New Nema Sponsorship!

I first met Jeremy at Aston Hill a few weekends back. I won some Nema trousers for the overall win at the race. He is the distributor of the well known Nema clothing company and after chatting again at the British round this weekend I am now riding in Nema Clothing!

I rode with the jersey and trousers on Sunday and was also given some shorts which came out for race runs. I also got socks, some gloves and a hat. I was really happy with it all and it’s all so nice to ride in! Not to mention how sick it looks;




I am getting some more jerseys to get printed up and couldn’t be happier! If you want to check out Nema clothing go to – www.chocolatedistribution.com
Thanks for it all Jeremy!

Round 1 of the British DH Series at Rheola;

Right, so I cruised up with good friend Edd Carter and his dad on a sunny Friday afternoon. The weather plan for the whole weekend was meant to be good and it was just that, the sun dominated the welsh sky throughout!

I course walked on Saturday morning and despite the heat the track was very wet still. The course looked to be all good with a few differences to the last year’s event.

I knew at most of these events, with having a full entre, the uplift is always a problem. I went up as early as the elite practise would let me and tried to get as many runs in during the day as possible. The bus and truck system was working pretty well until the busses all slowly died as their radiators were filled with dust causing them all to pour their coolant everywhere.

I managed 6 runs which was pretty reasonable as I stopped for a drink every run. The course was very beaten up and rutted by the end of the day but had definitely dried up a bit. There was just some natural springs crossing the track in places that caused a bit of spray but the rest of the course was just thick enough to not fly up on the tyres so it was pretty good. I used a minion on the front and a high roller on the back all day which wasn’t as good as cut down spikes but I wanted to get used to them so that I was confidant on Sunday when it would only be drier.

I had pretty good pasta with some kind of mushroom filling with Carbonara source Saturday evening... recommendations go out to any food lovers!

Another course walk took place after munching way too much and I decided I didn’t need to change any of my lines.

It was an early start to wash my bike on Sunday morning and I was very lucky to get 2 practise runs in as I was quite literally the last person on the last uplift. My runs went well but there were loads of people on the course all the time. Still, I hit all my lines and certainly had a lot of fun on slightly drier course yet again.

I was feeling confident about going up for a qualifying run which was cool and even when I was on the start line I wasn’t nervous for once. I wasn’t that bothered about qualifying because it doesn’t really count for anything. I put some strong pedals in out the start gate and cruised my way down in a very smooth and collected way.

Didn’t pedal really at any of the sections but had everything smooth as a set up run for the real race. I came down and took the hot seat for a while which was cool as I was a way into the Elites to begin with. I ended up qualifying 7th place. Pretty happy with it seeing some much known names like Marc Beaumont come cranking into the finish just a couple tenths of a second ahead of me.

I went into my race run with confidence and then some more again. A bit too over confidant I think. I started my run very calm and was hitting everything really fast. For the majority of my run everything was going a lot better than before and I was hitting sections noticeably faster than my seeding. I kept on going faster than I had been going and about 2/3 of the way down my over confidant style went very wrong. I entered a steep section with more speed than I had practised again but this time I couldn’t hang on at the bottom compressions. I hit the first one hard and bounced into the second one where I couldn’t hold on and went flying through the air, bum first into a tree. Owch! I had a moment on the floor to check I was all still in one bit and with a dead bum got back to my bike and started off again. I went as fast as I could to the finish and in a mood with myself went back to the Van. I later found out that I had only gone 8 seconds slower than my seeding run. I would have got a top 10 again with my seeding run time and I was definitely smoking that. I only needed to go a few seconds faster to get on the podium but I’m going to learn from it and move on to the next race.

Here are a few pics:







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

My Easter Trailstar Tune-Up

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.