The Cycle Show

The Cycle Show took place at the NEC last weekend and it seemed a great opportunity to go look at some shiny stuff and test out a bike or 2. At only £13 (+ booking fee) to get in it was a bargain but then various companies were offering discount codes for tickets, I used a Trek one and got the ticket for £11. This meant I just had to get there, it was a great excuse to visit a couple of friends in Stratford and my car died a year ago so time to get behind the wheel again and hire a car.

Setting off from Stratford on Saturday morning was handy as it meant I didn't have far to travel and was likely to avoid traffic, it turned out to be so handy that I arrived half an hour before the show opened. This gave me time to grab a coffee get my ticket checked and sit down while everyone else queued up at the door, all the while more people were turning up, no quiet start to the day for the exhibitors, just after 9.30am the shutters drew back and the hordes flooded in. I sedately followed on.

I’d decided to see where most of the crowds were heading then head in the other direction, this lead me straight on into the weird and wonderful section of electric bikes. I’d picked up a free show guide and made a vague plan with the knowledge I had to leave at around 3pm to get back to Bristol for work.  My main plans were to see some of the Pump Track Challenge and watch ‘Where The Trail Ends’, I also was keeping an eye out for a hydration pack and a mud guard. Other than that it was a case of wandering around trying to find shiny stuff to take pictures of and wish I could afford.

Fairly quickly I found the Specialized stand where there were a couple of things I’d seen on websites from the media day. The S works frame and the glittery Stumpjumper, as well as the Triathlon bike with a built in Hydration pack, which I was surprised to see come in at just £2500, I thought all these kinds of bikes were silly expensive never mind one with fancy stuff on it.

Speaking of silly expensive I moved on to the Trek stand to drool over the Session 9.9 coming in at £7000 and you know that’s not even with the spec that Gwin rides, seeing it written down makes me wonder how much money is on the hill at the Fort William World Cup.

 

I then went to get in early on the test track, wanting to give a 29er a go I went for the Specialized Camber as that was the one I was most interested in from what was on offer there. The test track was good for an all abilities track that wasn’t going to ruin any demo bikes or people. I did 3 runs on the Camber and one of the guys signing people in had mentioned there was a Strava segment so  the phone went on, my 3^rd run was to be my flying lap about quarter of the way round I caught a guy who was going incredibly slow and when I shouted ‘Excuse me.’ He rode a little faster when I skidded on a corner because I nearly ran into the back of him again he upped the pace slightly so I just stopped and let him go. Still my 2^nd run bagged me 4^th out of 10 but I can’t help feeling I could have got top spot.

Over to the Pump track to see some practice and qualifying, different to see it on the wooden track that had been created by Shoretrax, rather than the usual outdoor dirt pump tracks. Unfortunately time was starting to push on so it was stopping to take a few photos and keeping moving I had to be on the way home by race time.

With a bit more wandering I found the Rose bike stand a bit tucked away and some Identiti bikes as well as fun things like the mahousive tyres on one bike and these funky looking bikes, though where does motorbike start and Mountain Bike end…

A quick wander by the Continental stand to see the massive queue to get the GT teams autographs and grab a quick pic of the Athertons and Beaumont. I wasn't stopping long as it’s much easier to see them at Fort William World Cup just wandering around or on the track. 

It was time for ‘Where The Trail Ends’. A great film I found it awe inspiring but it didn't make me want to get out and ride like 3 Minute Gaps and Strength In Numbers, I more found myself thinking how I’d never be able to do any of these things but it was cool to watch these guys do it. My only problems were that I didn't get there early enough for a seat and every time the volume dropped a little I could just hear Rob Warner chattering on, stood a few people back from me.

Cool kids helmets.

Then it was time to get to the car and get to work for some more standing around. For the money the Cycle Show was definitely worth it especially with the test track, although they could have done with a faster sign up system or allowed people to do it online beforehand. The Cycle Show was very much that, there were road bikes and stalls, electric bikes, commuter bikes and weird bikes and random associated bits, but few Mountain Bike companies and only one proper shop (Si Paton’s Descent Gear) so I didn’t end up buying anything, not like the Bike shows used to be back in the 90’s early 00’s which were a lot more mtb orientated.

More Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151039122121423.439956.500231422&type=1

Hafjel World Cup – Final Round

A couple of hours North of Oslo lies Hafjel Bike Park, where the last round of the 2012 Downhill World Cup took place at the weekend. This was the first time the World Cup circus has come to Norway, and right from the track walk the riders were impressed.

There were comparisons to Scotland from the British riders during the track walk and during practice a lot of the riders were proclaiming it as the best track of the year or even the best track in years. Norway was off to a good start, the only downside being the price of the beer, which (at least from my visits to Oslo) is around £6-£10 a pint.

The weekend kicked off with a Staff/Media race using a mostly different course from the World Cup but going into the main finishing area where competitors had to down a beer before their time was counted. This was a bit of fun for a wind down at the end of the season but there were a few people concerned there would be no one left to take photos of the main event. Sven Martin, a photographer as well known as some of the riders, took the win ahead of Nigel Page CRC manager and Chris Ball UCI Technical Delegate. There were some accusations of cheating with the downing of the beer though. I hope they do this again at Fort William and let volunteers race, I can’t ride that well but I can down a beer pretty quick.

The qualifying took place on the Friday with Rachel Atherton and Stevie Smith going fastest, this gave Rachel a helping hand in the overall and left her needing to finish in the top 5 even if Emmeline Ragot won the actual race. Aaron Gwin had already taken the overall however he injured himself in practice and didn’t race, 2^nd and 3^rd could still change around between Minaar and Gee Atherton.

Race day was Saturday for a change and the weather, despite expectations, was staying clear. The women’s race was going to be a hard fought one even with some of the top riders being out injured. Canadian Casey Brown put in a run stomping the earlier times but was swiftly deposed by the new World Champion Morgane Charre. Ragot was after revenge from the Worlds and took 6.5 seconds out of Charres’ time, however next up was Manon Carpenter who had qualified 2^nd unfortunately a massive crash in her run put her out of contention, although she made it down the hill with a broken bike and probably feeling a bit dizzy after landing on her head and came 14^th overall.

Rachel Atherton was last on the hill with everything to play for, the overall title and the win on the day were what she wanted but after a back injury in the Worlds could she pull it off? She was down and looking a little tentative at split one but she pulled back time and went into the lead by split two, looking smooth she crossed the line fastest by 2.283 ahead of Ragot and Charre. Tahnee Seagrave came in 9^th despite a crash and Jess Stone came in 10^th looking good for the British girls.

