UK Gravity Enduro - Ae Forest, 29th to 30th August 2015

The UK Gravity Enduro at Ae Forrest was a Bank Holiday bonanza of riding, it was a total barn stormer with mammoth thigh-busting pedal-to-the-metal sections in between! Round four had everything!

Arriving early on the Thursday meant that I had plenty of opportunity to ride the course before seeding on Saturday. It also demonstrated to me the amount of work that goes into this kind of event, a LOT, big thanks as always to everyone who makes these events happen – they've all been rad!

Now, the stages:

Number 1 was a typical trail centre type course with built up berms and jumps leading into a gnarly freshly cut section which twisted back on itself a couple of times before hitting a tight right hander and then plummeting down a steep descent into the finish. My Manitou suspension really soaked this up and the track was pure delight to ride, you picked up some good speed and really felt it on your face when swooshing around the corners, brilliant!

2 came along with fresh thick mud, roots and a sneaky few bumps and lumps which caught out the unwary, including myself, which wasn't very pretty I admit!  You then flew out onto the fire road for a fairly long sprint until reaching the red trail centre section and then hitting it in reverse. This meant a fair bit of pedalling which tested everyone's fitness. I could see the rider in front of me down here but just couldn’t quite catch the speedy Sally Evame!

Number 3 was a blinder, wow, this is the stage everyone had been talking about. Should I ride it again? I practiced this stage once and once only from the top to the bottom it required skills, flare and guts taking you down through steep muddy twisting switchbacks.  Once I had unclipped I found it impossible to get back into my pedals and fell awkwardly into a massive bush just past a lovely photographer who was shouting messages of encouragement to me, whoops!

Stage 4 came along and proved to be another absolutely epic stage; tight trees, mud galore, few steep drops before flying out onto a nice flowy trail lined some great cheering spectators, it was time to get a bit of stylish air time on my Orange Five!

Finally stage 5, the seeding run and the final run took place on the Sunday and what a mint trail it was!  It had everything, steep loose rocks, rock gardens, fresh cut loam and a great arena to finish into.

Each climb took at least 50 minutes totalling up to a long day on Sunday, five hours on the bike! This took a lot of guts, however we all fuelled by the great encouragement from fellow riders and all of the spectators, it's an amazing atmosphere.

Many thanks to everyone who encouraged me and cheered me on through the rounds, I ended the weekend further down the field that I would have liked after the mud got the better of me, still had an awesome weekend though.

See you all on the hills,

Robyn x

Ae up - Scottish Downhill Championships Ahoy, 25th & 26th April 2015

The Development had three of their lads racing but just two reports again; Monsieurs Nelly and Newrick taking over......

Nelly: After a good weekend with the British Downhill Series at Ae we were back up there for the Scottish Downhill Championships.  The track walk left a lot of riders surprised with the course designers' omission of the coffin jump, step-down and elevator sections.  I was concluding that the track would be pretty bad, come Saturday morning the rain had done its work and left us all with a wet and slippy course laced with polished roots and tacky mud.  It was gonna be a fun one!

Newrick: I travelled up with my aunt in the camper van on Friday evening which was awesome, a nice chilled drive up through the Borders, parked up had some food and then turned in early to keep me feeling fresh.

The first run down on Saturday was great up top however I hit the stump gap all squirrelly and binned it hard!  That took the wind out of me, got back up, back on it and back down to the bottom, a quick once over of the bike and then straight back up to the top again. The rest of the day was a steady progression as I got used the track, it was fluid and fast and my bike was handling amazingly well.

Nelly: I was doing a few runs with Luke Birkett from the We Love Mountains Downhill Team and we were both starting to nail our lines, despite a funny tumble earlier on in the day my confidence grew significantly and I was feeling hyped up for Sunday's race runs.

Tom Nelson

Newrick: Sunday morning hit and I managed to get two practise runs under my belt as the uplifts were running great as was the track and indeed my good self on both runs!  Back up and soon out of the gate on my first race run, not too bad but way too slow and I was cursing myself for it.

Nelly: Thankfully the rain had kept clear over night and the course was running sweet, my first race run was a tad too chilled out and I cross the line in tenth place which I knew I could improve on.

Newrick: My second race run was bang on the buck bar taking the previous BDS event's race line instead of the current SDA one, I lost some time with this but crossed the line in 19th place in the youths and with a faster time to my first run.  Overall it was a good weekend.

