NPS – Round 1 – Ae Forest

The first N.P.S round of 2009. Well things didn’t go as I expected.

The track was quite different to one that I had ridden there before at Ae but I really enjoyed it.
Saturday was dry and the course was fast and flowed well. I came off a few times trying to find the limit; all the usual stuff that goes on.

Unfortunately Dad was not about to take any pic’s this weekend but thanks to David Dower I have a couple to put up;

Saturday night the heavens opened and it rained for most of the night leaving the course really wet for Sunday.

Seeding was going well until I came off. This didn’t worry me much so I just jumped back on and cruised down to the bottom to finish 14th.

My race run started out very well at the top and I finally felt relaxed at a national... not a feeling I am used to I must say. It was until probably about 4 corners before the finish line I got a slightly more inside line than practised and wiped out. It took way too long for me to grab my bike and miss the bars a good 4 times to get it facing the right way again. After what felt like forever I managed to get on the bike and I rode like you do after an off, trying to make up for lost time. It never works and feels like you’re in a pin ball machine. Managed a poor 11th place; bad times. Not the best start to the nationals. Well done to James Dower for getting top 10.

I have been out training on the Last every night with Olie Burton (Well done for your first win at a national, and by such a good margin!) I wanted to put some time in on the Last before leaving for France, La Bresse and Andorra the following weekend for 2 back-to-back world cups.

Finally I must say sorry to my cousin Bobs, he was in the London St Thomas Hospital recovering from major Heart surgery, while I did my race run. I said I would dedicate my race weekend to him, you deserved a better result than that Bob and from what Dad tells me you had it! Great news to find your out of the danger zone and on the road to recovery. If I can draw on just some of the courage it must have taken, to go for the opp in first place and find just some of the strength, you had to pull through it. I too will be winning.

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

A special thank you to Mr & Mrs Grant who called into Lifestyle Tonbridge and made my Dads day. They had read the local news paper article about myself being in the GB team. Realizing my Dads Mum use to work for them many years ago. They tracked him down to help in his hour of need. Generosity kind words and fond memories. Dad said it felt like his mum was helping him, although she is no longer with us, a very comforting thought. Thank you again to you both, my dad very much appreciated it and so do I.

Molfre Reaction DH Race 12th April;

Aboard my new bike my Dad and I went to the race with only one intension in mind; get used to the bike. In my mind I thought it would be a smaller race but on the entrance to the venue I was surprised by the mass amount of people and factory tents around. Looking at the entrants on Saturday morning took me by surprise with 110 people just in senior. There were around 45 people in Junior too and the whole event saw over 300 people race.

The course claimed to be the same as the 2008 national course but there were a good few changes from this with an added jump and new berms, not to mention the difference in where the course was taped. I took my first run down as a chance to hit all the jumps and lines I looked at walking the course. I was really impressed with the bike after first runs! It felt predictable, stable and tracked the ground the best I have ever experienced. I was far from able to reach these new limits after my first run on the course and second go on the bike so I tried to get a lot of runs in on Saturdays practise. I probably managed about 8 runs. I felt like I was going well but Molfre is such a fast course you can’t really feel slow. I had forgotten how my old bike used to handle so I didn’t have an idea if I was hitting stuff as fast as before. Having a longer, lower and a slacker head angled bike made the world of difference in every aspect of my ability.

I walked the course Saturday evening with my Dad and Tom Knight. I didn’t find any new lines but definitely had a few laughs. A band was playing the massive sign on tent until 11pm but I got the feeling it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I sat in the van with tom and dad watching some films on the laptop.

I had just one practise run on Sunday morning. It went really well so I thought I would take some time to check some other riders out. I found out how stressful watching really is. There were quite a few riders flying past the last compression at 40mph plus just missing a thick wooden fence post. It turned out that one person hit it and flew 40 feet with the bike kart wheeling a lot further. The bike was ruined but thankfully the person only had minor injuries. Apparently the rules in this country don’t allow us to use hay bales as protection as they are too hard...but they allow the object to go unprotected... enough said.

I treated my first race run as if it was my only one and made sure I put in a good time. I made a couple mistakes, going across the road gap I went a little too fast and drifted into a bank after so I lost some speed overall. Other than that I went as fast as I had done in practise. I got a 2 min 19 seconds which was a good few seconds ahead of the previous fastest time. Harry Heath came down to take a second off of my time and take over the hot seat.
My second race run went a lot faster in some sections that really counted but I sometimes missed the right lines in corners. I went a second faster and managed a 2min 18 just 0.3 seconds off of Heaths time. He come off in his second run but fortunately didn’t hurt himself. I was pleased with my result and how I rode on my new bike. It was only my 2nd ride so I must be getting used to it quickly.
Here are a few pics;
Thanks to Last, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Funn, Bell, KMC, Nike 6.0, Mojo suspension, and Shimano.