Full Womens results: http://dirt.mpora.com/news/hafjell-womens-world-cup-final-results.html

The men’s race was hotting up with Markus Pekoll having set a solid time which seemed unassailable, Brendan Fairclough dropped into 2^nd just behind Pekoll with Jo Smith and Matt Simmonds following going into 14^th and 8^th. Marc Beaumont apparently said “inconsistency is key to an average season” which just about sums it up for him as he came down in 11^th place.

The winner of the last World Cup, Brook ‘Bulldog’ MacDonald still couldn’t beat Pekolls’ time, neither could Junior World Champion Loic Bruni however the wind was blowing pretty hard seemingly effecting them on the jumps and through the woods as a headwind. Britain Greg Williamson repeats his Fort William form ending up in 15^th but it’s Cam Cole who finally topples Pekol from the hotseat, but that just starts the ball rolling with Gee coming down and going 2 seconds faster, Sam Hill came down flying but ends up 7^th in the end. Then Greg Minaar sticks it on the hot seat securing his 2^nd in the overall ahead of Gee. 

Ratboy at Fort Bill

Josh Bryceland came down smooth as ever but not fast enough ending up 8^th, it was Kiwi George Brannigan next up on the hotseat securing his first podium ever and looking good for the win even. However it was his team mate Stevie Smith up in the start gate for the final run of the day and led all the way down the hill to take a massively well deserved first ever win and a great day for the De Vinci team getting 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th a full podium set.

Mens Results:http://dirt.mpora.com/news/hafjell-world-cup-mens-results.html

A great exciting end to a fantastic, if somewhat injury riddled season on a superb track in a new venue, I'll be trying to make it out there next year for sure.. The Women’s overall was decided on the day and the final overall podium was 1^st Rachel Atherton, 2^nd Emmeline Ragot, 3^rd Myriam Nicole (injured), 4th Tracey Hannah (injured), 5^th Emilie Siegenthaler (injured). The Junior Women’s title was taken by Tahnee Seagrave from Great Britain.

Tracey Hannah at Fort William

The Men’s overall was taken in the Val D’Isere by the now injured Aaron Gwin ahead of 2^nd Greg Minaar, 3^rd Gee Atherton (who was never off the podium all year), 4^th Steve Smith and 5^th Sam Hill. The Junior title was taken by Loic Bruni. The overall team win went to GT Racing, the Athertons and Marc Beaumont securing the title in their first year together.

Once again the Brits placed well with 2^nd Gee, 6^th Bryceland, 8^th Hart (injured), 13^th Beaumont, 16^th Simmonds and 19^th Smith from the top 20 men and 1^st Rachel, 9^th Manon in the top 10 of the women’s despite Manon being out for a couple of races due to a broken collar bone and Rachel missing the first round due to injury.

The biggest of many injuries of the year were to Cedric Gracia who is suprisingly looking to be back racing next year despite what could have been a career (if not life) ending crash, Tracey Hannah who still came 4^th overall and Troy Brosnan who came back for World Champs then promptly had a huge stack in the race and busted his shoulder. Heal up fast to you guys and all the other riders suffering.

Full overall results: http://dirt.mpora.com/news/2012-world-cup-overall-results-after-hafjell.html 

World Champs 2012.

So the Worlds have been and gone again, with the Downhill and the UCI return of 4X for one event only providing great action and excitement right the way through in the Leogang bike park, Austria.

The 4X had a very welcome return to the World scene after it was dropped from the World Cup Circuit although the 4X Protour had filled the gap nicely being organised and run by riders and teams, it currently lacks the prestige of a UCI title so riders were fired up to pick up the one title going this year. The track itself had taken a beating in the rain but was looking good for the race, the two points where there was a line choice would be critical, with many people early on taking the first early option but later on it became must make to be in with a chance, meanwhile most people took the easy line for the second option missing the big double.

Despite it’s only appearance as an official UCI event there were surprisingly few women with only  entering creating a situation where only the semi’s and the Small and Big finals were fought out. British hope Katy Curd suffered a snapped chain in qualifying so didn’t make it to the final 8.

In the men’s David Graf qualified fastest and got first gate choice which proved to be all important on the day. Again Britain’s hopes were dashed as Scott Beaumont started strongly with his first couple of races being in the first or second start lane, however he came into a round against some of the top qualifiers and was pushed down to the 3^rd lane and despite his efforts on the first corner couldn’t make up the time and didn’t make it to the Semi finals.

With Mellisa Buhl relegated to the small final after a lane infraction at the start of the last race, the girls finals had Anneke Beerten the favourite starting from gate 1 along with Romana Lobounkova, Celine Gros and Anita Molcik. This lane and some hard fighting took Anneke to her 2^nd Gold in a row after not being able to clinch it for so long.

The men’s big final had a couple of surprises and was a Swiss vs Czech battle with 2 from each country taking part, with David Graf in lane 1 looking the surprise favourite against Roger Rinderknecht, Michael Mechura and Tomos Slavik. However after a incident straight off the start where Slavik in lane two ploughed straight into Graf and took them both out leaving  Roger Rinderknecht to take his first Gold medal at the World Champs after 3 Silvers in the past and just back from the Olympic BMX competition and also announcing his retirement in his post race interview. All the best to him in the future.

Downhill.

The Downhill always seemed to be Gwins to lose after his dominant performance in the World Cup series having clinched the title with one round to go, although his main rival, and until Val D’Isere, the only other World Cup winner since 2010 Greg Minaar pushing for his second World champs Gold medal. In the women’s race it was all about Rachel Atherton and Reigning Champion Emmeline Ragot bring their World Cup battle to the World Champs.

Both Junior competitions were missing the massively dominant Troy Brosnan and Manon Carpenter who both moved up to Elite this year, so it was for Loic Bruni and Richie Rude Junior to fight out the men’s while the girls race had no particularly dominant characters but all British eyes were focused on Tahnee Seagrave. Richie Rude jr had cased a jump in practice pretty hard so maybe wasn’t quite as up to speed as he’s have liked and Loic Bruni took the win ahead of him. In the Women’s race it was down to Tahnee and Canadian Danielle Beecroft with Danielle taking the win over Tahnee by 8 seconds.

