Do your ankles hurt after over-shooting a jump?  Is an old ankle injury still bothering you when you ride?  Most riders have a common goal when it comes to riding; they all want to ride without getting injured.  Scott Motorsport can help riders achieve this goal with the Genius MX Boot. Scott Genius Demo Program held at the Dirt Days Festival allows riders to experience the Genius’ unparalleled protection and see why they are essential for every rider’s protective equipment gear bag. The Scott Genius offers a new level of protection not found with conventional MX boots. As the introduction of the knee brace created a new category, the Scott’s Genius Boots is redefining MX Boots. 

 

Transworld Motocross Magazine has created a unique event, Dirt Days. This festival gives MX enthusiasts an opportunity to ride at some of the premier outdoor racetracks across the country. Scott Motorsport saw this as a great opportunity for riders to demo the Scott Genius Boot. Dirt Days is weekend event where you can ride these great tracks for FREE, demo products (Scott goggles and boots), check out the Red Bull T-N-T Freestyle demos, shop for great deals in the giant retail area, listen to the festival bands or watch the Miss Transworld model search. Find out more

The first festival date and location is Freestone, TX. May 31st  - June 1st

 

The frame
If the Trek looks like it might be carbon, then the seamless welded Scale is even more fibrous in appearance, with a big box-section front end and other hollow bracing boxes at chainstay and seatstay tops.

The tapering, squared-off tubes are subtly fluted and profiled along their length. This adds vital surface stiffness to a tin skin that's so thin you can actually squeeze it inwards with your fingers in places.

This is an unashamed race bike, so mud clearance isn't great you'll struggle to get a chunky 2.2in tire through a clay race field. The bolted clamps for the continuous outer cables under the top tube keep your control lines weather-sealed, albeit at the expense of shouldering comfort. Twin bottle cages are fitted. There's the same big leap between medium and large frame size as there is with the Trek, though.

This real race-winning zip is obvious whether you're surging forward up a steep climb with every pedal stroke or skimming field-side singletrack in the big ring. In fact, every test ride on the Scale seemed to unavoidably turn into a lung- searing, take-the-longest-climb-at­ every-opportunity thrash-fest.

It's the ride quality that shocked us, though. With its uncompromising flat bar, head-down position, relatively skinny 2.0in tires and the ultra light boxy frame, we were expecting a harsh ride that prioritized speed before comfort. What we actually found was a bike so smooth and buoyant that we stopped several times to check we hadn't punctured. But no, it really did suck out the sting, shrug off the hits and hang onto traction round the corners and rattly root sections that well with 35psi in the tires.

Despite a relatively long (105mm) race-style stem and narrow bar, the steering felt steady and well balanced rather than ponderous. It certainly can't chase fading traction or whip round trees as well as the Kona, but the SCOTT has a confident, assured feel. Even on what we'd planned as “social” rides, it begged us to stay off the brakes, drop our knee and rip through stuff at race speed.

Add the facts it feels both smoother and more rabidly rapid the harder you launch it out of corners or mash gears up climbs, and it's no wonder most Scale sessions ended up with us alone way out front, exhausted but gagging for the next excuse to go out again.

Just in case people aren't clear what the kickback of such unashamed speed-biased handling is, it was a nerve-wracking, hesitant, plinky-plonky apology down steep step sections or slow technical rock-fests. Give it a bit of smooth, though, and the frame float and Fox fork made it a real skimmer down anything safe enough to be expected on a race course.

On the plus side, we've no complaints about the Shimano transmission or hybrid Juicy 5 lever/ Juicy 3 caliper Avid brakes, while the SCOTT Ozon tires impressed us. The Scott finishing kit is good, too, with the narrow diameter bar definitely helping to reduce sting and hand ache on longer test rides.

How it unfolded

Three mountains awaited the peloton on the fourth stage: the the Alto del Pozo de las Mujeres muertas at 97.9 kilometers (first category), the Puerto del Connio at 139.7km (HC) and the final ascent to the Santuario del Acebo (HC).

A group of eighteen riders escaped on the Alto del Pozo de las Mujeres muertas including Liberty Seguro's Carlos Nozal; Euskaltel Euskadi's Aitor Hernández; Saunier Duval's David de la Fuente and Raúl Alarcon; José Luis Carrasco from Andalucía Cajasur; Rubén Reig from Contentpolis Murcia; Orbea Oreka's Jonathan Castroviejo and Sergio de Lis; Ceramica Flaminia's Tomasz Marczynski, Cristiano Fumagalli and Vladimir Duma; Giampaolo Cheula from Barloworld; Gonzalo Rabuñal and Vladimir Isaychev from Karpin Galicia; LA Aluminios MSS's Bruno Pires; Roger Beuchat from Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni; Diego Gallego from Burgos Monumental and last but not least Tinkoff's Nikita Eskov.

The break's maximum advantage grew to be eight minutes and ten seconds, but its lead dropped when the group hit the Puerto del Connio, 19 kilometers long with an average rise of 7.5 percent. In the peloton, the GC leader's team LA Aluminios MSS did the bulk of the work as it had no rider in the breakaway group.

The break splintered when four of the 18 racers crashed on the ascent and by the summit, the difference between the first racer and the peloton was just three minutes and 50 seconds. On the subsequent descent spectators admired the downhill skills of the Asturian Samuel Sánchez, who got a big gap without pedalling. After the long descent, the riders confronted the final difficulty of the day, the ascent to the sanctuary of the Acebo.

The former group of eighteen completely split with Marczynski was in front, David de la Fuente in second along with Rabuñal in third. Marczyski gave it all and was able to celebrate his second win as professional rider. Behind, Rabuñal and de la Fuente worked well together, but they were not able to reach the Pole.

In the peloton, leader Vicioso and his two team-mates Constantino Zaballa and Bruno Pires set a steady rhythm and were able to distance the rivals, with the exception of Benficas José Azevedo and Liberty Seguro's Koldo Gil. Vicioso and Gil collaborated - both sharing a mutual interest in a high GC placing. They reached the finish line with a big lead ahead of their biggest rival Stefano Garzelli.

Wednesday's final stage from Cangas del Narcea to the capital Oviedo will run 184.4 kilometers with two mountains, the Alto Del Rodical (second category) and the Alto del Pito (third category). It will surely offer a real fight for the stage victory, even if Liberty Seguros's Koldo Gil asked expressed a wish for a more tranquil stage after today's competition.

Results

1 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce 
2 David De La Fuente Rasilla (Spa) Saunier Duval - SCOTT 
3 Gonzalo Rabuñal Ríos (Spa) Karpin Galicia              
4 Nikita Eskov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems                
5 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Orbea - Oreka S.D.A.
6 Koldo Gil Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros       
7 Angel Vicioso Arcos (Spa) LA MSS             
8 Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spa) LA MSS                    
9 Bruno Pires (Por) LA MSS                                    
10 José Azevedo (Por) Benfica                                    

Using the talent and dedication that has fueled his considerable success in SX racing, Chad Reed handily won the last race of the season in Las Vegas this past weekend and secured his second SX Championship. Early on it was apparent to all in attendance that Chad Reed was on his game for the race.
Reed, matched against Kevin Windham in his heat race, had speed to burn and actually toyed with Kevin Windham during their heat race. He showed Windham on several occasions he could pass him at will.

In the main event Reed kept pace with race leaders Andrew Short and Kevin Windham until the half way point, he then proceeded to catch and pass both of them. From there Reed separated himself from the pack by six seconds and maintained that distance for the remainder of the race.

It is uncertain if Reed will race any of the AMA Outdoor National rounds.