Tom Newrick

Nelly:  My second run was fuelled by coffee and a flapjack, as I headed to the top on the uplift I was thinking of where I could improve my time and noted that the rain clouds were starting to roll in again.  After a tiny patter of rain drops it was thankfully gone as soon as it arrived and I was on the course.  The top section was totally nailed in and my bike was taking the pummelling with ease, I stayed fluid and crossed the line shaving three seconds off my previous time putting me in eighth place in the youths, I was fairly happy with that.

Jamie had some good runs throughout the weekend but was hindered by a puncture on his second race run, despite that he placed seventh in the Juniors.

Jamie Stewart

Next up is the English Champs with all the lads, see you all there.

British Downhill Series - Ae Forest, 4th & 5th April 2015

We’re all going to have a tight squeeze into the Tardis as we travel back in time to the British Downhill Series at Ae Forest.

Lee: I’ve been in the midst of a house move and it’s been crazy, that’s now thankfully all done and dusted so whilst I’m sat here surround by unpacked boxes here are Nick and Tom with their low downs, sadly Nelly didn’t get back to me with his.

Nelly channelling Daft Punk....

Tom: I arrived at Ae after getting a lift up there with my mates in order to get an early track walk in.  The first impressions were that the top and lower sections were looking great, sweeping forest trail with some nice sticky mud to keep things in check.  The middle section after the road crossing looked problematic though, steep off camber root fests….. that was gonna be my challenge!

Nick: I’m getting old guys, I’m now in the Masters!  Spent the best part of winter at Crossfit Jacana in Durham building my strength up although I didn’t get as much riding in I’d have liked.  Anyway, on a totally shallow note, have you seen the team’s new red FTW downhill bikes, exactly how cool?!

From past experiences at Ae there’s little point in running spike tyres despite the mud as there’s a load of rocks and roots to contend with so I stuck with my Michelin Rock R2 tyres, yep, their so-called enduro-specific 27.5 tyres are amazing for downhill, it has to be said.

Tom: We booked in the Travelodge for the weekend, it was way too cold to camp out, respect going out to all of the brave souls who did!  After arriving at the track on Saturday morning and being fuelled by a sausage sandwich from the Ae Café (none of that energy bar crap with me!) I went up top on the first bus.  First run down was good, took it easy to scope the course out especially the off camber sections.  Pretty happy with most of my runs that day and was steadily getting the speed up on my FTW.

Nick: I spent Saturday tagging along with the We Love Mountains Downhill Team, which is run by Lee’s nephew, Stewart.  Me, Tom and Nelly were all on different time-paths which made practicing the course together a faff.  The biggest issue of the morning was dealing with my confidence, where my lack of riding over winter was coming into play, with that said, I was picking up some canny speed as the day progressed and was happy with my runs.  By the afternoon the sun had come out drying the track nicely and I was soon blasting through the rock gardens with aplomb, good times!

Tom: Sunday and another morning fuelled by the Ae Café’s excellent sausage sandwiches!  Queued for the uplift bus which were taking their time, a renown problem at Ae Forest and finally got to the top for my first run down of the day.  The track at the top was pretty much bang on, the FTW was railing it, took a tumble in the middle wood section though, completely over cooked things thankfully there was no damage to either me or the bike!  Got my speed back up and came off again further down, from here on I just cruised back down the course to the pits.

My seeding went OK, had a chilled run, clipped my pedals on a few rocks but crossed the line with a reasonable time.

Nick: As with Tom and Nelly the time spent waiting in the queues for the uplifts were a pain in the arse and I only managed one run down before seeding.  Although it was good in terms of familiarising myself with the changes in the course, I (and the others) could have done with getting a few more runs under my belt as there were a lot of hold ups on the track.

Being in Masters I was keen to see how I was going to fair against my new competitors.  My seeding was good, hitting my lines faster than in practice and totally sailed through the rock gardens.  I suddenly realised that my back wheel was slopping about and it dawned on me that I’d flatted, damn it!  Up until that point my run had been perfect, I cruised down to the finish line and changed my tyres over.

