Harry Molloy

Sea Otter 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Sea Otter 2012 video (click here)

Phil broke down early on in the trip but we were working hard to fix him

Some pretty different bikes were around

This one was huge!

Will passes on his knowledge to us on how to gate properly before we had dual Slalom

I took a spin around in the supermarket on a fat persons trolly

This little fella was digging away by the race track

If you look closely, this is infact a giant teddy bear driving the car

Al Bonds eyes were bigger than his belly on the last nights meal out. this was just a large and it was still posible to get an XL or even a family size.

here are the DH results; I was happy to come in 22nd place, especially with the competition in this huge pro category.

Nissan European Cup - Vall D’Uixo, Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:22:00 +0000

The season has finally begun and the first race to get us going was the new Nissan European Cup in Spain. The sun was out, beating down some high temperatures; whilst the news back home was quite the opposite... always makes me happy!

Rumble bikes are the Spanish Distribution for Saracen and Jaume, the guy behind it all, looked after us whilst we were around. We were shown the local cuisine, the lines to hit on the track, our bikes fixed up and sorted out with a place to stay. Jaume, you will have to come over here and ride some technical wet rooty tracks in the rain and have some fish and chips to finish the day off.... sorry not as appealing as what I've just experienced but your welcome to come!

The crouds were big and for race runs linned the track in all the flat out and sketchiest bits.

Ok so Jaume wasn't around to explain this one but the local supermarket had these hanging up. There is something about it that puts even me off... and I'm not sure if it's the trotters or the fact they hang there for weeks in the heat.

Now we need these in England! The lumps that like to take a break and have a Kitkat on a bench can work it off at the same time!

Here are the results...The Elite Category saw 122 people in it and with many top World Cup racers present. I ended up in 17th. My aim was to make the most of the time on the bike and get back into race mode for South Africa next week. I think with this in mind it went very well. Its woken up my race game again and I now know what I did right and what I've forgotten I've learnt again.

Check out my short GoPro edit of the track and the banter that came with it:

Vall D'Uixo Nissan European Cup with Harry Molloy and friends

Its off to South Africa next week for me so more to come soon!

Some recent riding in a short go pro edit

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:30:00 +0000

http://vimeo.com/37794408

6 mins of DH riding that i've done recently!

Couple of Recent Go Pro Vids

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:26:00 +0000

Harry Molloy and Friends Beginning 2012 Randoms

- Just a few shots from Rogate and Frant riding DH.

Bringewood Banter with Harry Molloy and Friends

- A few together of an uplift day at Bringewood.

Video of Mr Blings new race track for tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:32:00 +0000

Click here to see me follow Brandon, Connor and Josh down the new PORC race track for tomorrow. No sound effects were added, Brandon was that fast!

PORC track vid with Harry Molloy and friends

Locals 2 section!

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:47:00 +0000

Click this - Locals Part 2 - Danny Hart and Harry Molloy

...and a few pics dh riding.

Jacob was down for a couple days about a month ago now. It was pretty sick quickly running from place to place trying to make the most out of the dreaded winter light. I dont know what was the funniest moment, seeing Jocob walking through the male changing rooms to the pool with a load of cameras or the fact he is allergic to cats and my kitten wouldn't leave him alone!

cheers for coming down mate!

Mr Blings 18th December race

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:37:00 +0000

I was somehow yet another sunny race day at PORC. The track was a proper good one too, with some of the best sections PORC has to offur and all flat out too! I started off clipped in to see if I could handle it but when I tried flat pedals half way through practise, there was no way I was going back yet! I went out on a xc night ride with them on after with Noshy and I'm getting there slowly.

check these vids out of the day...

one of good mate Brad Sheehan on the top section... http://vimeo.com/33985333

one of me at the bottom section... http://vimeo.com/33985146

and because everyone likes a crash... http://vimeo.com/33985060

I had yet another fantastic day at Mr Blings race and I think I can say that for everyone else there too... what a good race to end the year on!

Here is the podium shot... http://vimeo.com/33986831

Harry

Extreme Medics Race - Aston Hill

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:22:00 +0000

It was not the usual Aston Hill race in store for us but fun all the same. Check out my go pro vid following Phil down. It was my 2nd practise run so I didn't have the lines but it just goes to show how much time they made!

http://vimeo.com/33495168

This was only about a 1/3 of the way along the notorious root section. With rain on its way... this was a spot everyone was looking at.

The first jump was in the first 5 seconds but it wasnt one to show off on, you had to get back on the floor to pedal like a nutter!

Phil did really well winning youth again. He came about half a second behind me too!

Berny took the top spot switching it around after first runs... winning by half a second. Podiums didn't happen but the podiums were anncounced.

My Madison/Saracen bike range 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:30:00 +0000

These are my bikes that I am so lucky to have. I have had them for a season now so I thought I would do a write up on the bikes and with the Myst espesially, show you what the team differences are.

