N.P.S round 1; Ae Forest:

It’s finally here! The race series that anyone who is anyone is at!
We drove nearly 400 miles just getting to the venue!

We arrived around lunch time on Friday so that we could set up and walk the course a couple of times. I walked the course with Sam and Dad. The course had the same bottom section but most of the middle section and he entire top was different. There was a new wooded tight tree section in the middle of the course. I could feel beneath my shoes and the deceiving layer of dirt was a menacing root section. The new top section was relatively steep and all heather bushes. It was wet already and very soft underfoot. Even without the current forecast of rain, this would turn into another impossible bog! The second time walking the course there was already a noticeable change of this section just from people walking on it. It started spitting on and off for the rest of the afternoon.
After a while Rezurgence turned up and we helped will set up camp. It didn’t take long to put up the easy up and get the tea on. Will gave me a bike stand and said that the easy up can be borrowed when needed. Thanks again Will!
I got up early Saturday morning to walk the course for a third time with Nathan Vials. Our lines varied more than usual, they are usually basically the same. I timed the morning so that I would get on the first uplift. However getting on this was a massive mistake as we then waited 2-3 hours extra because the gate was locked one of the ways to the top. However the course was now pretty ruined at the top so it was good that my first run was on how the course would be. I did about 7 runs on the course. It rained through the day and wet tires and all in one wet suites were the favourites.

A few people were disqualified in practise, mainly for not doing their helmets up. James Dower happened to be one of these riders who had been caught riding down without his helmet done up. I was very surprised to hear that he had been disqualified for it but it just goes to show how serious the safety is taken.

After washing my bike I walked the course yet again. This time I could pick lines through the top section as it now resembled what it was going to be like. Most of the lines were just to stay on the side of the course where less people had ridden or to stay in a rut that was rocky and hard packed beneath the mud.

I later used my new bike stand to oil and sort my bike out for race day.
I was sharing a tent with Sam Shucksmith. The first night I didn’t hear a word out of Sam in the night... but the second night he had everything to talk about in his sleep; something as random as “a mole going down a hill”??? I have no idea where that came from, but we both found it pretty funny in the morning!
I got up and had some food and got to the uplift for first uplift again. I was the very first person down the course. Again... another big mistake! All the ruts were filled in with thick mud from people walking the course. I got 5 runs in before it was time to get ready for race runs. It was hot and the sun was out but the course was suffering trying to dry up.

I was feeling positive about race runs but when I got to the top the nerves hit me and I really suffered. I took it fast down the first section but messed up a line so I lost speed in the bog. I thought to myself just take it sensible and just concentrate. I really lost it all on the course and my whole run was seriously bad. I think I had the worst run I had ever done! It was like I lost all balance. I got a 3 minute and 2 seconds. I was 20 seconds off of the win. I can easily see where the time was made and more but it’s just doing it in one run is the hard part. I was seriously gutted! Joe Smith won and Danny Hart 2nd with Harry Heath in 3rd.

Gee Atherton won the overal with a 2 min 23seconds!
Just when the day couldn’t get worse it did! We lost our keys to the van. We later retrieved them from the skip! Haha!

Next week it’s the 2nd round of the Caersws Cup! Let’s hope it’s a dry race! I think we are due one!

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Funn, Geax and Motor tabs. Also Nathan Vials for borrowing his bike wash!

Hopton midlands round 2;

We arrived Saturday morning at around 1am and it looked to be dry. We set up Sam’s tent and got to bed for an early morning start.

-As usual we drove up in the Transit!

I woke up at 7 and gathered with usual people; Bill, Will, Ali, Granddad, Sam and myself and Dad to walk the course. It was so nice to walk up a dry, dusty track being able to pick the lines that really push the limits on downhill. Apart from the top wooded section the course was very well ridden with big braking bumps towards the end.

My newly servised forks gave me a smooth ride over the braking bumps.

Practise was really good. The uplift was good and it took you all the way to the top. It was still dry and I got around 7 or 8 runs in. It really made effort to section and find different lines... some really good and some not so. The top root section was catching so many people out. I sectioned this part on my last run of the day with Bill and Ali and it took us awhile to find the right line. We practised it a couple times and then Nathan Vials came through. He spent most of the time in the air and it was by far the fastest way. It was the same line as bill spotted but it would be a couple more goes until we had it that fast.

-Sam on his new bike!-My dry Saturday's riding

I later walked the course with Nathan and his family. I wasn’t surprised to see that all my lines were very similar to his. However I was surprised to find that most of our lines had been taped off. All off the middle open section had been adapted from practise and posts were moved. That was very annoying as I now had to practise the section again Sunday morning. We didn’t stay at the top long enough to find out what they were going to do but roomer was a stump was going to be chopped out. After a good walk dad cooked a pasta stir fry for the three of us. By now it had been raining lightly for about an hour and it wasn’t looking good for the exposed parts of the course. I decided to put spikes on and an inner tube mud guard. I wasn’t going to wait until the morning to mess around when all I want to do is relax. It was around 10pm now so we called it a night and went to bed.

It rained through the early hours of Sunday morning quite hard and eased off to that kind of misty rain that gets you really wet in time for practise. Even though it was very wet the course was still running really fast and grippy. However it stopped raining only around an hour into practise and the course began to dry. And this meant thick, slow running mud. I got 2 practise runs in and cleaned my bike for race runs. I was happy with what I had practised and was pleased with my new lines in the open section.

