Opus demo night

Last Wednesday, July 14th, Opus organised a great demo night featuring Roc & Ride Bike Shop in Val-David.

A 10x20 Opus tent, an Opus MTB demo fleet combined with 35 great riders we're more than enough to share our passion. In conclusion, a great way to get Opus involved in the MTB community.

First look at the Clutch

NSMB a taking a first look at the Opus Clutch.

" Last summer while on vacation in Nelson, I had the opportunity to try out Opus’s “Nelson” (I’m not making this up). I was pretty impressed and it made me curious about the rest of their line. Opus sent out a 2011 Clutch for testing this spring. "

" The Clutch has also proven an able climber so far, but the tall front end combined with the light fork makes for some front wheel wandering on steep climbs. However, with some weight shifting, the Clutch motors up technical descents and settles in on longer climbs well. "

" I'm quite pleased with this bike so far.  I've got plenty of time to put the Clutch through its paces. Once I'm done you'll be hearing from me again.  "

To read the full article, visit:  www.nsmb.com

Champion québécois 2010 sur Opus

Il y a un mois, lors des championnats québécois de vélo de montagne, au Mont-Sainte-Anne, Alexandre Frappier a remporté l'épreuve du cross-country de la catégorie maîtres (expert) 30-39 ans.

Alex roule un Opus Fhast en carbone.

A full Opus podium

Mitch Bailey

Impressive results from Opus XC racers this weekend at the first Nationals in Tremblant. Natasha Oldcorn form Team Jetpower got a 3rd place in Junior Women's standings.

A full Opus podium for the Junior mens with Mitch Bailey (Jetpower Team) winning followed by Antoine Carron (Genetik) and Steven Noble (Jetpower Team) rounding it out at third

Mike Garrigan, Jetpower Team manager and coach also won the special Red Bull Uphill / downhill race were a DH racer and XC racer team up.

Championnat du Québec de cross-country

« Le Championnat du Québec de cross-country en vélo de montagne avait lieu la fin de semaine dernière au Massif du Sud en Bauce. La course s'est déroulée sur un parcours boueux et glissant mais sous une belle température rarement vue au Québec cet été.
Chez les Juniors Femme Andréanne Pichette a fait une très bonne course pour finir 2ieme à 40 secondes de la garante du jour.
Chez les Juniors Expert homme Jonathan Boucher, après une course chaudement disputée, a terminé lui aussi deuxième.
Caroline Villeneuve, chez les Élites Femme, a fait abstraction des conditions de piste difficile pour remporter la victoire. Caroline était très contente de sa course et se disait très bonne dans les sections techniques.
Léni Trudel était dans une lutte pour la 3ieme et 4ieme position toute la course et a terminé a la 4ieme position.

Prochaine course au programme de l'équipe Opus/OGC est la finale de la coupe Québec à St-Félicien. »

Olivier Laprade
Opus/Outdoor Gear Canada

Quebec cup XC finals in St-félicien

Last weekend was the Quebec cup XC finals in St-félicien with two races on the program. Saturday was the time trial and the Opus team did pretty good.

Caroline Villeneuve won the elite women. Jonathan Boulanger, even with back pain, finished second in a super tight race and Léni Trudel got seventh just a couple second back in elite men. Jonathan Boucher end up second in junior expert men. Andreanne Pichette in Junior women just missed the podium in 4th place. The tone was set for the last race XC of the year on Sunday. The weather was perfect for racing, sunny and cool. The first one's on the start line were the Senior elite men, right at the start two Opus rider Jonathan Boulanger and Marc-André Daigle got to the front and set a fast pace in the start loop and first lap. On the second lap Marc-André was comfortable in 4th place where he would finished and Léni was felling the effects of the time trials and battling around the 10th place.

Next up was the Junior expert category, again fast start with Jonathan Boucher and Steve Caillé up front. Jonathan would fade quickly and settled for 5th but different story for Steve. He was ridding up front with the race leader, Steve put in is best race of the year but would eventually fade in the last lap and finished 4th. Next was the senior elite women with Caroline Villeneuve, she got up front right away in the start loop, then back luck, her right pedal broke and couldn't get clipped in at all. She stopped and we change the pedals but the commissar wouldn't let her get back in the race since the technical assistance is not allowed in the Quebec Cup series. With the points lead she had and the extra 50 points just to start the final her first place overall was still safe. Last but not the least was the junior women, Andreanne Pichette rode well but it was not enough to get on the final podium.

