Bike Radar Duel Slalom Invitational at Brands Hatch

This race was one of the few races I could say it only took me 25mins to get to whilst all my mates from the scene had a role reversal and were complaining about the 4 hour drive they had to do.

Looking at the start list of over 60 pro riders was a bit daunting. It was a bit of a list of who’s who in the world cup 4X and DH scene. It was going to be more than a challenge just to get through qualifying with the cut off point at 32 riders.

The course was great, it had 4 jumps in, was a touch over 21 seconds long and the corners were so much fun! I had never raced duel before and it was awesome to be racing with that person next to you, both trying to hit the next section faster and ultimately get that front wheel across the line before they do. The corners were really dusty which made things that bit more exciting in my eyes. It was very steep out of the start gate and there wasn’t any pedalling around the berms, ever corner you could hit with more speed than you could handle. It was literally hitting the berm as fast as you dare and pop out the other side sprinting to the next.

My qualifying run was a bit of a panicky run down. I hit every turn a bit sketchy knowing that I had to go my fastest to do well. Despite some special moments I came 14th with 22 seconds. I was pretty darn pleased; I was expecting to be on the edge of qualifying not in the top ¼.

I was put up against Jake Ward for the first heat, one of the 4X pinners on Hatch’s 44racing team. I knew it was not going to be an easy race but I went in with confidence. In the first race I had a good run down and Jake made a mistake somewhere on the track which meant I won by a fair distance. This would mean that he would have to beat me on the next race by more than that to go through to the next heat.

We both spent the next race side by side the whole way down, It was one of the closest races all day, we raced the last straight sprinting side by side, I believe it was announced that I won it but it was certainly close.

I went through to the next race against the power house and a favourite to win, Chris Kovarik. I went into the races with a good head though. The first race he got ahead out of the gate. It was a pretty constant distance between us all the way to the finish with us jumping the 2nd to last jump side by side. He managed to pull away a bit sprinting to the line and took the first round. The second race I was on my favourite side. I nearly slide out in the 3rd corner but managed to keep it together and ended up a bit ahead on the 2nd to last jump. I managed to win by a fraction of a second but it was not enough to go through to the next round.

I have certainly found a new style of riding that I love and hope to see more duel races in the future; it’s great to watch too! Here are the results;

Results;
Big final

1 Michal Prokop
2 Roger Rinderknecht

Small Final

3 Joost Wichman
4 Brian Lopes

1/4 Final

Lukas Mechura
Gee Atherton
Chris Kovarik
Josh Bryceland

1/8 Final

Scott Roberts
Dan Yeomens
Duncan Ferris
Steve Peat
Harry Molloy
Will Evans
Scott Beaumont

1/16 Final

Matthieu Trinquart
Jason Egan
Pete Warner
Dave Wardell
Davi Berks
Isaac Mundy
Olli Wilkins
Sam Dale
Jordan Gould
Jake Ward
Tim Person
Neil Donoghue
Adam Carr
Bernard Kerr

Here are some pictures of the weekend;

















A huge thanks Jez from Chocolate Distribution for getting me into the race and thanks to my sponsors Last, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Nema Clothing, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension, Kali and Shimano.

British DH Series round 3 – Llangollen;

It was not one of the best weekends for me to be honest. The track was wicked and the sun was scorching all weekend! The uplift was very slow though and in a whole day of practise I found even with my extra elite practise I managed 5 runs. And practise was about 7 ½ hours long!

The track was pretty short but very steep and so so dusty! I love riding steep and dusty stuff so the runs I got in were sick!

Sunday morning the uplift was a bit better and I managed another 3 runs before seeding. The course was getting pretty hard as the corners were disappearing and ruts and wholes replaced them. It was going to be very hard to do a run without mistakes but with the track being less than 2 min’s you couldn’t have any mistakes if you were going to do well.

