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Ben;
Ae Forest is one of the only tracks which I have never ridden in the dry and the weather forecast looked set for another wet and windy weekend. Arriving on Friday afternoon to a dry and calm venue was surprising and the track was mainly dry. We learned from previous races here and avoided the field, parking instead in the hardcore car park at the end. Rain came on Friday night and the track was wet but not too muddy on Saturday practice.

From the start at the trig point the track went down the main line to the right and round the off camber section which had been taped off tighter than usual, only allowing for a few line choices. Down a few new sections which proved to be the muddiest parts of the track and you were down to the stream crossing. Over a double and a fast hardcore section leads down to the road going over drops and roots. Off a drop and over the road crossing which was a sprint to keep momentum up.

Here you go round the rock drop and down a small rock garden into the woods section. This section was dark and required concentration to stay on the right line and to keep speed up. Out of the dense woods leads over a section of roots and some tight switchbacks, down another drop and a sprint down a smoother hardcore section to the infamous step down. Here you turn left and go down the step down and into the two huge berms, pedalling out of them to make up time. Over a double and round to the left leads over some roots and through the gate, down the elevator drop and through the finish line.

After more rain on Saturday night the track was holding up well and eventually after a few practice runs it was time to race. This weekend the order of categories was unusual with the juniors going just before the expert category. This gave me more time to get ready after practice. In run 1 I had a good run and I got all of my lines right. I came through the finish line with a time of 2:29.187 which gave me 3rd in juniors. This was a big confidence boost and I knew I could go faster by pushing my fitness. In run 2 I was determined to do better and I pinned the top section and was ready for the fast bottom section. Just before the road my front wheel caught the loose stuff and I went under the tape. As racing rules state I had to go back onto the track where I came off and this lost a lot of time. I still crossed the line in 2:37.648 which eventually gave me 8th place in Junior and 29th overall.

With Steve getting a 2nd place in Vets and John a 4th in Masters the team gathered a brilliant set of results and are looking forward to the next race. Good luck to Steve in the World Masters next week.

Steve;
TBH I wasn’t looking forward to this weekend as the weather forecast on the previous Thursday had Noah presenting it!! I got up there Friday evening to find Phil and Ben set up in a prime dry spot and was pleasantly surprised to see the ground to be fairly dryish and reports of a ‘weather friendly’ taped out track also raised the spirits.

Obviously sense had prevailed and the old well ridden in track was marked out, bar the coffin jump, (why do they never use this in races?), so the decision was made to keep the Comp 16’s on for Sat practice and apart from a couple of slimy corners which had the front sliding a little, they hooked up brilliantly.

Since I’d ridden this particular track more times than Ben has probably shaved hairs off his chin, I knew where I was going form the off and decided to use the good old clipless pedals and ‘disco slippers’ to give me the confidence to hit the jumps, especially my nemesis – the step down!! As previously mentioned this is the scene of my biggest MTB injury to date when in 2002 I crashed after the step down and sustained my permanently separated shoulder. First run down though and I sailed it – Mint! Must admit though I cased it on a couple of runs and that got the sphincter twitching a bit – ha!

As Ben mentioned, Sat night it hammered down, and with it still drizzling Sun morning I fitted the swamp donkeys for a couple of practice runs and my first race run. By first run the sun had come out and the course was drying fast but was still ‘sticky’ in some areas so I knew the swamps would work and give me the confidence to push on the first run.

As usual I took it steady to get a solid time on the board, whilst pushing where I was comfortable and hit the line in 2:54 into 2nd place. As usual Alistair was well ahead by 20 secs, but I was only 1+ ish up on 3rd, so with the track drying I knew the second runs were probably going to be quicker so I needed to pull the finger out.

Three hours later and the track was really dry so the Comp 16’s went back on and a quick scan round at the start I noticed most of the Vets were still on spikes, so I Def had a tyre advantage. Second run and I let it go loose a bit more, pedalled a bit harder, had a couple of sketchy moments but the run definitely felt faster, hitting the line in 2:54, actually about 0.6 sec slower than my first run – weird!! Thankfully Mark who was in 3rd after the first run went slower and Kem who was in 4th, did go faster, but not fast enough and I retained the 2nd spot – WooHoo!

Next race for John and me is the World Masters in Pra Loup, France where I hope to build on this current form and get a top 5 result, fingers crossed.