Unlike the previous year the weather was glorious and with a good but pedally track it was going to make for some exciting racing. Up early the Canadian riders put in a great performance at one point holding the top 5 positions obviously liking the Bike Park nature of the course, however in came the British and the French to spoil their party. First Tracy Mosely, former World Champion came down having semi retired from downhill last year, she put in a solid performance to break up the Canadian top 5 but coming 10^th in the end. Then came the young Morgane Charre putting 10 seconds into Micayla Gatto’s top time with 6 girls left to come. First to challenge Charre’s time was Pugin after an injury riddled season, 0.765 back at the first split but then 2 seconds back at split 2 left her off the pace finishing 4^th overall. Next up was the UKs Manon Carpenter also having had a big injury in the year managing to be 0.369 up at the top but losing time in the second section ending up with the Bronze medal. The final 2 to come down were the most likely to beat Charres time Emmeline Ragot coming down 0.079 ahead of Charre on the first section but again losing time lower down taking home the Silver. As Rachel Atherton came down the course, a back injury was obviously causing her problems and she never challenged Charre’s time coming in 5^th overall. Which gave Morgane Charre a shock World Championship victory which seemed to surprise the young French girl as much everyone else.

From winners to losers and what has to be the most embarrassing crash in World Champs history. http://dirt.mpora.com/news/shortest-world-champs-race-run-ever-before-crashing.html

The men’s race kicked off with Mic Hannah having posted the fastest training time, but expectations of that time being blown apart. The British had fielded a strong men’s team with two former World Champions and a former junior World Champion in the mix, last years defending Champion Danny Hart was out with a shoulder injury.  Solid runs by Matt Simmonds and Joe Smith put them 24^th and 34^th respectively but they didn’t look to challenge the top spots. Steve Peat riding in his 20^th World Champs, what other athlete can say that, was running first but had a big crash and ended up in 36^th, Peatys team mate Josh Bryceland also was putting in a great run until he also a big crash putting him out of contention. Marc Beaumont also couldn’t put a great run in to challenge the top riders and came 14^th, Sam Dale on the other hand managed to put a good run together which saw him in the top 3 for a long time but ending up 12^th and the second fastest Brit.

Troy Brosnan returning from life threatening injury had another big crash which saw him out of the race and back into hospital, although he was ok in the end. Andrew Neethling was putting a really good time in when he lost control off a wall ride carrying a lot of speed but held it together just managing to finish up in joint 18th, Mic Hannah came down with a storming run to go into first but was followed by Canadian Steve Smith desperate for the win, slower on the first section but coming down to go into first by just under a second. 

With only Gee Atherton, Greg Minaar and Aaron Gwin to come down Steve Smith must have been on tenter-hooks, Gee put together an almost perfect run to go into the hot seat and looked hard to beat, then came Minaar putting 0.5 seconds into Gee’s time in the top section matching his 2^nd section exactly and nearly the same again in the 3^rd section going into the lead with only Gwin to come, however it was not to be Gwins year as an early brake problem destroyed his run so he just styled his way down giving Minaar a well deserved second World Championship win, his last 9 years ago. Gee came so close in 2^nd ahead of Stevie Smith in 3^rd.

A lot came down to line choice on some jumps at the top whether to hit the big jumps and really create some speed or keep pedalling and take the safe line this is what seemed to separate the top 5 from the rest, both the men’s and women’s races were fantastic to watch and had thrilling finishes, it was a shame Gwin’s run was spoilt but the after party for Greg Minaar mixed with a special party for Peatys 20^th must have been great to be at. Here’s a little audio about Peaty from that night a great listen.

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/victors-world-champs-finals-gallery.html#slide-11

Oh and worth a mention was Claudio Caluori, Scott 11 manager coming out of retirement to nearly win the Swiss Champs in order to be selected for their Worlds team, as one of his riders was out injured and Brendan Fairclough hadn’t qualified for the British team having been injured for a lot of the season. In the end he punctured about half way but finished the course riding it out on the rim.

Full Results: http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTY1NjI&LangId=1

Old Skool vs New Kit

I’ve been slowly up grading my bike for the last 12 years since I snapped the handle bars while doing my paper round.  A couple of months ago I changed the last part that hadn’t been replaced, the saddle leaving my original frame and upgrades from 2000 to today, however by now the front end of my bike is rather outdated, so it’s time to start all over again… Or is it?

I have been running Marzochi Z4 Flylight Airs from 2000 and I haven’t had them serviced once and they are still in great condition, I also have a Planet X Beam Me Up Stem and Club Roost Go Fast bars which attract a load of attention, kids stop me and ask what the bracer bar is for and adults stop me to say they haven’t seen them in years. It’s a great way to start a conversation, I’m used to that set up and there’s nothing wrong with the components. It’s also hard to find a new stem which matches the current geometry of the one I’m running now and as the frame is too small for me I use a longer and steeper degree stem to add some extra reach and height.

On the other hand I’m gripping the end of the bars and there’s a lot of talk of wider and wider bars and the a general improvement in materials weight and strength and my current bars have taken some abuse over the years and having snapped one set while riding I’m not keen to repeat it.

Until I replace the frame, which won’t happen unless I snap it, it’s never going to be a high performance bike it’s just a hobby to keep putting new and different parts on it to keep it going, I’m looking to buy a very nice full sus in the next year or so to be my race bike but I’ll always keep this one going. The question is do I keep it as an Old School machine or keep upgrading as and when needed/when I have the money.

The decision has actually already been made as it may be a while before I can afford the bike I want and I want to keep my current bike running as best as possible. I’ve retired my old bars and stem, originally just looking to change the bars I couldn’t find ones with a small enough size at the clamp so the hunt began for a new one, this lead to me specially ordering a Ritchey stem that will appear at some point and in the mean time buy a cheap Da Bomb Stem with an extra spacer on the head set. It seems to be working pretty well and the bars are making a huge difference to my riding.

The old Club Roost bars sit in my room with the Planet X stem awaiting the day when perhaps I rebuild the bike again as an Old School machine for the hell of it, most likely when I can afford to have a new ful sus and a new hardtail and keep my old frame.

Rapid fire catch up

Well it’s been a few of weeks since I posted for various reasons but here’s a little run down of stuff that’s gone down from the National Champs to round 6 of the World Cup .

The National Champs was quite a while ago now but even at the time it appeared to slip by a little un-noticed almost or maybe I just wasn’t concentrating or there was just so much on as every country seemed to have their National races that weekend it seemed. Gee and Rachel Atherton both took the wins so they’re still wearing matching race jerseys with the Union Flag on the sleeve now. Gee beat Santa Cruz Syndicate riders Josh Bryceland and Steve Peat for his win while Rachel beat a rapidly recovering Manon Carpenter. Also Nigel Page Chain Reaction/Nukeproof manager deserves a mention for winning the Veteran Category adding to his Bronze medal from the BMX World Champs.

