Scottish Downhill Championships, Fort William 14th & 15th July

Whilst Angie was getting set to blast down some French mountainsides in preparation for the Alpes d'Huez Megavalanche event, Nick took the trip up to Fort Billy for the Scottish Downhill Champs.....

Fort William, let me hear ya, I'm BACK!  This time for the Scottish Champs.  I am absolutely in love with this track, like most people, because it's as tough and as mean as hell, no let up at any point. Unfortunately I was full of man-flu (Lee: ahhh, he's going for the sympathy vote....it won't work!!) but wasn't going to let that put a downer on things.

Saturday morning came with the scent of frying bacon in the air and the sun was kind of shining whilst the rest of the country was still being flooded out!  I was eager to get up the hill and put the FTW through its paces again, that bike is simply MADE for this course, mark my words!  I took my usual plan-of-action for Fort Bill cruising the first run down to get warmed up and spy some lines as not a lot changes on the track, apart from different routes through the woods.  I was expecting the course to be a little beat up from the previous World Cup there as well. 

Nick in practise, photo copyright of Ian Linton

My run through the open top section was good, it's nice and flowing although I paid particular care on some of the dust strewn corners, I didn't want to wash out again!. Hit the beginning of the rocky section dead on, the bike was soaking it all up, thought 'Sod It' and got some more cranks into it to pick the speed up even more, the bike could take it easily.  Unfortunately I couldn't though, took a spill and gashed my knee, that was clever of me wasn't it!?  Jumped back on and a bit further down there were a load of riders stood about checking out the second of two drops.  I scrubbed a little speed off here and took off as I normally would, my front wheel landed in the only soft patch on the track behind a rock which catapulted me over the bars landing on my head hard!  You know those old Tom & Jerry/Roadrunner cartoons when one of them gets whacked.....well this time it was me seeing stars!  I thank god for my Urge lid, seriously, that was a big stack!  

Knee-sy does it!

I chilled out by the trackside for a little while to get myself back together, as well as my helmet my own mojo had taken a dent, it also allowed me to scope out that part of the track on foot and I noted a good few other riders having problems there.  Got back on the bike and carried on down the hill, when I got to the bottom I chilled out with some mates for a while till I felt back up to 100%. 

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

The new 'motorway' section at the bottom of the course that was built up for the World Cup was absolutely AMAZING!  Where, in the past, the sprint along the motorway was an utter killer, now we have the new massive table-top jumps to help you to carry speed, it's so much better.  I did six runs on Saturday and really felt it the next day as the track was rough as hell, this was also apparent from the number of punctures and broken wheels I was witnessing, although thankfully not my own Sun-Ringles.....Thank you! *Touch wood*

Come race day the combination of my man flu (Lee: that excuse is still not gonna work!) and the number of runs on Saturday had me feeling pretty shattered. So I just put a single practice run in to refresh my memory and to keep check on where the track was getting cut up.

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

First run was plain sailing taking into consideration the slight downpour of rain, which actually had a more positive effect on the track, the tyres' grip increased as the rain packed the dust down nicely.  Went a bit squirrelly and nearly over shot a corner in the bottom section, made mental notes not to do that again on the following run, pulled it back in and got on with it.  Not too bad going.  Second run came and I pushed myself through the rest of the top corners, nice, smooth and fast, did I tell you that I love this course?!  Further down I nearly over shot the same bloody corner as before, got my head screwed straight back on and hauled it. Took ten seconds off my first run time and was told that I finished in the top ten of the Experts category, not bad for a man-flu ridden bugger eh?!

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British Downhill Series, Glencoe 8th July 2012

Here's Nicklaus with the Glencoe British Downhill Series weekend run down:

I was back up at Glencoe for the BDS, and back from my holiday where I may have overdone the free food and drink *pats tummy*.  Can you believe it, it wasn't raining....unlike the rest of the UK which was being flooded!  The track was looking pretty dry compared to my last visit and was also taped out a little differently which opened up a lot of sections. I was also debuting the new Development team jerseys, and I have to say they do look bloody good, yes, I know, such modesty!

