Caersws Cup; Final round

-my series trophy!It took about 5 1/2 hours to get to the venue which meant Dad was driving until about 2am. He looked pretty worse for wear at the end and I am not surprised. We set up the easy up and decided it was easier just to crash in there for the night.

We got up at a nicer sounding 8am and I took a walk up the course. I went up on my own this time to see if it was any better concentration wise. The course looked pretty fresh in some places towards the top. It was mega steep too. It rained pretty heavy overnight so the course was very wet but the weather looked promising for the day. I could see that underneath the soil it would still turn dusty.

Dad noticed at the start of the year that the series website said that the courses would be for beginners. There was no way this was for beginners... good friend Chris Sinden and an expert rider was saying that it was the hardest course he had ridden this year! But an awesome course all the same!

I put spikes on for practise and it was really good for the new loose sections but they were not gripping at all to the greasy, hard packed, old section. However no tire seemed to grip to these places.

My practise runs started a bit dodgy. It was very wet and in the new sections roots gathered in clusters. I slipped on a root on a first off camber section and hit my head pretty hard on a stump; not a great start. It got really dry towards the end of practise and I was debating changing tires for last runs but never got the chance. I got about 8 runs in with plenty of breaks. The uplift here is the best ever!

-the last step down
After practise I cleaned my bike off and put my new DMR spare wheel on that I prepared with my dry tire. I only put one on in case it rained overnight. I walked the course again to see some of the harder parts re-shaped. I didn’t like this but can understand as there were so many people not getting down the course. There were many injuries through the day too. I saw a vet rider in the medic’s tent with blood covering his leg and his bike. I also heard of broken arms as the day proceeded.

-Sion is actually dancing here trying to seduce Sam
After some fish and chips it was back to the venue to pull out the bike and do some skills. After a session I was ready for bed at about 11pm.

I woke up at 4am to hear the rain endlessly thrashing down on the tent; what a horrible feeling. I got up at about 8am and the rain had stopped but had left the place pretty wet. I got some food down my throat and changed my tire back quick and got up the hill for some wet practise.
I did 2 runs in the morning and on the second run I put a dry tire on the front as it was drying up nicely. It seemed to work really well having a spike on the back still for the field section and braking on the steep new sections. I took quite a few goes at the field section after this to get used to the rear end braking free. The weather was very good at this time.

Back at the van I got ready for run number 1. I got to the top a bit too early but didn’t think it was going to be a bad thing. Going through the younger categories saw a kid getting pretty injured so delays were pretty long. The clouds came over and it looked as if it was about to get very wet. Some of the lucky juniors got through their runs on a dry course but being 2nd in the series meant I went off 2nd to last. By the time I went off it was raining hard. I had a pretty sketchy run down and got some slides going on in the bottom field. I was some 10 seconds off the pace of the other juniors which had dry runs.

It kept raining for about an hour after my first run and I was wondering whether or not to do a run down or not; not wanting to do an aimless run with the chance of injury before fort William next week. But the sun came out again and I decided I might be able to go faster as my first run wasn’t great.

Going down in my last run was hard work. The course was really beaten up. And it wasn’t only the new sections that were filled with ruts. I came down going a hundredth of a second faster, pretty gutted with both of my runs now but at least I would keep my 2nd place overall in the series and I was in one piece for next weekend.

-wall of funny faces

- many podiums... one set for the race, one set for the midlands champ and one set for the series.-the expert series podium-the elite overal series winner

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26, Funn and Geax.

Dragon round 3 Rheola July 21-22nd July;

Cruising up to Rheola on Friday night looked promising. The weather had been good there all week and it wasn’t raining yet. However, waking up in the early hours of the morning we saw that it had rained overnight and to put it nicely... it didn’t look like it was going to stop in a hurry.

I got up and walked the course with Dad, teammate Lee and Paul Burf. It wasn’t raining currently but the sky was pretty menacing. The course was pretty much the same as I have raced before; Just a couple of differences. For example the so-called “Starwars” section was missing a massive tree stump. This opened up the line and made it pretty easy. I must say I missed the challenge.

-Rich preparing Lee's bike

-Paul's new prototype K9 -Tom Wheeler's Pimped out and race ready Mojo Orange
Practise on Saturday was from around 8am to 2pm. Then we had qualifying. I only did 4 runs before my qualifying run but it seemed to be enough to get all my lines sorted. It was constantly drizzling the whole day and that combined with speeds around 35mph it made it unbelievably hard to see though my goggles. My last run I tried without goggles and proved to be better.

My qualifying run was really good until I came off in the bottom section jumping over to the other side of the course and over a stump. As I landed I washed out and slide on my face and knees some 20ft down the course. I stopped off at the side of the course for a good 50 seconds. After I had gathered my thoughts I cruised down to the bottom with bent bars and a twisted seat post. I came down with obviously a shocker of a time about a minute off the fastest time. After someone said I went to see the medics about my knees. I had a few deep cuts on my left knee and just grazed my right. Thanks to extreme medics for cleaning me up!

-The uplift que

-Washing my bike in the bushes
Later that night I hobbled down with Dad to the camp site that Lee, Rich, Paul and Matt was staying at. After a chat it was back to the van to catch up on sleep. During the night it really rained hard! It’s never a nice feeling waking up to that thinking, “I have to ride in that in a few hours”.