Val D’Isere was the venue for the 6^th round of the World Cup and it looked Gnarly as, so gnarly in fact they changed a bit that involved dropping off the roof of a shed into a sketchy landing, also sketchy enough to put Tracey Hannah into hospital with some nasty breaks but it sounds like she’s getting better now though. There were a few issues with showing the event and replaying it, meaning I didn’t get to see it until several days later when I knew the result, which was a bit rubbish.
The women were up first, with Rachel Atherton just leading over Emmeline Ragot in the overall standings despite having missed the first race of the year. Manon Carpenter put together a good run for 5^th getting back on track after her collar bone injury earlier in the year, but the win went to a dominant Rachel Atherton nearly 1.5 seconds faster than Ragot with Pugin in 3rd and Miriam Nicole  4^th so a British and French top 5.

The mens race was a close one to call with young guns like Cam Cole, Brook ‘Bulldog’ MacDonald and Josh ‘Ratboy’ Bryceland putting in great qualifiers and the ever dominant Gwin always a threat and Minaar trying to keep his overall hopes alive. Worth a mention was the massive storm earlier in the weekend with a massive lightening strike while Sam Dale was on the hill, that can’t have been fun.

Gwin came down early after a crash in qualifying and spent a long time in the hot seat until Minaar kept his chances in the overall alive coming in just faster than Gwin despite a little mistake up top. Nick Beer had a massive over the bars nearly front flipping the bike on a jump but managed to finish the race, these guys are hardcore. Gee Atherton steals the top spot from Minaar putting down a faultless performance fastest all the way down however Bulldog managed to finally put a run together, after a being down at split one he upped his pace and came in 0.495 faster than Gee. Ratboy was next up and he smashed the top section to put in the fastest top split but seemed to slow further down the course and eventually slotted into 3^rd his best ever result. That left Cam Cole to come down but he didn’t have it in him to challenge the top spots. Bulldog claimed his first ever World Cup win and every rider in the finish arena wanted to congratulate him, it must have been one hell of an after party! Oh this also knocked Minaar and Gwin down far enough that Gwin, fairly unsurprisingly has enough of a lead into the final race to be unassailable and take the overall title for 2012.

Now rapidly approaching is the World Champs and the British team has been announced and it’s pretty hard core with 3 former World Champions and two junior World Champions from the Men and Women elite squads and the other men in the squad have either won or made the podium at World Cup rounds, it would also have had the current World Champ Danny Hart but he’s out with an injured shoulder. Britain still looking pretty solid for a win though.

Cutting Corners

I started trying to write this post a couple of times but never quite got it right, however with a couple of recent events I’ve once again been inspired to write about cutting corners and intentionally going off the track.

Rachel Atherton took the win at Windham but on her way down she lost control and went through the tape then rejoined further down. A lot of people thought she should have been disqualified for it and enough people have been in the past like Steve Peat at La Bresse last year. As a marshal at Fort William I’ve heard the call over the radio enough times to know the question always asked is ‘did they gain any time by doing it?’ That’s what it comes down to in the end was it a course cut to gain time or was it an out of control slide through the tape that lost them time rather than gained it. In many cases it’s the marshal at that spots call although with the coverage Red Bull is giving this year you can watch replays of it. With this question in mind neither Rachel nor Peaty should have been disqualified. Unless you argue that by going in and out of the tape they stayed on their bike when otherwise they would have crashed and lost more time, however this seems a little harsh on the riders if you’re insisting they crash rather than cut the tape.

On the other end of the argument I have got increasingly annoyed by people cutting corners up at Ashton Court.  Why ride a trail if you’re not going to stick to it, yes there are a few corners up there where it’s easy to get a bit wild on the exit and end up off the trail but just cutting corners for the hell of it seems daft. Surely most people are going up there to ride for the fun of it so why do they need to save time by cutting a corner.

 The other thing I’ve seen up there is people cutting drop offs on the red run, if they can’t hit the drop offs then they shouldn’t be riding the harder sections. However what has put me off entering a race up there in October is going up there after the summer race to find that people have deliberately cut massive corners to save time. Now that’s cheating and worthy of being disqualified, I know they don’t use course tape but surely there should be a certain sense of honour amongst the riders in not cutting a corner to save a couple of seconds in a local endurance event. To me it seems a bit pathetic.

In response to people cutting corners a few well placed rocks and branches were added to the inside entrance to corners, however as corner cutting continued the people doing this have gone a bit nuts completely lining the inside and outside of turns with rocks, making a really tight line with hard consequences if you do accidently stray off line. In some places they’ve even lined the straights with rocks which are apparently rather pointy. I was looking down at my gears strayed a bit to the right and ended up with this, I was going uphill and not very fast so they must be pretty sharp rocks.

If you stray out accidently and it’s that or crash fair enough but if you deliberately cut a corner to save time, in a race you’re cheating even if the course isn’t marked well, if you’re not racing it’s pointless and if done consistently damages the sides of the trails and the ground they’re on, as the Ashton Court trails were built up partly to help protect the land this a particularly ignorant thing to be doing. Mountain Biking allows us to see the countryside and appreciate it, so why destroy it for other people to save a couple of seconds that mean nothing to anyone.

Mont Sainte Anne and Windham World Cup rounds

Last weekend saw the 4th and 5^th rounds of the Downhill World Cup in Mont Sainte Anne (MSA) and Windham, both providing great racing and some big crashes but with Windham being particularly dramatic.

Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec is the oldest race on the circuit and a favourite among the riders. It’s a long track often compared with Fort William as it’s a long and mixed track, although it does seem to have more open flat out fast sections. One of these sections was to provide problems in training for Gee Atherton, with a very fast jump throwing him out the front door, with a speed trap just below where he crashed showing him pass through at over 50 kph on his head this shows just how bad a crash it was.
http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/Gee-Athertons-Horrible-Crash-at-Mont-Sainte-Anne-2012,14025/sspomer,2

Rachel Atherton and Gwin posted the fastest qualifying times, leaving Atherton to avoid the disappointment of Fort William where she posted a blistering qualifying then didn’t manage to repeat it in the wet on race day. Only a few weeks after breaking her collar bone Manon Carpenter was back in action qualifying in 17^th and Jess Stone managed to qualify in 14^th. Gwin again was looking unstoppable, Gee managed to qualify in 6^th despite the horrific crash in practice and Danny Hart made sure there was a Brit in the top 5.