In the end, Caroline won the overall senior elite women, Jonathan Boucher won as well the overall in Junior expert men and Léni got third in Senior elite men.

That conclude the Opus mtb racing season, with some up's and down's this season our team turn out pretty good results in the end. We had 3 of our 6 riders on final podium in the Quebec Cup overalls and we had the best presence at all the events. We also had Jonathan Boucher racing is Opus at the World championships in Italy.

Olivier Laprade
Opus / Outdoor Gear Canada
www.opusbike.com

Coupe Québec de Hull

Coupe Québec Chelsea

Junior F XCO
1. - Stéphanie Lacoursière Cyclone dAlma 01:18:06 CAN
2. - Andréanne Pichette Opus/OGC 01:22:59 CAN
3. - Sarah Moore CVM Val-David 01:24:06 CAN

Sénior Élite M XCO
1. - Robin Seymour Indépendant 01:39:12 IRL
2. - Vincent Meunier Demers-Specialized 01:42:01 CAN
3. - Jonathan Boulanger Opus/OGC 01:43:18 CAN
4. - Léni Trudel Opus/OGC 01:44:51 CAN

Sénior Élite F XCO
1. - Caroline Villeneuve Opus/OGC 01:43:42 CAN
2. - Cindy Montambault Accro Vélo Val-dOr 01:54:21 CAN
3. - Genevieve Larouche Xprezo 02:01:24 CAN

Junior Expert M XCO
1. - Jonathan Boucher* Opus/OGC 01:26:12 CAN
2. - Simon Lalancette Devinci 01:26:35 CAN
3. - Frédéric Forgues-Lapointe CCS/Dalbix 01:26:50 CAN
...
9. - Steve Caillé Opus/OGC 01:32:31 CAN

*Lire la chronique de Jonathan Boucher sur son blogue

Régionale au Centre de Biathlon de Québec

photo ROB JONES Canadian Cyclist

Régionale au Centre de Biathlon de Québec

1er - Jonathan Boucher Opus-OGC
catégorie Junior Expert.

Classement national canadien

Photo ©: Marek Lazarski

Classement national canadien de cross-country du championnat du Mont Sainte-Anne (Can)
Juillet 19/20:

Elite Women
1 Marie-Helene Premont (Can) Rocky Mountain 1.42.12
2 Catharine Pendrel (Can) Luna womens MTB Team 0.06
3 Wendy Simms (Can) KONA 4.11
4 Amanda Sin (Can) 3 Rox Racing 5.42
5 Kiara Bisaro (Can) Opus/OGC 10.20
6 Mical Dyck (Can) Terrascape/Trek 11.47
7 Caroline Villeneuve (Can) Opus/OGC 14.48
8 Sandra Walter (Can) X.O-Felt Womens MTB Team 16.07
9 Jean Ann McKirdy (Can) Rocky Mountain 17.04
10 Karine Travaillaud (Can) Specialized 19.49

Under 23 Men
1 Raphael Gagne (Can) Rocky Mountain 1.29.42
2 Francis Morin (Can) Specialized/Equipe du Quebec 7.21
3 Kyle Douglas (Can) 3 Rox Racing 8.32
4 Leni Trudel (Can) Opus/OGC 8.43
5 Jonathan Boulanger (Can) Opus/OGC 10.43

Ziggy Gnarly: Canada Cup Mountain Bike Race

Can Cup Junior Men 24.9 km. Mass Start

1	76	Evan Guthrie	Peachland	Total Restoration/Team BC	1:26:36.3
2	81	Nicolas Tremblay	Baie-Saint-Paul	Équipe du Québec / Charlevoix	1:26:37.8
3	75	Eric Emsky	Fall City	Rad Racing NW	1:29:45.7
4	79	Justin Middleton	Fort Saskatchewan	Alberta/Juventus/Kona/RVC	1:34:08.8
5	72	Patrick Chartrand	Piedmont	CVM Val-David / Equipe QC	1:35:39.4
6	78	Simon Lalancette	chicoutimi	Equipe du Quebec\Devinci	1:37:30.3
7	71	Philip Cairns	Garibaldi Highlands	Team Squamish	1:40:43.6
8	82	James Winter	Lumsden	Team Sask	1:43:42.3
9	70	Steve Caillé	St-Bruno	Équipe du Québec/Opus-OGC	1:46:13.9

