National Champs 2008 – Bala

Right... so practise didn’t really go to plan on Saturday. I only got 2 runs done in the morning as on my third I got a puncture and had to come down in the lift service. It took longer than I thought with the walk along the road at the bottom. Once I fixed my bike the lift was closing so I started to walk up the bottom field section to find some much needed time somewhere. However I was called back down the course to my Rezurgence tent as Sam Shucksmith was hurt. I went down what I had walked up and saw Sam with a sling on. He needed to be taken to the hospital as his wrist was suspected to be broken. He said it was ok for me and Dad to do our seeding runs first and thankfully for me that meant I got another run down.

I got to the top with Dad and just before I was supposed to do my run, Dad discovered that he had a puncture before he had even got anywhere. So he had to go back down and repair it. I thought to myself it would be dangerous to try and go fast on a course I didn’t even know what lines to hit yet. So I cruised down without pedalling. I got to a really open rooty section and had only an idea of the line I wanted to get so I went for it but failed and slipped off and landed down the hill on my bum. Ouch! I also twisted the seat round landing on it with my ... I took a breather and set my seat straight again. I rolled down again but feeling a lot sicker than before. I pedalled in the field quite a lot and manualled over the bridge. I set the timer at 3mins 41 sec’s. I was around 31st place I think. Not good!

Dad followed down after Steve Peat as he took his run late then he took Sam to the hospital. I took his bike and took it to the Fenwick’s bike cleaner and John cleaned it for me. Thanks John! I stayed behind and walked the course with John Holbrook. He showed me what he was doing which really helped me with my lines. I really paid attention to the course as I needed to get it right from the start in the morning as I was already behind.

I cooked myself some noodles with peas and carrots with a stir fry salad and sorted out the easy-up and got everything ready for Dad and Sam to just jump into bed. They didn’t come back until well after 1am.

I got up early and made sure I was on the first uplift and wanted to get as many runs in as pos. I took my first run down easy and rode all my lines. I timed my second run down and managed to get a full run and time it. It was a fairly slow easy run down but it was without stopping and I got around a 3min 25 sec’s. My third run was stopped on the first road as Rachel and Gee Atherton had fallen off further down. Rachel hurt her leg and had to be stretchered off. Get better soon! I rode to the top to get a full run in as it was going to be my last run. I managed to go a lot faster in this run but not one corner felt remotely on the limit. I kind of knew with that being my last run I wasn’t going to do very well.

My race run went as well as I could without making it dangerous. I just slowed down at the sections I wasn’t sure of. I went off near the middle of the group and had a long time in the leaders seat at the bottom. I got a 3min 12sec’s. It was an average time in my eyes and got me 14th place.

Steve Peat won the Elite category with a 2 min 50. Some 5 seconds ahead of everyone in his category. However, Josh Bryceland in the juniors got the second fastest time of the day. Gee was up by 2 seconds at the split but fell off in the field section. That’s racing for you.

I am off to the French Alps at the end of this week until the next National at Molfre. I can’t wait!
Thanks to, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Mojo, Mace, Nike 6, Twenty26, Funn and Geax.

Welsh Champs at Mynydd Ddu 2008

I arrived at a reasonable half 11 at the venue and had a chat with the team and all the lads. It was about to be a longer night than I had first thought though... My Dad’s snoring... need I say more? It was bad enough that I had to wake up early to walk the course.

It was supposed to be showery on the practise day and that couldn’t be more accurate. For the whole day it was sunny for a while and then would rain for a while.

OK so let’s start with my first run; I came off 3 times! That’s the most I have ever fallen off in a run and it was my first! I had a further 6 runs however without falling off and I had tried every tyre I had with me. 2 spikes seemed to be the best combination. Despite the pretty dry day and the covered track, it was very wet and gloopy. The track was really hard! It’s really technical with greasy rocks and tons of roots. I felt like I knew the course pretty well and had done all the lines I had looked at.

To finish the riding off for the day I had my seeding run. I just cruised down the hill and got what I thought was a smooth run down. I seeded 1st place with a time of 3 min’s 22 seconds, with a second gap between me and second place. I think there was quite a time gap after that.

After some pasta and burgers and whatever else I could find to eat I walked the course with teammate Lee and mates. I didn’t really find any more lines but just confirmed the ones I was doing and saw everything in a bit more detail. When we got to the bottom Lee mentioned that he had “Illusionary Lines”, the DVD. So the laptop was straight out and we watched it before going to bed.

Whilst Dad slept in the van (scared of the bugs that could be in the tent), I had the whole easy up to myself and I couldn’t even hear him snoring. Bonus!

I let a few riders go down in the morning before I did my two runs of practise to take that top layer of mud off. It was really warm and sunny on race day and it didn’t rain overnight either. This didn’t make any difference to the course though; it just stays constantly wet there. My runs were good but a lot of people on the course meant that I had to stop and start a lot.

My first race run went well for most of the run but I did stop at the top where I hit a tree but it felt a lot faster than my seeding run. I was just over half a second ahead of 2nd place and again there was a big time gap from there on.

