General News
Team XCracer.com - The 2012 Line-up
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterPublished: 12th March, 2012
Photo Joolze - Phil Morris at the National XC Masters Champs in Yorkshire
The team has taken many forms over the years but at the heart the ethos has always about supporting a diverse group of riders, who act as advocates for the site, talk about their racing and generally fly the flag at home (and occasionally abroad). The majority of the money generated by the site's activities is ploughed back into the team and trying to support their aspirations and racing ambitions.
We have never really cared too much about where our riders finished (although we're always pretty happy when they hit the podium) as long as they don't dnf too often and enjoy it along the way.
Late in 2011 we put out our usual call for riders in 2012 and to be honest we were pretty flabbergasted with the response. After weeding out the 'sponsor me i'm quick' cv's we still had a pretty hefty longlist to choose a shortlist from. This bit is pretty hard as there were probably 20 riders we would have been pretty happy supporting but with a limited budget and a desire to get a better geographical spread this year the choices became a little easier.
So we settled on 8 riders - 3 'team leaders' and 5 regional riders. And now we can finally reveal the full line up for the season.
XCRacer.com - Team Leaders
Leading the team will be Phil Morris, Niall Frost and Verity Appleyard.
Phil Morris
Phil has been an ever present on the team for a while now - Phil is consistently at the front end of any race he's in, whether that's a local or national XC, an enduro or a full blown 100 mile marathon. Whatever, it's all done with maximum effort and a deep ingrained love of the sport, like most of us Phil is always juggling the work/life balance and is one of the busiest racers out there.
Niall Frost
Niall has been with us for a while now and in addition to being a busy racer he is also driving a lot of the more interesting content appearing on the site and is our features editor. Niall is always on the lookout for new challenges and is even rumoured to be dabbling in the occasional triathlon in 2012.
Verity Appleyard
After guesting for us in 2011 Verity made a great impression and has been around the race scene for a while. An advocate of more technical courses she has always been active on the website and tends to tell it like it is whilst retaining a great enthusaism for the race scene...we like that.XCRacer.com - Regionals
We have never been very good at spreading our riders around the country but this year we have a had a pretty good try and are delighted to welcome new team riders Oliver Herdsmen, Richard Jones, Louise Robinson, Rob Friel and returner Matt Lewis.
Oliver Herdsman
Like many of our visitors Oliver works in the bike trade and seems to like most things outdoors. Racing in sport and based in Somerset, Oliver will be the South West flag flier. We were a bit worried when his first blog was about an off road run and his photos definitely have a catelogue model feel to them but we think Oliver will fit in fine around here and he is already having a pretty good go at getting near to the fully sussed podium.
Richard Jones
Next up it's Richard Jones, Rich is also in the bike trade and this year will be his first in elite. A close battle with Jody Crawforth at Black Park shows he won't be out of his depth and he will be busy around the Eastern, Southern, Midlands series and getting a beating at Nationals.
Matt Lewis
Matt Lewis is the anchor man at 3. Matt is a lover of the turbo trainer and starts every year with high hopes, as so often happens real life tends to take over and matt remembers he has to juggle his teaching job and family. We always enjoy reading Matt's blogs and are delighted to have him back on the team and expect to see him at the welsh races (if he can find them).
Louise Robinson
Regional four is Louise Robinson (no not the Cyclo Cross and Olympian one). Louise has already made an impression at the brass monkeys and gorricks and is busy with her blogs and is another rider juggling the fun of family life and racing.
Rob Friel
At five it's 4real Rob Friel. Rob has been at the pointy end of elite for a while now and will be providing us with more content from Scotland and Nationals and has already provided some interesting instalments.
Donna Morris
Perhaps the most exciting addition is our new team manager, director sportif, soigneur and bottle washer all rolled into one - Donna Morris.Donna is there to keep (get) us organised and generally make us a bit more professional (i've already let her down by not getting the new kit ordered in time for first national - sorry Donna). She will be the link between all the new riders and try to get them all in the right places.
So look out for the new team and new kit (when it arrives), say hi, talk to them about ths site, tell them what's good about it or what you don't like about it, what you'd like to see on here and generally get involved.
Thanks to our 3 great sponsors for 2012 Mt Zoom, Accelerade and Exposure Lights - great products and great supporters of the team and the sport.
Martyn, Matt and Michelle
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