Wow the end of the season already.

Wow the end of the season already.


The last round of the British Downhill Series took place at Caersws on the 25-26th of September. With all the team riders entered, the race took shape to be a good one. We arrive of Friday to do the usual setup and with thanks to www.Madison.co.uk for the use of a van everything got there in one piece.

After a perfect weekend at Molfre Will was looking to continue his current form and rode very well in practice. Will has made such an improvement over the year and choosing to practice with the faster riders really pays off. On race day Will came in a fantastic 3rd position on the day, meaning another National podium for the team. Although frustrating for him with only a 2.6 second gap between him and first, this was a superb ride!

Josh had come to the last round with an open mind. A brilliant performance at Aston hill the weekend before set him up for a good weekend. Change was the word for Josh however with his small 6 inch bike being taken away and a Full DH bike shoved between his legs. Josh took to this bike like a duck takes to water and showed everyone what he could do. His best National position to date, Josh came home in 6th with only 0.5 between him and the podium position! A good ending to Josh’s first race season!

Jack as usual entered the weekend with all guns blazing. Expected as nothing less from JG, His bike was working well and he just needed to stay on to make it count. After seeding in Second position and gaining valuable series position points he went into his race run with only one thing on his mind. To smoke everyone by at least 5 seconds . Unfortunately due to a crash in the middle section Jack finished in 12th position and was left feeling fed up and annoyed as the overall title would now be close!

After a nervous wait. Jack Finally got the news we all wanted. He had taken the overall Series win in Expert by 1 point! Congratulations to Jack!

Richy T well Richy “where did I crash again” Thomas unfortunately spent most of the weekend in Shropshire hospital after a big crash in practice. We all worried for Richy and he finally returned on the Sunday looking and feeling like he had been in few rounds with a professional boxer!

All in all a good but eventful weekend.

Richy Thomas = English Champ

Richy Thomas became English Champ this weekend at Caersws with a run 1.5 seconds in front of the rest of the field!

Congratulations to Richy on another brilliant result!
Pic from Iain@ Turnip Towers.

Moelfre BDS RD4

We set of for Moelfre early morning with an extra team member than before. The first time Baby Ava had been to a race and at only 3 weeks old, I’m sure she was the youngest one there!


The weekend went well with Richy, Jack and Will all enjoying the wet practice. Tyres were changed between High Rollers and Wet Screams all weekend as the track conditions changed each run. The track had seen many changes and improvements over the old Moelfre track, with new jumps added into the middle and lower sections of the course. The end of the track also took the riders through the last section of the 4x track with three kicking doubles before it opened out through the final corners into the sprint for the line. With the grass wet in practice, it was fun to watch many riders take an unexpected seat on the floor as they tried to stop after the line.

A special thanks goes out to Richy Thomas’s Mum for bring a whole Chocolate cake for the pit area!!!

Sunday morning came round after a very windy night! As we woke to find our easy up’s still in place, many didn’t survive the night! Practice resumed and after two runs Jack unfortunately came off and hurt his wrist, with icepacks on and the 661 wrist support dug out, he rested and waited for seeding. Will went first and arrived at the top for seeding in good spirits. After a good clean run he seeded first and came back to the pits with a very big smile on his face! After nasty crash is Masters, the Air ambulance was called for the 3rd time and seeding was eventually cancelled in favour of getting home on Sunday night!

Will was back up the hill again, with his extra practice(seeding) run under his belt he rode like a true professional and rode to his limit. He Finish in 1st place with a gap of over 2 seconds to second place!

Jack was next to leave the pit, his wrist wrapped up and hoping it would hold out for his one run. Seeded First from the series positions we waited for the last man down. He rode as best he could with a very bad wrist and posted a brilliant time, earning him 11th place in the process. A good performance allowing him to drop his first round position of 15th and concentrating on the overall series!

Richy T had been quite all weekend. From some brilliant results in the last two rounds of the world cup, he seemed quietly confident, but a little concerned over the lack of seeding run position. He came down the hill looking like he wanted the win and post the second fastest time as he crossed the line. Two riders were left, Steve Peat and Marc Beaumont. Both unfortunately beat his time, But meant for the first time this year Richy was on the podium. 4th place took Richy to stand on what could have been a world cup podium. Super performance dude!!

We now have a small break until the last round of the nationals. Hopefully see you soon!

If anyone can spare some change please donate to the air ambulance:

http://www.walesairambulance.com/

New Arrival to the team.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates. We have had a new arrival to the team in the last few weeks and my time is now spent feeding and changing nappies instead of writing reports.

Anyway please welcome my daughter Ava Isabelle to the team.