Can Cup Junior Women 16.6 km. Mass Start

1	150	Bianca Adolf	Coquitlam	Team BC/Natural Earth Racing			1:09:28.0
2	151	Rebecca Beaumont	Alma	Équipe du Québec / Cyclone d'Alma			1:12:51.6
3	154	Stéphanie Lacoursière	Alma	Cyclone / Équipe du Qc			1:15:24.3
4	155	Lauren Lankester	Bragg Creek	Bicisport			1:20:48.3
5	158	Andréanne Pichette	Québec	Équipe du Québec-OPUS/OGC			1:23:10.8
6	156	Kendra Middleton	Fort Saskatchewan	Juventus			1:32:34.6

2008 Canada Cup XC Final Standings

Elite Men
21 /99. Jonathan Boulanger * (QC) Opus/OGC 220 pts
41 /99. Léni Gélinas Trudel * (QC) Opus/OGC 107 pts
* U23 category born in 1986-1989
Elite Women
7 /46. Caroline Villeneuve (QC) Opus/OGC 355 pts
Junior Expert Men
5 /62. Jonathan Boucher (QC) Opus/OGC 182 pts
11 /62. Steve Caillé (QC) Opus/OGC 134 pts

Coupe Québec Mont-Édouard 28/06/08

Leni Trudel (Opus-OGC), Jonathan Boulanger (Opus-OGC), Julien Fillion (Fillion-VM), Marc-André Daigle (Indépendant), Charles Blanchet-Lévesque (Subway-Genetik)

Podium Coupe Quebec DH3 2008 Anse Saint-Jean

Photo : Sébastien Desbordes

1er - Olivier Laprade (Opus/OGC)

After getting back from the Quebec Cup in L'Anse-St-Jean last night at 1h30 AM, I will stop by the office this morning to empty the team stuff and will take the rest of the day off.

The team had good showing this weekend. On a new race course we had a couple of podiums.

In senior elite men, Jonathan Boulanger (Opus/OGC) after coming back from a back injury got second. Marc-André Daigle, Louis Boissinot sub rep, got third and Léni Trudel (Opus/OGC) got fourth. All three rode their Stakh 1 without problems.

In senior elite women, Caroline Villeneuve (Opus/OGC) got a commanding lead right from the start to her second win off the season. Caroline was happy with her Stakh 1 she was feeling super good in the technical stuff this weekend.

In Junior mens, Jonathan Boucher (Opus/OGC), after coming back from the Worlds Championships, put in a super ride for is second win off the season. He caught all the way to the fourth place in elite men, they had left 2 minutes earlier from start line. Steve Caillé (Opus/OGC) on is part got fifth place.

In junior women, Andréanne Pichette (Opus/OGC), rode a good race and got third. She was happy with her race and was feeling good after crossing the finish line. THe form is getting back after a rough season start.

On my part I had two downhill races on Sunday in master expert categorie. I manage to get both wins with a pretty big margin over the second place finisher. Track conditions were just nasty with a tone of rain during the week and weekend. It was mud all over the place and big hole everywhere. In the end I got 14 second gap in the first race and 24 second in the second race over second place.

It was a pretty good weekend for team Opus/OGC with 7 medals. Next round is Canadian
Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne in 3 weeks.

Olivier Laprade

Coupe Québec DeVinci Chantecler

16/06/2008

Élite Femme
1er - Caroline Villeneuve Opus/OGC (Opus Stakh 1)
3e - Anne-Marie Jobin (Opus Stack 1 )

Junior Femme
3e - Andréanne Pichette Opus/OGC (Opus Fhast 1)

Senior Expert
1er - Eric Jeannotte (Opus Fhast 1)

Maitre Expert 30-39
1er - Mathieu Boucher (Opus Stakh 1)

Maitre Expert 40-49
1er - Luc Hamel (Opus Stakh 1)

Jeux d'été régionaux du Québec 2008

Des ambassadeurs

Le Journal de Québec 11/06/2008 10h27

Choisis pour leurs performances et pour avoir vécu l'expérience des Jeux du Québec, Andréanne Pichette et David Redmond agiront comme ambassadeurs de la région, eux qui ont déjà fait leur marque lors des années antérieures.

