Borderline Events - English Downhill Championship, Hamsterley Forest, 10th May 2015

Nick: Although Hamsterley Forest's my local riding spot I hadn't been there for a fair while and was looking forward to seeing how the track chosen by the Borderline Events posse flowed, quite literally at first as it turned out. 

It's a fairly short course by today's standards however it's physically demanding with no time to rest between sections, you take one big breath at the start gate and then it's a full on hammering until you cross the finish line.  Guess Danny Hart was at home with the weather that morning as it was absolutely pouring down, I was being kept warm and dry under my Berghaus coat so there was no grumbling from me mind! 

'Tommy Gun' Newrick arrived early Saturday morning and walked the new section of the track, he was at home from the word go as he practically lives on these courses!  Tom's had the new Manitou Revox shock fitted to his FTW, no bedding in required he was straight off ripping the course up with his mates.  

Both of us got more than enough runs in, the course is a game of two halves, keep the cadence up down the top section and then keep it loose across the technical sections down below.  It's a hard course to make up time due to its short length even if you merely clipped a pedal that would be the end of any winning run there and then.  Both of us were running Sun-Ringle's 650b A.D.D. Pro wheels for a bit of advantage over the rocks, power to the dark side of the force.

As Saturday progressed the track was drying out nicely making it a claggy in places I was building up pace and starting to blitz my lines.  Tom was absolutely nailing the course down, six runs in and he was on fire!

Come Sunday morning I squeezed in three steady runs and chilled out 'til race time.  Tom was a purple and red blur as he shot past me whilst I spectated on his first race run, I later learned he accidentally unclipped from his pedals before the table top and couldn't clip back in, unlucky.  I stalled near the finish on my first run and turned the air blue as it had all gone perfectly up until that point.  Hit my second run full on but just couldn't make up the time and took the fourteenth place in the Masters.

Tom had a little embarrassment through the new section on his second run when his foot slipped off the pedal, that said he still crossed the finish line in a respectable 7th place in the youths.

Next up, the big bad Fort Bill with the British Downhill Series.


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Life In Neon at the Durham CXNE, 15th November 2014

Woke up on Saturday morning feeling sprightly and raring to go, well there’s a change, think it was because I was so excited for the full weekend’s worth of racing. I was under the strict instruction not to go all-out during the CXNE race in Durham, since the next day I would be competing at the Nationals in the same arena, so, no biggie! Today was purely getting to grips with the course and keep my points up for the league, however, I knew this would be a struggle since I had let myself become way too competitive. Yes, that’ll be my hereditary dad’s genes right there! 

Dad wasn't racing today so it was all about me (ahem!) the benefit of this being that even when my bike got a speck of dirt on it, it was wiped off within seconds, thanks dad!

When we arrived, as usual, I got ready, practiced the course and signed on. This race was the first time I was competing on my new bright pink Frank The Welder CX bike and was super excited to try it out!

The course was pretty good with quite a lot of sections where you had to dismount. There were steps, hurdles, and a steep, slippy, muddy hill that was catching a lot of people out, myself included. Adding up all the technical turns it created a challenging course and kept the riders on their toes, exactly what you would expect with a National Trophy event the following day. Big applause for the course designers, you rock! My nerves weren't that bad to be honest, I was really enjoying the practice and having a good giggle, I knew that my race head would be on later in the day however.

Sure enough it was soon time to be gridded. My dad and me went to the start where Nicola Davies, Bev Blakeman, myself and then Jenn Batey were called out. Oh, was that the pang of my nerves kicking in just then?

Off we went and despite the strong temptation to sprint off straight away with Bev, Nicola and Jenn, I paid heed to my dad’s advice and kept a steady pace letting them fight it out up front. I ended up having a mini-battle with Natalie Batey which became rather amusing, I slipped off in the mud and Natalie overtook me, Natalie came off in the mud and I overtook her and on it went!

I will also tell you something weird; my dad screaming his head off with words of encouragement every time I belted past the pits. Under normal circumstances he’s on the course the same time as me, today however there he was being my proud dad!

The bell suddenly sounded for the final lap. This was what I was waiting to hear, head now down and firing up the adrenaline I got the cranks turning harder and managed to leave Natalie. I crossed the finish line taking fourth place in the Women’s category whilst keeping hold of the top Junior spot which I was stoked with.

Megan

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Rocketeering...... the CXNE Series comes to you from Darlington, 19th October 2014

The seventh round of the CXNE Series took place on a Saturday last weekend, talk about being lucky, mam and dad jetted off to sunny Spain on the Sunday so I would have missed the race otherwise!

Dad and me were the first people to arrive at the venue that morning, dad’s pre-race nerves had struck again, we’ve got to get there in good time y’know!  We had a walk to scope the course out and we soon had a mutual respect for the team that put it together:  Steps? *check* Hurdles? *check* Sandpit? *check*  ….and mud? *check*, we knew it was going to be a tricky ride.

Time to overcome the nerves, saddled up and got a few practice laps under our belt, I came away from this with a two stone heavier bike from the accumulated mud.  We were prepared for this though as dad had just purchased a snazzy new jet-washer which soon became my new best friend!

After cleaning down the bike I headed to the start line to be greeted again with a fantastic turn out for the ladies race. The first few were called out and gridded in the order: Nicola, Jen, Bev and then me!  The gun went off and we sprinted away, we stuck it out together until Jen got a puncture and sadly had to pull out of the race.

Nicola and Bev then dropped the hammer and charged forwards, I stayed with them however this only lasted a lap until I was really feeling it.  My thighs were starting to scream at me!

I was working it by myself from this point although it wasn’t plain sailing, I came off several times in the mud, often to my own laughter! The race seemed longer than normal, I’d put that down to the course conditions but I’m certainly not complaining, it was a really fun trail to ride.

It is however fair to say I was happy when I crossed the finish line. Almost as soon as I’d come off the bike I was called to the podium to stand in third place alongside Bev who took second and the powerhouse Nicola in first. I was overjoyed to be standing on the podium with such great riders!

There's no CXNE race this weekend coming so I’m going to use the extra time to get some training under my belt in order to catch up to Bev, I'll get you eventually! ;-)

Megan

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One big THANK YOU going out to the lovely Alan Draffan for the fab photos, you can see more of his work here: Alan Draffan Photosport.

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