BTW - I’m surprised that Ben didn’t mention that he fell off with some style down the elevator during Sat practice. He was as brave as a lion though on Sat eve and didn’t mention it once!

John;
For anyone who has ridden the track at Ae, you will know that it is one of those strange tracks, where it is easy to have a blinding run and get a poor time or have a poor run and get a good time.

The new NPS start section had been left out in favour of the normal SDA start section to the race, it seemed that everyone had been practicing the new start in anticipation of it being used here. This meant that the start of the track was a little greasy on the Saturday for practice, something that I must remember for future trips to Ae.

As I walked up the track on the Friday evening there was a sense of deja vue, the same track had been taped as the Scottish championships the previous year. There were a couple of minor changes but nothing that would cause any issues. The course was taped tight, so line choice was minimal on the track. I was not sure how I felt about this, but it turned out that the track was riding well, with all the lines cut down to the hard surface and the roots, making the track fun to ride. Although Ae is a relatively easy track, there is the elevator at the end of the track, this seems to scare all riders and regularly ends the season for the unlucky few. Of all the features on the tracks in Scotland for me this is the scariest. Around 40ft down in a gradient that you can’t think about walking up. You have to drop this to somewhere on the down slope, which is not flat and has 2 large impact bumps on it.
My first 2 practice runs were a nice steady affair, getting used to the grip on the track, practice run 3 would see some more speed added, into corner 1 and I lost the front end on the slippery rocks. Run 4 and I made it round the first corner, out of the big left hander that followed and on with the power sprinting across the hill, next thing I know I am head butting the stem and hitting the ground hard. As I get up and look at the nice simple piece of track I am at a total loss to what happened. The only thing that I could see that could have caused the crash was a hole a few inches off the racing line, looking way ahead I must have gone into the hole whilst sprinting and then OTB. I picked myself up, dusted myself down and went down the hill for some lunch (and to check out that I had not ruined my good looks too much, ha ha).

The rest of the day was spent taking it easy as I had hurt my little finger in the crash.
Saturday night, and off to Marthrown of Mabie, hot tub, sauna and cooking facilities, all for £15 a night. During the night the heavens opened, this was the weather that had been forecast for during Saturday, luckily it had decided to wait until practice was over to start. Come Sunday morning and Mabie forest was dry and there was some blue sky around, but 10 miles away at Ae the rain and low cloud was still around. I decided that I would wait out the rain as I knew what was coming. 1hour later and it had dried up and the weather was looking good. 1 practice run and I was ready for racing.

Race run 1 was quite good, 3 costly mistakes on the way down the hill, loosing me a few seconds and sat in 4th place. I knew there was time to be made up so I was hopeful for run 2. Race run 2 felt nice, but somehow the time was nearly 2 seconds slower, so I was left in 4th place missing out on 3rd by 0.3seconds. Most of the masters went slower on the 2nd run, the wind had picked up and the mud had started to dry out making the track slower, by the elites the track was all but dry with near clean bike coming down the hill. I ended up in 4th place, I know that I should have done better but there is a race in France to look forward to now.

I left my bike with Steve on the Sunday ready for its trip to France and the world masters.

Sorry for the lack of pics… the rain was not camera friendly at all

Matt’s bit…

Sleepless In The Saddle was the XC team’s second 24hr race of the year but the first with all four members racing together (myself, Andy, Andrew and Rob), unlike Mountain Mayhem which was more of a mixture due to injuries. The weather forecasts had been predicting heavy showers for the Saturday but bright sunshine for the Sunday, personally I was only hoping for a dry night lap for once! The course at Catton Park doesn’t have the change in elevation of most courses and truth be told it doesn’t have the amount of singletrack most riders prefer, however for an endurance race for all abilities it does the job. As ever there were hundreds of competitors all camped out at the bottom of the course and plenty of trade stands ready to provide any assistance required.

The rain had been falling since mid morning, but seemed to let up just before the off. The start was the traditional short run before getting on the bike and sprinting off. Rob was up first and did well to come out of the run towards the front to help avoid the inevitable bottleneck of riders going into the first tight sections. There was a strange altercation between a couple of riders getting to their bikes which must have stemmed from personal issues we were unaware of. Other than that the crowd cheered through all the competitors and we went off to prepare for our own laps. Rob came back to report the track wasn’t in great condition and seemed to mostly consist of riding round the fields but at least it was all ridable.