On race day Manon came down early and came in 14^th which would be disappointing for her but for the fact it was 3 weeks since she broke her collar bone and I can’t imagine that wasn’t still hurting. The World Cup leader and World Champion Emmeline Ragot put together a great run but was one of many to suffer from a broken chain yet still managed to bring it home in 3^rd Myriam Nicole got back on track with a solid 2^nd place and Rachel managed to hang on for the win putting her only 40 points behind Ragot in the overall.

In the mens race Matti Lehikoinen crashed near the bottom breaking his collar bone, Neko Mulally went flying off one of the jumps leaving his bike behind and bouncing down the hill like a rag doll. He was ok.

Mick Hannah put a storming run down the top section but snapped his chain bringing it home in 15^th ahead of Brendan Fairclough who also snapped his chain on his run. Sam Hill continued his return to form with a solid 5^th place and Gee came back from his big crash to stick it in 4^th just behind Danny Hart, having watched Danny’s run and where he lost time it was obvious only a crash could stop Gwin from taking it. Greg Minaar came down in an all too familiar 2^nd spot behind the unstoppable Aaron Gwin.

The World Cup circus then travelled across the border to Windham in New York State, a much shorter race than the last two leaving little room for mistakes and with one the hardest aspects of the racing being switching from the bright sunlight to the dappled shadows of the wooded sections. Not to mention the evil looking rock garden and the massive jumps which seem to be becoming part of every track.

Qualifying took a familiar turn with Rachel qualifying as the fastest girl ahead of Ragot but with Tracey Hannah showing her form from the first round and coming down in 3^rd and American Jill Kintner coming 4^th on home soil, Manon Carpenter regained the top 10 managing 9th. The men’s saw Gwinny take his top spot again ahead of a slightly different top 5, Stevie Smith came down 2^nd ahead of Damien Spagnolo  3^rd, Andrew Neethling 4^th and Sam Hill in 5^th. Marc Beaumont and Gee Atherton came in 8^th and 9^th, with Danny Hart crashing and needing stitches Josh Bryceland also crashing and coming in way down with his team mates Steve Peat and Greg Minaar qualifying low down, it was definitely not a weekend for the Santa Cruz Syndicate.

Neither was it a weekend for the Scott 11 team with Brendan Fairclough crashing and breaking his thumb in qualifying and Floriane Pugin out from an injury picked up at MSA, leaving just Emilie Seigenthaler to race.

Come race day the track was dusty and blown out, any prayers for rain hadn’t been answered and like at Fort William people were out watering the track to try and hold it together.  This created some incredible racing first up were the women with Ragot trying to hold her overall lead from Atherton and Gwin looking to make it 4/5 this year.

Manon Carpenter again pushed herself back up the results table coming down to sit in the 2^nd place on the hot seat eventually being pushed down to 7^th as the other girls descended. Myriam Nicole sat on the top step for quite a while sporting a nasty little graze on her chin from earlier in the week, fitting into 5^th spot by the end, Emilie Seigenthaler put in a good run for 4^th. Jill Kintner came down fast but had a massive crash breaking her arm and dislocating her wrist. Tracey Hannah put in a storming run but smashing her saddle off in landing the final massive jump but that wasn’t to be it’s last victim, looking likely to smash Hannah’s time Ragot came down going big off the last jump only to be hit by the wind in the air and have a big crash on landing, jumping up again to push her bike over the line 0.045 behind Hannah. This left the door wide open for Rachel, who broke the first split nearly 5 seconds up only to come off a jump badly and struggle to hang on sending her bike through the tape and losing all her time. However she managed to hang on to her advantage and came down in first place, but had an agonising wait for the Commissaires to decide whether she should be DQ’d for going through the tape. Eventually and cotrversially the win was awarded 0.262 up on Hannah giving Rachel the overall lead. My next post will be more on going through the tape.

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/features/Emmeline-Ragots-Finish-Line-Crash-at-Windham-World-Cup,14188/sspomer,2

Could the guys live up to that excitement, simple answer, yes! For the last 20 +  riders the hot seats for the top 3 seemed ever changing. Josh Bryceland (13^th) putting himself up there as did Mick Hannah (8^th) and Danny Hart (4^th) spent time on the top step, Steve Peat had a massive puncture but as ever despite injury and mechanical forced his way to the bottom, Greg Minaar just couldn’t put the run together coming way down (for him) in 9^th on the exact same time as his fellow South African Andrew Neethling. Sam Hill only managed 7^th behind Nick Beer in his best World Cup result and the junior Loic Bruni forcing his way to his first elite podium in 5^th. Gee Atherton came down to take the hot seat from Hart fingers crossed for a Brit 1-2 but it was not to be, Stevie Smith pulled out a great run on Canada day and looked like he could take his first win but there was still Gwin to go, 1 second down at split one hopes rose for Smith but he clawed back that second then gained nearly another to take the win by 0.958. With 5 seconds between him and 16^th place it was a very close race and people who could have put the cat among the pigeons were unlucky for mechanicals and crashes. Marc Beaumont had a big crash in the rock garden and looked gutted as he came over the line as did Brook Macdonald crashing in the same place and Damien Spagnolo could have taken the win on an absolute flyer but punctured on a jump.

If you watch the replay look for the SPS crew reaction to Marc and Brook crossing the line, immediately going to see if they are ok, great to see the camaraderie in the sport.

Fort William World Cup (Part 2)

Friday and first practice kicked off with me taking up the role of roving track maintenance trying to remove more puncture rocks and fill in some holes dug out by the tyres. As ever riders start out slow getting a feel for the track but by the end of the day they were getting up to speed. That afternoon was the 4X qualifying, Martin Bullock had the track looking good and the riders were enjoying themselves and turning it on for the crowd during practice and the Qualifying. I always try and stay out of marshalling this so I can watch it properly.

      

Saturday and qualifying, again I’m set to wander up and down the hill fixing anything dangerous, however we can’t do anything that would alter the track after practice has started. This gave me lots of chance to take some pictures during practice then I sat with one of the girls at the bottom of the Off Beat Wall and watched qualifying which saw Rachel Atherton go fastest by nearly 10 seconds and in the men it was an all Brit top 3 with Marc Beaumont 1^st Gee Atherton 2^nd and Danny Hart 3^rd. Gwinny crashed twice on his run so no one knew what he had in him. Saturday is a late one with the 4X finals going on till late evening. I was roped into marshalling but at a great spot just above the rock garden, it was good fun to be stood on that corner with a great atmosphere and a couple of big crashes just in front of me. The Brits were unlucky with Katy Curd losing a shoe in the Semis and Scott Beaumont crashing early on in his Semi. However they still placed 5th and 6^th and lesser known Suzanne Lacey came 4^th with Melissa Buhl and Michael Prokop taking the wins. Women’s Results. Men’s Results. Oh and there was some torch thing taken up the gondola earlier in the day.

