Innerliethen iXS - Nick's Perspective

I'll let Nick take this one:

It had pissed down big time overnight which was a bit of a concern. However roll on 8 am on the first uplift I decided to keep everything the same on the bike including tyres as although the track was wetter in places it was still dusty in others. In fact some places were actually grippier which suited me well. On timing my final practice run, even though I was cruising, I was still a few seconds faster then my qualifying run the day before. Happy bunny.

I was quite excited and feeling confident for my run. From the start gate everything was going well and I was getting a really good flow. Came to the drop near the bottom of the course where you jump over the path then into the right hander, I think I hit the drop with little more speed then intended. Disaster struck in corner as a huge hole had developed from previous riders braking, the forks bottomed out and I was sent over the bars. Got straight back on the bike, further down, just after crossing the road and hitting the shale section I realised that my front brake had gone too. Determined to keep going which was pretty scary on track like this and only being able to use ya back brake!

Taking both crash and front brake into account I was still quite happy with the time I achieved as was only 10 seconds slower then qualifiers's!

I am really looking forward to the new frame landing, sticking all the new bits and pieces on and getting out there to show the other guy's what it's for!

Innerleithen iXS Downhill Cup Rnd 1

Been constantly into touch with Nick today who is up at Innerleithen for the first round of the new European iXS Downhill Cup. As some of you are aware it's been touch and go with getting the new frame and strips sorted for this weekend. Frame arrives next week, and Nick got the strips at lunchtime today, phew!

Course is completely new, which is good for Inners as it keeps the place 'on the map' as t'were. Conditions in practise were dry and Nick was ripping it up, really enjoying himself. Today started dry, went through spitty rain and later became, well let's just say a bit more moist! Inners has a tendency to dry out quickly so we're praying the rain eases off.

Nick's happy with his qualifier, he pulled back a bit cos of the course conditions, taking it steady due to a downpour after two days of dust!

Had a wee chat with my mate Ian Linton and grabbed the photo below from him:

(http://ianlinton.com/ )

More news as it comes,

Lee.

First post, First blog, My god!

Holy gadzooks batman, I'm finally in the blogosphere, my goodness!! Hi there :)

Well, where do I start? OK basics first, my name's Lee and I'm the team manager of an underground UK Downhill Mountain Bike Racing Team called 'The Development'. This has kept me very busy since the mid-90's and as this blog progresses you'll learn all about it; what makes us all tick, all about the background and goodness knows what else! This is the place you come to for up to date news on all things 'Development', scary eh!

Next up will be linking a new Twitter account so you can follow the team riders' shenanigans at the races and hopefully get some Twitpics up too. This is very exciting.

So, how to begin? Firstly I would like to say a big "THANK YOU" to the 2010 team's sponsors and the people who help keep the riders' wheels revolving, in no particular order:

Frank and Becky and their merry posse at FTW Industries

Mickey and the crew at Spooky Bikes

Marti at Oury

Nick at Royal Racing

Martin and the lads at MMA Sports

Diane at Impsport

Dave and the boys at Burgtec

Jon at Hayes Group

Martin at SRAM

Jon at 5:10

James at GoPro

and Gil at TheCycleShed.co.uk

It's a quite a collective as you can see, however without their support the team would not be able to exist, thank you so much guys, it's greatly appreciated.

I received an email today from Becky at FTW confirming the new FB10 DH frame and it's a smasher, I will add some photographs from Frank's blog here:

Ain't that a beauty eh? The front triangle will be done in a metallic purple to match the team's new 2010 Royal Racing strips - PIMP!

So, whose the lucky guy racing on this then? I bring forth Nick Turner, he's up and out there racing in the Expert category. Nick's from the North-East of the UK, the team's 'home ground', and has been racing bikes since he was a nipper. He has been doing very well for himself and he's currently proving to be quite the worthy opponent to the competition. At the moment we're still racing on last year's kit until the FB10 lands next week and then it will be all systems go. I apologise to everyone, it's the same each year waiting for the last bits of kit to arrive yet we get there eventually.

I will get some photo's up of Nick in action from the last few seasons with my next blog so stay tuned!

Now to fathom out how to format these pages properly!

Ciao for now,

Lee.

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