Andrew went out for our second lap by which time we had had a chance to go and examine the track and riders as it dropped out of the woods near the campsite. The slope had attracted a crowd as there was a good chance of someone falling off to be greeted by cheers and shouts of encouragement to get back on and ride back up the hill. The reports from this early on dictated that mud tyres would be essential to getting through without too much mishap.

After the two Andy’s had gone out it was my turn, straight away I felt glad I had changed to thin mud tyres as the course was already becoming difficult to ride the intended lines, most people had started to choose wider and wider lines to find something more dry. The first section was a long stretch to the far side of the course following the hedge lines before cutting up and into the woods, this traversed back towards the arena and despite the ground being solid underneath this only served to create the affect of riding on glass which I found amusing if not very challenging. At one point I was helped up a slippery slope by someone walking next to me although I may as well have been walking given the speed I was going. This section led to another field section flowing into the bluebell woods where the ground provided a little more traction but still had a couple of off camber bits to catch you out. This dropped back down to the field next to the arena and after a quick detour through some bomb holes we were back round the edge of the arena passing through the red bull tent (fully stocked with refreshment) marking the half way point. There then followed a long section of fields and short singletrack including a long grassy off camber section which required determination to stay on a steady line and not get dragged down the slope. This led us to the top of a descent with a small group of riders gathered at the top when I arrived watching another attempt to go down without his bike on his bum, I chose the no brakes and full throttle approach and reached the bottom without incident. This led us into the woods above the back of the campsite to the top of the descent with a crowd at the bottom, again I went with speed rather than brakes and got a round of applause as I turned at the bottom without departing the bike. The last sections went from back at the top of the same hill, riding down the off camber slope, along the bottom beside the campsite, back up into the woods briefly and then into the arena.

Just as I got back to the tents the rain came down again hard for Robs second lap and by the time he came back he was pretty fed up, unfortunately he didn’t feel up to continuing so he retired leaving only three of us. This presented a problem, made worse when Andy came back from his second lap reporting the mud had become impossible to ride through in several places We had a short meeting as the rain continued to fall and decided that we’d leave it until the early hours before going out again.

I got up for another lap at dawn but the course had only gotten worse and riding through it had become a slog. After the others had done another lap each we decided to call it a day. This view seemed shared with several others as the toll of broken rear mechs and moral hit home. The best idea going around the site was to go back home and have a few beers.

Andy, sketching down the off camber descent on the Sunday morning. The only time he was seen with a smile and on the bike…!

Not the best race we’ve managed to do, the first 24hr race I haven’t completed no thanks to the British weather, hopefully a future SITS will be held in a more resilient place to keep everyone going through the worst of the weather!

…Andy’s bit…

As team captain I was pleased to get all the team together for the 24 hours, and also keen to ride seeing as I missed Mayhem with a slashed up arm. Matt has already told the story of the event, so here’s how it went for me.

Fri eve - rocked up, chose a piece of field to call home, pitched tent, ate food, drank booze. Good start then.

Sat am - cloudy… Rob turned up. Started to rain. Matt turned up. Gazebo went up (shelter :-)). Andy turned up. Rob volunteered to ride first, still raining.

Sat pm - Rob does first lap, comes back moaning about course and weather. Rain stops. Andy goes out 2nd, I soon follow. Mud mud mud rain slippy mud going ok gears still work, not any more… mud mud mud mud hand over to Matt. Rain starts again, Rob goes out, comes back, gets in van and drives off. Team morale plummets, not sure of the plan anymore. I go out again, mud mud mud mud gears don’t work wheels don’t turn can’t ride can’t stand up can’t push bike pick mud off bike so wheels turn (repeat for 1 1/2 hours) try to ride rooty descent, end up riding it backwards on my belly. Get back and team decision to slack it off overnight as its so bad…

Sun am - Matt goes out, Andy goes out, I get up and realise my bike still resembles a swamp monster. Pick more mud off and make the wheels turn - good enough. I go out, dry line appearing, and most of the course rideable. Sweet. Fellow rider compliments my “jedi” riding through the bluebell woods. Laugh like a loon down the descent and get a big cheer from the crowd. Nearly take out spectators and gatepost of off-camber descent. Finish the lap and realise I didn’t have my timing chip on…. Oops. Team decision to relax a bit and go out towards the end (not like we are racing anymore is it?…)

