Killing it on Course | Team Wideopenmag’s 2017 Highlights.

2017 has been a massive year for Team Wideopenmag with four National titles scooped and plenty more silverware to go with it.

Team Wideopenmag are our guys on the race scene. They’re our chance to give something back – helping out young, talented riders and getting out there and supporting British downhill and enduro racing.

We’ve been running the team for a few years now and 2017 has been one of our best ever, with a tonne of races won, national champs bagged and great memories added to the list.

In 2018 Team Wideopenmag raced 62 races throughout the World. Including the full British Downhill Series, the full (almost) Enduro World Series, Pearce Cycles, Irish National downhill and enduro national and championships races …and loads more.

The team stood on 40 podiums and won 3 national champs – Welsh, Irish and the overall British national champs titles.

With the year rapidly coming to a close we thought it was time for a quick recap of the best bits of 2017. Cheers for a great year guys, roll on 2018!

The Team’s launch weekend at the Forest of Dean

Way back in February, after month’s of talking to sponsors and sorting the team, we got everyone together for a weekend at the Forest of Dean. We raced the Mini Downhill, hung out as a team, sessioned some jumps and had a blast together for the first time.

After a long off-season of sorting sponsors, it was great to kick the year off with a proper team knees up.

Morgan Tyrrell Youth National and Welsh Champ.

What can we say about our Youth Welsh and British National Champion Morgan Tyrrell that his race results haven’t already done? A 7th at the IXS Rookies Cup in Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis was the only time he strayed from the top 3 at any race he attended.

A nasty concussion at the same race saw him sit out a few between-the-tape sorties, but he returned strong to take the National title in his first race back. Well done champ!

Chris Cumming Takes the IDMS Series title.

A clean sweep of the IDMS would see our man Chris Cumming take the 15-16 series title with plenty of finishes seeing him second fastest time of the day behind fellow Irish pinner and World Cup top 10 finisher Jacob Dickson.

Hutch wins the No Fuss Events Macavalanche.

Photo by Trev Worsey.

After slotting himself neatly into the top 30 at the Enduro World Series at Crankworx Rotorua, Hutch returned to home soil to do battle atop Meall a’Buiridh, also known as Glencoe Mountain.

The No Fuss Events Macavalanche is one of a kind in the UK, and Hutch made it a clean sweep of the stages with an emphatic victory over some very fast fellow Scots.

Hutch Bags Two Top 30s at the Enduro World Series.

Photo by Trev Worsey.

Clearly very happy racing in Ireland and on the World stage, Hutch took the momentum from his 30th place in New Zealand at the start of the year plus a barn-storming run on home turf at the Macavalanche, converting that into a 26th place finish in Wicklow.

Two finishes at the sharp end of World level enduro racing bodes well for 2018!

… and discovers what Tignes is all about

Of course, the team isn’t just about good stuff on track. When he wasn’t racing, Hutch spent loads of time checking out great places to ride to keep our bucket lists topped up.

One of his top trips of the year was to Tignes with Web Editor Pete, hosted by Mountain Sun. He found amazing singletrack, a super fun bike park and discovered that you can ride well into the Autumn where other resorts would be long closed for business.

You can read his full story online here.

Kelan wins the Red Bull Fox Hunt.

Photo courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.

Another win for Kelan Grant, this time would see him on home soil at Rostrevor for the gents’ edition of the Red Bull Fox Hunt.

Despite the presence of local hero Colin Ross, and World Cup legends and former World Champions Loic Bruni and Gee Atherton, Kelan would ride to victory ahead of a huge throng of other riders.

Kye steps up to Elite

OneUp Clip Pedals advert Leaderboard 2025

Kye has spent his short downhill career so far killing it at the British Downhill Series. He smoked the masters and expert categories then in 2017 went on to achieve his goal of racing Elite downhill.

That’s not bad when you consider he’s already had a really successful career as a BMX pro … even more when you see him do it whilst working full time with two high intensity young lads to look after alongside!

Kelan Bags Irish Enduro Championship.

Photo by Trev Worsey.

Our Irish enduro pinner would be the only rider to go under the 16-minute mark for timed stages at the Irish Enduro Championships in Carrick, Co. Wicklow, ensuring he’d take the title comfortably.

Props to the Irish for having a championships for enduro before the rest of the British Isles. No wonder there’s so much talent coming from over the water these days!

…and wins Tweedlove Vallelujah

As if all those other wins weren’t enough, Kelan decided he needed to win the Tweedlove Vallelujah Enduro up in Scotland too!

You can read his race report from the day here.

Kelan Slots Into 14th at the Megavalanche.

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again. Kelan Grant is an ANIMAL.

After winning his qualifying heat at the Megavalanche, the young Irish pinner would take 14th overall and 7th in the 19-29 category, beating a fair few big names in the process.

A shortened course might have made everything a bit more hectic, and we’d be keen to see how the beast would handle the full run.

Chris Cumming wins the IXS at Kranjska Gora

He’s only a young un, but our lad Chris showed he can cut it internationally by taking the IXS win at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia in the super tough Under17 category.

Kelan Wins the Ard Rock Enduro.

After a day of swapping stage wins with Leigh Johnson, Kelan would take the win at the Ard Rock Enduro by a cool 2 seconds after 17 minutes of timed racing.

He’d also take the fastest time of the day ahead of almost one thousand riders competing in the full course over the weekend festival.

Racing the last ever British Downhill Series

It seems like a funny one to include but we’re really proud of our small part in the British Downhill Series.

We’ve raced, and sometimes even won, the series since its beginning. Every year we put a full team on the start line, cover the events with great stories and video, help talented young riders to grow through the ranks and yep, we pay our race entries and try to turn up and really get stuck in.

We were sad to see the series close but we were proud to be at the grand slam finale and to big Si and co a fond farewell. Cheers for the good times guys!

Massive thanks to all the Team Wideopenmag sponsors for the year, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Thanks also to the riders, our two awesome mechanics Dru and Chaz, Ian our team photographer, our rider’s coaches Ben Plenge and Chris Kilmurry, Jake at Sprung Suspension, all of team mums and dads and, last but not least, our Team Manager Big Dave Konstanz.

You guys rule!

Here’s to 2018!

 

 

 


css.php