Pearce cycles 28th March Rd 1

I hadn’t done a Pearce cycles DH race in a couple of years but the offer came up to do one when Rich Abbot gave his entre to me as he had work on the practise day.

I went up Friday and got there in time to have a good night’s sleep before practise day... pretty rare occurrence for me, it’s usually get there and get a couple hours sleep before waking up to ride.

I got up early to walk the course and despite not having been to Bringewood in a few years I had done a similar course to what I had rode last time. I took a new approach to it and picked out some different lines that I wouldn’t have seen before.

Practise was really good fun. I really liked the course as it was all about keeping speed and pumping. It also had lots of jumps and hop’s which is pretty much what I love to do so it was great. Despite the rain over Friday night into the Saturday morning the course held up really well and the rain was holding off for the start of practise.

I got loads of runs in but didn’t really start sticking lines until it was a bit too late. It had not rained all day and the course was drying up nicely. I planned to get up early to walk the course again and concentrate on the lines that I hadn’t done yet.

With the clocks changing and having one hour less sleep I changed my alarm to go off at five...therefore it would be 6am new time. However my phone changed automatically during the night and this meant I actually got up at 5am; wasn’t happy about that!

I did 3 practise runs and managed to get my new lines, jumps and hops done with one full run down. I was pretty happy with how fast I was going and I had practised on high rollers and the course was only getting drier.

It was a long time waiting for my race run. I watched my mates all go up and come down which was kind of weird. Even stranger than that was going up with a whole 18 Elite riders. I have never seen a race besides a world cup with so many elite racers.

My first race run went pretty normally. I had a good run down with the odd mistake and stalled a little in a vital corner but apart from that it went well. I came down taking the lead which I was really happy about. And after everyone had been down I was still in 6th place. I was really pleased with this considering the people I was up against. I had proved to myself that I was worthy of the Elite category and that I have improved a fair bit. I have never been 3 seconds off of Brendan and this definitely was an achievement for me. Here’s a picture of the results;




It rained between my first and second runs but only for about a minute and the course was the same as before in no time.

My second run went a bit wrong. My feet came off the pedals in a corner and I twisted my seat perfectly 90 degrees. This was very awkward to jump with and I twisted it back with my legs when I got to the first road. I tried my hardest to gain time back and I definitely went faster but it was too much time lost. I came down a couple seconds slower and got moved to 8th place. I was still happy with my result and it made the weekend all the more worthwhile. Here is a link to the overall results; http://www.pearcecycles.co.uk/files/pcss10_bringewood_280310_-_overall_ranking.pdf

Here are some pictures of race day;















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

Aston Hill Black Run Race;

I went to Aston Hill on the Saturday with Oli and my Dad. We walked the course and picked out all the fine lines. A lot of work had been done on the course. Berms were higher, quite a few new corners had been introduced and the course as a whole flowed much better.

I did many runs on the Saturday. I was surprised to find as many different lines on the course. I think with my improvement from last year and over the winter I have a better eye for lines. Even on the pedalling section at the top I found about 6 different lines to make me carry more speed compared to what I have done over the last races there.

The weather was great and I managed a full run and spent the rest of the time just sectioning the course. I went back to Rich’s place pretty happy with what speed I was on the course. Rich had made by far the best lasagne I have ever tasted and probably will ever taste. After that we watched the new freecaster DVD which was pretty good. The way in which it is filmed is on another level completely.
After pretty much falling asleep at Rich’s we went back to our travel Inn.

I got up pretty early to have a shower and feel fresh for the race. Both Oli and I had small adjustments to make to our bikes so there was plenty to fill the time with. Here are some pictures of my new Lezyne Tools! Pretty pimp aye!




I did 3 runs in the morning. I planned to do just the 2 but I was asked to do a chest camera run which was pretty fun. Here’s a link; http://wideopenmag.co.uk/news/5181/video-harry-molloy-aston-hill-black-race-chestycam

My first race run went pretty well all the way to the bottom section. I lost some speed going up the final bus stop section and this is important as you need to carry as much speed into the finish area. I was in second place overall behind Nathan Vials. I was a second behind but I knew I could do better next time around. All I had to do was the same run but get the bottom section right.

My second run went well all the way down again and i made sure that I had the last section better and I carried that bit more speed through the last section of my run. I knew it was a bit faster but by how much?

I was pleased to see my time take the fastest time but far from relaxed as Nathan was still to come down. I saw the timer tick over and Nathan rolled through a few seconds later with mud on his shoulder. I thought I was a really good race. On the way down everyone was going crazy which was a really good feeling. Also myself Nathan and Oli were all just over half a second between our times. Here’s a link to a couple vids of the race; http://video.mpora.com/watch/Zb6IZj1Pf/ http://www.pinkbike.com/news/aston-hill-march-race-2010.html

The Last guys came over from Germany to ride and show off their new all mountain and free ride bikes in the week so it was good to be able to say I had just come from a race that I had won.