De l'arrondissement de la Haute-Sainte-Charles, Pichette est une adepte du vélo de montagne. Elle a pris part aux finales provinciales en 2003 et 2005, à Thetford-Mines et à Amos. En 2007, elle a remporté la première place en cross-country lors du championnat canadien, en plus de gagner en deux tranches de Coupe Canada. Depuis ses débuts, elle a décroché le titre québécois en huit occasions, en plus de deux titres nationaux.

Depuis l'âge de cinq ans, Redmond oeuvre dans le baseball, que ce soit en tant que joueur, arbitre ou encore comme entraîneur. Il a touché à toutes les facettes du jeu. En 2007, à titre d'entraîneur, son équipe pee-wee a mis la main sur la médaille de bronze lors du championnat canadien de baseball féminin. Il pratique toujours son sport préféré avec les Draveurs ABMCE junior BB.

Jonathan Boucher

Vélo de montagne
KATIA BUSSIÈRE


kbussiere@mediamatinquebec.com

(...)Jonathan Boucher (Opus/OGC), de son côté, aussi un coureur en cross-country, en sera à ses premiers Mondiaux, dans la catégorie junior. «C’est la plus grosse course de ma vie, alors je ne sais pas à quoi m’attendre. Je ne suis pas stressé. Je participe pour prendre de l’expérience. Je ne crois pas en des chances de médaille car les Européens sont très forts», souligne l’athlète de 18 ans.

Le cycliste de Québec, membre de l’équipe Opus/OGC, tentera par la suite de monter sur le podium aux Championnats canadiens; il avait récolté la médaille de bronze l’an passé.

Deux selections ! Two selections !

Deux sélections pour le Championnat du monde de vélo de montagne.

Kiara Bisaro Élite femme
Jonathan Boucher Junior homme

The final Canadian team for the 2008 MTB World Championships as been
announced and two of the Opus rider are on the team.
Kiara Bisaro will be racing against the best elite women in the world and
Jonathan Boucher will go after the best Junior men's on the planet.

Kiara will race on Sunday June 22 and Jonathan is schedule to race on
Thursday June 19.

You can check the schedule here
http://www.mtbvaldisole2008.it/interne/event_schedule_interna.ashx?id=7239

Fort William World Cup 08

Kiara Bisaro - Opus
photos : Rob Jones

Championnats Nationaux 2008

Composition de l’Équipe du Québec de vélo de montagne
Pour les Championnats Nationaux 2008

Montréal, le 5 juin 2008

Suite au processus de sélection de l’Équipe du Québec de vélo de montagne, voici les athlètes qui ont
été sélectionnés pour le Championnat Canadien. Ces championnats auront lieu au Mont Sainte Anne,
Québec, le 12 juillet 2008 pour les épreuves de descente, et le 19 juillet 2008 pour les épreuves de
cross-country. Nous souhaitons la meilleure des chances à tous nos coureurs.

Senior Élite Homme

Raphael Gagné Québec Rocky Mountain Haywood
Julien Fillion St-Félicien Fillion Racing
Frederic Bussières Québec Xprezo
Francis Morin Valcourt Specialized
Jonathan Boulanger Trois-Rivieères Opus - OGC
Leni Gélinas Trudel Montauban Opus - OGC

Senior Élite Femme

Caroline Villeneuve Québec Opus - OGC
Julie Sanders Québec Xprezo
Marie-Claude Surprenant Sutton Scott - Sportif Bromont

Junior Expert Homme

Jonathan Boucher Québec Opus – OGC
Nicolas Tremblay Baie St-Paul Club Charlevoix
Patrick Chartrand Val David Val David
Steve Caillé St-Bruno Opus - OGC
Simon Lalancette Chicoutimi Devinci

Junior Expert Femme

Rebecca Beaumont Alma Cyclones d’Alma
Stéphanie Lacoursière Alma Cyclones d’Alma
Cassandre Olivier-Lapierre Québec Subway Génétik
Andréanne Pichette Québec Opus - OGC

Opus riders

Lets not forget about the Opus riders from Ontario (they were the ones who
were winning their races).

Mitch Bailey - 1st place (men's cadet expert)
Natasha Oldcorn - 1st place (women's cadet expert)
Noelle Wansbrough - 1st place (women's 40+ expert)

Opus had a great presence at this event, lots of top riders and an
impressive tech area that was set up by Oliver Laprade.

Great job!

Rob W. White - Opus/OGC