In my seeding run I had a good run and held back for race runs really. My usual approach and it didn’t turn out all that bad. I was 4 seconds off of Brendan with some more to give.

In my race run I didn’t start off very well. I jumped the second bus stop and Landed too close to the edge of the track. I was drifting for a few seconds which really lost my speed. In a panic to gain it back I missed a high line into a corner as I didn’t brake early enough. I made a mistake on the steep shoot nearing the bottom too but this wasn’t too time consuming. My back wheel was just drifting over the edge of the corner for a bit as the crowds were all shouting.

I ended up in 16th place with a slower time than my seeding run. Not what I was aiming for but everyone has their ups and downs and this one just happened to be a bad one.

Here are some pic’s of the weekend;
















I am now looking forward to racing the duel at Brands Hatch for the Bike Radar show in a couple weeks.

Thanks to Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Nema Clothing, DMR, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension, Kali and Shimano.

UCI World Cup Round 3 Leogang;

I arrived in Leogang on Thursday early morning. The sun was out and the atmosphere was rising as the best in the world came together again for round 3.

I signed on and found out I was number 46. Brendan was the first to point out that I had the same number as Moto GP’s Valentino Rossi.

I was very surprised when I walked the course. It was such a different course to what I had expected. Straight out of the start the course was pretty full on into a corner about 3 meters from the gate. The course was a miss match between the courses they had there already and they seemed to join together runs in really strange ways. It was pretty full on downhill style for the first min of the course and then suddenly it went into a long pedally section with jumps the whole way along it. Then it dropped off the side of that course into some Schladming style sections that were so fun! It was really rooty and rough. Then it was back out onto a pretty demanding pedal over more jumps for around another min. Finally it was back into some woods for the last min and a half with some real demanding steep, fast and technical sections. Basically to round it up it was over 4 minutes of changing from free ride into really good DH over and over again.

As I found out on the Friday practise; the course was so much fun to just ride at your own pace. It started to rain a bit during top 80 practise and the course turned a lot different. I did about 7 runs on Friday and every run the course was getting more and more warn each time. I thought as most of the track was already very warn in, it would hold up better but I was very wrong.

By Saturday morning the track had huge braking bumps and ruts that went up to my knees. I did 3 runs in top 80 practise on Saturday to practise a few lines that Simmonds had told me about on course walk.

Qualifying runs came around and I was pretty near the start. I prepared at the top just riding round in circles for a while. Being at the start all the top guys are there with their mechanics and trainers on their static bikes. It’s quite intimidating just riding round all kitted up but I knew what I had to do and concentrated on that.

I had a good qualifying run and managed to keep good speed out of the important bits. I hit all my lines with confidence and it turned out I came 30th. I was really pleased with this. I would have just been happy to qualify but I was pretty chuffed to be 30th. I even got an interview with dirt.

On Sunday a few people commented about how my qualifying run went which made me think about race runs a bit too much... Nerves etc. I did 3 runs in the morning to try a few new lines. It was still raining and hadn’t stopped since the morning after the day we got there. The course was soo so beaten up now. Holes and ruts just over ran the track. I really like tracks that are like this, I guess I just like how hard it is to keep your lines and how much more physical it was. I saw Brendan in practise and followed him for a bit. He saw that I was riding in some 6 year old Oakley goggles without tear off’s so he asked Andrew Neethling for some new ones for my race runs. They were pretty pimp and looking through them wasn’t any different to looking without them!

I didn’t really feel that pressured before my run but I just really wanted to do as well as I positioned in qualifying. I had a bit of a moment at the top where I came off line and landed off a drop into a bog but after that I gathered my thoughts and kept on a good run. I sprinted so hard into the finish and ended up 35th. This is my best final position yet by 2 places. I was mega pleased with how I did and I was pleased with my time. It was a hard track that was over 4 mins long and I was 18 seconds off of winner Greg Minnaar and 11.8 seconds off of a podium.