Bala

Bala. For me the most anticipated race of the year! I look forward to this race all year and I wasn’t disappointed. As usual at Bala it was glorious all weekend and the track was rough and fast just as it should be. Practice had started before I knew it and the track rode even better than it looked. Roots rocks and everything in between made practice fly by I guess time does go quick when you’re having fun.

Sunday came and the nerves kicked in. I pieced together a scrappy run. To my surprise I broke the beam 5 seconds up with a respectable time which gave me the green light to get loose in my second run! I was up 3 seconds at the split with a 51 kmph through the speed trap smashed the woods where mistakes had been made in my first run and was on for a much improved time. Unfortunately I went over the bars on the last corner and hopes of an impressive race run time where broken. Never the less I grabbed the win and had bucket loads of fun, Bala once again didn’t disappoint! Well done Pearce for a brilliant weekend! See you soon Will.
Pics thanks to Jeff at    http://www.monkeyspoon.com/

Midlands Champ!

Bringewood Pearce cycles round 3

I arrived on Saturday to find sun and dust and a mint track that was extremely fun to ride. The Pearce team had really pulled one out the bag this time with great pits and superb new technical sections. Saturday had come and gone before I knew it and the excitement of racing had soon filled the air. Due to a really fast uplift I got 2 solid runs in Sunday morning and by 11 I was in the starting gate ready to go!

The run was fairly average despite coming of the track in the open section I was still on for a good time but whilst riding through the bottom section a red flag was thrust in front of my face. Unfortunately Sam Clixby (a good friend of mine and a bit of a legend) crashed on the bottom table top and broke his elbow. I was soon at the top of the hill for my rerun and was going pretty well, I was two seconds up on the split but my front wheel got away from me in one of the new hard-ish section causing me to slide on my belly like a penguin. I crossed the finish line in 2nd and 3 seconds back from the lead.

But my second run was a different story: The whole way was really fun and pretty pinned and despite holding back a bit on the section I crashed on in my previous run I managed to win by 5 seconds and grab the midlands champs title!!

See you soon, Will.

Pictures from Iain @ http://www.turniptowers.co.uk/

British Downhill Series Rd2 Fort William

British Downhill Series Rd2. Fort William.

With the weekend starting very early on Friday morning for most of the team as they made the long journey up to Fort William in Scotland, we arrived with sunshine and clear skies! Fort William to most of the UK racers is the only opportunity to ride the same track raced at the world cup event. The track is probably one of the hardest in the UK, both on the bikes and body. With both Will and Josh making their first trip to Fort William, this was a steep learning curve for both of them. Keeping them off the bike was a bit of a challenge, but pursuading them to only complete 4 practice runs on saturday allowed them to feel fit and fresh for race day.

Saturdays practice was brilliant! No broken bikes other than wheels which don’t really count up here, or broken bodies!! Shame it wasent the same story on race day. We arrived with a van full of spares (mainly wheels) and left with a van full of broken parts and wheels; but this is all part of the fun at Fort William. The young guys were chomping at the bit to ride and cram in as many runs as possible, but with experience from both Richy and Jack teaching both of them to relax and enjoy the sun meant the bikes and riders were both looking and feeling good. The sun was still shining after all!

Race day came round far too quickly. The bikes were looking good and everyone feeling ok. Practice soon finished and the bikes were prepped for seeding runs. All the guys went up and down in-turn with no hiccups, well until Richy’s run. Following a long wait he rolled down the hill with three other elite riders, all of which had fallen victim to a large hole and rock near the top of the hill. Generally the bikes don’t go that quickly without a rear mech.

Race runs were next. Will was up first and with a very good run came down in a 6:32.10. He finished in third place, another brilliant result from will and even more so considering this was his first trip to Fort William.

Josh was next and again with his first experience of Fort William being this weekend riding the small 6 inch Ancillotti FRP bike, he did an amazing run and finished in 24th position with a time of 6:34.08. Well done josh.

Jack loves Fort William. What more can I say. It’s a big boys track and he always seems to shine here. Seeding in 1st position and coming down the hill as first Expert rider to allow time for stealing bits from his bike to help Richy’s broken bike. He went straight into the hot seat and stayed there for the duration of the catorgy, finishing in first place by 3.29 seconds with a time of 5:26.93. this was the 23rd fastest time of the weekend.

Richy T finally made his way up the hill after a frantic bike fix with only minutes to spare before his run. He arrived at the top in the nick of time and rode from the gondola station straight into the start hut! He came down in a super fast time which placed him in 17th place 5:19.37.

What a brilliant weekend!!! and a lot of fun was had by all.

Now time to fix some wheels.