Ok so my Myst is my favourite obviously. In terms of off the market stuff I have the Funn seat post the Madison/ Saracen team edition. Everything else on the bike is available to the public. It is just the colour of the frame that differs from the stock frame and after 2011 it is a Junior World Cup and Champ proven frame! The Forks, shock and springs are all factory set up at Fox. We also run a Fox sticker over the holes in the brace of the fork as seen in the picture. This stops mud build up mainly and makes it easy to clean. I have a odd Titanium bolt here and there. I also run the DRC timer on my stem/bars. With a small green button to stop and start times for intervals and overall times it's a massive help for racing! I run a full Sainte set up and apart from some secret prototype testing through the year, that's about it really. It's an amazingly good bike with no hold back to anything be it frame design to it components!

My hardtail has a very similar build to my DH bike, very aggressive still but with lighter components like XT brakes, SLX hub, EX500 rims etc. I have the Madison/ Saracen team edition bars and seat post, and like the Myst, it’s just the colour that is different about the frame. This bike is probably the most ridden for me. It’s great for just about everything!

My Ariel 3 is a stock bike and is amazing to ride on my local xc routes. It came into its own on a welsh xc ride the other weekend though when it turned into a DH run to the bottom! It is a 140mm bike so is still very aggressive. It can handle the roughest xc yet when you're riding along a mud path, its as manoeuverable as my Zen xc bike.

My Zen 4 is about as aggressive as an XC hardtail can get. I run the team edition bars and seat post on this bike I ride this bike on XC when I need to put some power down. When riding with Josh Lowe, we usually ride both of our Zen 4's and things get a bit competitive so say the least.

All that is left to say is a huge thanks to Madison for hooking me up with them!

Mr Blings PORC Race 20th Novmber

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:23:00 +0000

Race day at PORC started off very misty as you can see on the go pro run. It was a very simple and fast track so flying through the "myst" not being able to see too far ahead made it feel twice as fast!

http://vimeo.com/32467184

Racing went well! We didn't get to have a 3rd run because of the light but everyone was thinking it going into 2nd runs so wasn't a problem.

I had a strong first run and my second ended up a fraction slower as I went flat out in sections and parked up trying too hard in others. All in all another great dry race at PORC, despite its only 4 and a bit weeks until Christmas!... Sorry, had to throw it out there.

Here is Rodders from Dirt explaining how big his winning margin was going to be a whole 1.5 seconds... doesn't sound like much but at a track 50 seconds long... every millisecond counts!

Think this was my favourite jump on the track!

Us lot watching some riders on the big jump.

Noshy does very well as usual but Jono Jones gets best time of the day.

Brad did very well considering it was his birthday night friday eve which wrote off his Saturday practise. I was obviously happy to be on top too.

Thanks for another great weekend Mr Bling!

Mr Bling's race track at PORC

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:33:00 +0000

Here is a head cam of myself following Josh down the new race course. It has a load of new stuff that has has just been built today.

Once the course was marked out we did a couple of full runs so check it out;

http://vimeo.com/32375544

Come down! As you can see its a proper good and fun track the whole way. The weather, despite we're at the end of November, is meant to be good so no excuses.

See you in the morning!

Harry

Final round of the BDS series at Caersws;

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:07:00 +0000

It has been an awesome weekend. The whole atmosphere of it seemed way more relaxed and fun. Josh and I took a step back from the usual Premier Inn or B&B and camped over for a couple of nights. The whole team did loads of runs together on Saturdays practise. Everyone loved it, the sun was out, the track was dry and dusty and smiles were all around.

Check out this Go Pro helmet cam of me following Noshy;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw3v_JVVj3A

That evening we all watched everyone’s videos from the day on the big in the Go Pro van. I suppose mainly to look at different lines but it ended up influencing more banter towards each other’s mistakes, funny shapes and overtaking opportunities...”Josh”, cough, cough.

We had dinner with Andy and then he went into mechanic mode so that the bikes were still tip top for race day. The rest of the night consisted of putting Ben Deakon in his place... well... kind of/kind of not. I just about managed to flip him onto his back but just after I done so he owned me! Then it was a movie night of 3 Minute Gaps in the Truck.

The night in a tent wasn’t my best camping experience but it wasn’t my worst. Wind was battering the sides forcing them in and taping me on the head now and again. And when you wake up at a race in a tent to hear the pitter patter of a cloud warming up to dump its contents on the track, it’s not usually positive thoughts running through your head.

Morning arrived without rain and even the odd blue bit trying to shine through the clouds. I looked at the 24hour forecast on my phone and it wasn’t looking great. From 1pm – 7pm heavy rain was due. This would be just in time for seeding runs.

I did 2 runs down with Jacky G in practise. Then it was just all about preparing for the storm. I got the water proofs out, the tear off’s on and the spikes on the bike. Everyone on the team got off pretty well with the weather for seeding besides Jack and me. I went up hoping for rain considering the changes I had made and not before long it was chucking it down! My qualifying run was going well until a new section near the bottom caught me out and the line that I had been doing had a couple of new roots in it. I fell off going slow already... not a crash I was happy with so the rest of the course was flat out. I was quite happy that I had the same speed Trap as Steve Peat though.