Sunday comes around quick, and we woke to a dreich day, after a week of decent and occasionally beautiful weather, this meant all the practice was out the window for the riders with the track being wet and slippy in the woods but actually more grippy on the top sections . I was called at the start of Practice to put down some chicken wire to give the back wheel some grip out of the start hut. Rachel Atherton and Tracey Mosely came up to do a run and Rachel commented that she couldn’t even see the first berm.

Rachel and Tracey.

I was called for a couple of small jobs, but my main work that day was taking tea and coffee to the marshalls freezing up on the hillside. This allowed me to walk the entire track during the womens race and watch the girls rip it down the hillside whereas most marshalls are stuck in one spot the entire day, however like them when I reached the bottom of the course in time for the mens race I had no idea what the womens results were.

I took up in the teams usual spot at the top of the Off Beat Wall ready to be called out but assuming I was good to sit and watch and do a little crowd control here and there. Watching the riders come flying over the final big jump (the Bods’ jump) and blast down the wall is awesome, seeing just how wild they get, watching them whip it and also noticing how completely knackered they must be by this point. You can hear the roars of the crowd but that’s the only way to tell how well someone did as you can only catch a bit of the commentary.

Gwinny coming down early spent a long time on the hot-seat and stayed there as no one could quite beat his time, Gee made a mistake high up and came in 3^rd, Marc had a big off on the top section so just styled it down the rest, Peaty had torn a hamstring in qualifying so just rolled it and got a bit lost in the cloud up top, Josh Bryceland did well to grab 5^th place. Danny Hart came closest just 0.8^th of a second of Gwin’s time, I saw him in the pits later and didn’t know whether to congratulate him or commiserate that he didn’t manage to quite take his first win. Other Brits put in some storming performances and 6 out of the top 10 had the Union Jack next to their names. Results here.

In practice when you could see more than 6 foot.

The Women’s race had ended up with Emmeline Ragot taking the win over a gutted Rachel Atherton, who has never managed the win on home soil. Myriam Nicole took third Florianne Pugin took 4^th and Tracey Mosely came 5^th in the first Downhill race she’s competed in this year.

A fantastic event that’s so much fun to be at and even more fun to be a part of not to mention being able to help put together one of the best races on the calendar and chat to riders, mechanics, press, fans and other volunteers all in one awesome place for one awesome reason.

Deer Fence stop: Riders chatting to fans and each other.

Fort William World Cup (part 1)

As ever too much fun was to be had and too much work to be done to sit down and write. So here it is a two weeks later.

After worrying about transporting my bike 500 miles from Bristol to For William and back the train was no problem and on the way from Manchester to Glasgow the driver didn’t bat an eyelid, going from Glasgow to Fort William and the guy loading took one look at the bag and said ‘Fort William luggage goes there’ pointing to one of the compartments. The way back was a little more difficult as I ended up on double-decker buses which annoyingly have less luggage space so going from Glasgow to London I had to get out to move the bag out of the way at every stop.  So despite the random rules on the Megabus website if you turn up with a bike you should be ok just be nice and put it in yourself as it’s likely to be over their safe lifting weight.

Arriving at Fort William I threw my bike back together and headed up to Bank Street Lodge, settled in and waited for the others to arrive, as I’d missed the shops being open it was a whisky fuelled reunion courtesy of Jims’ constant supply of good quality stuff. Unfortunately this meant when I rode  the 6 or so miles to the Nevis range the next day I wasn’t entirely sober which resulted in me miss-judging a bridge just before the car park and smacking into it, I stayed on my bike and only suffered a slight graze on my arm.

Work up at the Nevis Range took it’s now familiar routine heading up the Gondola and putting the poles out to mark the track deciding which lines should be left open and which should be closed off and taking note of sections of track as well as spectator routes that needed a bit of work. This also gives us a chance to look at the new sections that have been put in like the new Motorway section.

 The second day was taping the track out moving a few poles where the tape would let people take a sneaky line we didn’t want them taking. Last year we taped the wooded section into the road gap (The Big Doon) quite tightly to force them on a certain line, this year we took the same route but taped it wider leaving a tight but fast inside line, this section was the most debated and deliberated section as it has to be fun for riders and spectators but challenging as well as slowing the riders down before the Big Doon. At the same time down at the car park, the village and pits with all the official tents and cabins were being set up, though none of the teams or shops start to turn up until Wednesday.

Wednesday there was lots of talk on Twitter of teams heading up to the Fort, although few actually turned up on site that day, up on the hill I headed up to flatten out some puncture creating rocks and ended up having to re tape a massive section of board walk after someone had taken it off the pole it was secured to at one end. Not fun. Other bits and pieces needed tidying up and sorting out.

Thursday and the days the teams arrive and the village really takes shape. Most of the track work was done but a few braking bumps needed filling in and some branches needed cutting down to improve T.V coverage.  I say a few branches, this turned into an act of mass deforestation, cutting trees down about 5 meters back from the track all in the name of Red Bull T.V. It was fun but hard work but I came out looking like I had Small Pox from all the midgey bites as I was destroying their habitat. It came out looking superb on the coverage and I particularly enjoyed hanging out off a tree cutting down over hanging branches trying not to hit riders as they did their track walk. Unusually I only saw one big name rider coming down the track, the rest must have come after Peaty obviously delayed by his BBQ halfway down.

Part 2 on it's way.

Race Results Catch Up. (+ fun videos)

Since my last post races have happened all over the world with riders having to pick between various races on the same weekend.  The BDS round 2 at Fort William was  a good sign for the World Cup for British riders meanwhile Rachel Atherton takes another IXS European Cup victory and Gee tests out the strength of his leg after breaking it a couple of months back. In 4X Katy Curd is making her mark in a big way.

Up in Fort William the weather was pretty changeable, I get the impression there were points where it was pretty nice up there, however long before the event started, the weather forecast was pretty foreboding for Sunday with it being likely the race would be cancelled.

With a month until the World Cup round many of the top British riders and a few from overseas turned up ensuring a world class line up. Current World Champion Danny Hart turned up on the Wednesday before to get some decent practice in. Some people weren’t too happy about this but then there was nothing to stop them from doing it as the track was open to all.