Sun pm - Decide that if we ride another lap we’ll get muddy again and seeing as we aren’t racing any more there really wasn’t much point. So pack up and hit the road, feeling pretty gutted with the whole event…

Ben:
With dad taking the day off work on Friday we headed up early and arrived in a field at 1:30pm and the sun was shining. After spending about half an hour deciding where to park we spent a further half hour attempting to level out the van on what seemed to be a 45 degree slope. Finally we got set up and got the easy-up tied down so I went for a walk of the track. From the top of the hill the track went round some off camber corners with a drop in but due to the bad weather and high winds at the top, the start line was moved down to the quarry drop 200 metres down. Pedalling off the start you go round a big dip in the ground and it’s a sprint round the first 3 corners which were all cut inside on the grass. Round to the left on a grassy corner and you go off a small drop and into two big double jumps which fortunately were sheltered by the banking so you could jump them.

From here you go through a series of switchbacks and down a set of small, off camber drops which wind down the side of the valley and into the road crossing. Due to high winds, 99% of the riders didn’t even bother to try the road gap so you do two smaller jumps instead. Crossing the road you go down into a bomb-hole and then back up onto the side of the valley. Here you have a sprint all the way along the side of the valley consisting of rocky ground and some small but fast drops and a bus stop jump. Round the end of the valley takes you through a broken down wall and onto a long off camber section keeping high and putting a few pedal strokes in to make up time. The right hand corner before the road crossing was very off camber and only got a decent rut dug into it by the end of Sunday’s runs. Off the rock slab and over the fire road you go over the inside of a double, trying to keep low to avoid the wind. Keeping a road tuck position down the field and cranking the pedals leads you through the trees, past the ticket2ride team van and over the final launch through the finish line.

On Saturday the rain came down hard for most of the day and the track was getting to the stage of being a bog in places. Several clean kits later and Saturday practice was over. That evening there was a long jump contest held on the launch jump in the field. When the prize was announced as a crate of Monster energy and £60 I decided to give it a shot. Several flat landings later I came 3rd in the long jump clearing 39 feet, just 3 inches off the win. Gutted!!

Bubba’s got nothin on this boy!!! (Photo courtesy of www.fastlanephotography.co.uk)

Sunday was better than Saturday with the sun finally coming out before racing started. As there was no seeding it was number order and I was one of the last juniors down. I sprinted off the line all the way down to the switchbacks and then kept a low profile to reduce the drag from the wind. At the top Joe Flanagan had a skin suit and no peak on so I was determined to prove this as a false concept. I did this and came through in a time of 2:23.842 and I got 10th place in junior, beating Joe by 5 seconds.

The added bonus of being parked next to the Monster energy speakers gave me a few headaches but the music was at least very good. Now driving home in the van I’m enjoying my last few hours as a 16 year old. So tomorrow, “watch out there’s another idiot on the road”, in the words of Steve.

Steve;
Bit of a strange one this race! The NPS normally go for big wide tracks with multi line options – silly one’s for the brave and foolish and the ‘sheep’ trail lines for the less technically gifted riders, however what we were presented with this weekend was a very tightly taped track down the previously used course, (apart from a new road crossing), and a single line all the way down! Apart from a few tight off camber lines through the gorse switchback and the potential of a big road jump where the new section was, that wasn’t actually achievable due to the strong head wind, it was a single trail all the way down.

Due to the strong winds up top, the start was also moved down to below the rock drop, taking out the biggest obstacle on the course and then the course was taped wider around a couple of bomb holes making it really easy for everyone, so the top section now required no technical skill whatsoever to get to the couple of doubles before the switchbacks. Whether this was the input of the Chief UCI Commissaire who did appear to be a bit risk averse and probably more used to dealing with namby pamby XC racers, but it did severely sterilise the top section.

As Ben mentioned, the forecasted rain battered us on the Saturday turning the track to gloop in places and then when seeding got cancelled Sat afternoon, with the rumour going round that Sunday would be one practice run, seeding and then race run, a few people packed up and went home. Thankfully sense prevailed and Sunday was organised as normal with seeding done on current series form which appeared to work for the majority.