After that I was 12 or so seconds off of the place I think and with a crash this gave me good confidence. My race run went well. I had a few of your normal little mishaps and only 2 mistakes would have cost me more than a second or two. I came through the finish in 2^nd place... eventually pushed down into 12^th in the end. It was a good result and I am pleased as there were nearly 30 elites. It’s just I am fed up with an average result. I wanted to end up on the podium at the end of the season like last year. But I guess it’s only going to play on my mind more over winter which will be good for training. And I have one more chance this coming weekend at the English Championship.

See you there!

PORC - Mr Blings DH race;

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:56:00 +0000

Phil came down to stay at my house last weekend for a couple of days of DH racing at PORC, pump track riding and squash. It was a wicked local weekends racing with good friends, good weather and a good laugh all round.

Here’s a GoPro video of the PORC race track... With Josh up front, Phil behind Josh and Brad in front of me filming it all;

http://vimeo.com/29628178

As you can see it was a fast track with a lot of jumps and the usual, no mistake allowed, 37 second track. Check out these pictures!

I was happy to win the overal with all 3 of my race runs being 37seconds long. I really wanted to break into the 36 second barrier but didn’t quite manage it with my final and best run being a 37.2 seconds.

See everyone in a couple of weeks for the final BDS at Cearsws!

Bucknell – final round of the infamous Pearce DH series

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:35:00 +0000

I was travelling up with good friends Brad and Jack. Brad lives in Horsham in West Sussex so on the way for me. We went out for a curry that night to start the weekend off and went for a quick tear around in his Evo. Brad competes in some sprint races and his car goes 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds; a bit different to my fiesta but not too dissimilar.

From something manly to something not; Brad’s cat had just had a litter of kittens, they are awesome fun!

I arrived at Bucknell after travelling at 4:30am for 4 hours... tired but very hyped! I had to build a wheel on the way for Stan, another mate from the same town as myself. It lasted the weekend so my building in the dark must have been ok still! I had never been to Bucknell and this is something of a rarity for me. I didn’t really know what to expect at all. I was excited to see jumps from the word go though and it looked to be quite fast paced most of the way down! I am easily pleased by any track but this one was looking to be my cup of tea.

I couldn’t get enough of practise! I probably did about 10 runs. It was an easy track to learn and an easy track to go fast on from the beginning. It was dry and the dust was about 6inchs deep in a few places. Here is a run with Phil in front of me. We had to stop and start again so there are two videos, sorry;

http://vimeo.com/29315253
http://vimeo.com/29316396

I stayed with Stan, Connor and Mark on Saturday night with jack and brad too. We were in a pretty nice little lodge just down the road from the track. I spent most of the night in the hot tub! I woke up numerous times in the night though to hear the rain absolutely hammering down. I got up early to watch the first half of England winning another round of the world cup rugby and we got on our way back to race.

It had rained so hard I didn’t think it was going to be the same track at all. I walked up the bottom section to the woods to see what the track was like and somehow it was still dusty beneath the trees? The weather didn’t know what its plans were for the day. It rained a bit during practise and half way through racing it lashed down yet again. The course didn’t stand a chance of staying dusty this time but it was still 50/50 whether to stay with high rollers or spikes. I walked up to the uplift with Marc Beaumont who didn’t seem to know either... having a cut down on the back and a high roller on the front. When we all were ready to set off at the start it was only spitting lightly. I knew it would be fine to see out of my goggles with a couple of tear offs incase. My run went together pretty well. I went better in sections than others and only had a couple of little moments. When I have two race runs I just like to get a good time in and leave it to the second run to push it. I came down in 2nd behind Marc Beaumont. I was pretty pleased with how it was going. I was 2.9 seconds back with a 2min and 7 seconds. I looked at the split and saw that I had lost all of that in the first half of the track and was the same at the bottom. Quite annoyed as I thought I was going good at the top, but happy to see I was on pace at the bottom.

The rain was on and off all day and my favourite part of a race was finally here...final runs. I wanted to go all out now. I went a second faster at the first split. I made a ton of mistakes and didn’t really think I was going faster at all but I stuck at it. A messy run got beyond messy and the corner before the finish line I ended up on my side sliding along on the grass. Not a moment I want to stick with me but I think with everyone seeing it I’m sure I will be reminded about it.
I was still 2nd place and was pretty happy with it; coming second to Marc Beaumont is never going to be a bad thing.

I was pretty surprised as I had missed a round and was concussed for another round of the series but i was 4th overall too.

It was straight back home to get up for work Monday morning but just had time to ride my Ariel for a quick xc loop.

Its Mr Blings PORC race this weekend and hopefully a few of us Madison/Saracen riders will be there! It’s all about the fantastic atmosphere with Mr Bling’s races and it’s always a great race. However into DH you are, you should be there!

Aston Hill - Eastern and Central Championships

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Noshy and I went up to Aston hill this weekend just gone for the Eastern and Central Championships. It was a wicked weekend in all. We got there for a bit of practise on Saturday to replenish last year’s memories of the course. Noshy was no different to his normal self, 9,999 runs down the hill and displaying his big grin all the way. It was really dusty and a newly built corner was holding up well but catching a few racers out. The dust was well up to the spokes when hitting it with some pace.