In the end everything was moved forward and just like the IXS round 1 the seeding became the race run so those who had turned up later didn’t have much practice time and the win went to Danny Hart for the men over round 1 winner Marc Beaumont, while Manon Carpenter edged out Rachel Atherton for the women, this could be a battle of the Brits in the World Cup especially with Tracey Mosely returning for round 3 in Fort William.

Dirt Jump hero Sam Reynolds also tried his hand at downhill. Here’s  how he got on.

This weekend saw the star of a hectic few weekends for teams with the IXS European Cup kicking off 3 consecutive race weekends for many top riders. Next week sees the World Cup series re-start in Val Di Sol after a couple of months hiatus followed by round 3 in Fort William a week later.

As part of the Out of Bounds festival held in Leogang Austria, round 2 of the IXS European Cup took place with many World Cup riders turning up to test themselves and check out the opposition. Gee Atherton decided to really see how his leg was holding up in his first race back after breaking it in training .

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150873129752054

The men’s event was won by Greg Minaar by 2 seconds putting him in a definite favourite spot going into the two World Cup rounds especially with his track record at Fort William. 2^nd went to Steve Smith and 3^rd to Brook Macdonald meanwhile Gee came home in 5^th.

The women’s event was won by Rachel Atherton, making that 2 out of 2 for her in this series. 2^nd went to World Champion Emmeline Ragot, and 3^rd to Jill Kintner. Floriane Pugin came 4^th returning from her injury at the World Champs last year. Tracy Hannah crashed and came in 5^th.

In 4X Katy curd has had a winning streak with in women’s events winning a round of the 4X Pro tour in very wet Poland, she has also won Round 1 of the Schwalbe Euro 4X series. With the next 2 rounds of the Pro tour at Val Di Sol and Fort William could we be seeing a Brit taking the series? It would be great to see her take the win on home soil in 2 weeks.

Away from racing here are 3 lads out having a laugh on their bikes; you may recognise a couple of them.

And a team edit from the CRC Nukeproof lads having fun.

My next post should be from Fort William. Also check out www.solidstate-uk.com more to come on what's going on there.

Pushing yourself and the Season starts in earnest.

A few weeks ago a friend, whom I know from working at the Fort Bill World Cup, came to visit with her boyfriend and we headed out with a couple of their other local friends. It was great to actually ride with other people, particularly with keen bikers, while my housemates enjoy mountain biking it’s not their main sport so we don’t push each other much. Out with these guys I was struggling to keep up and launching myself into stuff I would have avoided if I was on my own. Not to say I didn’t chicken out of a couple of things they did without blinking.

It was great to show someone new the trails round here and they were certainly impressed by having such great tracks 15 mins out of the city centre. Having recently been back up to the Nevis Range with a mountainside to play on it’s easy to let that over shadow Ashton Court/Leigh Woods but the trails are easily comparable, in fact there’s one point on the Leigh Woods trail that reminds me of Nevis every time I ride through it. Not only that but it’s so close to the centre and Nevis Range takes a bit of a ride/drive to get to  and the new pump track at Nevis was a bit rubbish especially compared to Brunel way.

While out with my friend I talked about struggling to push myself, as I had no one better to ride with and to try and keep up with, so she told me about a great app for smart phones called Strava. This app has also just been reviewed by MBUK and is great for motivation and for pushing yourself harder and faster, once activated, with GPS turned on, it tracks your ride recording your speed and your times around your ride, then posts it into a leader board of everyone who uses the app. Not only does this help you keep track of how much you’re riding it also gives you competition and from the first time I started using it I’ve been determined to claw my way up the table. www.strava.com

The British Downhill Series started a couple of weeks ago in Combe Sydenham and will continue at the other end of the country this weekend up at Fort William. The first round, down south for the first time in a while was won by Manon Carpenter just pushing out Rachel Atherton, who was competing for the first time this season after taking a bit longer off to insure recovery from injury. The rest of the World Cup season should be very competitive amongst the women. The mens race was won by Rachel’s GT team mate Marc Beaumont, however Gee Atherton was out with a broken Tibia. 2^nd and 3^rd were taken by  Josh Bryceland and Brendan Fairclough, showing it should be another year full of World Cup Podiums for the Brits.

Since then there have been several races at home and abroad, seeing Rachel Atherton take her first win at the IXS European DH and Bryceland take 4^th in America at Port Angeles.  Also the Mac Avalanche took place in Glencoe last weekend with locals Hannah and Joe Barnes taking the wins in the women’s and men’s races, always good to see these two do well, especially as Joe was the guy sorting out my mates hire bikes for Nevis Range the other week.  Check out the Mac Avalanche here, it’s a bit nuts as is the guy who wrote the article having ridden it on a fully rigid 29er.

World Cup Round 1 PMB

I’ve been in the middle of another post for a while now, so thought I’d bang out a quick one about last weekend’s first round of the World Cup Downhill.

First up the ‘live’ coverage has moved from Freecaster to Red Bull T.V. people had high hopes for this move but many have been left disappointed as the first hour was a bit of a shambles and their apparently live coverage started after the girls had finished their runs. Ok I can see they’re trying to cut down the length of time spent on the early runs in the men’s contest, unfortunately wires were obviously crossed as the commentators, Rob Warner and Nigel Page were viewing the early men’s runs while the viewers saw the women’s descents. Then it switched back and forth but not quite together until the last couple of runs.  This made it pretty hard to keep attention on it despite the great racing. Let’s hope they sort it out for the next one, they have 2 and a half months to work on it!

Manon Carpenter took the Hot Seat by 10 seconds  after qualifying 10^th with some of the biggest contenders not racing like Rachel Atherton, Florrianne Pugin and Sabrina Jonnier it was looking good for Carpenter but let’s not take anything from her  it was a great run that held on till the last lass down. Tracey Hannah, returning to the World Cup circuit with style but putting less than a second over Manon.

In the men’s race Brendan Fairclough, returning from a lot of surgery on his knee over the off season, spent a good while in the Hot Seat eventually finishing in 19^th. Danny Hart the current World Champion slid out and over his bars on the top section ending up way down the field. Peaty finished 15^th and Gracia came out 10^th. Gee Atherton was the top Brit in 4^th having had a bad top section but pulling it back in the last two sections. The top 3 were Mic Hannah almost making it a double win for the Hannah Family, Aaron Gwinn .35 of a second faster than SicMic, leaving local Greg Minaar to come down, his fans went wild and broke down the fence as he came in half a second faster than Gwinn.

