During our trip to the US Olympic Training Center/Chula Vista earlier this month, we were privileged to shoot individual headshots of all the riders taking part in the Elite Camp. We thought you’d enjoy seeing some of your favorite riders suited up in their Team USA Jerseys.

We are saving the goof-around outtakes for a more opportune time

Check Out The Photo Gallery Now

A major contingent of Elite “Team USA” BMX Supercross talent flew in to the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA last week for the first Elite Development camp of 2012. BMXNEWS.COM was granted exclusive access to shoot some action during one of the training sessions.

We clipped the set down to the 49 best shots of the session, and are bringing them to you as soon as we got them dialed in. It was an amazing day for shooting in San Diego, and the riders were definitely in the zone.

The camp included 19 athletes in all, but Joey Bradford and David Herman had other commitments for the photo session timeframe. And Nic Long, Felicia Stancil and Tyler Brown posted early injuries and could not ride. We wish them a speedy recovery!

Other stars out of orbit this camp; Connor Fields and Alise Post were out of the country and Mike Day and Corben Sharrah were out of town on GT biz. We vowed to catch them on-course next time.

Click Here to View the Gallery

A big thanks to: Mike King, Andrea Smith and James Herrera at USA Cycling for letting us peek into their day. Team USA is readying some amazing talent for London, and this glimpse into their routine gives us a special kind of pride as Americans. Equal thanks goes to Amanda Carr, Amanda Geving, Arielle Martin, Barry Nobles, Brooke Crain, Dani George, Donny Robinson, Jared Garcia, Jason Rogers, Josh Meyers, Kory Cook, Tyler Faoro and Weston Pope for their style and willingness to “do that again!”

—Mike Carruth

Above: Barry Nobles gets it done on the second straight aboard his new DK scoot.

Early this afternoon, Central time, reports started coming out of the OTC that Donny Robinson crashed hard during a training session that was part of a USAC “Elite Camp” that had been underway the past 10 days.

As the above photo shows (courtesy of David Herman’s Twitter feed), the digger did some damage to dR’s helmet, so it was a head-involved crash. Tony Hoffman posted on Vintage:

“(Donny) crashed on the triple into turn one. @mday365 says he went from the top of the landing and fell into the turn. They believe it’s just a concussion…As of now, no broken bones and his lung is still operating with full functionality.”

Mike King tweeted:

The last 10 days of elite camp has been great until this morning. Rough day for @DonnyRobinson hopefully this is only a minor setback.

It is unclear if this will take dR off the track for a period of time, or if it will be a few days of R&R, then back to it. We will keep you posted here, and on the Vintage thread as more info becomes available.

BMXNEWS wishes Donny a full and speedy recovery!

We last saw dR suited up at the Great Salt Lake Nationals on the 4th of July. Soon after, a bigtime ballup at the OTC with Kyle Bennett in a practice lap sidelined both of them ever since.

Well, word is that both are well down the road to recovery, and looking forward to a strong 2011 season, come Reno.

As the calendar gets thinner, co-sponsor season is officially open in the upper-strata of BMX Racing’s Elite classes. Donny posted on his Facebook page the other day that he is on board with Nike for a new two-year deal.

Today comes word that dR has duo’d up with F1 Ceramic Bearings. F1 also supports fellow Olympian Mike Day, and company honcho Matt Speer had this to say in a release, sent first to News

F1 Ceramic Bearings announces that 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist Donny Robinson will be riding F1 Ceramic Bearings in his quest for the 2012 Olympic Gold Medal. Robinson, 27, began
racing BMX at age 6 and since then has moved to the top of his sport.

Robinson will be riding and promoting F1 Ceramic’s line of BMX bearings. “I train every day with the purpose of being the best BMX Racer I can be, knowing I’ve put it all on the line, with no regrets. I expect nothing less from my racing equipment. I choose F1 Ceramic bearings because I know they’ll give me an edge”, said Robinson.

Robinson, who is targeting the 2012 Olympics and wants to capture the Gold Medal, has been a top BMX racer for the past decade. F1 Ceramic Bearings is a leader in the ceramic bearing upgrade market and has been making ceramic bearings for cycling and skateboards since 2003.
Their line of bearings now includes roadbikes, MTB, BMX and skateboards.

For more information on F1 Ceramic Bearings, please visit http://www.f1ceramic.com/

Congrats to both Donny and F1 on their new partnership!