Come practice on Saturday I was really stoked to ride in the dry.  My first run didn't go quite to plan, my rear shock blew up through the rock garden and I had to take the walk of shame to the chair lift station and took the trip back down to the pits.  A quick dash back to the car I soon had my old shock fitted to the bike so I hadn't missed too much practice time, phew!  

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

As I progressed through my first main run I began to notice that although the track was much dryer then normal it didn't have a massive amount of grip.  However the bike was riding great and the new Boxxer fork upgrade from the guys at TF Tuned were working awesomely, taking all the huge impacts with a plomb.  It was apparent where the toughest parts of the track were as there were a lot of riders stopped at the side trying to scout the best line. The two steep and rocky shoots where causing the most trouble, lots of crashing, lots of punctures, lots of damaged bikes!  I found my bike was more than capable of doing its job and tracking well through the sections, this is one of Frank Wadelton's legacy's....he knows his shit when it comes to frame designing and building!  Glencoe is very steep, very rough and very fast, I had 100% trust in my Sun-Ringle wheels and Hayes Primes brakes, no dings, no buckling, no fading, no arm-pump, everything was working flawlessly.

Practice went pretty well, stoked with the bike's handling.  Come race day my qualifying run went well, made a couple of mistakes but nothing out of the ordinary and knew where I could improve. 

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

I was really motivated for the race run, feeling good and the bike was riding perfectly. I set out of the start gate spinning it, took a chunk out of the ground with my Burgtecs, get in!  Blitzed along on the top section and hit the the more difficult parts of the track bang on. Came into a right hander half-way down where my front wheel washed out on some loose rocks and I hit the deck, Couldn't lose the time and I knew I was pinning it, jumped straight back on galloping the FTW down the hill like a demon possessed determined to make up the lost time.  When I got to the open section near the bottom before the big ski jump, a spectator was shouting "Rider!" at me so I pulled to the side as I thought with my crash the next rider had caught me.  As the rider got closer he was telling me to keep going, turns out I had passed him further up and he had caught me up after my crash, bloody spectators, god!  I got back on the track and sprinted through the finish line.  I was really hacked off by the incident, by pulling over for no reason lost me some considerable time.  Taking the crash into consideration and the pulling over for no reason I still got 20th place, however it's left me with a big 'What might have been', sure, it's all part and parcel of racing.  I was just so gutted, I loved the course, the bike was handling it so amazingly well and I was gunning for the podium.  Gutted!

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Introducing the 2012 team racing jerseys!

Stand forth Brian at The Cycle Jersey and David Keningale for helping with the design and manufacturing!  Nick's tops have now been debuted!  I think you'll agree, they look stunning!

Can all the team's 2012 sponsors please step forward and take a bow, without your help we simply could not do what we do, thank you all so very much indeed:


Frank Wadelton and FTW Industries
Royal Racing (Nick)
Fox Racing (Angela)
TF Tuned
GoPro Cameras
Thomson
Urge Helmets
X-Fusion Shocks
Hayes Brakes
Sun-Ringle Wheels
Oury Grips USA
Burgtec
SDG Saddles
The Cycle Jersey

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Burgtec beauties!

Dave from Burgtec turned up with Angie's new personalised pedals....ubercool!

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Scottish Downhill Series, Pitfichie 23rd & 24th June 2012

Angie takes over the crib: Headed up to Scotland on the 22nd to race the Pitfichie SDA, the forecast was to be wet and it held its promise.  I've never seen rain like it.  From Friday to Sunday it didn't stop once, heavy with thunder showers!

I got there on Friday night with Ellen Tipple, it was her first race and we walked the course, it was a new track that hadn't been raced on before so I was pretty excited.  The top bit was pretty much the same as the other courses up there through the open heather singletrack and then it dropped down into the new woods section, there seemed to be loads of line choice and plenty rocks and roots!  I was debuting my new FTW Industries FB10 on this race and was eager to see how it handled.

Gloopy course!