Here’s the GoPro, helmet cam video of a full run down at the end of the day;

http://vimeo.com/28630842

After practise rumours started to spread about the weather expected for Sunday. What had been a hugely dry and dusty track all day was already being dampened by everyone’s spirits as it was expected to rain at 7am race day morning.

Josh got very excited at the B&B lady later that evening as she explained that next to us was a highly recommended Indian restaurant. The only thing was I got bullied into getting a different curry from my normal, not hot and apparently not manly enough, Chicken Korma.

When we got back to the B&B we watched the video I had taken of the track to revise our plans for the morning.

When the morning came around, to our delight, the weather wasn’t looking too bad at all. That soon changed though by race runs. It was about 10mins before it was time for Josh to take his run and it began spitting and you could smell the rain in the air. The ground was damp as josh came through but he was looking strongest and smoothest of the juniors. He smashed everyone in his category by 7 seconds... not a bad margin on a minute 10second track! Phil had smashed it in the youth category too so it was looking good for team Madison/Saracen.

It had gone from damp to river like conditions when I went for my run. A storm had been going for a good 20 minutes and was still going as I set off. No one was even getting close to Phil and Noshy’s times, which of all people to be leading the way I was happy for it to be my two teammates. However as I began my mission I couldn’t see anything but a blur and my handlebars. I drifted wide on a corner and managed to fly off a drop still very sideways. I hurt my hand and later found out I had popped my knuckle out. I was on an even harder mission now; the conditions were only going to get worse. After a brief chat with Dad I rode the rest of the way down to see what the track was like in the wet.

Everyone was in debate whether to do a second run after the storm, what would be the point? Josh made the sensible decision not to do a second run on the now chalky, greasy, very muddy and sharp flint ridden ground. Not many did, I went up though, cut spikes on, Neoguard on and tear off’s layered, prepared for what was to come.

I was currently sitting in last place, the only pressure I had was in my tyres. I managed to stick what I thought was a fairly good run down and somehow jumped into the lead, despite everyone else in elite going slower. I was pretty chuffed with that... not to mention I would join Phil and Josh winning my category also. And just after this, I hear that Manon has just won Junior World Champs in Champery. What a way to out-do us!

Fort William is this weekend coming for the final BDS and as usual, I can’t wait!

Harry

World Cup round 7 - Val Di Sole... and the lead up to it

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:30:00 +0000

So after La Bresse I had a week and a half to train before Val Di Sole. First stop was Lac Blanc bike Park (www.lacblanc-bikepark.com). It was raining and windy but loads of world cup riders had heard about this bike park and were keen to see what it had to offer. There were 4 main tracks down the hill with the usual hidden tracks branching off all over the place. It was well worth the visit; I managed to do about 7 runs and tried as many tracks as I could. If I am near the area in the future I can easily see myself back there!

It was off to Morzine and I stayed with Pete Williams, his dad Trevor and a whole load of mates. It was a definite feel good factor to be riding the best tracks known around. Not to mention for the next week with a group of friends all just as keen on riding as myself.

For the last few days in the Alps I went to stay with fellow teammate Josh Lowe in his new house in Champery, Switzerland. We had been riding previous days all over but it was now when riding took for a change. We were on for first lift up the mountain and were sweet talking our way into getting the last lift at the end of the day. We probably did as many runs in a few days as we did the week before. We rode the world champs track, loads of secret steep tracks that I don’t think anyone really knows about, and much more. The most memorable day I think was when we rode the Swiss national track. It was our last day and we chose this track to build up our speed for the world cup ahead and make sure we were as thrashed as we could be for the next couple days travelling. We would get straight off the lift with formula 1 like reactions straight onto the bikes, race down to the start of the track and shoot down. Then role right up to the ticket barriers to get on the ski lift back up. As I think back, it’s scary how many runs we must have done! It defiantly got us ready for Italy! Thanks Tim and Kath Lowe for letting me stay, it was sick!

From Champery it was on to Val Di Sole but we had a day to spare so a quick trip to Pila went down a treat. Josh and I rode what we thought was the IXS race track from 2 days before and did a few runs in the morning. The track was so much fun! We needed to hold back to not tire ourselves out before the world cup so we found a table tennis table.

check out the GoPro; http://www.vimeo.com/28192737

That night was quite hot, well into the uncomfortable °C. This is how Noshy slept, with his head literally in the mini fridge! Haha

The final round of the world cup of the year was here, Val Di Sole, one of the most if not the most physical and hard tracks on the circuit. It was Josh “Noshy” Lowe’s first world cup and what a place to start! It was so good both being there to follow each other down and try out lines to see what one is faster, we did tones of runs and had the track pretty dialled in. After the first day of practise we walked the course down with Brendan. We were all but one line off of what he was doing so we must have done something right. I did 10 mins in the freezing cold river before qualifying day to repair my body. I won’t lie and say that I enjoyed it but I felt better for it after.
Qualifying day came around quick with it being on the Friday. Everything was in place and I was ready. I felt good enough on the track to pull through qualifying but it’s always in the back of my mind. I started my run full on, you have to here, its just the kind of track that involves a lot of bravery. With it being in Europe, there will always be another 300 racers all giving it their all to break that top 80 cut for finals. My run went pretty controlled through the top section which was definitely the hardest bit. It was on a high speed compression about half way down where something big started to happen. I lost my feet off of the pedals and began getting bucked over the rocks. My left foot was on and my right just on the edge of the pedal when I hit a massive rock again only to send me back to the drawing board with my feet flailing around for the second time. It was lucky but I managed to get my feet on but had lost a lot of time having to pedal a hill in ninth gear with no speed left. It was a panic to go fast to qualify from then on and I made a couple more little mistakes. I came through in sixty’s with over a hundred to go. By the time everyone was down I was in 76th. Very lucky indeed!

