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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Number Nine, the 2014 National Championships, Innerleithen....

Photo copyright of Kenny Muir

Tom's in the crib!

After Angie's World Enduro Series/Tweed Love trip it was my turn to hit up Innerleithen, this time for the 2014 National Championships, yep, the biggest domestic race of the year!

Headed up there on the Thursday night to get some proper practise in, many other riders had the same idea. Friday came and I had a thorough look at the course and then worked at getting my FTW's suspension dialled in, tyre wise I opted for my Michelin Wild Grip R's, as they seem to handle this type of mixed terrain really well with no compromises in the tight tree-lined technical sections.  Preparation over with, it was time to settle and wait for practise to start the next day.

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

The weather on Saturday took as turn for the worse, waking up to mist which then turned into rain and that was pretty much the story for the rest of the day and on into the night!  On the plus side it made the course nicely tacky and despite some highly polished roots making lines as sketchy as hell there was a fair bit of extra grip to be had under the greasy top sides. My trick was to stay light on the bike and keep the flow down the hillside. I had a few slips and slides earlier on but started to get lay of the track quite quickly, my confidence grew and the FTW was soon railing it.

Sunday came along and the track had dried up nicely, the sun was blazing and all things were right in the world!  My seeding was going so insanely fast up until the point where I caught the rider in front who wouldn't let me pass, I was screaming blue murder to make him move but he stayed in front of me and slowed me right down this dropped me to 13th place, I was gutted with that.  No time to rest on my laurels here though as I was soon back at the top ready for my race run. The plan was to just hit the whole course head on.  

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Out of the gate and straight into the first tree lined technical section was great, the FTW was swallowing it all up. Across the two roads and into the tighter rutted sections I was a little cautious and made a couple of mistakes.  Coming into the bottom of the course I totally railed the singletrack and the following root fest, through the bombhole and down the sweeping turns towards the finish line.  I crossed the line in 9th place which I guess was good considering the mistakes I made up top, but I was gutted to not get the National Champion stripes.  Next time!

Overall it was a great weekend, Mike Marsden and his crew always pull a good event out of the hat, had a lot of laughs and got to ride the one of the best tracks in the country with my mates. 

Life's good on the road!

Healing vibes going out to my fellow team-mate Nick who had to reluctantly sit this year's event out 'cos of his wrist injury recovery, hurry up and get better we got trails to ride lad!

Tom.


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Chasing the mojo, Zak Holmes hits Borderline Events at Caersws with all guns blazing.

(Photo copyright of Chris Griffiths)

Caersws, my first race in Wales, the second race of the season and hopefully less of the technical nightmare that was Innerleithen. Let's get this Borderline Event underway.....

We travelled down on the Friday night, arriving after after three and a half hours on the road, although there'd been some scattered showers the weather seemed to be behaving itself and putting the tent up in the dark mustered all of our Bear Grylls skills!

I really shouldn't have tempted fate by mentioning the weather because by the time I had signed on and got everything ready the heavens had opened... brilliant!   Walked the course in the pouring rain and first impressions of top sections were good, really fast and flowy with the ground still compact and hard, thankfully the rain hadn't affected it.  The top consisted of tight, steep switchbacks which is my kind of riding and made me very excited to get on the bike.  Next up were the bus stops which had unfortunately been affected by the rain and looked very slippy, I was making mental notes as I went.  The course became muddier the further you ventured, although still technical you could see that the riding was going to be absolutely flat out and where riders needed to issue caution across the roots that had became extremely wet and slippy.  Once out of the bottom you were into a grass field to the finish line. Job done!

Practice runs got underway and I was on the first uplift.  My first run felt really good, the bike felt so sweet, the Michelin tyres were gripping well and coped easily with the constantly changing terrain giving me a further confidence boost.  Throughout the day the bike just kept getting better and better, I was loving the track and managed to get seven practice runs in.  No faults, hitting some good lines and absolutely railing my FTW Industries bike!

(Photo copyright of Chris Griffiths)

Race day arrived and it had rained heavily over night, everything was absolutely soaked! This amount of rain would have changed the track so I went straight up to get in some more practice runs in.  As expected the course was muddier and and a lot slippier, I was taking it full on speedway style through some of the corners!  Had to change some of my line choices, especially in the lower sections which had changed a fair bit and was catching lots of people out.  I struggled with grip in the muddier sections, especially across the roots so I decided to change my front tyre from a Michelin Wild Grip R to a Michelin Dig R which then worked amazingly well! I'm running the new MK4 Burgtec Penthouse pedals which shed mud so easily, Dave and the guys have worked hard on the new design still keeping their huge amount of grip and trademark looks.  Over the morning's practice I got in three runs and was happy with the change to the track and my new line choices.

(Photo copyright of Chris Griffiths)

Time now for my first race run!  After such a confident morning I over cooked some sections and experienced a few stop-start-stop-start moments in the switchbacks which lost me time however the rest of the track ran pretty smoothly and I finished with a 2m 16.517s which saw me sat in fourth place.  I wanted to do better though and decided to go all out on my second race run ... this didn't work out too well as a rather large crash slowed me right down, a total rider error with only myself to blame.  As a result of this I slipped down to sixth place and disappointed wasn't the word!

A good weekend overall, a top course despite the inclement weather and a learning curve for me.  The bike ran superbly with, thankfully, no technical issues this time around.  Next up is Penshaw, see you on the hill punks!


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Borderline Events Enduro - Escape to Gisburn, 29th September 2013

Hey guys and gals, it's Angie here again, there's been no time to sit still, 'busy bunny' are my middle names. We've got some amazing news but I can't divulge just yet so keep sitting tight, exciting times are a'coming, I am itching to tell you all however!  Anyway, for now go and grab your cup of coffee and some biscuits here's my report from the Borderline Events, Escape to Gisburn enduro...

