NPS round 4 – Caersws

I travelled up to Caersws on the Friday and arrived in the early afternoon. I was really looking forward to riding the new track that everyone had been talking about but as it went the tape was wrapped around an old course.

The course was pretty much exactly the same as a previous national a couple years ago. It was taped different in some places though so a few different lines were opened up. I only walked the course once as I knew where it went I just had to practise new lines.

The weather on Saturday morning was far from what I wanted. It was that infamous misty rain that got you really wet. The course was hard packed and the rain made the wooded sections fairly greasy and the field section as always in the wet resembled ice.

As practise proceeded the rain stopped but strong winds kept up. This dried out the field and the track began to get dusty. I did about 6 runs on the Saturday as I felt really ill. They went well and I was up to speed but felt physically drained.

I watched a DVD on my laptop with Oli and the Leadbetter family and friends and took an early night’s sleep.

I felt a lot better in the morning and it wouldn’t affect my riding half as much as the day before. I did just 2 runs in the morning. Both were pretty reasonable runs. I heard about a jump line after practise had finished and I think I was losing some time not doing it. I considered just doing it without looking at it but decided to just do what I was doing.

Seeding runs came around really quick and I went straight up. I took a smooth run down and decided to not pedal the field and brake before the line which was a silly idea because I seeded 3rd with a 2 min 40seconds. After elites went down the fastest time was a 2 min 36 seconds so I was happy with my time and felt confidant.

My race run was awfully sketchy. I tried way too hard from the start and went really fast but didn’t carry the speed I had very well. I got to the steepest part of the course and as I hit the berm at the bottom my rear tire rolled over and made a pretty dirty noise. It was somehow a fair bit softer than usual. Luckily there were no rocks in the course. I had a pretty good run for the rest of the woods section. I lost some speed at the bottom drifting in a berm but apart from that all was good. I pedalled my hardest to the line and ended up going 2 seconds faster but was a second off of Gareth Brewin and Harry Heath. I was happy with 3rd but at the same time no one goes along to not win.

Here are some pictures I managed to get off of teammate Fraser;


- the Junior podium

- the rather large huck in the field
- Fraser in the hot seat

- Fraser just after the drop in the field putting the power down.

- Myself on the drop

- the final pedall to the line

It’s back to Caersws for the next round of the Caersws cup this week and I am looking forward to it!

Thanks to Last, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Funn, Bell, Thor, KMC, Nike 6.0, Mojo suspension, and Shimano.