There was a day of practise between qualifying and race day. Not many racers used it to ride a lot. The course was so physical that everyone wanted to sort out their final line choices and rest up. It was an eye opener for me how much faster I could of ridden the course with a stronger upper body. It was a track where half way down you couldn’t look to the next section with the intension of hitting it as fast and you can but how fast you think you can with how tired you were. This is something I am incorporating into my training from the second I am home.

I was desperate for a good result here and one race day I felt it! I got off pretty unlucky at the start of my run. As I jumped over a root into the top rock section, there was a loose rock on my landing pad to greet me and it stopped my bike dead. I flung myself over rocks into some catch netting. It was a while to gather myself and carry on. I was stiff riding with a dead leg but I loosened up eventually to go over the bars yet again trying to go too fast. This time I missed the catch netting and slid under it. By now I knew the chances of getting a good position were over so I cruised down having a lot of fun and enjoying my last world cup race run of 2011. I came 75th which was far from what I wanted. Being injured for some of this year and not having the best luck has really hit hard. The year isn’t over yet with Fort William BDS finals to come but as of right this second finishing these last few words I am off out to train...and I am hungry for results!

Don’t forget to watch the team video of Val Di Sole if you haven’t seen it already!

See you at Fort William!
Harry

Glen Coe BDS round 3 – Victory was taken on a 450 in Bubbas back yard

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:15:00 +0000

So it was up to Scotland for the first week of the 2 away.

I arrived to a windy Saturday morning at Glen Coe and saw the course tapes winding down the mountain already struggling to cling to the posts. After a quick course walk it began to rain and looking up at the clouds crawling over the mountain tops, it didn’t look like it was short term.

I went up the chair lift for my first of just 3 runs to come. The rain soon turned to hail and the wind was constantly pushing the hail horizontally across the mountain. Put it this way, I was glad I had put my 661 body armour on that morning because the lift up wasn’t very enjoyable. By the time I reached the top I was quite literally frozen solid and as I stepped off the lift, ice cracked and shattered off of my coat and trousers.

It was a good course and considering the persistency of the horrible weather, I think it held up pretty good too. Most riders seemed pretty over the whole ordeal after a run or two but everyone in the Madison/Saracen pits still loved it. The only thing dampening spirits was the constant roomer of the race being cancelled. The lift was not running very well because of the wind and when I looked at the weather report for Sunday the wind was meant to be a lot stronger again.

All we could do was carry on as normal and wait to see what race day brought.
Sunday was definitely windier, going up on the chair lift was quite scary and I had to hold my bike at times to stop it blowing off. I tried to fit in as many runs as I could to get an advantage if the race was to go ahead still. I got back into the queue for the lift and the people staffing the lift were stressing a lot about the wind. They came to the conclusion that they would stop it and see if we could start the race earlier as the wind was only getting worse with time. A meeting was called and I went back to the pits. I knew what the meeting would result in so I went back, got changed and started cleaning up.

The race was cancelled as I thought. It was the right decision to make for obvious safety reasons but we were all disappointed.

We packed up the truck in the rain which took quite some time and took the race back to Manons apartment. Jason fired up MX vs ATV on his Xbox and I gave everyone a schooling on that. Jason has been practising since I think... he needs it though!

Fort William World Cup;

It was my 20th birthday on Monday and I got a Sponge Bob birthday cake! It wasn’t around long enough to take a picture which I’m regretting now but it was blooming tasty. From Monday to Wednesday we stayed in the truck and rode xc most of the time doing some photo shoots and generally having a laugh on the Arials.
Thursday was the day to knuckle down though and we had already set the pits up. I went on a ride around the world champs xc loop with Jacky G and did all the normal signing on and course walking etc. My Dad had got me 3 tickets to the “3 minute Gaps” Premier for my birthday which was Thursday eve. The film was amazing! The whole film was flat out with the best riders around going flat out. It was definitely the best film I have seen and shows the amazing lifestyle everyone leads and how different everyone is pre season. I struggled for some time to sleep Thursday night.

Friday was wicked! It was dry and the sun was out. I couldn’t wait to get pedalling but I tried to wait for a few riders to chew up the few soft bits on the track. The track was awesome as usual. There were two new sections. The woods went a similar way until the ending where they slowed it down more and sent it off a new road gap out of the woods and into some new berm before joining the old track. There was also a new table top going into the motor way section. Apart from that, the track was the same and pinned! I did 5 practise runs and was more than happy with it. I found my limits whilst filming a chest cam run with the Go Pro and shot off on a corner.

