Photo by Barney Samuel
Just a day after arriving home from a weeks training trip in
sunny Malaga I was packing up and getting ready for the three hour drive south
to Combe Sydenham in Somerset for the first round of the 2013 British DH
series.
Photo by Barney Samuel
The track was similar to last year and was in good condition on
Friday; dry, grippy and lots of pedaling! Rain was forecasted for the weekend
so we knew it wouldn’t last long, with Schwalbe Dirty Dan’s most likely being
the tyre of choice come race day. I prepped the tear offs and mud guards that
evening ready to battle the rain the next day!
Photo by Dirt Mag
As expected Saturday was extremely wet and the track got really
torn up, making some sections really hard to even keep moving through, let
allow try and get up to race pace.
Photo by Joe Hayhow
Sunday was race day and the weather was slightly better with a
few sunny spells. Due to the slow uplifts I only got one practice run in before
seeding, which wasn’t ideal. We had some high winds as well that meant that the
track was drying fast and would make it very gloopy and even more physical come
race run. A solid run in my seeing put me 17th.
Photo by Aspect Media
A few hours later and fueled up with Performax Sport sachet, I
was back on the uplift to battle out another run on the mess of a track! Hoping
to shave off a few more seconds and get near the top ten as that was my goal
for the weekend. My run did not go quite as I planned! I knew that I needed to
make it down clean and not to stall through the slower woods sections. I
managed to take 3 seconds off my seeding time but had to many mistakes in my
run for a good time and finished 22nd in the finals. I’m disappointed with how
this first race went but its made me hungry to train ever harder as I know how
much better the up coming tracks will suit me so cant wait for the season to
get into full swing!
Big thanks to Diego from Schwalbe UK for the pit and
support all weekend. And Performax Sport, Mondraker Bikes, Quench Cycles,
Crankbrothers, Evolution Tools, One Industries, Schwalbe tyres, Drift, Kore,
100%, Formula, MRP, Clif Bar, OGIO E13, Lizard Skin, The Bike Shuttle. 661,
Fox, Kinesio.