World Cup, Round 1, Maribor, Slovenia

The first round of the 2010 Downhill Would Cup series was held in Maribor, Slovenia. I was not too sure on how long it would take to get there and as its my first World Cup I decided to leave early to make sure that I was there with enough time to do everything I needed to do.

I arrived early Wednesday and spent the day sorting bike stuff out and I also took a walk up the track to see what it was like. The weather forecaster was for it to be wet for the whole race and it was quite obverse that it had been raining a lot before we got there.

The track looked amazing. It looked pretty long and was already quite rough form previous races. It looked like it had a really good flow to it. It had a lot of roots the whole way down and a lot of high-speed sections as well. O and of course there was the famous rock garden in there as well.

Practise was going well. It was so much fun even though it was raining a lot it was still amazing. I tried not to put myself under any pressure even thought I really wanted to qualify in the top 80 for the final so I just thought that I would try and do the best run I could and see where that put me.

Qualifying went well, I was still really nervous at the top but as soon as I started my run I relaxed in to it. I ended up in 47th which I was stoked on. I had a good run and was so happy make that top 80 final for Sunday.

More rain came down overnight and I don't think it stopped raining all day. Because of the wind on Sunday they did not run the lift for a while so we ended up only getting 1 practice run in. I was not too bothered about this as I already felt peaty good on the track. I headed up early for my race run just in-case there was any problems with the lift I didn't want to miss my run. Being up there so early made me quite nervous but I just tried to block that out and stay relaxed.

My race run went well, the track was much rougher. I had a good run down, I think I went a bit safe but I was happy to make it down clean and get a solid result for my first World Cup.

I finished of the 62nd place which I am so happy with.

Chilling with Joe Smith at the end of race runs, Joe got 8th, First ever World Cup top 10.

Looking forward to heading back up to Fort William again for the World Cup in 3 weeks time.

Thanks to, Specialized, Superstar components, Funn, 661, Maxxis and Axo.

Olie

Riding Shots by Jacob Gibbins, http://jacobgibbins.co.uk/

BDS Round 2, Fort William, Scotland.

The second round of the new BDS series was at the famous Fort William track in the Nevis range, Scotland. Its a fair way to go form down south so we decided to leave on the Thursday evening. We arrived Friday afternoon and decided to have a look at the track. We were told that there were some changes on the track this year which is cool. I started walking it with Harry but only made it half way up as I was feeling pretty ill so decided to head back down and walk it in the morning.

Expert and Elite have extra practise on Saturday and I was up early so I decided to get on the first lift up and walk down, The changes to the track looked awesome, there were a lot of compressions and drops and it all look cool. I took a cruse down for my first run to see what the new bit where are like and see how I felt with still being a bit ill. I felt ok I just got tired a lot quicker. I got down to the bottom and realised that I had blown up my shox.

I managed to borrow a spare one of my friend Owen James as mine was not fixable, thanks very much Owen. The rest of practice went well for me, I was finding all the new bits really cool an having a really fun time on the track.

I have started working with K9 industries a bit lately and this was my fist race with there help with my suspension setup. I have been using some of their Boss forks and they feel amazing. I was having some issues with my bike wallowing at the back and feeling really hard to pedal but we changed a phew things about got rid of that.

I did a couple of practice runs on Sunday and everything felt good so I was looking forward to seeding. Seeding went well I was worried that I was going to get knackered with the track being so long but my training is defiantly paying off and I felt good all way down and had a good run. I Seeded in 3rd which I was happy with. My race run was good, I felt like I road well all the way and only had one sketchy moment at the end of the woods bit managed to save it. I improved on my seeding time and ended up in 3^rd behind Jack and Owen.

Maribor next week, can’t wait.

Thanks to Specialized, Superstar components, K9 Industries, Funn 661, Maxxis and Axo

Welsh champs, Llangollen.

Welsh Champs, Llangollen 1^st -2^nd May 2010

Bank holiday had arrived and we set of for Llangollen, the steepest track in the uk. 300 miles later we arrived at the venue and already we were excited and looked forward to the Saturday practice. After what can only be described as a Michelin star dinner cooked by the Mum, we hit the hay testing out the new insulation in the roof.

We woke up early to go and walk the new track being raced. The track was open and very steep. The first section traversed across the hill and then dropped down into lots of steep switchbacks and rocky shoots. It then led to a triple step down to the finish line. The track looked real hard and challenging in places.

Practice began and mid way through my first run I was already loving the track. There were some really cool sections and the track seamed to flow really good as well. It we evident that the track was going to change a lot as well because of the steepness you were on the breaks a lot so it became very ripped up very quickly. By the end of Saturday practice I was feeling pretty good on the track. I was finding it hard to push to go faster as I rarely get to ride steep stuff so every time I tried to push myself I just ended up mucking up or crashing.

After washing my bike and a bit to eat I decided to head up the track to see how much it was changed and if there was any new insides appearing or lines to stay out of the boggy turns. I found a few things I wanted to try on the way down which was cool. I then chilled out, had some dinner and went to bed looking forward to tomorrow.

It had rained a bit over night and the track was a lot wetter and very drifty, which made it really good fun to practise it was a lot more blown out and moto.

We had to race runs and in my first I had a bit of a moment at the top and nearly went completely off the track. I was sitting in 5^th but new I could do better. It was drying up over the day so I knew I would have to go faster to get a good result. I pushed more in my second run bit the track was so hard to go fast on because of it being so rutted up and beaten. My second run was better bit still had a phew moments but was still ok, I ended up in 6^th which I was ok as I found the track hard because it was steep and I don’t get to ride steep stuff that often.

Looking forward to Fort William next week and Maribor the week after.

Thanks To Specialized, Superstar Funn, Axo 661 and Maxxis.