Friday night the team went out for a curry. I’ll own up, I only had a Korma. Jack manned up and went for a Vindaloo but ended up drinking so much to cool his mouth down we found him in the morning underneath his bed!

I had a bit of a big one in practise before qualifying. I got it on the Go Pro though so it should be in the video of the weekend. I bruised my back really bad and I think I have bruised a kidney or something. I knew qualifying wasn’t going to be very fun at all anymore. I couldn’t pedal around the pits but I knew with a bit of adrenaline and some no pain no game attitude I would get it done.

I pedalled as fast as I could out of the start. It hurt a lot still but I was definitely giving it all. I got to the first jump and nearly missed the corner after it. I drifted wide and carried all my speed into the next corner. This was not a good thing though. I should have braked and admitted to myself I was going too fast. In the next corner I washed out going wide and lost my bike. I was getting up off the ground still sliding away from my bike. I had landed on my side again but now anger was running my body and nothing was going through my mind but grab my bike and ride fast. Last year I crashed in qualifying and pinned it to qualify well still so I wasn’t too worried but I knew I had lost a lot of time with this one. I had a lot of bad moments from then on which probably meant I could have gone faster but I was really angry and everything was forgotten but go fast. I sprinted the bottom as fast as I could but as I came through the line I just heard “81st Place”. For the rest of the day I was the definition of gutted. I looked at my split times and was a few shy of last place at the first split. I had managed to gain back over 80 places by the time I went through the line and my second and third splits were well inside the top 40 but I had thrown it all away.

It’s been a painful weekend both crashing hard and mentally and I’m now just concentrating on Leogang this weekend. I’m just washing my clothes now and going to the sauna and Jacuzzi to rest my very battered body and its then off to Austria early in the morning.

Keep on the limit,
H

My Last couple of weeks;

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:14:00 +0000

26th /27th March – Aston hill Race

I went to the notorious Aston Hill black run race a couple of weekends back. It’s always a good race at Aston and the weather has been sunny for every race there for like 3 or more years now! I was full of cold, struggling on with some Lemsips and paracetamol, but it was all forgotten about when you fly down the track. Every hundredth of a second counts here, the tracks pretty full on and only a minute and a half long. First runs started off flat out as usual, I had a solid run down and sat into 4th place. Teammate Jack Geoghegan smashed his way into the leading spot so I knew I had to pull something off. I listened to a bit of heavy dub step in my car and got into the mood. I pushed hard all the way down and knew i had gone faster in a few sections but also over cooked a few. I came down into 2nd and got pushed back into 3rd when SPS rider Nathan Vials came down. Jack was still in the lead and came down and put another very respectable time down. It was a strong Elite podium for Madison/Saracen.

28th March photo shoot

After Aston Hill I went back to a hotel with Team Photographer Jacob Gibbins, to freshen up for a Saracen Arial Shoot the next day. We went to Woburn Sands to get some sick pictures of the new Arials in action, check these teasers out; I even got to test the team DJ hardtail;

29th /30th /31st March Nathan Vials house

I went to Nathan Vials house after the shoot for a few days to get some quality training in. We did all sorts of training; Nathan and I are pretty much the pinnacle of competiveness when we’re together so everything was a competition! We got the timing poles out a few times, hit his local DH, had a “see how far you can huck into a corner competition”, some hardtail riding action, hit the gym in a very big way, went ice skating, played squash, and did some super scrubs on MX vs. ATV Reflex!

1st,2nd,3rd April Pearce Race at Hopton

I am doing all but the 3rd round of the Pearce rounds, I haven’t done them in a few years and I had forgotten how awesome they are. Hopton is such a good track, you spend more time in the air than you do on the ground and it’s flat out. I loved Saturday’s dry weather and did about 10 runs. From Saturday night it showered really hard on and off all through the race. My first run was so much fun; I was a bit sketchy in sections and was doing some pretty different lines so I could hit the jumps faster. I did a big whip over the last tabletop and sprinted into the finish. I slipped as I went onto the grass and flew on my face through the finish with my bike in all the mud. It was pretty embarrassing but to be honest I was thinking well at least I am over the line. However... in the history of downhill racing, I have never seen what I managed to do. I had slid underneath the timing laser and as I was watching my time just tick away. When I looked up my time was running still and a few people began to shout go though the beam again but I didn’t want to mess up someone else’s run if it was just delayed or something. Someone leant over the finish line and swiped the beam to stop my time. From what people told me I came through in the 2min 21/22 seconds which was annoying as I ended up with a 28. I got the fastest speed trap and 2nd fastest split to Marc Beaumont in that run. In my second run i pushed in too much in a long right hander and drifted round in a circle. I carried on pushing it and the course was running slower and really muddy. I got a faster time than my first run by a second or so but all in all a racing disaster for me. Bring on the Moelfre BDS this weekend!!!

