Today, sadly, we announce that Martin Gujan will be leaving the team in 2016.

When Guschi signed with us (Orange Monkey, at the time) in 2013 it was a huge coup for the team. Martin was a calibre of rider that we had never before had the pleasure of working alongside, and the experience he brought to the team has been, as we hoped, invaluable.

Guschi quickly established himself within our set-up and has since played a central role in helping us to grow. He has also been at the centre of a great team spirit, a role model and mentor for our younger riders, and both the perpetrator, and the butt, of many jokes!

As well as a figure head behind the scenes, Guschi has showed his class on the race course. The biggest highlight of the last two years is surely his incredible Cape Epic Prologue win with Fabian Giger earlier this year. That day, the first race for the newly rebranded OMX Pro Team, was a huge step forward for the team, and we will never forget the pivotal role that Guschi played.

For 2016 Martin will take his experience and professionalism to a new team which will be based in his home country of Switzerland.

We will miss his hatred of walking and love of olive oil, his minute attention to detail, his straight talking and the boiled egg game.  But more than that, we wish him the biggest thanks, the fondest farewell and the very best for the future. #GoodbyeGuschi

 

Back in April, Mariske and Cherie paired up for Cape Epic to kick off their season. This week they will again join together to take on their final race of the year, Epic Israel. 

Here’s what the girls had to say about their expectations and goals for the final trip of 2015.

Mariske:

Well with me moving into the last part of the year and having had quite the topsy turvy season, in some ways I am looking forward to it being over. BUT, definitely not before this super event with my stunning partner, Cherie! I really am excited but I have no idea what to expect. Hopefully we could manage a podium or three and honestly I just would love to at least finish the year strong. I’m super happy and honoured to be able to do so with the partner I started the year with, and I’m really excited to go to Israel and have the opportunity to race there; what a privilege. 

Cherie:

My form is good but I am feeling the effects from all the travelling and racing. That said, I think Lesotho Sky was a great build up for Epic Israel. After speaking to Shlomi I think we in for a treat. Looking at the videos & images it looks like a Top class event. The goals are firstly to have fun (with an awesome partner like Mariske this will be easy!) On the serious racing side, a podium finish will be great. I’m really looking forward to explore a new country on my Silverback SBC full suspension and I’m excited to push the limits for one last time before my break.

 

Keep an eye out on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest news through the Epic Israel.

http://www.epicisrael.org.il/en.

Good luck girls!

We are delighted, and very honoured, to announce that Hadleigh Park is now the official home of Novus OMX Pro Team.

Hadleigh Park was the venue for the outstanding 2012 Olympic Mountain Bike Races. The course, man-made especially for the world’s biggest cross-country MTB event, will now become accessible to the public and is set to establish itself as a World-class training facility for top domestic and international mountain bikers when it opens on 29th April.

 

Among those elite athletes will be the Novus OMX Pro Team riders. Hadleigh Park will be a place for our riders to train together, with coaches and individually on one of the world’s most technically challenging courses. The rock gardens and features – unchanged since the London Olympics, despite much talk to the contrary – will provide skills practice, whilst the steep climbs offer a chance for some serious climbing and interval training. The high-intensity and technical training the riders will do at Hadleigh Park will noticeably transfer into their World Cup racing; to have an Olympic standard course to train on is an invaluable asset to our team.

 

Hadleigh Park also offers our team inspiration. The whole ethos and ambition of Novus OMX Pro Team revolves around the Olympic dream. A decade ago, the team started as a group of local Essex lads who – though they had no idea at the time – were riding just thirty miles away from a future Olympic XCO track, and who were at the start of a journey that would lead them to 2015 and into Olympic qualification. Now the stall has been set out: Novus OMX Pro Team is looking to qualify riders for Rio 2016 and aiming to be the number one team in the World by the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. A British team with an Olympic dream and an Olympic home. It is fitting in so many ways.

 

 

Our youngest team member, Isla Short, is the current British National Junior Champion and future Olympic hopeful. With her heart already set on Tokyo 2020 she says,

“Being able to spend time with my team on the 2012 Olympic course is an incredible opportunity, not only because it was part of our home Olympics but because it is a World-class course. It provides good insight into the types of tracks used at the highest level of racing, and gives us an idea of the skills we need to be able to compete at this level.”

 

To be associated with Hadleigh Park and the London 2012 Olympic course is a real honour and privilege. Essex County Council has been hugely supportive and we are very much looking forward to forging a strong partnership with them and helping to promote Hadleigh Park as an internationally attractive mountain bike facility.

Chairman of Active Essex, Gary Sullivan OBE, says,

“As we are nearing the official opening of Hadleigh Park we are excited to announce that Novus OMX Pro Team have decided to make our world class venue its home. This is just another way that the Olympic Legacy lives on here in Essex with aspiring Olympians training at the venue.”

Following the huge success of the London 2012 Olympic races, it is fantastic to see that Hadleigh Park will soon open to the public, so that the inspiration and motivation the Olympics provided for Britain can live on and manifest itself in future champions. Maybe even an OMX champion!

 

To find out how you can ride in the tracks of your Olympic heroes, visit www.hadleigh-park.co.uk or like Hadleigh Park on Facebook and follow @hadleigh_park on twitter.

The Absa Cape Epic is one of the biggest and most pretigious cycling races in the World, and today the Novus OMX Pro Team of Martin Gujan and Fabian Giger won the opening stage.

The Zebra leader’s jersey is on their backs and the World’s MTB media is hanging on their every word. The eyes of Cape Town and World cycling is on them.

Martin and Fabian were relaxed as they arrived at the University of Cape Town ahead of the Cape Epic prologue and went about their warm-up and pre-race preparations. However, as they lined up on the start ramp the race faces came on. They were definitelty ready for business!

The prologue was a 20km loop around the lower contours of the iconic Table Mountain, each pair with a specified start time for the time trial. The boys clocked the fasted time at checkpoint one, but the favourites were still to come. Out on the mountain Martin and Fabian were riding full gas; “we didn’t come here for a holiday!”, said Martin in the subsequent press conference.

 

As the big contenders made their way through the checkpoints Martin and Fabian dropped for a while to second place but then regained the lead and came across the finish line with the fastest time so far. Then it was a waiting game.

After their warm down, the boys came back to the arena just in time to see the final pair cross the line and hear the announcement that they, Novus OMX Pro Team, were the winners of the opening stage. Big smiles spread across their faces and high-fives went round. For the riders and for the team, this was a very big moment.

 

When you are on the podium at a World-class race like this, the rider’s work doesn’t stop at the finish line. Television interviews and photographs followed the race, and then it was onto the podium, the press conference and anti-doping.

Finally it began to sink in.

“It wasn’t expected”, said Fabian, “maybe third or fifth, but not the win.”

The short distance suited the cross-country specialists and played to the strengths of the Novus OMX team. “It looks like we have good shape and work well together”, surmised Martin.

What a start to the Cape Epic! Fabian and Martin have already achieved their goal and they have the additional honour of wearing the leader’s jersey.

Stage two, here we come!

#weareOMX