I’ve become a bit of a fair weather rider as the years have progressed so I wasn’t enjoying Sat at all, but thankfully due to the sterile nature of the course there wasn’t much to learn, so three runs and I knew where I was going, just needed to speed up and there would be plenty of time on Sunday for that with the prospect of dry and sunny weather forecasted as a bonus too.

After a surprisingly good sleep in the back of the hired van, Sunday did dawn ‘dryish’, but the odd brief shower kept the track slick so the spikes stayed on during the couple of practice runs. The wind had picked up though and the flat pedal across the traverse after the road crossing. especially with spikes on, was like hitting a brick wall! By the end of the plebs practice session the track had dried considerably and over 1.5 hours later when racing started, I noted that all the riders were coming down bone dry.

The old race brain started ticking and I decided to gamble and fitted the Comp 16’s when everyone else was still running spikes - any tyre that rolled faster had to be an advantage against the head wind and could hopefully pinch me a podium spot.

Sure enough the tyres were magic and I nailed all the fast sections, what I’d forgotten though was to change the pedals and shoes too so I could nail the jumps also, as I still can’t fully commit to big doubles using the flats and consequently I found the fingers nervously hitting the levers on every jump, thus sapping the subsequent speed and it showed in my final result – 8th Arse!!!

Someone measured this one for me, apparently it was 39′ 1″

Ben;
As this was my first time abroad with my bike as well as my first time abroad by myself, I was excited and was counting down the days until my flight. Friday came and I was up at 4am, in the van and off to Manchester Airport. After check in final goodbyes were said and I went through to my plane. Coming in to land in Vancouver I was amazed at how big everything was over in Canada. I was welcomed by Jay from ticket2ride and met up with the other guys who had come on the same flight. As the drive back to the chalet in whistler was a 4 hour drive we stopped off on the way and got used to the local food. Big slices of pizza and more energy drinks than I could imagine were lined along every shelf so I stocked up with Monster energy for the week. Arriving at the chalet we were all greeted by Dan and we settled in and built our bikes. This was a scary moment for me as a washer on my rear axle had dropped into the bike bag and I thought for a moment that I wouldn’t have a complete bike.

After a much needed sleep it was morning and I was excited and just wanted to go to the bike-park and ride. I did my first runs on the easier tracks such as ‘Crank It Up’ and ‘B-line’ with Matt Parkinson just to get used to the tracks and the length of the mountain. We moved onto some of the bigger tracks like ‘A-line’ and ‘Dirt Merchant’ and did some jumps and drops. This was more my style and made a welcome change to the tight and twisty tracks which I was used to acing on back in the UK. That day I rode till closing time and was so happy to have finally lived my dream of riding Whistler. That night we ate in the chalet where chef Andy worked his wonders and cooked us a fantastic three course meal.

Day 2 and we went back to he bike park to ride for another whole day. The riding was better today as I knew a lot of the tracks and had got used to riding the steeper and longer tracks. I had a break from doing endless runs down ‘A-line’ and went over to the tighter and more downhill type trails such as ’Karate Monkey’ and ‘Schleyer’. With Matt not having any forks I met up with Paul from Norway who was pinning the trails on a short travel Turner. We rode all day down tight trails and I was pushing myself to go faster every run. Day 3 was also spent in the bike park and I got to know the bars and restaurants around the village at lunch. Although the waitresses at Longhorn’s were outstanding I think the coke refills at the GLC took my fancy in the hot Canadian sunshine.

On Tuesday I was going on the North-Shore trip with Dan, Lee, Chris the mechanic and all the other guys from the chalet. First run down we did was slow and learning to ride the skinnies and the rocky drops. This was an ideal place to take some pictures of the guys and Keith the camera man got snapping. Further down the trail we ran into a mini bike park with several lines of north-shore made from both natural logs and hand built shore. After this we were shuttled back to the top of the mountain which was bigger than it looked. A well deserved lunch was eaten and we did a run from top to bottom of the trail. The shore on the top section was a lot bigger and a lot of the guys conquered their fears and showed off their new whistler skills. Back into the Astro and the four hour drive was fun filled with music and the amazing views.

On Wednesday and Thursday I rode the bike park again and also got a chance to do some bike park riding with the chalet crew. Once again Keith and Tony took charge of the camera and some still memories were recorded. Taking the guys down A-line was a good experience and everyone was laughing all the way down behind me. These two nights also entailed me trying to get into the local bars which I’ll admit didn’t work.