La Bresse World Cup round 6

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:45:00 +0000

La Bresse was a pure DH bred venue without the usual XC and 4X to spice things up. This venue has only been used once back in 2009, which happened to be my first ever world cup too. It’s a one of a kind track for sure. It’s mainly grass and rocks the whole way down; a bit like our own Moelfre at home but on steroids.
The track had minor changes to what I had ridden before which was a plus for me. It’s finally getting to the stage where most of the world cups I go to I’m revisiting. This helped out a lot and Fridays practise went as well as I wanted it too. There were a few more jumps on the track since last time, which is always a plus for the fun factor. I got them done in my first few runs and concentrated on getting some different lines ridden, because as always, the course will be a different one by race day. On my first run I followed a rider through the lower really high speed compressions to see if he would do the last jump. Then I could then pop over behind him. I was a bit worried when I caught up pumping when he was pedalling like a nutter towards the take off. The last jump was pretty big, around 30-40 ft i guess. The thing is, it was on the limit to how far you could hop with the speed you had and didn’t really have a good kick to it at all. I slowed down and pulled up only to have a first class view of the rider take the meaning of case to a new high. The bike stayed on the upslope of the landing, now very worse for wear. He slid in line with the landing on his front with the bike taking the full force. Luckily he seemed fine and walked away carrying his bike. The jump was closed down for a while and the landing extended. Still... the first time I did it I made sure I pulled up with everything I had.
The course wasn’t very tiring just learning it so I did like 8-9 runs; being the first time riding properly since Whistler I may have been a bit keen to refill my veins with adrenalin. The cut spike’s were hooking up really well on the grass but after the day being so dry everything packed down and for Sunday I was looking to put my new high roller 2 tyres on. Just before I came out, Tom at One Industries sent me the new editions of the infamous high roller. They are pretty similar as they were pretty much the favourite to use anyway. They have now got a bigger cornering edge to them, roll faster and have a better braking edge.
I rode to the venue on Sunday with them on with 4 practise runs in mind. I did a run with my new Go Pro chest camera on in the morning, was really handy to see it back on the laptop after! I was trying out some new lines but it was a full run down, check out La Bresse from my point of view, it’s on the La Bresse video.
Going up for qualifying I was a bit more nervous than usual. I sprinted out the gate hard, as you could see from the go pro run; it’s full on and fast straight away. I was a bit surprised how much the track was blown out but it was still good all the same. I went with the same game plan as usual and just had a fast but risk-free run down. I didn’t really have any times where I noticeably felt good but I didn’t think that it wouldn’t be bad. If I’m honest at any other world cup I would have hoped to come around 60th, so not great but that’s racing. I heard I was in 78th place over the loud speaker. There was no point in looking or waiting, I just cruised back to the pits knowing I would be way down by the time everyone was finished. Later looking at the times I saw that top 3 were split by 3 seconds and from there to 80th was less than 10 seconds. That’s the smallest gap in I’ve ever seen by a long way. It’s pretty cool that everyone was literally tenths and a fair bit of the time hundredths apart. That’s formula 1 territory.
A bit angry that I didn’t get through I spun up the 6km hill back to the apartment in the rain. It was the end of the weekend for me really. It was not all negative for us though, Manon did us proud with an 8th place, still smoking the juniors!
We are in Morzine now, it’s wicked here and Gibbins is around too, we are hopefully doing a shoot in a few days so check back for some footage soon!
Harry Molloy

Llangollen BDS round 4

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:44:00 +0000

Llangollen is one of the most anticipated venues of the British DH Series. It’s the one everyone wants to win at because it has the least pedalling; it’s as steep as tracks get and is all about having the best skill on a bike. The pressure hits hard on the guys that have been claiming that pedalling is their downfall.
It was a bit slow going for most on Saturday. It had been raining all Friday night and the course was sopping wet! I couldn’t wait to get practising though and was on the lift for one of the first riders down. I put my spikes and Neoguard on Friday evening knowing it was going to absolutely dump it down over night. Practise was awesome! I got 7 runs under the belt. The sun was sucking out the splashy bits though and by the end of practise a lot of people were on high rollers. Jacky G and I were the only loyal spike tyre lovers left in the team by the end of practise. Following Jacky G down in practise soon opened my eyes to a looser level. It was wicked pinning it down and was such a help to find the fastest line.
I woke up Sunday morning to the ray of sun shine peeping through the curtains. It was ordered by the weather man that we would have a bit of a heat wave with highs of 28 degrees c. That’s exactly what we got. Parts of the track were already dusty first run down and the temperature was rising.
I tried out my new DRC Timer for the first time Sunday. I could time the different splits on the course as well as the overall time and compare my runs. It sounds silly but just having the time on it is a massive help to know where you’re at in practise and if you should stop or carry on getting the runs in. It’s going to be a massive help in Mont Sainte Anne this week to not over do it and to gage where I’m at.
We also got some new team Madison shorts... nice and light weight, zipped pockets, really breathable and look the part for sure!
I did a couple of practice runs Sunday. Jacky G and I were still representing the spikes but I think we were the only ones out of everyone. I guess they must have been slower fractionally on the straights but in the dusty steep corners they were ripping up the turf.
My seeding went alright. I deserved a parking ticket in one of the tight corners but apart from that it went smoothly. I was 5.5 seconds off of the fastest time which I was really happy about. I thought I would be able to make up 4 seconds if all went as planned which would have given me a strong podium.
I was relaxed into racing, there’s not any pressure for the ranking side of things as I’ve not had a good first half to the season. At the moment I’m thriving off of wanting to show what I can do. I took a good race run down. I knew I was going faster for sure. I parked up in the same corner as last time, missing a high line which annoyed me. However it’s beyond rare that you get a good race run all the way down and the rest of my run went according to plan. I came through with a 1min 49seconds, 3 seconds faster than my seeding time. I was eventually bumped down and was again 5 seconds back off of winner Josh Bryceland. I ended up 12th. I wanted to do better but there was a huge line up of top World Cup racers and it’s a start to turning my season around. I’m off to Canada tomorrow morning for the next round of the UCI World Cups.
I am loving life and can’t wait to ride Mont Sainte Anne!
Keep it lit,
H

