Saturday 17 April 2010

National, Round 1, Rheola (South Wales)



I had spent the last 4 days before the National staying at Matt Simmonds house. A VERY hard week. We did lots of different training things and it was really good to see what he does to train for world cups. I will differently take away things that he dose and use them in my training to help me prepare.



I then headed down to round 1 for the new national series, renamed as the BDS (British Downhill Series). This was at Rheola forest in south whales. It was a really cool weekend, the track was really good. Really fun. fast and rocky at the top then it went in the woods in to some cool off camber stuff then in to old star wars section and in the steep finish that they used for the national last year. I think Rheola is one of my favourite tracks because it seems to have a bit of everything and has a really nice pace to it as well.



Practise on the track was going well. I look at lots of different lines on the Friday because I thought that there was a strong chance of the track getting very rutted up and there may be some better lines so stay out of the holes and carry my speed better.



The weather was set to be good for the whole weekend and over the Saturdays practice is started drying up. It didn’t dry up as fast as I though it stayed very tacky. I started by running dry tires but it soon became clear that it was not going to be the best choice. I changed to cup spikes and this seemed like a good move, they were a bit sketchy in places at the top but good everywhere else.



Early morning Sunday and the weather was nice, clear skys and a nice tempture. I gave my bike a check over and headed up for a practice run. My run was good, the track didn’t seam top be changing much and I felt fast already. I decided to only do one more practise run as I would have a seeding run as well before my race run. My seeding run was good, I felt fast and hit all my lines until I misjudged some roots and has a over the bars. I was not to bother about this as my run up until then was good and it was a easy mistake to make. I washed and checked my bike before heading up for my race run. My race run was going well and I was feeling fast hitting all my lines until I landed a bit far on a drop out of one of the terns before the first fire road and ended up going a different way to my bike. I ran back to my bike as quick as possible and carried on, the rest of my run felt good despite the crooked bars I ended up 12th in Expert, I was 7seconds of 1st. I was very disappointed with this as my run was so good except for the crash.




I am back home now and training hard and focused. I’m looking forward to the next National and the first world cup which are only a month away now.



Thanks to.



Superstar Components, Funn, Axo. 661, Maxxis, Ti Bolts, Specialized



Olie.