Maxis Cup – Spain, Vigo.

I drove down to Grayshot early Wednesday morning to meet Joe and his dad Malcolm Edge. We went to Portsmouth for the long 24 hour cruise to Santanderr where it was another 5 hours to Vigo; Or in our case quite a lot longer. It was quite hard to find where the venue was. It ended up being about a mile up quite a few small back roads outside of Vigo itself. We managed to walk the track at dusk on Thursday.

I was really surprised at how different sections looked from the DVD’s. It looked quite simple compared to the usual English technical and slower style tracks. Another great change from England was that the course was covered in about 2 inches of dust. I believe the last time I saw this amount of dust was the Caersws Nationals 4 years ago. If I was to describe the track in 3 words it would be fast, rocky and dusty. There are about 3 large jumps, one being a large road gap into the finish arena.

- this is where we stayed- this was the view to the right - this was the view to the left... happy days!

So we move on to Practise... I did around 7 or 8 runs on the Friday. I practised all my lines and found alternative lines as the track was undoubtedly going to change a lot. I made an assumption that because I was used to the racing in England where we get one day of practise that I would be able to get up to speed faster than other riders. This was definitely the case for me. I felt like I was ready to race the course after the Friday. However, having the Saturday also meant that people would improve and get faster again. This was something that I wasn’t used to. The course already had a very fast pace all the way down which I must say found a bit hard to adjust to.

Saturday went well all up until my last run down. I was entering Vigo’s notorious rock section with the switchbacks in. I was cutting over the 2nd berm to take a straight line through the next corners. The whole section is covered in huge rocks and as I come into the section I miss-judged my speed. As I went over the first berm I was trying to scrub speed off still and my rear wheel slipped in the direction of the berm into a rock that sent me over the bars. I landed pretty much on my face on lots of rocks and was heavily winded. I was very impressed with the Spanish medics. They were over me before I could even get my helmet off; which is now ruined! I caught my breath and the medic cleaned my cuts with some horrid stingy stuff and I got back on my bike. The bars were twisted in a very different direction to the wheel but I got used to it in a couple of turns and still managed to do the biggest jump on the course over a road into the finish arena.

I decided to call it a day as I had hurt my back pretty bad. I went up the course to watch and compare a few lines. This was definitely worth it as I could roughly time sections of riders and see where the top guys were going. I changed one of my lines at the top as I saw Pascal and Vazques cut a corner out and also make one corner out of 2 by going round a jump just after.
I woke up to a very bad back on Sunday morning so I decided to only do one practise run. I did a full run down the hill just to experience the track and my lines all in one. Race runs started at an early 10am and this meant the sun gave me big issues with glare on my goggles. Luckily I borrowed a clear scratch free set off of Sam so that helped massively.

My race run felt good in most sections and linked up well but there were 2 sections where I had over braked and lost time. I got down with a 2 min 51 second run. After everyone came down I was 41st overall and top ten in Category. Only the top 150 riders went through from these qualifying runs so I had a very safe position.

I managed to piece together a better run in my real run down and got a 2 min 48 seconds. After everyone came down this put me in 35th overall and 9th in category. I was happy to get a solid result against people from all over the world and now I have come away with a gage of where I am at an international race and how much I need to improve. I was 11 seconds off of Tom Braithwaite who came 9th here in the 2007 World Cup. I was 15 seconds off of overall winner Mickael Pascal.

After race runs I now know I need to; get used to racing at higher speeds, be a more independent rider and not hold my breath through difficult sections.

After racing I went to the beach with Joe, Sam, Gavin and Simon to have a laugh and get quite sun burnt.

Here are the overall results from the final 150 qualifiers. There were over 300 riders and these were cut down to 150 after qualifying runs.

