Team Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense
Monday, December 17th, 2007
Headed by team manager Nigel Page, the Team Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense looks to be another heavy hitting team next year to watch out for.
“We are pleased to announce the New ChainReactionCycles/Intense Racing Team for 2008…The team will consist of long standing Intense rider Chris Kovarik (Australia), World Junior DH Champion - Ruaridh Cunningham (Scotland), Julien Camellini (France) and Matt Simmonds (England). “
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December 17th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Good to see Intense supporting their California roots…
December 17th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Unfortunately the USA manufacturers build and support a lot of the top dh bikes / riders, but don’t factory support teams stateside.
I’d say its definitely affecting the sport as a whole.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:11 am
The race scene is so much more refined in the E-U than here in N America. The only way to change it is to get more people out to more venues and create the demand for factory teams ourselves.
December 18th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Unfortunately surviving on an upcoming pro salary is near impossible in North America.
If more companies sponsored local talents financially perhaps we’d see more interest in athletes competing at the same level and dedication?
Even upcoming fast pro road guys in the USA struggle a lot and there are tons of races for them to attend.
If the manf’s in the USA helped support stateside stars, would we see more sales, more interest, better athletes sticking with the sport..? Why should USA television/media care about covering the sport if there are no top North American athletes competing? Hopefully fast riders stick with it over here but there’s not much reason for them to professionally.
December 18th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
There’s no doubt it’s harder for cutting edge sports to survive in the US; we’re a huge market and DH would be up against the monstrosities of the NFL, NBA, etc. for TV air time and sponsorship money. But Intense partnering up with a UK store and having only European riders on their team is pretty much a “fuck you” to the US scene. Arguably, all they care about is selling bikes; and not supporting the sport locally. At the end of the day, Intense is a business like any other. No doubt they’ll still regardless sell many bikes stateside.
December 18th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Yea i’m not certain the level of involvment that Intense USA is providing to this team.
It might be just providing frames for those rides, maybe more but its not Intense by itself funding this team. CRC sells Intense bikes as well and could’ve easily worked a deal with Intense to supply this team with bikes in exchange. Nigel Page has ties with Intense as does Kovarik so its no surprise the CRC team is riding on Intenses. Rumor has it this team won’t be on Intenses next year but time will tell.