Tom: My race run started really well despite taking a while to clip in out of the start gate.  The top section was totally fluid, the bike was handling like a dream, however come the middle section I came off again in exactly the same place as earlier in the day.  Jumped straight back on the bike and got my speed back up but it just wasn’t to be, I crossed the line taking the 33^rd place in the youths, balls!

 

Nick: I got everything race prepped and threw some clean kit on then headed up for my race run.  I felt pretty relaxed and knew what I had to do, by now the track was much drier which was great. The top section went pretty much to plan although I stalled after hitting a greasy root, nailed the section where I flatted on in seeding and took 21^st, the middling ground, not too chuffed with that!  Took away a lot of positives from the event but I am aiming for the top tens from here on in.

 

Nelly crossed the line taking 15^th place in the youths.

All in, a good event but lack lustre results, all of us were blown away with how well the new FTW team bikes are handling though.  We’ll be upping the ante for the next event!

Ae Caramba..... Scottish Downhill Series, Ae Forest, 11th August 2013

Back to Ae Forest with round 4 of the SDA series and the rumour mill was in full swing prior to the event of some sweet new sections.  Ae Forest has been a popular racing venue for many a year now, and it's good to hear they're keeping it fresh and challenging.

The track had changed up the top with a fast start to the left of the original course spotted with a few little drops that you could double up over. Take the high lines from here around the following corners before dropping into a newly cut loamy steep off camber exiting across a pallet drop over a stream. 

In the typical Ae Forest fashion it became tighter and technical through the trees with plenty of shiny roots coming through to catch out the unwary.  Another new section, all BMX track-a-like before leading back onto the original course where you dropped down across the fire road and back into the tight trees with more greasy roots to throw into the mix.  No time to catch your breath here though as soon you're dropping down another newly cut section of track leading into the infamous Ae Forest step-down followed by the 50 foot drop into the finish line arena, airborne all the way baby.  Pretty scary stuff, as it damned well should be!

Tyre choice on this course was gonna be crucial, the mix 'n match terrain sure as shit wasn't helping.... practise went OK, I knew I was gonna struggle with grip in several sections, as were most people, but hey this is racing for ya!

(Photo copyright of Stewart Dickson)

I was all primed and ready for run number 1 on Sunday, there had been a fair few delays due to red flags, I was still pretty relaxed though.  Straight out of the start gate like a hound possessed giving it some really big licks, move over Cedric Gracia!  Came out of a compression and had a bit of a struggle with the front wheel, bounced a bit off line with a nice course tape a'stretching for a good measure and lost a fair whack of time.  Got straight back on it, hit the rest of the course with aplomb but couldn't make the time back up.

So it was all to play for with my second run.  Again there were a lot of delays with red flags going up left, right and centre which had now become very irritating!  Second run wasn't too shabby, I had two stall in some tight corners which cost me dearly and I came across the line in 8th place, can't lay the blame on anything but myself for over cooking it.

Bring on the Northern Downhill Series race at Carlton Bank, I'mma ready for ya!

SDA 1: Ae Forest 17th April 2011

The team mechanic, also known as Nick’s dad Dickie, very kindly packed the van and went up on the Friday morning so I could jump in the car and meet him there when I was finished with work later that day. It’s all about the organisation here you see!

Nick takes over: Ae Forest’s track was fairly similar to the previous ones with the exception that a new section had been cut in towards the bottom which was fairly loose and greasy, great fun to ride. As seems to be par the course with racing at Ae Forest, the track was generally dry where the soggy bits in the tree sections dried out over the weekend.

(Photo courtesy of Ian Linton, http://ianlinton.com/)

Saturday was kept fairly steady, no real issues just getting held up quite often by riders in front on the track. The bike was feeling really good, the only change I made was swapping the tyres to Maxxis Minions. These proved to work really well especially on the new loose sections. Can I add that we had the sun shining all weekend, shorts, t’shirts and shades, excellent! Now, back to the racing…..!

Only managed one practice run on Sunday morning which admittedly wasn’t the best. That said I was relaxed and feeling good for my race run.

(Photo courtesy of Ian Linton, http://ianlinton.com/)

From the start everything went well, hitting most of my lines bang on. After the rock garden I was beginning to blow out in the corners, I put it down to the root infested track getting slippy with all the riding. It soon dawned on me that the front tyre was deflating, a blasted ‘snakebite’ puncture and as a result my time wasn’t brilliant coming in at 16^th in Expert.

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