1 4 PASCAL, Mickael FRA19791011 2473336009 Elit Men 2:33.008
2 1 GUARDIA PASCUAL, Bernat ESP19820930 77319350 Elit Men 2:33.151 0.143
3 66 NEETHLING, Andrew RSA19840805 1965 Elit Men 2:33.239 0.231
4 7 SUGRAÑES, Arnau ESP19880928 39909083 Elit Men 2:33.571 0.563
5 5 VAZQUEZ, David ESP19790210 46801082 Elit Men 2:34.794 1.786
6 86 LOUREIRO, Cláudio POR19830322 22513 Elit Men 2:35.006 1.998
7 84 POMBO, Emanuel POR19870616 22919 Elit Men 2:35.683 2.675
8 3 OULEGO, Ivan ESP19760604 77313773 Elit Men 2:36.584 3.576
9 57 BRAITHWAITE, Thomas GBR19841228 429485 Elit Men 2:36.771 3.763
10 227 HART, Danny GBR19910920 424959 Juniors 2:36.926 3.918
11 9 CANALS FLIX, Pasqual ESP19840915 46817556 Elit Men 2:39.387 6.379
12 46 SMITH, Joseph GBR19900704 442968 Elit Men 2:39.495 6.487
13 49 DEACON, Tom GBR19860325 429020 Elit Men 2:39.974 6.966
14 257 FLOCKHART, Sam GBR19930217 447147 Cadets 2:40.620 7.612
15 13 GONZALEZ SALVADOR, Roger AND19791001 AND005 Elit Men 2:42.532 9.524
16 207 GUIJARRO VILLACIEROS, Javier ESP19910509 4829520 Juniors 2:43.183 10.175
17 12 MEARS, Scott GBR19890206 446723 Elit Men 2:43.323 10.315
18 110 RODRIGUEZ, MATIAS Diego ITA19801111 X8293926B Elit Men 2:43.656 10.648
19 28 WILLIAMS, Peter GBR19881117 450553 Elit Men 2:43.753 10.745
20 74 ALVAREZ, Daniel ESP19841224 36177817 Elit Men 2:43.997 10.989
21 11 JENKINSON, Stuart GBR19850614 426864 Elit Men 2:45.205 12.197
22 249 PARDAL, Francisco POR19910116 29241 Juniors 2:45.370 12.362
23 217 GANNICOTT, Arran GBR19920421 447321 Juniors 2:45.562 12.554
24 215 WILSON, Alastair GBR19910118 444412 Juniors 2:45.803 12.795
25 62 VENTURA, Renato POR19881011 24554 Elit Men 2:45.943 12.935
26 63 FIDALGO, Marco POR19800130 13302 Elit Men 2:46.072 13.064
27 252 MCGLONE, Fraser GBR19940531 453248 Cadets 2:46.417 13.409
28 253 SCOTT, Mark GBR19930511 450774 Cadets 2:46.895 13.887
29 88 ORTEGA, Jose ESP19860402 26027144 Elit Men 2:47.019 14.011
30 209 GARAY, Iago ESP19910930 53749923 Juniors 2:47.068 14.060
31 244 ETXEBARRIA, Iraitz ESP19910813 78947953 Juniors 2:47.261 14.253
32 54 MONTENEGRO, Jose ESP19770008 53115668 Elit Men 2:47.479 14.471
33 234 VILABOA, Francisco ESP19910113 53182203 Juniors 2:47.790 14.782
34 32 DOHERTY, Ewan IRL19900414 09S30870(S3) Elit Men 2:48.123 15.115
35 224 MOLLOY, Harry GBR19910530 446935 Juniors 2:48.634 15.626
36 238 WEBSTER, Sam GBR19920318 704294 Juniors 2:48.659 15.651
37 18 HAMMAR, Tim SWE199015 5031 Elit Men 2:48.936 15.928
38 254 FERRER, German ESP19940218 74733250 Cadets 2:49.249 16.241
39 312 GARCIA, FCO. Javier ESP19780815 78969846 Master 30 2:49.281 16.273
40 213 BREWIN, Gareth GBR19910623 442967 Juniors 2:49.799 16.791
41 90 SHUCKSMITH, Samuel GBR19901213 454131 Elit Men 2:49.992 16.984
42 56 VILLANUEVA, Ruben ESP19850509 52499458 Elit Men 2:50.016 17.008
43 60 GIL, Guilhermo ESP19850120 53564470 Elit Men 2:50.641 17.633
44 27 YOUNG, Robert GBR19881106 704731 Elit Men 2:51.319 18.311
45 307 VERDIA, JOSE Manuel ESP19760309 79314021 Master 30 2:51.386 18.378
46 51 WILLIAMS, Robert GBR19900116 447552 Elit Men 2:51.856 18.848
47 222 FERNANDEZ, Marco ESP19910111 74739484 Juniors 2:51.865 18.857