In August, 1989, my girlfriend at the time was having her 20th birthday. The supermarket I stopped at to buy a card and a quick bouquet of something did not really have any good cards (at least none that would rise to my degree of late-80s hip). They did, however, have a few really funny “Happy 40th Birthday” cards. So, I picked one out, and wrote on it “Do not open til 2009.” She dumped me soon after for a guy with a Camaro, but I couldn’t help but think that she read my 20-year-ago birthday message last August.

When I first saw the Tioga 65th Anniversary videos, I was reminded of the above story, and got a chuckle out of this innovative campaign. The idea is “why wait for 2043…let’s have our 65th anniversary TODAY!” The series was made up of three clips with current Tioga stars Randy Stumpfhauser, Donny Robinson and Sam Willoughby, and one as a “behind the makeup” which shows how the Hollywood makeup pros aged our young stars 33 years.

BMXNEWS wanted some more scoop on how the campaign, and the vids came about…and some behind the scenes stories. Tioga marketing wiz, Kai Cheng, was happy to oblige:

NEWS: Who was the makeup supervisor/team? Do they have Hollywood credits?

Kai: I won’t reveal too many details about the SFX guys, except to say Jason and his team are part of a full service effects studio catering to film and television. They have worked with Brad Pitt, Vin Diesel, and many other high profile actors/actresses; worked on movies such as Assassination of Jesse James, No Country for Old Men and television productions such as Prison Break, Nip/Tuck, and many, many more – these are true pros at their craft.

NEWS: How long did it take to apply the makeup? I presume you did the shoot
in one day, so it was not necessary to reapply, correct?

Kai: We had 4 make-up artists working on the three athletes – it took about 3
hours to apply each of their make-up. We did do the shoot in one day and
the SFX team were on stand-by the entire session to do touch-ups and such
through out the day. There was so much laughing and clowning by the
athletes that touch-ups were absolutely crucial!

NEWS: Can you share approximately what it cost to do it?

Kai: It’s up there, as you can imagine. Just the SFX team, photographer and
videographer for the day was well over $10,000! Then there’s the post
production costs involved… We’re glad that people enjoyed them.

NEWS: How did the concept for the “65 year anniversary” come about?

Kai: Good question. We always intended the “Faces of Power” campaign initiated
in 2009 to be a multi-year campaign. But more specifically, we felt the 65th Anniversary concept was a humorous way of not only progressing the “Faces of Power” campaign but also to convey a couple messages. Firsly, though Tioga has been around since ’78, we are as active as ever; being “old” doesn’t mean one withers and dies! Secondly, celebrating the future and underscoring the fact that Tioga will continue to support the sport that launched the brand for a long, long time.

NEWS: Any funny stories to share about the guys?

Kai:Stumpy, dR and Sam are great guys. You’ve been around the sport long
enough to know how down to earth and funny these guys are – especially
when they’re hanging out with each other. The shoot was a fun filled day with many outtakes and pictures. Some that may never see the light of day ever again

News also caught up with Donny Robinson to get some commentary on his part in the campaign:

NEWS: What it was like doing the make up…how long it took them to get you
finished.

dR: The makeup of course, was the most painful part about the whole day. We had to sit in a barber’s chair for 3 hours while they applied all the makeup and wigs and such. Actually, I take that first statement back, I’m still trying to get the gunk out of my hair that they used while applying the caps and wigs. They used some mighty tough glue on us and cleaning all that off might have been worse than putting it on. However, for Tioga to put that much effort and money into a campaign like this, I would do it every day for them. Not too often comapanies go against the grain to pull of some great marketing but I think Tioga did an excellent job with this idea.

NEWS: Did it cause you to think much about how your life might be in 33 years?

dR: Yeah, Stumpy, Sam and I sure had some man-to-man chats that day about how we thought things would turn out. I came to the conclusion that if my hairline would end up like mine was, that I would call my whole life a success. In all honesty, I’ve had some great memories in my life already, but as we stood there that day, old and decrepit, I imagined how rad it would be to make it to that age and be able to look back at the relationships and accomplishments we had accumulated.

NEWS: If you actually looked like you do in the video in 2043, would you be sad or stoked?

dR: If I looked like I did in the video I would probably just run around naked all the time. I would get away with it too because I would be old and people would just think I’m senile (heck, by 2043 public nudity might be allowed anyway). I would be one extra sexy old man just livin’ it up!

Thanks to Kai and Donny for the responses. I think my biggest LOL of the series was when Stumpy called dR “That Lil Gremlin.” But Sam’s clip is funny to watch, because he is constantly on the verge of losing it, which is contagious. “ILLINOIS, ROCKFORD!.” indeed (ironically, Sam won there on Sunday this year as well). That one causes a chuckle just thinking about it. No word on when/if an “outtakes” reel is coming. Keep an eye on BMXNEWS for future updates on the 2043 campaign.

