Welcome to the Madison.co.uk blog. This is a place where various members of the Madison team share their latest thoughts and insights into whats going on in the world of Madison, the brands and products we distribute and the sports we are involved in. Our blog is regularly updated so do check back regularly to see whats going on; often this is the first place you will find news on exciting things yet to come . . .
Images from stage 16 - Limone Sul Garda to Falzes and stage 17 Falzes to Cortina d'Ampezzo. Click Here To Read More
One of the great things about my job is that I get to go to some fantastic events and this is a montage of images from the recent 3rd round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Fort William. Madison Saracen DH Team junior rider Phil Atwill qualified for his first final and at just 16 that is some achievement and we expect great things to come from Phil - definitely one to watch. Click Here To Read More
A celebration of 40 years of Shimano in Europe. A big event took place at the Amsterdam Convention Factory on Saturday 12th May for the Team Shimano family. An amazing evening with a speech from Yozo Shimano, the Shimano President. It is a little long so put on the kettle, make yourself a coffee and grab and biscuit and then enjoy. If you want to learn more about the history of Shimano visit: http://www.shimano.com/publish/content/global_corp/en/us/index... Click Here To Read More
A crew from Madison has spent the last few days at ISPO in Munich. We meet with our various suppliers such as Giro Snow, GoPro and Easton Mountain Products as well as look for up and coming brands and product categories. Our graphic designers look for colour trends and design ideas which we can adapt for our cycle business. Our clothing designers and technicians spend time looking at fabrics, garment details and meetings with many of the factories we use all over the world. It is an impressive s... Click Here To Read More
On Sunday 4th September 2011 Manon Carpenter became the Junior World Champion downhill mountain biker for the Madison Saracen Downhill Team, riding a Saracen Myst.Manon also was junior world cup winner for 2011 and came 10th in the world in the Elite Category.On top of all her riding achievements, Manon is only 18 years old and had to deal with her A'levels this year too. She is not just a winner on the track but with A's and A*'s she is also a very smart cookie!Manon will be riding for the Madi... Click Here To Read More
Every July, Madison holds a big trade only event called iceBike* where all that is new for the season ahead is launched.Key highlights include 2012 bike ranges from Ridgeback, Genesis and Saracen. New S5 from Cervelo. Shimano Ultegra Di2. New lights from Light and Motion, Blackburn and Electron. New helmet ranges from Bell and Giro. New footwear ranges from Shimano and Giro. Spring/Summer 2012 Pearl Izumi collection. New Madison clothing collection. Profile wetsuits. New road mudguards from Cycr... Click Here To Read More
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the Smithfield Nocturne courtesy of Grant Young, owner and MD of Condor Cycles. It was a packed evening of racing and entertainment in the heart of the City of London. Race highlights included Hannah Barnes defending her crown in the Elite Women's Criterium , a new champion crowned in the ... Click Here To Read More
31st May 2011Madison is appointed as the exclusive distributor for GoPro, the world's number one wearable and mountable camera for the action sports market. Madison will mange distribution for the UK and Republic of Ireland for all sales channels.This is a hugely exciting appointment for Madison as GoPro dominate this sector.This is the official press release:GoPro® HD HERO® Cameras and Accessories to be Distributed throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland by MadisonMIDDLESEX, UK & HALF M... Click Here To Read More
It was the first World Cup of 2011 and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa was one hell of a track to kick start the season on. It was flat out and dusty with a lot of pedalling, jumps and sweat involved! Everyone had seen helmet cams of the track and knew we were going to have to get our sprint on, so there had been a lot of training for the minute long sprints going on. Practise went well and the track was pretty easy to learn as there wasn’t a massive line choice so once I’d done all the jumps... Click Here To Read More
A couple of weeks ago, on April 10th, I had a bad crash which resulted in a blown ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament)… Last weekend, I went under the knife for a surgery on my knee and now have a summer of rehab but that means I'll be fitter than ever for next winter so I'm not too bummed about it!Here’s a cartoon of what happened: Click Here To Read More