I woke up and looked out the door to a few patches of blue sky! Everything was very wet from overnight though. I left it quite late before I went down as the weather looked like it was going to stay good. I saw some people who had already had a run and they were covered in mud; the trousers were on straight away. My first run down was good. I used my goggles and it was bearable. My second run however wasn’t as appealing. I came off in the same place as I did in my seeding run and ruined my knees into the ground again! I was far from happy and went back to the van to rest my bleeding knees once again.

I got ready for my first race run; putting my knee and shin pads on again... most uncomfortable! I went up thinking to myself that I don’t want to come off again and I was going to take it easy. I came down with a good run behind me but at cruising pace. I was on a 3 min 24 sec’s. This put me in 2nd place behind good friend Sion Whitecross.

The course was really drying up now and the top section of rocks was totally dry. I went up for 2nd runs thinking I will go a little faster but very within my ability as I still didn’t want to fall off again. I had a good run and went into the hotspot with a 3min 20. Sion was next to come down and got also a 3 min 20. He was less than 0.1 of a second ahead of me; gutted yet happy for his first win! So I ended up 2nd, with Rob Williams in 3rd 3 seconds behind Sion and myself. I also found out that I was 7th out of around 300 people overall.

-the hardtail catagory (of course Lee is on the top!*DMR*)

the girls catagory... Whay!-my catagory...junior-the expert catagory-the elite catagory
I am hoping that my knees will heal well during the week as it is up to north Wales for the final of the Cearsws cup next weekend. Here's a couple of weitrd buildings from Rheola to finish...

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26, Funn and Geax.

National 4X Chicksands 5th July

I got to Chicksands Saturday around midday, plenty of time to practice a 30 second course with the sun out until 9. I did quite a few runs down to sort out my lines and get comfortable with the triple again... last time I jumped this my old “Spooky” hard tail snapped on me. But now on my pimped out DMR Trailstar it was easy stuff. I did a fair few runs of the bottom of the course as this was new to me. There is a wicked inside line on the 2nd to last corner with a log to jump over. This was like a DH line so I felt at home cornering on the flat. I made sure I had that dialled in depending on that line for racing if I was behind at the last few seconds.

Gate practise started around 3pm and there wasn’t that many riders doing it so I must have got in about 40 gate practises just going to the second double and straight back up. This was very ideal for me; as a downhiller its usually 1 footed starts for me. I asked Pat Cambell and Martin Ogden at times to see what I was doing wrong. Thanks guys!

After that I hit the trails!

After practice Dad and I went into the city to get some munch... after a hard day up and down the course I was in need for a lot!

I took Sunday morning pretty relaxed and wasn’t too bothered about practise. I had about 5 runs down and a couple gate practises. Teammate Duncan Ferris helped me with some lines and helped me work on my gates.

Racing started pretty late and I found out that everyone gets 4 races, then results from them depend if you have run off’s and quarter finals, then semi finals, then a B final or an A final depending on how well you’ve done.

My first race was with a few guys I didn’t know so I was unaware of their ability. I was pretty average out of the gate and a guy pulled a bike length on me. There were the other 2 guys on the inside of me so over the next jump I pulled a whip and got one of them out the way. I chased 2nd and 1st hard and got past 2nd on an inside line before a triple. I went for an overtake at the bottom but in the end kept my 2nd place.

My second race was with a couple of really good guys so I ended up 3rd. I could keep up with them but I wasn’t fast enough to do anything more.

My third race was with good mate and national champ Bernard Kerr. He did a good job of cutting across me but I stayed 2nd place. We both gave massive whips over the triple.

My forth race was my best race. I was good out the gate but not good enough. I was next to 3rd place at the start but managed to inch away from him. I was now going for 1st. I saw that he was a little bit slower into the triple so I pulled right on the take off and manual landed the last bump. With the extra speed I was sided by side with him. He pushed me towards a takeoff on the outside of the course. I kept cranking and boosted it. It seemed just as fast as I landed that bit further ahead as he landed from the take off further on. I knew it was getting sketchy at this point and it got too close. He got tangled up with my back wheel and was out of it. I rode the course to the finish in 1st.
After a small break the next heats were sorted out and I found myself in the semi finals. Chuffed! If I was to come 3rd or 4th I would be in the B final and if I came 2nd or 1st I would be in the A final. I had third choice of lane so I chose the one furthest away from National Champ Bernard. I had watched him cut across from the start in his other races to slow down the competition. We both knew what the plan was without saying anything.

The gates flew down and I had a good start. Bernard cut across the field and we went into the first berm together with the other 2 behind. I kept with Bernard all the way and we celebrated with a “YEAH DUDE!” at the bottom. It was to the A finals for us. This meant that I was guaranteed 4th place.

I was pretty sure I knew I was going down to get 4th in the A final. These guys knew what they were doing big time! So I followed their lead to the bottom. I could have caused some carnage on the 2nd to last turn that I had practised so much but I am off to the Netherlands with my school at 4am Monday morning and I wasn’t here to get hurt.

I was really pleased to come 4th in my first 4X race for DMR, and a National at that.

Here's a bunch of pics!...

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26, Funn and Geax.

UK bike park round 3

I have been busy doing my A-level exams at school last week so I am sorry for the delay.

The course was awsome! It was very steep, rooty, off camber and had many switch backs. There was alot of pedalling involved over the whole course too. It was a good all around course!

-Here is a collage of Saturday night and race day.

-Here are podium pics

-Here is a picture of the top end of the overal results

I came off in both my race runs but felt good on the track and ended up winning with the overal time of the day. woop!

Thanks to DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26. Funn and Geax.