Oh and one special mention for Alex Bond newly of the Chain Reaction Cycles team; fastest through the speed trap at 63.642kph just under 4kph faster than the next closest all that with a broken collar bone!

I can’t wait for the rest of the season though it’s a long time till the next race in Val de Sole at the start of June. I just hope Red Bull sort their act out.

Not feeling it.

Sometimes you get on your bike and head to the trails and you’re just not feeling it. It could be feeling tired or ill, not being switched on or just one of those inexplicable days where you just don’t feel good on your bike and nothing quite goes right.

Fortunately my brakes worked well or this would have hurt.

I've had a few of these days this year, although a few of those have been enhanced by mechanical issues, getting up to Ashton Court to find my bike squealing in certain gears despite liberal amounts of lube, the noise is somewhat off-putting not to mention embarrassing. However other times such as last week I’ve been on the edge of a cold and feeling pretty run down, every pedal stroke is a struggle and nothing feels as smooth as it usually does.

The question I asked myself as I laboured up the gravel track to the start of the trails was; ’do I call it a bad day give up and go home or do I get on with it ignore it and push myself as far as I can’. I’m not sure what the sensible solution is but I went for pushing on, it’s kind of in my nature though, be it a book or a game or riding it’s always a case of ‘I’ll just read this last paragraph/ do this mission/ hit that trail, Then I’ll stop.’ I kept telling myself I’d stop and go home but kept on pressing on until, time and light gave out.  In the end I was happy with this choice as I turned round the day and had fun despite not feeling in the zone and being completely wiped at the end of it, added on to this events conspired to stop me riding the next couple of days so I was glad I’d pushed on.

However it’s on these occasions that we make mistakes and bad things can happen, I probably wouldn’t have tried anything new but even doing tried and tested routes can go badly when you’re not on your game or feeling great about your riding. Even if it’s just making you think more about how you feel and not concentrate on what you’re actually riding.

Obviously in some circumstances giving up is less of an option, race days or if you’ve gone a long way to ride some trails, it certainly seems the better option to try and ignore it and have a crack even if you’re going to take it a little easier than perhaps you normally would.

So is it a good plan to push on and try and save the day or should you stop and come back another day, when you’re not feeling the love?

More Bristol trails (Leigh Woods)

Finally the trails in Leigh Woods have opened, well most of it anyway and flipping good they are too. Lots of variation in trail from jumps to berms to technical sections and a skills loop containing all that drop offs and rock gardens.

Some people apparently can't wait a few weeks for it to bed in!

On my way home for Christmas I saw that not only had Leigh Woods opened but a mate of mine who was passing through Bristol got to ride them before me. After his very positive verdict and knowing what Architrail have achieved at Ashton Court I was incredibly eager to check these new trails out.

As I mentioned in my last post I had a fairly large false start to the year but managed to get up there a few days later. When I entered the woods I was confronted with a section that wasn’t open yet but looked like a lot of fun, switchbacks descending a short but steep bit of hillside. I continued in to the woods my sense of excitement growing. With my bike feeling pretty dialled beneath me I was ready and raring to get stuck in to what waited for me.

I had seen the start of the trail when I’d been in on little rides through the woods before, though there’s not much that can be gleaned from that point. Setting off down the trail I discovered small jumps and berms which nicely warm you up for what’s to come. Continuing on, the jumps and berms grow including this lovely set that I am still yet to hit at full pelt.

The trail continues in much the same vein but with only a few larger jumps dotted throughout,  a couple of red sections shoot off to the right, which are technical with steep sections going both up and down, so far I’ve not managed to get through them without messing up. 

Beyond the dual direction path to the car park is the skills loop, which has rock gardens steep descents, berms, jumps and drop offs to practice, as well as a short rocky climb back up towards the trail. After this section you reach the lowest point therefore have to begin the climb back up fortunately this is interspersed with flatter sections to stop it being one big slog, this takes you back to the car park and from there back to the start of the trail on a fairly flat section again with a few features to keep you awake.

You're actually meant to ride up this.

It’s a cracking ride with very varied features and as designed is as hard as you want to make it. My only issues with the course are that some of the off-shoot features such as the rock garden before the car park are a little difficult to get on to without losing speed, though this may just be me. The trail is generally very flowy leading nicely from one section to the next however this is broken up by the crossing of paths for other users and the need to slow riders down before hand, an unfortunate necessity though one that is designed a lot better, with a series of sharp corners, than at some places where they just stick a gate in. I personally have one other issue due to me being 6 foot 4 which is over hanging trees, for most people these are fine but in one or two places I have to duck under them to hit the line.

All in all a great ride which has already become part of my standard route and which is doing wonders for improving all aspects of my skills and fitness.

New Years repairs and upgrades

I returned to Bristol after Xmas eager to get out on my bike again, having heard the Yer Tis trail had opened in Leigh Woods. However I’d got a new cassette which I wanted to fit and my rear brake pads desperately needed replacing, so before I could do any riding I had to sort that out.

I started by getting new cartridges for my V-brakes removing the shoes from the brakes and replacing the pads, re attaching them to the brakes and adjusting the cable. After this I took the back wheel off, loosened the cassette using a freewheel remover, having unscrewed the old cassette I replaced it with the new much larger cassette. A quick and easy job if you have the right tools though re aligning the gears is always a fiddly job.

Having done this I took my bike out eager to try the new trail and generally get out for a ride. I made it about 30 meters before turning to go up a hill towards the trails when my chain snapped and I hit the floor pretty hard, fortunately I was wearing my pads and my new Royal Race trousers which meant I only ended up with a grazed shoulder and a few large bruises despite the heavy impact on the tarmac. I had known the chain was too short but thought I’d get away with it for one ride, I was really quite wrong.

A couple of days later I replaced the chain and managed to get out, though this time the chain was a bit long for the smallest cogs but still rideable with only a few slipped gears, the difference in the ride was amazing, it meant I had to change gear more often and think more about what I was doing but meant I could keep the power on in places where I’d previously struggled to maintain momentum. Unfortunatly after 2 hours of riding I found my shoulder had been hurt more than I’d initially thought and was forced to head home a little earlier than I’d planned.

Since that initial successful ride I’ve been to Leigh Woods a few more times and am very impressed  with the trail there and the skills course and am looking forward to the short downhill section at the end. I’ve also been back to Cwm Carn but I’ll write more of those in the future.

In team news the Athertons have finally officially announced their switch to GT to join fellow Brit Marc Beaumont, it should be an interesting season, I can’t wait for it to start.