro cycling team we are normal guys with family's who like to race mountain bikes and give it 100% this is what the team is renown for and with 3 midland titles , FNSS Vets championship ,2nd in Senior , Podiums week in and week out We hope that 2015 will bring more of the same .

2015 MTB Riders

• Chris Rathbone 
• Mark Proudman
• Nick Popham 
• Andy Faulknall
• Ben Piringer
• Ross Marriott
• Juanj Rodrigues
• Chris Gregory 
• Lee Bradshaw 
• Matt Brian 
• Phil Malt 

2015 Triathlon 

• Mark Flanaghan 

Team Boss Paul Will also be out and about racing . 

Supporting the team in 2015 are the following 

• Velo coaching - www.velocoaching.co.uk/
• Sturgess Motor Group - www.sturgessgroup.co.uk
• High 5 - highfive.co.uk
• S2 Cycles - www.s2cycles.co.uk/

A massive thank you to our team sponsors .