48 256 CARROLL, Gavin IRL19930226 09U60119(U6) Cadets 2:52.094 19.086
49 225 EDGE, Joe GBR19911108 447590 Juniors 2:52.490 19.482
50 271 SILVA, José POR19930213 30709 Cadets 2:52.707 19.699
51 136 FERNANDES, Pedro POR19840903 20262 Elit Men 2:52.723 19.715
52 69 SANCHEZ, Jose ESP19790623 53114326 Elit Men 2:52.900 19.892
53 85 FERREIRA, Afonso POR19791217 13489 Elit Men 2:53.265 20.257
54 34 PARSONS, Simon GBR19900917 708344 Elit Men 2:53.427 20.419
55 29 MARTIN, Alvaro ESP19870329 74735287 Elit Men 2:53.563 20.555
56 75 DEL RIO, Javier ESP19821130 53112873 Elit Men 2:53.720 20.712
57 268 CASTRO, Carlos POR19930926 32822 Cadets 2:54.177 21.169
58 72 BAGO, Jordi ESP19780424 52174665 Elit Men 2:54.267 21.259
59 50 RIOS GOMEZ, Ruben ESP19791104 36148767 Elit Men 2:54.852 21.844
60 306 MALLO GARRIDO, Pablo ESP19760426 36122127 Master 30 2:54.881 21.873
61 285 COSTA CARDONA, Vicent ESP19910621 47252128 Juniors 2:55.003 21.995
62 311 BLANCO FERNANDEZ, Ivan ESP19780810 29035781 Master 30 2:55.190 22.182
63 210 WILLIAMSON, Greg GBR19920608 454174 Juniors 2:55.345 22.337
64 26 SANMARTIN ANTOLIN, Miguel Angel ESP19780413 36529103 Elit Men 2:55.533 22.525
65 107 LUZAR, Gotzon ESP19860106 9438254 Elit Men 2:56.374 23.366
66 228 MARTIN, David ESP19910120 15506033 Juniors 2:56.416 23.408
67 36 PARKIN, Alastair GBR19900523 444407 Elit Men 2:56.492 23.484
68 201 GUISANDE PEREIRA, Eloy ESP19911210 36173742 Juniors 2:57.240 24.232
69 59 PARKIN, Robert GBR19861227 458360 Elit Men 2:57.531 24.523
70 235 LEHTINEN, Miikka FIN19921004 5860 Juniors 2:57.716 24.708
71 134 CARNEIRO, José POR19881021 33055 Elit Men 2:57.848 24.840
72 143 AIRES, Fernando POR19870327 20952 Elit Men 2:58.211 25.203
73 35 RODGERS, Ben GBR19900813 446884 Elit Men 2:58.781 25.773
74 103 ESCOLA FERRAN, Eduard ESP19880921 77787439 Elit Men 2:58.973 25.965
75 308 BALBUENA, Marcos ESP19740826 36136273 Master 30 2:59.330 26.322
76 73 POWER, Thomas IRL19850609 09OE0019(OE) Elit Men 2:59.510 26.502
77 206 KEARNEY, Todd GBR19910721 448358 Juniors 2:59.728 26.720
78 147 CABAÇO, Daniel POR19900313 31418 Elit Men 2:59.862 26.854
79 208 ORBAN, Alexandre BEL19920518 X4477070M Juniors 2:59.924 26.916
80 42 DI PASQUALE, Charly FRA19900704 1139069185 Elit Men 2:59.929 26.921
81 105 MARTINEZ GARRIDO, Jonathan ESP19841010 36169244 Elit Men 3:00.304 27.296
82 265 LEHTINEN, Joonas FIN19940723 6019 Cadets 3:00.306 27.298
83 23 ROJO, César ESP19810417 38861291 Elit Men 3:00.407 27.399
84 262 FONTAN, Francisco ESP19930126 77459818 Cadets 3:00.622 27.614
85 120 SANTOS VARELA, Jose Manuel ESP19810422 53117452 Elit Men 3:01.187 28.179
86 118 TOME FACAL, Jose Manuel ESP19850102 79331711 Elit Men 3:01.464 28.456
87 124 GONZALEZ CABALEIRO, Ruben ESP19881223 36165035 Elit Men 3:02.043 29.035
88 121 PIÑEIRO DACOSTA, Jacob ESP19790609 53113431 Elit Men 3:02.128 29.120
89 92 BARROS, Ricardo ESP19830620 76991132 Elit Men 3:02.634 29.626
90 55 BARRAL, ANGEL Martin ESP19871210 76931327 Elit Men 3:02.838 29.830
91 135 BESSA, Pedro POR19871006 28090 Elit Men 3:03.377 30.369
92 89 MARTIN RODRIGUEZ, Saul ESP19880221 71775376 Elit Men 3:03.856 30.848
93 144 LOPES, Tomé POR19870408 20953 Elit Men 3:04.013 31.005