A huge thanks to Rich for everything from the race to food and hospitality! Couldn’t have done it without your help and certainly wouldn’t have had as much of a good time.

Here are some pics of the weekend;













- courtesy of dave frickersey
- courtesy of dave frickersey

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

Caersws Cup Rd1 6-7th March;

I cruised up with Expert riders Oliver Burton and Lee Huskinson and got there at a pretty devastating time in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Saturdays practise started at 10:30 which was pretty ideal as it was a cold and frosty night and the track would have been sketchy if it was any earlier.

The course was pretty simple but still had a lot of line choice in my eyes. And with it being simpler than the usual course it’s more of a challenge to find the lines to go faster.

Saturday was really good fun, I smashed out lots of runs and got some good riding in. There was a new table top nearing the bottom of the middle section that was the strangest jump I think I have done. It was not massive but probably about 25 foot long and slightly hipped to the right. The funny thing was the take off was “dirt jump” steep and the landing was even steeper than that! Be it very strange it was very satisfying getting it right because the g-force on the landing even when getting it perfect was mad. I bottomed out my forks a couple of times from it and I could feel my tires rolling over a bit.

I think I must have done about 12 runs practise and by the end of the day I was happy with all my lines.

Saturday night’s sleep was disgustingly cold! The condensation on the inside of the van from us breathing was instantly frozen! I was inside 2 sleeping bags and I still couldn’t sleep.

Sunday morning appeared to make sense why this was. Practise started at 8:30 and the whole course was solid ice from top to bottom. I tried to do a run down but it was impossible to do it. Elite rider Sion Whitecross was air ambulance to hospital with hand and leg injuries and everyone despite not being able to go faster than walking pace was breaking brake levers etc from dropping their bikes on the solid ground. The decision was made to open practise until 1 o’clock with the result of only having one race run. I went down and waited for a couple hours like most others to wait for the sun to burn the frost away.

A section of the course was taken out and a fire road was put in place which I thought was the wrong decision to make as other sections of the course were worse and the whole course was perfect and dusty again by race runs.

I did about 3 runs practise and got ready for the one race run ahead. I was feeling good on the course and I did a timed practise run which came to 2mins 29secs. This was however on a pretty icy course.

My race run took forever to come. I had to wait for every racer bar one to do their run before I was due to go down. I had a pretty good run with a few slip ups as any race run. I found it quite hard to know how fast the course was running as it had been 3-4 hours since I went down in an icy practise. It was very grippy in most sections now and I didn’t feel like I took advantage of this very well but the situation was the same for all the expert and elite racers. I also ran someone’s foot over in my run. I was taking a mega outside line around one of the last wooded corners to straighten an off-camber section up. I was going as wide as the tape would let me in practise. It just happened that 2 guys were standing pushing the tape in to get closer to the track when I kept my line and my back wheel ran over one of the guy’s feet. It made no difference to me but I am sure that guy won’t be standing too close next time. I took 2nd place behind Kerr. I was happy to have a strong result again in Elite and get 2nd fastest time of the day with a lot of respectable names around.

Here’s a link to the results; http://www.caerswscup.co.uk/

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

661 Mini DH Forest of Dean

I went to this race with some unfinished business from the 661 mini DH. I had 2 horrific runs last time and was going to go along to change this.

The track was similar to the last one. They have to have the same bottom section due to forestry rules but the top was different. It was raining on and off all day but personally I found the mud a lot more manageable than the previous frozen conditions.
European and national Champ, Bernard Kerr, turned up to race along with other names like the Parkin brothers, Ash Maller, Dave List etc. In my eyes it was going to be a good race.

I didn’t miss any practise this time either so I could do some relaxed runs rather than having to sprint up and down like a yo-yo. I sectioned the top a few times and had time to do a couple of full runs too.

My first race run didn’t go to plan at all. After the new section at the top I didn’t commit to a right hand corner and went over the top of it into some really sticky mud. I kept it together for the rest of my run with some small mistakes as any usual run and was 1.2 seconds ahead of anyone. This was quite a surprise in my eyes, I didn’t think with such a mistake I would come through with the win.

The sun was coming out and the rain was dying off. I thought to myself that it would be getting stickier and slower so even if I had a good run next time I might not be able to beat my time by much.

My second run was good. I had no major moments and it was just smooth and in control. The course was running slower for sure. I pedalled up to the table top at the bottom; in the first run I couldn’t get enough speed to jump it faster than rolling and pedalling over it. For some reason, despite being even slower with the mud going up to it, I tried to jump it. I nearly made it and I got a “woooo” from the crowd but I knew it was slower.

I pedalled hard to the finish and despite Berny beating my first run time I took back the win going .3 sec’s faster and a second faster than my first run time.
I was really happy with the win and it showed me that I am on form for the season ahead. It was also good to know I have got better with dealing with pressure. I was at the top on my own being the last man down the hill and I wasn’t nervous at all.

Here are some pictures of the race;



It’s off to the first round of the Caersws Cup this weekend coming and I can’t wait to race again already.

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