Thanks to Bren and Neething for the help! Also thanks to Thanks to Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Nema Clothing, DMR, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension, Kali and Shimano.

New Kali Sponsorship!!!

I am now sponsored by Kali for Helmets. Check out this lot that just came in the post!











big thanks to Bullet distribution and Kali for all the new stuff!

New 661 stuff!!!

I just got some more 661 stuff through... check it out!


Thanks to MMA Sports for yet more fantastic goodies!

UCI World Cup Round 2 Fort William

An 11hour “Local” trip up to Scotland, the closest world cup to home. I went up on Wednesday evening and travelled through the night until about 5am. I was totally destroyed so I went straight to bed and woke up to sign on about 1pm. The course for the B.D.S a month before was so different to what fort William has been over the years and this time again just as much of the track was changed again. I thought it looked awesome! The woods section was very short and the other new sections on the course were where it was boggy before. The course was looking back up to speed and even rockier. It was going to take something else this year to win at Fort William!

2 words that describe the track pretty darn well!

Friday practise for me was seriously long. Because of my result at round 1 I had number 38 which meant top 80 practise was on! I left it for the first hour of practise but i couldn’t wait any longer so I did a couple of runs. The track was as sick as I thought it would be, but maybe a bit faster again. I always struggle with over practising and it was hard again to hold back. I already knew the course and what lines I would be doing after the 3rd run so I stopped until top 80 practise started. The course would then be warn in more and less congested. I did another 3 runs in this practise and was beginning to get up to speed more and finding loads of things to jump off. I did a timed run too! I didn’t want to do a full run really as I was already feeling it physically so I just cruised down and put some pedals in where they count. I got a 5min 6seconds which I think was about 20 seconds off of the fastest time. I was pretty pleased with this as it’s usually a bit more than that on a long course when I really go for it. I set myself the goal of getting the gap down to ten seconds which seemed pretty doable.

Oliver Burton and myself repping the Nema kit!

Saturday morning I started to feel a bit nervous about qualifying. I don’t know why as I had already proved with my time that I would qualify pretty securely.

Practise went well and I did a couple of runs to wake up the brain and push it that bit faster.

warming up and getting ready

Qualifying runs came about rather quick after top 80 practise. I warmed up at the top for a bit and I was up. I had the top section pretty good and carried my speed pretty well. I held back on the pedalling conserving for the motorway section at the bottom. I came in a new section a bit faster than I had before in my practise. It was too late and I couldn’t brake any harder. I overshot a drop and slowing down for the left corner ahead was to a minimum. I washed out onto my side but didn’t let go of my bike with my right hand. I got to my feet and spun my bike round as fast as I could. Everyone was cheering me on and I pedalled off as fast as I could. I was thinking to myself for the next section that I have thrown away my chances of qualifying. I gave it everything I had for the rest of the track and got a 4 min 58. It felt like the longest wait ever for everyone to come down to see if I had qualified. I was safe at 60th place; what a relief!

Sunday was forecast to rain right in time for racing. I did another 2 runs to up the pace a bit more and get the corner I had fell off on well.

I found myself quite nervous at the top as I got up too early. I knew I could just go down and with a good behind me I would do well. I didn’t even get to the first split before I went straight off track. I was so mad with myself, later comparing my split from qualifying I lost 7 seconds. I had a reasonable run down after this but there’s no way you can make that time up against the world’s best 80 riders. I ended up 68th place with a 4 min 59. I wasn’t happy at all but thinking it over now at least I kept up in the top 80 and should have a low number for the next round in 2 weeks time in Leogang.

Here are some pics of the weekend;

Gee takes the win!
there were crazy amounts of people!


Manon takes 8th in the womens and carry's on as the leading Junior







British 4X rider Max Lenthal looking cool
...best outfit of the weekend
the big screan in the distance elivated out of a lorry and was the largest TV I think i will ever see!

Thanks to Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Nema Clothing, DMR, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension and Shimano.