94 31 HORTON, Joseph GBR19900107 444794 Elit Men 3:04.168 31.160
95 25 METCALFE, James GBR19901109 453854 Elit Men 3:04.543 31.535
96 82 LEITE, José POR19810930 11420 Elit Men 3:04.633 31.625
97 305 VIEITEZ OTERO, Jorge ESP19761015 76996690 Master 30 3:04.748 31.740
98 14 LARRAN POMAR, Nicolas ESP19900626 39453850 Elit Men 3:04.788 31.780
99 255 SHERIDAN, Dan IRL19940517 09U60018(U6) Cadets 3:05.106 32.098
100 38 WHITEHEAD, Ben GB19831128 457887 Elit Men 3:05.582 32.574
101 246 VALLS PEÑA, Daniel ESP19921105 47922261 Juniors 3:06.823 33.815
102 19 HOLLEYMAN, Adam GBR19870604 707981 Elit Men 3:06.824 33.816
103 266 FERNANDEZ LEMOS, Anxo ESP19940302 35574421 Cadets 3:06.832 33.824
104 98 BARREIRO JUNCAL, Ruben ESP19810916 73240476 Elit Men 3:06.882 33.874
105 106 RODRIGUEZ CRUZ, Cesar ESP19870830 39459656 Elit Men 3:06.946 33.938
106 232 COSTA NOYA, Ivan ESP19920706 45953072 Juniors 3:07.137 34.129
107 78 RAJALA, Anssi FIN19900309 5768 Elit Men 3:07.511 34.503
108 230 CARO MIGUELEZ, Unai ESP19921110 45818020 Juniors 3:07.780 34.772
109 318 SUAREZ, David ESP19780117 71639927 Master 30 3:08.293 35.285
110 248 PALACIOS, Alvaro ESP19910527 50478251 Juniors 3:08.443 35.435
111 70 LOIRA, Francisco ESP19811020 53116493 Elit Men 3:08.546 35.538
112 112 SOUTO OTERO, Pablo ESP19860125 53114375 Elit Men 3:08.579 35.571
113 223 VERA, Sergio ESP19910306 48574059 Juniors 3:09.183 36.175
114 40 DUKE, Gavin GBR19880406 709251 Elit Men 3:09.369 36.361
115 65 RODRIGUEZ VILA, Jesus ESP19860122 53189261 Elit Men 3:10.255 37.247
116 114 CUNILL CAMPRUBI, Angel ESP19860217 47707521 Elit Men 3:10.729 37.721
117 324 PAZOS COMESAÑA, Oscar ESP19781110 36108439 Master 30 3:10.788 37.780
118 356 MUÑOZ, Manuel ESP19680301 35313555 Master 40 3:10.891 37.883
119 355 MATE, Jaime ESP19690522 27311034 Master 40 3:12.891 39.883
120 303 MISA FIGUERAS, Jose ESP19730630 77002036 Master 30 3:13.606 40.598
121 131 GARCIA VAN EST, Quetzal ESP19851205 78096083 Elit Men 3:15.750 42.742
122 314 CHANTADA RODRIGUEZ, Ivan ESP19751106 36147485 Master 30 3:17.761 44.753
123 80 MOLINA BUSTAMANTE, Javier ESP19800602 51084780 Elit Men 3:17.917 44.909
124 327 FERREIRA, Daniel POR19761217 16689 Master 30 3:21.512 48.504
125 126 ALLUNTIS, Jose ESP19851115 53556445 Elit Men 3:21.518 48.510
126 100 HUW, Oliver GBR19901008 458067 Elit Men 3:25.518 52.510
127 149 RODRIGUEZ CARBON, Diego ESP19810527 34270369 Elit Men 3:39.272 1:06.264
128 263 RIAL COSTOYA, Abel ESP19931025 45909471 Cadets 3:39.937 1:06.929
129 317 DIAZ DEL RIO, Ruben ESP19791205 50601325 Master 30 3:43.146 1:10.138
130 15 BEA BESADA, Yago ESP19881204 77006426 Elit Men 3:46.573 1:13.565
131 41 FROST, Seb GBR19800714 439195 Elit Men 4:00.986 1:27.978
132 109 PEREA NAVARRETE, Moises ESP19891205 76425248 Elit Men 4:07.345 1:34.337
133 221 POWELL, Alex GBR19920226 454004 Juniors 4:12.103 1:39.095
134 148 POLHO, José POR19810401 15709 Elit Men 4:14.378 1:41.370
135 102 DIAZ ROZAMONTES, Carlos ESP19850901 47366319 Elit Men 4:52.055 2:19.047
136 93 KOCH, Mario GER19850402 185257 Elit Men 6:02.105 3:29.097
137 47 WITECROSS, Sion GBR19900825 454135 Elit Men 7:38.635 5:05.627