The race was an old school push-up-to-the-top so Saturday morning I got pushing! Managed to get 4 runs in and sessioned a few sections.  The track was running sweet in the morning but after 130 riders had been down a few times it was started to get pretty beat up with more roots showing through meaning every run was different and I had to adjust and change some lines. There were some huge ruts forming that were quickly filling with water as a stream flowed down the track!  Pretty hard going but sooooooo much fun riding in the wet, you can take the girl out of the North-East....!!

(Unknown Photographer - make yourself known to Lee!)

The new FTW took me a while to adjust to, however after a few runs I seemed to get right into it, it just felt so good on the rocks :-) *thumbs up!!*  The new Hayes brakes still needed bedding in a little but after two runs they were awesome, I never thought anything would live up to my Hopes that I had had for four years but they were amazing and I love the fact you adjust the lever reach without an allen key - I only have wee fingers! :-)

On Sunday morning I got one practice run in which went pretty well so I thought I'd leave it on a good note for my first race run.  That first race run could possibly have been my worst ever, I went over the bars three times and had some other moments as well.  The woods was just so physically demanding, with nine girls racing I was sitting in 3rd place with a 4.53, about 15 seconds off the win, feeling pretty annoyed with myself!

I went up for second race run, absolutely cold and soaking wet by this point. I was in more of a chilled mood though (see what I did then!) and seemed to hold a much better run together. Admittedly I did have a little crash but stayed with the bike and got down the rest of the track totally sweet finishing almost half a minute faster with a 4.24 which put me into 1st place. I was mega happy!

 (Another unknown photographer!)

Just a six-hour drive home after that but worth a trip up!

Thanks for sorting everything out Lee, you've been a star!! :-)

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iXS Series, Innerleithen 16th & 17th June 2012

Nick: I was really pumped for this race as when the IXS came to Innerleithen two years ago the event was run so well and the course was one of the best I have ever been on.  However unlike two years ago when the weather was bone dry this weekend was completly wet and muddy.  I knew that the nature of the track combined with the wet conditions were going to make for some difficult going.

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Friday's practice went really well, as tough as the track was it beginning to bed in nicely.  It was pretty much the same as before with a couple of the big drops in the middle of the track and the addition of some jumps in the finishing field.  I had stupidly forgotten my spiked mud tyres, a lot of sections were impossible to get any grip on and I had a massive stack at the bottom of the course.  I just couldn't get any grip and didn't have any opportunity to hit the jumps with the speed needed.  They were a good size however on the track-walk we realised how soft both the take offs and landings were, spiked tyres were a must in these conditions!

Photo copyright Richard Easton

Up nice and early on Saturday and finally got hold of some spiked tyres.  Really happy with the set up of the FTW bike. It was so wet and muddy I went through an entire roll of my 'rip n rolls' on my goggles and had to change my gloves three times, this was pure GLOOP!  Considering the conditions, the track was running really well and I was having so much fun pinning the corners speedway style!

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Qualifying was on the Saturday afternoon, I sprinted out the start and after about 100 metres in something didnt quite feel right.  Got to the end of the straight flat-out section and went to hang a left around a nicely developed rut and did a massive 180.  It was then clear I had a rear puncture, gutted!  Instead of destroying a perfectly good rear wheel I made the decision to get a lift down on the uplift vehicle's return.  This meant I couldn't do my timed run and therefore nothing I could use to compare myself to the others with.

Photo copyright of Euan Law

Come Sunday morning I was kinda happy with my lines though, I only put one practice run in and chilled out until racing.  As I was a DNF in qualifying I was off fairly early.  Put a really good run in although in hindsight (always a wonderful thing!) I could have been quicker but subconsciously I didn't want another DNF.  Coming into the bottom of the track I realised I hadn't hit the jump into the field yet or the one immediately after.  It was now or never, I came out of the last berm put some cranks into it and launched the gully jump into the field, cleared it easily but landed in the muddy slop and nearly chinned my bars, jeez!  Crossed the line and sat in the hot-seat (wet-seat in this case!) for a while which was great!

Now I'm off on holiday for a week then when I come back I'm heading up to pin it at Glencoe for the BDS!

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Frank's 21 Again!

So raise your glasses everyone, it's the big guy's birthday today!

Happy birthday Frank!

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