Just got home after a weekend at Bike Radar live which was mega…..Saturday night saw a worldcup standard line up of riders, taking place in the slalom. With a rad course being built by Bullhead and Will Longden the racing was super tight all night, riders could win from either lane meaning it was never over until the very finish. After qualifying first i moved through the rounds facing the Don, Simmonds, Saladini then Lopes….. My first round of the semi saw Saladini take me apart after a few mistakes on my half because i was pushing too hard…. for the second round i chilled it out a bit and rode my own race, and managed to pull it back. Through to the final and i was facing the main man, Brian Lopes. I knew it was going to be a tough race and with a british crowd baying for a home win the pressure was on. Both rounds were super close and Lopes was on fire but i managed to put some time into him on the bottom section to take the win. The weekend was a huge step for the riding scene in Britain and i was stoked to see so many people make the effort and turn up…..hope everyone had a rad weekend and it was mega to see you all….. Fort Will next yaaaa.
Archive for May, 2009
First year for me to hit up US Open so i had some catching up to do with the regulars…. i rolled into NJ late thursday night and mechanic Ben got straight into building up the bike, Friday morning was an early practice session so walking the track was kind of out the question. First run down the track and i realised how rocky and gnarly it was, this was going to take some learning….. my runs went pretty well and i got into the swing of things pretty quickly. When i thought i was man enough i did some runs following Stevie Smith, a big faceplant into the rocks reminded me i wasn’t up to speed yet. Sat qualifying went ok apart from another crash in the rocks and i went into Sunday feeling strong. Practice sunday morning was solid and i was all set for the race untill a huge thunderstorm rolled in and dumped a years worth of rain on us. Another wet race run with no practice saw me struggling to hold things together and i ended up splitting Brendan(3rd) and Sam (1st) up for 2nd spot…..
After a bit of a slow start to the season i wanted to start picking up the pace a bit for andorra, i knew i could do well here and knew it was my chance to catch up on a few points…. Getting there early we had a few days to kill, so feeling like a break from Downhill bikes we hit up Enduro Bike legend Cyril Despres, He set us up with some bikes and kit and it wasn’t long before we were following up some local trails…. When i say following i mean setting off in a similar direction as to where Cyril dissapeared and when i say trails i mean waterfalls…. After a bit of time trying to man handle the 300 2stroke up the river i tried out the 660 Rally bike, which was crazy, it was like riding a car and the power was nuts. But so much fun, It took a while to get comfortable but i guess you just had to ride it like a normal bike, just looking over all the fairing and ignoring the 32 litre tanks…..
Another 5th place in La Bresse at the weekend, i felt good all weekend, had a fast run in quali and was confident for a good result in the final. guess it wasn’t to be tho as sunday saw peaty take everyone apart. As far as events go for me, i think La Bresse put on an awesome show and the crowd was crazy, 10 deep in some places and pretty wild as well. Definatly will be one of the top worldcups of the year…. Monday morning saw us on the road again trucking down to Andorra. Passing through Montpellier we stopped of at a sick bmx track and busted a few laps, Dan Brown and Clay had a grudge race after talking shit to each other for 5 weeks about who was raddest. turns out neither of them was…. then on into Andorra….. the whether sucks for sure.
After a flat out week riding downhill i was looking forward to some time off the dh bike, riding 4x…. The Belgium worldcup in Houffalize promised to be a good race with huge crowds and a lot of fast guys there, so i wasn’t about to pass it up for a weekend off. After missing the practice session on thursday i had a bit of catching up to do before the qualifying on friday. I rode with Dan loads to get the feel of the track and scope out where the passing spots were going to be, something i thought i should know after not doing gates for ages…. The track was super fast and pretty sandy, but the thing that really made the race was how many lines there were in each turn, pretty much every turn there was a wide line or a tight inside flat turn, if you had the minerals for it.
On race day i was feeling pretty quick on the track and having a lot of fun, my gates were pretty weak, but a wide first turn meant this wasn’t to much of a problem. After moving through the rounds with the odd scuffle here and there i found my self in the semi final. Perfect. Except that Athy was there as well…. Racing my bro is always fun but it never usually goes well for both of us. one of us was going down. Out of the start i was on the outside and slightly lagging, i left the 4x boys to crack on with pedaling down the first straight and decided it was on for the first turn, i railed it pretty high then dropped in super tight and inside lined the other 3. Dan was pinned behind me and riding really well so leading the semi i was stoked and had the rest of the course dialled….. into the last turn i looked back to see that athy had dropped back to 3rd after a stall in some loose sand, I knew this wasn’t good for him and that he needed that final position, so team orders in place and a slightly bemused looking crowd, i braked up for the finish letting Jared and Athy past. It was a weird feeling letting it go, but Dan rode well. Bros before ho’s, i owed it to him and no doubt he would do it if roles were reversed….
After getting home from Scotland at midnight on sunday night, i was stoked to be up at 4am the next day to catch a flight to Italy. Myself, Stanny and Sparko decided to hit up Finale Ligure for 3 days riding downhill in the sun. After landing in the airport in super heavy rain, the week was set for some mud action. The riding was nuts though and some of the best downhill tracks i have ridden in a long time, even Giac was hitting up some mud runs with us….. Thanks to Alessandro and Louise for hooking us up with an awesome apartment……
Stoked to miss my flight to Luxembourg, with the amount of time i spent in the airport swine flu is gonna be hard to avoid.
For the first national points series round the team headed up to Ae Forest, in Scotland. well that was the plan, turned out it was pretty much just me with Rach still being seriously handicapped and Athy extending his california trip. First day of practice saw a muddy track drying out pretty quickly, and getting faster and faster. Untill last run of the day saw the sky open up and literally drop 3weeks of rain on the track in 5 mins, and that was it. it was going to be a wet race.
On the sunday there was time for a couple of practice runs to give you chance to change up a few lines and get used to how nailed the track was, then it was into the seeding run…. i have to say i was impressed with Joe Smith in qualy, with him dropping into 2nd place behind me he put in a super strong run. In the finals i had a pretty clean run, i tried to get a bit loose on the track and let it go a bit more than i had done in the seeding run, which was all good until i stalled in the last main turn on the track. I was stoked to take the first win in the national series and to be racing in the uk again, its been too long since the last race and i think this year will see way more uk races for me.
After a tough week in South Africa racing the first worldcup, sunday night saw me on some late night shuttle mission into the depths of Pietermaritzburg…. Clay had decided he needed to spend some time getting some work done at the hotel, so to stop him feeling left out i bought him back a souvenir…..