After a week of riding around the absolutely drop dead gorgeous West Highlands of Scotland both me and Steve's legs were feeling pretty done in however but we couldn't resist another race so drove all the way from Wick at the top of Scotland to get to Gisburn in North Yorkshire for Mike Marsden's first ever Enduro.  Although I had ridden at Gisburn before Steve had never been and there were some new tracks being built so we thought why the hell not!

The week before in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, absolutely amazing scenery...

It was only a single day event which was pretty cool however we used our time wisely and managed to get a bit of practice in on the Saturday where we met up with the local legend Euan Bruce to show us the tracks.  Steve opted for his hardtail after the bearings on his Yeti blew up, despite stripping it all down in the car park he gave up all hope, so racing on the hardtail it was to be! Hardcore, you know the score!

This Enduro was made up of three stages and they were all fairly pedally but well thought out, it was all pretty good fun, Mike Marsden had done his homework!  Track one was tight and twisty through the trees and over shiny roots, yes, those glossy little buggers that are only there to catch out the unwary. Thankfully I kept it pinned and showed the boys how it's done, there's also something very soothing about the smell of a pine forest, but I best not get all hippy dippy on you all!  

Photo copyright of Lisa Hollifield

Track 2 had a fresh sweet bit cut in which I absolutely loved, it was pretty much a straight line to the fireroad over some jumps and roots, you had to stay on the gas to get through the fast rolling section.  It was here where I had my buddy Peter Tiplady in my sights and made it my mission to chase him down, he got ass-whipped, good times.  Soon afterwards I was feeling the pain of pushing up up a super steep climb, this was rewarded with the awesome trail down through the woods to the finish line. That climb though was a lung buster, I was almost sick at the end of the track, talk about breathing fire!!!  Poor Steve got a puncture on the first whoopy bit of the trail which screwed up his potential podium position, he totally kicked ass on track one taking the first position so understandably he was feeling gutted.  

Photo copyright of Nick Moor

Track 3 was admittedly bit of a slog, which in the same breath was great for Steve on his hardtail who shot off at warp factor 90, I just found it really hard on my legs I suppose it was the previous week in the Highlands coming back to haunt me.  I got cadence going and kept it steady but oh boy I was absolutely knackered when crossing that finish line, I just lay in the grass gasping for breath!

Photo copyright of Nick Moor

Steve got held up on the fire road after a dude in front got in his way which wasn't great but all in all we had fun and will definitely be doing another one of Marsden's races, well done that man!

I took home the 3rd place here, Steve placed 1st on track 1 and 3 but unfortunately the puncture on track 2 let him down. That's racing for you though.

We're both looking forward to the 2014 Borderline Events.

Angie

xx

Borderline events, Innerleithen, 24th February 2013

Chris Foster takes over the crib: Well I arrived fashionably late at the venue (around midnight) to find something reminsent of an old NAMBS race.  A few fires and a few daft arses keeping the campsite awake.. for once not me though!  It would have been rude of me to ignore the atmosphere so a few rums were necked and I was off to bed.

Up for an early morning and a brisk track walk.  Quote of the weekend goes to newby racer Peter Woods for 'You could hang a hoodie from my nipples', it were a wee bit cold y'see! The track was simple, fast and a safe option considering the weather at this time of year, it was taped by Lewis Buchanan, and he sure knows his stuff, so yeah, Mike Marsden got himself a good track. 

Practice was kept to four runs for me, having not been on the bike for a while I wanted to stay fresh.  It was slow going at first but started to get there by the end of the day, the track was enjoyed by most and it was great to see a lot of first time racers there.  All seemed pretty stoked to being part of it, if not a bit nervous.  We had an early night and found the party folks from the previous evening must have learned their lesson as it had all thankfully quietened down.

After another cold night, up early (for me anyway) and out for a practise run, just the one as it's a long ride along that Inners road, especially in the bleedin' cold weather.  Got my race lines all sorted I had a wee walk up the bottom of the track for a little entertainment... only to find I would spend the next hour looking after a potential spinal injury, great!

Racing soon got underway and the times rolled in as most people stayed warm in their cars. The track was hard up top for my race run but grippy as can be, awesome... if only my riding was too!  Had a sketchy first run, trying too hard to put a good time in after so long off the bike took its toll and I hit the deck, not far from the end of the track. 

(Photo copyright of Ian Linton)

Second run came around quickly, as I spent the most of my time trying to sort a brake that failed on the first run.  Big thanks going out to Jamie Johnson for taking some time out to get that sorted for me,  Boshed on up the hill with my bruised arse and to make matter's worse I fell out of the uplift bus and bashed my arse again, bugger! 

(Photo copyright of Ian Linton)

The plan for run two was to take it easy, conserve energy and get all my lines sweetly dialled in, that was a conscious effort not to pedal aside from the start and finish straight.  At the top of the hill light was fading fast and we were blessed with snow, this made for some interesting possibilities on track.  I found it really good though and managed all that I wanted, absolutely class!  Well apart from the brake which I guess has to go back to Hope, It's new and just doesn't wanna work!  So yeah, steady as planned and not too bad a time considering.

(Photo copyright of Steve Wyper)

The race was won by Lewis Buchanan, with an awesome time, Jack Reading second followed closely by Adam Brayton and then Pete Williams who are both coming back from injury.  So good times for them two. Dave Wardell put in a stonking time in Masters, showing all the young lads how it should be done and indeed showing that the old school are still shining!

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