It felt like no time at all until my week in Whistler was over and I was packing my bike back into the bag and getting all my clothes folded neatly. Tim and the boys played their cards right and managed to find a way to gain an extra day of riding. Unfortunately because my flight was early on Friday I couldn’t do this. Running around the airport trying to find our flights was hectic but I checked in well on time. Final goodbyes were once again said and emotions came out. No tears thankfully. Minutes later I was sat around with Jay and Steve waiting for our call and eventually I left sunny Canada for rainy England.

I would like to thank everyone for making my experience the best it could possibly be. Especially all of the guides, Andy the chef, Chris the mechanic who saved my skin a few times, Tim and the boys, David, Alice for keeping us all in order and anyone else who helped out and rode with me. Also Mr Felstead himself for lending me his bike-bag and dad for emptying his wallet to send me out there. Photos courtesy of Keith.

Ben;
We arrived on Friday afternoon to sunny Wales, (Steve - Apparently Ben got A* in his Geography exams, but thought the English Champs at Hopton was in Wales!!!), and set up camp on a flat dry patch. I walked the track with dad and spent some time deciding which lines would be good as it was our first race at this track. Practice started later than usual on Saturday morning so a bit longer in bed was a good start to the weekend.

Off the start line the track went over some small tables and had a lot of rooty sections which got worse and harder to ride as the day went on. Lots of ruts helped round corners and the widely taped track meant there were a lot of options. Out into the open and you go over stumps and round bermed corners. Here the track was hardcore and mud which gave less grip when the rain came but still provided a cleaner line. Jumping over some bigger stumps and cutting inside on some corners helped to gain time. Back into some more open wood sections where the trees weren’t the issue, but instead the flatter ground and roots mixed with the length of the section made for some enduring racing for even the fittest riders. Over the second road crossing and you’re back into the open. Here there were loose corners with wider lines to help you set up better for the straights. Off some step downs and you keep high avoiding braking bumps back into the final woods section.

Round some switchbacks with flat corners you go down a gulley and over a log into the tight root section. Here you go left over a drop with roots on the run in. Taking the right line here was essential to keep your speed up. Round a set of muddy corners and a big set of switchbacks lead down to the drop and triple jump where many riders scared themselves or ended their weekend. Over the final big table jump and you cross the finish in the field.

After practice on Saturday I walked the track with mark and discussed some lines. I decided to change some lines in the top woods and found some better ways to cross the roots.

On Sunday practice went well and the overnight rain had helped the track to not get sticky which meant I kept my cut down spikes on the bike. The first run went good with all my lines right and I kept up the pace all the way down. As the first rider down I had no problems ahead of me and I put in a good time of 2:47 which gave me 7th place in the run. In run 2 I was going for it with the thought of a title ahead of me. This went all wrong when I crashed on an easy corner in the woods so I didn’t improve my time. I still kept my good time from run 1 and I came 9th in the junior category for the weekend. I also placed 39th overall out of 251 riders who put in a time which was a more than satisfying result for me.

Ben;
As one of the biggest races for me this year I was prepared and had been training hard over the coming months. After walking the track on Friday night I was happy with my lines and ready to ride.

From the start the track goes over a series of bus stops which wind down the hill side round some flat out corners where letting off the brakes all the way reminds you of why you ride downhill bikes. Over the first road crossing you go round a set of switchbacks and round a long sweeping rocky corner into a step up and another drop. Over the second fire road, off a fly off jump on the other side and another small double leads you down into the first woods section. Here there are berms and drops with roots to throw you off line. Further in there are stumps to avoid and more ruts to wind around the trees. Doing a few small doubles and it’s a short sprint beside the fire road to the crossing.

Back into more woods where there are some flat corners and some high off camber lines. Keeping high round a final tight left hander and you drop into the open fields where you have to keep inside around some fast and flat grassy corners. Off a drop and through the muddy ditch leads you round some more corners and over two doubles and finally down to the big bridge before you cross the finish line.

On Saturday it was seeding and I put in a good time of 3:22 and 19th place. On Sunday the track had dried out a lot but I kept to my morals and stuck with the cut down spikes instead of high rollers. This paid off and railing the final corners I put in a time of 3:16 which gave me 20th place in junior. A sound result for the national champs.