- The open section

My first race run was a bit off as I hit my shoulder in the dirt of a ledge on a corner. But I had a good run apart from that and came in 4th place at the bottom. Up against 3 big names of the second year juniors; Sam Dale in 1st, Sam Shucksmith 2nd and Nathan Vials 3rd.

-Nathan Vials on the open section

My second run was good and I had fun but I found the course slower than first runs and I ended up going a second slower and ending going down to 7th place. Bummer! I was still happy with this though. And I feel in a good attitude going into this weekend coming... the first round on the Nationals at Ae Forrest, Scotland.

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Funn, Geax and Motor tabs.

UK Bike Park - race 1

We arrived on Saturday morning for an uplift day and at first it seemed very quiet. The course was not clear as only the first part was taped but following the local riders they seemed to have a clue or two on knowing where it was going.

Weather was strange from the start... one minute it was as hot as England gets, and the next hail storms would cover the venue in ice.

I had a few runs on the Saturday, probably nearing 10 altogether. I met up and had a few runs with Ben D from the Royal Marines. It was quite strange for him because the uplift service was in army vehicles and in this certain caterpillar people transporter he told me the last time he was in one of these, a doctor was attending his ankle where he had been shot.

The course seemed very simple at this point but I was going to find out this wasn’t totally the case. I would compare it to Aston Hill in the way that the ground is very chalky. It even gets as steep too.

When going out Saturday evening to get some food we past the DMR crew on their way to the venue. We got our food and returned to walk the course properly as it was now taped up and chill out with the team. Rich gave me some energy drink for racing and explained that Motor tabs energy is now sponsoring the team. We watched “the law of fives” on my laptop and went to bed.

Sunday morning saw a lot more people turn up. But the weather stayed the same and hail showers and sunny spells. I practised with Teammate Lee and friends. After first runs I put the spike tyres on and they proved to be so much better! I had around 4 runs in the morning before racing began.

My first race run wasn’t great; I caught someone up and messed up the rock section so I had to catch up yet again. It wasn’t long before the guy in front panicked and lost it down the hill. I took the bottom fast but it was too late. I got to the top to find out that I was in 2nd place and 3rd overall with a 2min dead. Lee was 1st overall with a 1:58 and a fall and on a hard tail! What a nutter!

2nd runs were running slower because the ground became stickier. However I knew I could do a lot better. I pedalled my legs off at the top but coming into the rocks I took it too inside and flew into a tree... I got stuck on the wrong side of the tree for which seemed forever but I eventually got back on the course. I tried my best to make up the time but I later found out I got a 2:05. If only I hadn’t tried so hard in the rocks. But that’s racing aye!

Winner Lee Huskinson for DMR!

2nd round of the midlands this weekend!

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, funn, Mace, Geax, Motor tabs and Nike 6.

Dragon-1-Cwmcarn 5-6 April;

- Mojo have helped make this place what it is today and were the main sponsors of the race

We arrived at around midnight at the Cwmcarn centre Friday night. Although it was hard to see at this late, it seemed to be dry with a clear sky. I didn’t sleep great as it was a bit cramp in the back of the van; only due to us not being bothered to sort it out that late at night.

Saturday morning took a slow start and we got up to walk the course around half 7. It was a clear day and the sun began to show some heat as I walked the course with Ross Hammond and my Dad. The course was pretty much the same as I have ridden before. This time the main difference was that the trees were fallen at the very top of the course. This made the top totally unrecognisable to me. Strange how a few trees make such a difference.

I took 4 practise runs in the morning, then my seeding run. My seeding run wasn’t bad. I took an easy run down as I knew there were more lines to take a look at. At the very bottom the timing lasers were around what I thought was the walk through part. However, it wasn’t until a few people shouted at me, I thought to pedal to the end around a 180 degree corner. I was 3 seconds off of 1st place lying in 4th place. It was then I realised that no-one really knew that the finish was around an extra corner and resulted in most people messing up there times.

After that I took my bike up to the top to find some lines in sections that I struggled with through the day. This really helped as I came up with around 5 more lines and extra confidence on the course.

After this we went to the pizza place to get some dinner and play a couple games of pool. I have to input the fact I did beat both my dad and Ross.

We then went to a holiday inn around 5 miles away from the venue for the night. We got up to have an early breakfast at 6:30 then it was time to get back to Cwncarn for practise at 8am. Ross and I were amongst some of the first riders up.

We took 3 runs down in the morning. I had a fall in my 3rd run and hurt my shoulder and finger. I tried jumping over two corners of the course but landed on the second corners boundary which was set by some pretty spiky rocks. However, I did my new lines and was pretty confident about race runs.

My first race run went well and I got down comfortably. I was sat in 2nd place with a 3mins 4seconds. Ross Hammond was only 2 milliseconds behind in 3rd place. Nathan Vials was of course in 1st some 4 seconds ahead.

My final run was 3 seconds faster with a 3mins 1second. This put me in 3rd place 2 milliseconds behind Rob Williams. Nathan Vials went faster again and got a 2mins 58seconds... 3 seconds ahead.
- The Junior podium

It was bone dry for both of our runs. Looking at the expert times I would have won the category and I would have came 3rd in the elites. I came 5th overall out of nearly 300 riders.

- The Elite podium

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Funn, Mace, Geax and Nike 6.

-My new mace helmit!