First Race of the Year, Mr Blings 16th Jan PORC Race

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:10:00 +0000

I walked the new course early Sunday morning. It was very wet but the sun was shining. The course was definitely one of the best courses I've ridden at PORC. It had about 4 sections that certainly wouldn't look out of place at a British round and personally I think the first 2 corners could be part of a world cup track. The course was flat out at the top and corners were rutted, rough and banked up to hit as fast as you could ride.

I wanted to make my first run count for a bit of practise coming into the season for the one run races to come.

I had a first run to be pleased with. I had a run without any major mistakes and lead with a 43.6 second run.

My 2nd run went all very wrong in a few places which equalled out any of the bits I had better. My 3rd run was good but I didn't have much left to give in my legs and ended up with a slower 43.8 seconds.

Here are some pics;

Mr Blings PORC race 17th Oct;

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:56:00 +0000

Another stonking race from the notorious Mr Bling! PORC racing is getting better and better and the rider numbers and spectators are increasing quickly.

It was another sunny weekend with one of the best tracks ever raced on at PORC. It used the best steep bits of the hill, catching a lot of people out, with a blistering speed section with 3 road gaps straight after each other!

Here are some pictures of the fastest growing mini DH race series around!

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

The 2010 London Bike Show!

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 10:15:00 +0000

Upgrade were there showing off their new brand; Pivot. Alongside some brand new "Vault" pedals for 2011. They had the prototype short travel DMR on show. By far the best seat display of the whole show too.

Chocolate distribution were there wowing the public with a range of Kinetic trainers and Rolf Prima wheels.

Surf Sales with Transition bikes had a cool wooden set up really showing off their products.

Torq had their complete range of energy products out to taste. The banoffee gel was my favourite for sure!

SIS, another leading brand in energy products, had their own bar with SIS drink on tap!

Evolution Imports had a colourful stand with Yeti bikes and Chris King components on show. The pictures say it all.

Zipfit are a huge road biking energy brand. They had some really tasty products and suplied me with loads to try out too. It certainly helped me get back from a ride with my girlfriend the other day when I had to push her 14 miles back to the car! without the energy gel i'm not sure I would have made it back.

Fishers had a large stand with a real profesional look promoting Sram and Rockshox. Norco had their own section of it with a big poster of Ben Reid and Stanny's bike on show.

Hope had some really good product on show in some pretty eye-catching colours. their one peice crown and stem is pretty posh but check out the new 10 speed casset and free-hub body.

Dad's Trip to the Tring Brewery to Collect his Prizes

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Dad had won 27 pint's of whatever brew he fancied from the Tring Brewery at the last Aston Hill race.

We recently went back up that direction and picked up his drinks. Here are some pics we took of their new Brewery, only just recently moved in to.

Thanks to Ben at the Tring Brewery for sponsoring the race and suplying some awesome beverages!

British DH Series – final round, Caersws;

noreply@blogger.com (Harry) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:11:00 +0000

Caersws was the last chance for everyone to make their last impressions and try to better their series positions. I wanted to better my 6th overall and hopefully get onto the podium again.

The course was the basically the same course from a few years ago at the previous national. There were just a few differences that I thought made it flow better. Also the whole top and middle section had been cleared of trees so it was basically a new track.

The weather was good all weekend even if it was freezing cold at night in the tent. And I had my girlfriend Jasmine as personal warmer upper too.

The track was pretty short and steep for the most of it with a 30second sprint to the finish. It had lots of jumps and no pedalling for the most of it.

I did plenty of runs over the weekend; it wasn’t tiring to do run’s so I squashed in about 10 in on the Saturday and a couple in before seeding on Sunday.

My seeding went well and I tried to put in the best time I could. Points were important from seeding despite not being a lot it would all add up to the overall. I seeded 2nd 2 seconds off of Marc Beaumont. I was really pleased as I initially just wanted to be in contention for the podium.

Race runs added a little more urgency and I managed to go a little faster but I couldn’t pedal as strong in the field. I ended up coming 4th. Just 1 tenth of a second off of Joe Smith and 0.4 seconds off of Ben Cathro. Marc Beaumont was a second ahead of us winning the race. I was pleased with my result as it meant I moved up a place in the overall. In my first season of Elite I had made it to the 5th place overall spot and made it onto the podium twice in the British Series. It’s been a happy end to my first year as a pro.

Here are a few pictures;

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