John;
This year the national chamionships were to be held at Rynd-y-felin. Having never ridden in Wales I was excited about the prospect.

The only thing that stood between me and the race was the 950 mile round trip. Setting off mid morning on the Friday all went well until a blow out on the motorway 2 hours short of getting to Bala. I arrived at the camping ground, which was down one of the Welsh countryside’s thin and winding roads, before 2000, over 8 hours on the road and I was still fresh with the excitement of getting to ride somewhere new.

I had heard that the track was one of the best tracks in the country, steep and technical in places. As I walked up the track I wondered where the steep and technical sections were, this track was not steep and technical like Aberfeldy, but it did look like a whole lot of fun.

Friday night was interesting….. the weather had closed in and the rain was falling, along with some strong winds. I was sleeping in the car, positioned nicely behind Phils (Ben’s dad) van, so I could hear the wind but felt nothing. Come the morning and the story of a Gazebo flying around the camping area taking out power lines came out.

Saturday practice and the drizzle came down most of the day, making cut spikes the only choice for the field at the bottom of the track. The track was as much fun to ride as it looked. This was not a track for the technical rider, but one for the balls out rider.

As Saturday went on the track got faster and faster to ride. I just wanted to get to the top as quickly as possible to have some more fun on the way down. There was even a couple of small drops on the track, all dropping onto fire road width tracks, so you could go for them knowing that you were going to land on the track.

Seeding on the Saturday was a strange one for me, there was a section in the woods that was taped real wide where for some un-know reason I kept getting lost, heading down the steep bit of the hill and not up onto the race line. Another day with no crashes, I am kinda getting used to this now, must go faster!

Sunday practice and it stayed dry for most of the day with the occasional shower, and no more getting lost in the woods. As the day went on the track got smoother and faster. Race runs were going to be fun.
During the initial senior race runs the air ambulance flew in to pick up a rider that had gone down heavy at the end of practice, rumour was that it was Rachel Atherton and she was in lots of pain with a suspected broken leg. Luckily only badly bruised, I hope she gets better quickly.

The race run was possibly my 2nd best run of the weekend, with only 1 big mistake, coming to a stop on a medium speed corner when I braked to late going into it and overshot the entrance. Apart from that the run was without any big incidence. As I crossed the line, I knew that with one big mistake and a couple of little ones costing me precious seconds that it was not going to be enough to place to well. 11th place in a good field was ok.

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John

Alan

* Or the anti-climax it turned out to be.

In a nut shell, brilliant 2 days of qualifying, apart from a few trails in Whistler I’ve never laughed so much on my bike. The snow sections were just mental but when you got the technique sorted you could fly.

Second day of riding and my forks gave up, together with 2 other riders with me, Mr Lanzi warned me about the Marzocchi 55’s and boy was he right, they’re crap!!!

Friday was qualifying day and with only 80mm of travel up front I was a bit worried about the technical rocky sections, but hey ho, I was on the front row and therefore I only had myself to blame if I didn’t make the Mega or Promo as I would have let ~80 riders overtake me.

The crap euro pop music started and I’d previously sussed that the tape rose on a certain beat of the music, so I was ready with the elbows out in front of the two riders either side of me. 5th around the first left hander I was lining up for the RH hairpin when someone T-boned me on the inside and down I went - D’oh! I got up quickley and started off again, but no gears - aaaaaaargh!!

Me and Scott

As I spinned away merilly I watched in horror as the field powered past me. I pulled over to give the gears a check over but couldn’t suss out the problem - arse! I more or less coasted through the rest of the upper track and got severely stuck behind really crap riders that p1ssed me off even more. About half way down the track whilst trying to overtake a rider on the outside I lowsided and after picking myself up decided to call it a day, but wait…….the gears were working again. With power now available I hit the trail with avengence and must have overtaken 30+ riders through the technical bits as their poor little hands and arms gave up the ghost from all the excessive braking they were doing!!

Unfortunately the resurgance wasn’t enough and I missed the Promo qualifying by 14 places - arse!!

Friday night the thunder and rain came and curled up in my warm bed I made the decision to sack off the sat leisure ride down the track. Following the cancellation of the race from the top I was happy with my decision as it’s just not the mega withiout the mass snow start.

Roll on 2009, I’ll be ready for it next time.