My second run didn’t go so well. I made a mistake at the top of the track so I pushed the rest of the course. It got to the hardest steepest and my favourite part of the track and I let the brakes
off... didn’t make the corner at the bottom and landed in a stream = very wet!

I still kept 1st place from my first run time so I was more than happy with my first win as a first year junior. Lee won the hartails so he holds the hardtail champion title for the next year. A good weekend for DMR! Here are the pictures of the podiums;

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

Fort William - Nationals round 3

It was a long agonising journey up to Fort William. We left at 8pm and travelled until about 1:30am where we got stuck in a very bad traffic jam. We were just about to pull off the motor way to take a sleep but were stuck in the jam for 3-4hours until the accident workers stripped down the barriers and we took a detour. We took a sleep for about 3 hours and got to the venue by lunch time.

-we watched as the sun rose in the massive que.-yeah that is me in the top left hand corner of the van!

It was sunny as we arrived and it although the ground was wet the sky was promising. We put the easy-up up and walked the course. We were walking the top section of the course when it threw it down. We hid under a cable car pylon but we were soaked before long. The shower was about 10 min’s long and by the time we were walking down again the sun had dried us out. I really liked the look of the new section at the top of the course. It made it a considerable amount longer and its new berms and north shore really added something else to the usual rough rocky ride all the way down. It couldn’t wait to ride the course and it was still pretty early so after meeting with Will and Greg from Rezurgence I walked the course again. This time I really had a good look between the tape and where I could go. I had a few lines in the bag!

I went to bed relatively early ready to get up for an 8:30am start. Getting up in the morning wasn’t a problem for me. It was sunny and I couldn’t wait to ride the same course that the world cup was held on.

- here's a collage of our pit area

I had about 7 practise runs during the course of the day. My 6th was my favourite run as I went up in the ski lift with Greg Minnaar. We know each other through Rezurgence so I helped him set up his helmet cam. It took quite some time to position the cam on his goggle strap and a lot of tape. He also was to attach an audio micro phone to his helmet. He was asked to commentate on his run whilst he was doing it! Here’s the link to it... http://www.dirtmag.co.uk/news/category/events/minnaar-wins-round-3-of-the-nps-at-fort-william/dirt-1231638.html

Greg said he was just going to cruise down so I followed him. I managed to get to the wooded section before there was quite a gap between us and a rider pulled out in front of me. It was awesome to follow his lines and watch him fly about ahead of me.

I readied myself and my bike for my seeding run. I was pretty confident about my run and I wasn’t going to push myself but to do a smooth fast run. I messed up the woods a bit but other than that I had a good controlled run. I was 4th with a 5 min 23 sec’s. I was pretty happy with this as I knew I would be able to do a much better time in my race run.

I went up in the lift and walked down whilst the expert and elite riders were doing there seeding runs. I watched closely and got 3 new lines I wanted to try the next morning.

We went back to the fish and chip shop where I had 2 cod, a portion of chips, gravy, a fish cake and a coke. It was mega!

I got up Sunday morning in time for an 8:30 start. I went up for a practise on my new lines. 2 of the 3 lines I thought were better so I had a break and planned to do just one more run. My next run went to plan and I did a full run down at race speed. I could tell that I was a lot faster today and didn’t feel nervous at all. I had a good 3 hours to rest up for my race runs so I soon got very bored attempting to do nothing; Haha. I had lunch with Greg Minnaar, Will, Greg and my dad. I have lately found it good to go stand in front of the event speakers before a race to get myself in the mood and raring to go. I went up for my run.

This was it... surely his was going to be my weekend. I was having an awesome run down when I missed a high line into the woods. A root sent me over the bars; it wasn’t a bad crash but I hit my knee on a stump pretty bad. I scramble about on the floor for a while and clambered up to my bike. My bike was a little stuck between trees but I pulled it out and jumped on at the next corner. I tried to get the rest right and fast which I did but the last motorway section was a struggle with my knee in pain. I reckon I wasted a good 15 seconds from my crash. I got down with a 5 min 31 sec’s. Just 6 seconds off the podium but as it was I came 11th. I was the most gutted I have ever been for some time. I had wasted another National where I really could have proved myself. I had messed up both my knee’s again with more grazes and blood. By the time I saw the medic my right knee was the size of a fat man’s knee! Apparently I have just damaged tendons so all should be good joint wise. I definitely need some decent knee pads.

I hobbled up to the finish to watch the elites come down. I couldn’t wait to see Greg come down and obliterate everyone. And that he did; he whipped it huge over the hip jump as usual. When he came to the last jump (the triple) he went huge with style and looking at race organiser and commentator Simon Patton as he flew that 30-40 foot to the finish. He had a 4min 50sec’s. Some 5 seconds ahead of everyone. Nice one! I stayed to watch Greg on the podium and said my goodbyes.

-some pictures of Greg doing his thing!

It was a long 11 hours to get back home.

This weekend is the Welsh Champs which is also the Hardtail Champs so teammate Lee will be there to claim his title!

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