Moelfre Unclipped race 4th April;

I went up to Moelfre in the early hours of Friday morning. Uplift was being run on Friday as well as the Saturday so I thought it would not only be good practise for the British series but just good riding.

Friday was an absolute mess. The rain was pouring from the sky and the wind was horrendous. I did 4 runs in the morning and couldn’t physically hold on because of my hands were so cold. I wasn’t learning anything so I took a break and cooked some pasta and warmed up in the tent that was going to be my house for the next couple of nights. The weather eventually passed over and I made the horrible move of putting all my wet muddy kit back on and going for some runs. The wind had died down a little more and I could ride a whole load better. I got another 3 runs in and all in all felt a lot better about myself.

Saturday stayed dry for the whole day but the mud was still absolutely capping my bike and me. The last 2 runs I switched from Wet Screams to High Rollers. This tire choice was so much better as the middle half of the course it rocky based. It was meant to be a dry day Sunday so I thought I had better start getting used to them early. I didn’t start riding until 1pm as I knew the course was only going to change with the riders chewing it up and it drying out.

I woke up to blue skies and Sunday was living up to its name right from the early hours. Practise was stopping at 10:30am and I wanted to do 2 runs so I went up shortly after 9am and got to work. Both runs went pretty well in the way of riding but I did catch people up which was frustrating.

I was pretty confidant on the course and wasn’t tired or worn out at all. I went up to the top for my first run and pedalled everywhere I could to get the best time possible. Joe Smith (factory Kona rider) was in the lead when I came through the finish with a 2min 17seconds. I got pretty loose going into the last compression and pedalled as fast as my legs would move to the line. I got a 2min 16seconds. I had a few mistakes but all in all it was a pretty good run. After all what race run doesn’t have a few hectic moments. The rest of the elites came down and I was winning up until the last rider, Chain Reaction Cycles own, Matt Simmonds. He came down with a very respectable time of 2mins 12 seconds. I was pretty happy with my 2nd position and it was out of 11 elites.

Second runs went better for me in the middle section but the wind was a lot stronger than the first run and I lost whatever time I had made up and another 2 seconds by the time I got to the line. Everyone went slower and we were all surprised at how much worse the wind was.

I was still very happy with my result wedged between 2 very respected, professional world class racers.

Thanks to Last, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, DMR, Funn, 661, Maxxis, KMC, Lezyne, Mojo suspension and Shimano.