—Mike Carruth

Here are the four clips again, in case you missed one:

BMXNEWS received word late last night that, while training at the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista for next month’s Copenhagen Supercross, Donny Robinson was “seriously injured” on Monday, and would likely be out of commission for at least six weeks. Obviously, he will not be traveling with Team USA to Copenhagen for the May 7-8 event. Reports are that this accident re-injured areas that were nearly healed from Donny’s crash at the Madrid Supercross last month.

We’re pulling for dR, and look forward to seeing him back on the gate well in time to defend his World title in South Africa in August. Keep an eye on BMXNEWS for developments on Donny’s condition.

BMX Racing has a rich history of “replica” bikes, dating back to the mid 1970s. The definition of a “replica” is, traditionally, a bike produced during the career of a famous rider or team, in the style and image of the bike that the rider is actually riding at the time. Hyper Bicycles has stayed graphically true to that tradition with the forthcoming release of a Donny Robinson Replica complete bike, out this March. The added bit of news on this project is that the bike will be marketed through Walmart stores nationwide. With millions of shoppers per day chain-wide, the dR Replica has a chance to put BMX Racing in front of a massive audience.

Though the initial rollout this March will be a market test to gauge consumer interest, it is still hitting 314 stores, which is bigger than most chains, in itself. Based on this test, Walmart will evaluate whether the bike gets a chain-wide rollout.

According to Donny, himself, on last week’s episode of our “Announcers Tower” Podcast, “This is the lightest bike on the (mass) market…I could easily run the frame—it’s an aluminum frame.”

It is clear that, by way of this model, Hyper hopes to sell some bikes. Commerce is a beautiful thing. But it goes beyond that. We see them making efforts to move merch, yes…but also to promote the sport of BMX Racing to a broad, general interest audience, who may not otherwise know about the sport.

And when promoting the sport is the topic of discussion, you know the ABA is never far off the lead. They have joined with Hyper to create a hangtag to go on all of the bikes on Walmart’s floor. The hangtag offers a free 30-day ABA membership with purchase of the bike—helping break down barriers to getting new wheels on the gate at the local track. Check out the hangtag.

For his part, Donny will be promoting the bike, and the sport in general through his “In Motion” Youth Mentoring talks at middle schools in places like Oldsmar, Phoenix, DeSoto, TX an other ABA National cities throughout 2010.

The bike will retail for $99—which makes it an irresistible starter bike for Joe and Jan Novice. On Vintage, over the past couple days, the forum has been alight with great ideas from people wanting to join in the fun. Tracks are talking about buying a few of them for loaner bikes, and some of the collector types have their eye on it as a “timecapsule” buy of BMX, circa 2010.

BMXNEWS will be keeping our eyes on the progress of the bike, and will show you first-photos when the time comes.

Meanwhile, here is the complete list of Walmart stores where the Donny Robinson Replica will be showing up next month.

We saw Donny riding through the parking lot on Friday afternoon in Guthrie. He had just finished the first in a series of talks at middle schools as part of the Donny Robinson “In Motion” Mentoring Program. We had been aware of the program, and the visit, by keeping up with Donny’s Twitter updates. But we wanted to know more. So, we asked him if he would be our guest on this week’s episode of “Announcers Tower.” Donny graciously agreed and, in addition to the full scoop on the mentoring program, he also tells us about the forthcoming Hyper “Donny Robinson replica” BMX Racing bike to be test marketed in Walmart stores across the US this March.

In the second half of the interview, Donny talks about his views on equity between the mens and womens Elite classes in BMX racing, his plans for the 2012 Olympics in London, married life, and his “little quirks” when it comes to cell phone use and laundry.

This is a double episode, with a running time of 31 minutes. Thus, we are offering it as a “full-track” listen, and also in two parts.

We hope you enjoy the interview.

Listen to the Full Interview
Full Interview

Part One
Part One

Part Two
Part Two

Photos:

Donny addresses an auditorium of students from the Guthrie (Oklahoma) Middle School on how to lead a clean life, in bounds and overcome challenges and setbacks through goal setting and self discipline.

The Hyper “Donny Robinson” BMX Race bike will be test marketed in 314 Walmart stores across America this March. The $99 model is, according to its namesake, a perfect starter bike for kids interested in BMX racing.