It was “Make a wish” for 16 year old mountain biker Justin Pictor from Stellenbosch South Africa. Fresh off a great 3rd in the under 17 race at South African Mountainbike Nationals last week, it was good to catch up with Justin again.

A year ago I rode with him and some friends. His ability and enthusiasm for mountain biking was fun to watch. I raised his saddle by a massive 3cm, helped with a technical, nutrition and racing tips. He trained really well, right through the holidays, and all around he has improved tremendously in just 1 year.  Its fun to watch the kids improve in leaps and bounds, because once you get to the top level, (and has been there for a while) improvement is few and far between.

Christoph Sauser, (Susi) 3x Mountain bike World Champion, Justin Pictor & myself getting ready to ride fine Jonkershoek single track.

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The 2009 Specialized Epic S-works.

The press has hyped the bike up and Susi won the XC World Champs on it, but DANG, I was especially surprised by: a) the suspension and b) the weight. And, yes, it is a really pretty bike.

As you can see in the background, I tested the bike on a not-so-old lava flow at Edison snow park outside Bend, to see how the new Specialized Armadillo Elite (Fast Trak 2.00) tires would hold up through the sharp lava. I ran into big lumps of sharp lava as hard as I could (to test the tires for tire cut resistance) but every time the suspension just ate up the much anticipated jolt. When the suspension is not active, bike is 100% rigid- unlike anything I’ve felt since… well, since my Tarmac road bike. The New Epic’s suspension is definitely a few cuts above the “old” Epic. And I’m sure many cuts above anything else out there.

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Caveman (XTERRA), Rebecca Rusch (24hr), Paolo Bettini (Road), Chris McCormack (Ironman), Christoph Sauser (Mountainbike).

Yes, Specialized had 5 World Champions last year! Quite a big deal. We got together at the start of the Tour of California, and here is a peak from behind the scenes:

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