Scott and Tim

Tim’s Bit:
Megavalanche was set to be a whistle-stop tour for Anne and me. Our plan was to leave home after work on the Tuesday before the race, drive through the night via the channel tunnel and arrive in Alpe D’Huez ready for some practice on Wednesday morning. We’d have Wednesday and Thursday to practice the two tracks, Friday to qualify, Saturday to race and Sunday to get home for tea and medals - easy! We arrived in Alpe D’Huez on schedule at 8 O’clock on Wednesday morning feeling pretty fresh. So checked into our accommodation, got the bikes ready and set off up the hill to practice the qualifier….Sh1t a brick! I didn’t remember it being that rough at the top nor that narrow and rooty lower down.

For Friday I had agreed to ride the Mega course with Scott and Steve. I duly arrived at the bottom of the lift at 9 am and met Steve and his posse but there was no sign of Scott. In the end Steve’s group set off and I waited for Scott to finish some critical optimisation (you all know what I mean!). The two of us finally got to the top in brilliant sunshine and got our first view of the descent from Pic Blanc…Sh1t a brick! I didn’t remember there being that much snow last year. It seemed to extend all the way down to the start of the single track – far further then even last year’s record amounts. We slipped and slid our way down with a grin and a prayer – it was brilliant fun.

Snow turned to singletrack and the single track just kept on coming – awesome! We got down to Alpe D’Huez in good time and good spirits so allowed ourselves a break. This also gave Scott a chance to discuss fork tuning and spring rates with the man at the SRAM workshop. Soon after leaving town to complete the rest of the course, I lost Scott on a newly cut section of singletrack; he’d taken a wrong turn and we didn’t meet again until the bus in Allemont. The rest of the track was as I’d remembered it and I savoured the chance to ride it without the clock or 400 other riders getting in the way of a good time.

Thursday night/Friday morning was crap! I must have enjoyed the day before too much to remember to drink enough water. The altitude and good weather conspired to leave me dehydrated in the middle of the night and I got no sleep at all. I caught a quick nap as 9am approached and left myself just enough time to drag my groggy head to the start of my qualifying race. Unfortunately just enough wasn’t quite enough! I got out of the top cable car just as the dodgy French techno music announced the start of my race. I joined on at the back as everyone took off down the fire road and started my battle to finish no lower than 95th out of the 200 riders. I did well to begin with and used my downhill bike to take more direct, rougher lines from those being taken by the majority on trail bikes, which gained me many places. However, the one major climb on the qualifier let me know exactly how crap I felt and I was reduced to walking/jogging to the top. To my dismay things got worse from there. I was riding OK but my Hope M4s were hopeless, I was getting nothing from them on the steep switchbacks and developed arm pump like I haven’t known since I last went sport climbing. I passed from one to two finger braking and eventually just couldn’t hold on any more. I was forced to stop three times or risk a high-speed crash on the very steep terrain and was passed by rider after rider each time. I got to the bottom in bits and had a bad feeling about my position. Sure enough I had finished 98th, three places outside the cut off for the Promo race. Gutted! As a non-qualifier I would still be able to ride the Mega course on the Saturday and record a time, but I would do so after the two “proper” races had departed. This was not what I’d come for but you take what you can get.

I had another disturbed night of sleep but this time I wasn’t alone – a huge electrical storm with torrential rain passed over at about 4am. I don’t imagine many slept through it. I packed Anne off at 06:40 feeling a little less troubled by my non-qualification – the race going ahead was by no means a certainty. I actually felt a tiny pang of guilt thinking of my wife out there in the rain and wind but it didn’t last long as I went back to sleep! I headed up for the lift at half past seven so that I could start my time trial directly behind the Mega Promo but as I approached the lift station things seemed odd. Hundreds of riders were milling around and the lift was stopped. After an hour things got going again but no one was going to Pic Blanc, the weather had forced the organisers to start the race on the qualifier. I got to the top and met up with Scott who was still waiting to start the Mega Promo, indeed the girls hadn’t yet started and we were able to see Anne and Charlotte off.

With so few riders having braved the conditions (and been arsed with the lower start) the organisers invited us non-qualifiers to join the back of the Promo. This was a bit more like it and I was chuffed to at least participate in a massed-start race. More importantly, I could see Scott and John just a few rows in front…

Having got this far I w