Thanks to Malcolm and Joe Edge for taking me to the race and having a great time. Thanks also to the Irish Fox suspension rep who fixed my forks for a small cost. Thanks to everyone I know that went... especially Rob Williams, Sion Witecross, Joe Smith and Gazzy B for the dancing and laughs on the long ferry home. Finally thanks to my sponsors; DMR, Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Funn, Bell, KMC, Nike 6.0, Mojo suspension, and Shimano.

Aston Hill Race

It was the first race back for Aston hill with a new organiser, Rich Abbot. It was spot on!

It was held on the black run which had a new bottom section. This course hasnt been changed in over 10 years so it was great to see the progression. I really enjoyed the weekend but I was off the pace. I got 2nd in catagory.
Here are a few pics of podiums etc.
Sorry no riding pics this time.

Thanks to, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Last, Mojo, Nike 6, Twenty26, Funn, Maxxis, and KMC

Caersws Cup Round 1;

Saturdays practise started a bit slow for me. The course was greasy and I think I ride at my worst in these conditions. It didn’t feel like I was riding at the speed I knew I could. However, by midday it started to get a bit tackier and I got to know the course with more speed. There were a lot of riders scattered over the course in difficult sections so it was hard to practise hard sections. On one practise run I went across the rock garden and into a tricky off camber rooty section and over took a guy on the right. Just in front of him was another rider that was getting up from a crash and he picked his bike up, began to twist it round and his bike moved into my line. I was cutting the edge off a corner by jumping through some trees over some roots, back onto the main line. I hit my left side of the bar in the air on his wheel and my right side of the bar skimmed a tree. It’s a fast and hard section of the course so I was absolutely buzzing as I managed to get out the other side of it! The rest of practise I was happy with and managed to get a couple good full runs in.

Early Sunday morning it absolutely threw it down with rain. It was on and off all day too. I did a couple of practise runs in the morning without rain but got very muddy.

My first race run was in a hail storm. I put a lot into this run trying to treat the race like a national; only having one run. The course was developing quite a bit and took me by surprise in a few sections. In between the steep fast and technical sections were some pedally bits that really took their toll on my lungs. I got down and got a 2mins 49seconds. This put me into 1st place and gave me a 3 second lead.

The rain kept on coming and there was a break for the elite riders. I had thoughts of the track rolling faster with the rain washing some of the mud away so I knew I would have to post a better time in my second run. My second run was hard. I was very tired from the first run still and got very out of breath into the middle section. I knew it was rolling faster when I got closer to the bottom. It was a lot faster and this made me nervous as my top section was not as well as it should have been. It pinned the last bit landing flat into the field section and getting sideways. I pedalled to the line as fast as I could and beat my time by 4 seconds retaining my win by 4 seconds.

Here are a few pics;

Thanks to, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, Last, Mojo, Nike 6, Twenty26, Funn, Maxxis, and KMC