It's all about photo shoots at the moment. Following a day shooting for my sponsors Giro at the Brits, I headed straight to a big air comp which went well. I got to learn a few new doubles so hopefully it'll be an investment for the end of the season!I then went straight on a shoot with Honda for a clip they were making which included me jumping over a car! Here's a few of the shots: Click Here To Read More
Since the Brits I have been filming with Cabnine for the Cavern 24/7 film contest. The showings and results were on Wednesday night and we got 2nd which we're stoked on. Really funny making this film so I hope you enjoy it. Cabnine Cavern 24:7 Film Comp entry 2011 from Cabnine on Vimeo.Tomorrow I'm off to Livigno, Italy to film with Unity Productions for a week. Rumours have it the jumps are massive so it'll be good to get a few sessions in before all the snow g... Click Here To Read More
Last month was amazing for riding at home; at the beginning of March I went to a MIJ race at Taff Buggy Trails, only fifteen minutes from my house and had such a good time. The track was flat out fast with some jumps, rock gardens and a lot of pedalling! It was my second race on the new Team Saracen bike and Josh and Harry also came along so there was a few of us to represent! The sun was out, I was feeling good on my bike (despite it having been my 18th birthday on the Friday) and it was a ... Click Here To Read More
26th /27th March – Aston Hill RaceI went to the notorious Aston Hill black run race a couple of weekends back. It’s always a good race at Aston and the weather has been sunny for every race there for like three or more years now! I was full of cold, struggling on with some Lemsips and paracetamol, but it was all forgotten about when you fly down the track. Every hundredth of a second counts here, the tracks pretty full on and only a minute and a half long. First runs started off flat out as ... Click Here To Read More
A wet and wild start to the season. My first race on the new bike was Nant G and what a race it was. I was lucky enough to get the day off school on the Friday in preparation for the three hour drive up to the north welsh coast. The butterflies started fluttering as we drove through Snowdonia and saw nothing but blue skies and sun, it had been a while since I had had the chance to ride in the dust and the thought that I might not have to hose my clothes down on the drive when I got home real... Click Here To Read More
What a fantastic weekend. The sun stayed out for the majority, a huge field of 170 riders and a new track at Leamington Spa kicked off the 2011 Schwalbe British 4X Series in fine style on Sunday. A great winter of training for me got me in the perfect frame of mind for the race. After practice on Sunday morning, I knew I had good track speed and the all important gate start was going well. My reactions were good to the random drop start gate and I went into the race feeling confident. ... Click Here To Read More
This picture comes to you courtesy of a Scot with snapping skills, unfortunately I don’t know his name. He managed to snap this awesome picture of our good friend Smiffy stacking it like an utter sack of shog-dite... had he been a foot higher from the deep sand of the highlands it would have looked like the sickest scrub ever thrown down on Scottish soil... instead it’s just an epic-fail of biblical proportions! He did manage to flash all four Thor logos in one go though, so I’m pretty stoked,... Click Here To Read More
Jamie sent us this image of him throwing some tricks out in sunny Spain and we thought it was worthy of a blog post! This is what Jamie said: "I’m back to England Thursday then up to Doncaster next week for the first Redbull Pro National then possibly flying straight out to Singapore to ride a show! Thought this was a pretty cool shot from Villas park on Saturday night!" Click Here To Read More
Full video coverage of the Madison Saracen Team's debut at last weekend's 1st round of the British Downhill Series at Nant Grwytheyn in mid Wales. Plus a bonus video with an exclusive tour around the Madison Saracen Team truck. Click Here To Read More
This weekend saw the first full blown outing for the newly formed Madison Saracen Downhill Team. Round One of the British Downhill Series was held last weekend in deepest, darkest Wales at restored Victorian quarry called Nant Gwrtheyrn. Practice on Saturday was in beautiful Spring weather but by Sunday, normal Welsh weather had returned to make an already technical course that bit more tricky. Our very own Philip Atwill got first on his debut ride for the t... Click Here To Read More