BDS 2 – Moelfre Hall, Wales, 10th April 2011

Just some photos of Angie from Laurence Crossman-Emms at the moment pending the write up :)

Tweet

BDS 1: Nant-Gwrtheyrn, North Wales 20th March 2011

The first round of the year was in North Wales at a pretty cool venue finishing by the sea shore! The track was great fun up the top, real tight, steep, rocky and rooty, suiting both Nick and Angie’s riding styles perfectly. The bottom was pretty flat with a few drops and jumps, it was rather pedally and quite tiring. This was also Angie’s first race in the national Elite category, she took it all in her stride however.

(Angela Coates at Nant-G, photo courtesy of Iain Mcconell, www.turniptowers.co.uk)

Weather was good for practice on Saturday, the track was still a little wet mind and probably aided the grip if I’m honest. The day went really well with Nick managing to squeeze in about 8 runs with no real dramas.

It soon became very obvious during practice that both riders’ winter training regimes were definitely paying off, they were both looking good, fast as hell.

Unfortunately through the night the rain came, you all saw it coming didn’t you?! It was a bit of a sticking point whether to change the tyres, especially with quite a few people swapping things over. Nick figured with all the rocks and roots there would be little point.

Nick made two more practice runs on Sunday morning which went really well and if anything the rain made the track quicker by getting rid of the thick mud. The seeding runs had to be called off due quite a serious accident involving one of the Juniors (hoping for a speedy recovery). So there was quite a wait between morning practice and the race runs. Nick’s race run didn’t go to plan, he was making some silly mistakes which he hadn’t done all weekend, and as a result was off the pace. Nick added that his practice run was far better than his race run.

Angie was soon off, hitting all her lines perfectly until the bottom jump where she crashed of all places. C’est la vie, as they say, and she had a right old pearler of a bruise on her leg as a souvenir of the weekend! She was happy to break through placing 7^th in the Elite however.

Northern Downhill Series, Kielder Forest Mass Start, March 6th 2011

Nick Turner: ….This race was gonna be something else having not done a mass start before. The format was practice with qualification on the Saturday followed by racing on the Sunday. The track descends over 450 metres with a (knackering) 60 metre climb in the middle. I thought I would take it like a man rocking the Spooky ‘Bandwagon’ and be the ‘Hardtail Hero’ for the day!!

Walked up the track with my bike along with a few others on Saturday morning where we were all under the impression that it would be a typical trail centre type course. This was soon proved to be not the case, it was quite technical and looked like it was going to be really hard to pedal in places. The top looked amazing; the start begins quite wide and then narrows right down over a jump, opening wide again onto quite a loose 4x4 track followed by singletrack and then into the uphill section.

My first practice run on the Spooky was completely wild, it was so rough, I can’t emphasise that enough! Needed to check that I still had my teeth in place when I got to the bottom! I had (the expected) struggle in the uphill section due to the rocks, which saw my bike skipping all over the place. It was a relief being back onto the downhill sections and finally over the fun table-tops at the bottom. Squeezed in another run and left it at that, if I did any more I would be too cream-crackered the following day.

The seeding runs were in four groups of 20 riders, I was on the second back row and tactically lined myself up with a good gap to get through ahead. Unfortunately my gap was slammed shut and I knew my strength would be on the top downhill section. Jumped straight into the flow of things and started to pass people, having to take the looser and rougher lines as people were sticking to the smoother sections. Disappointedly I got stuck behind three riders at the singletrack section and couldn’t pass, then, when it came to the uphill section, I then started to get passed, argh!! Although the Spooky hardtail was great on the downhill bits, with the short geometry it isn’t the best for XC type riding however I gave it everything. Kept pushing when I got to the downhill sections again. However this part of the course was much flatter and quite bumpy so pedaling was tough as the bike was skipping again.

I have never, ever, been so relieved to finish a run, I can tell you! I have never felt so exhausted, thankfully though I qualified 12th for the final.

On the Sunday I took it easy in the morning making sure not to burn myself out for my race. The race category was much bigger with nearly 40 riders. I was however on the 3rd row to start which helped a lot. Had a really good start and passed 2 riders and as people were slowing down for the jump I continued pushing and went two-abreast with another rider, hardcore. Soon overtaking a few more people put me into about 4th place. Admittedly I was feeling smug at this point as most of these riders were on full suspension bikes where I was passing them on a little hardtail! Smugness now put aside…. When we hit the singletrack I was being held up by a rider in front, once at the uphill section he let me through, however I was now being caught up and being overtaken by other riders which was frustrating. I just kept pushing and pushing, it was so hard to control my breathing and was a relief when I got back on the lower downhill section! Got straight back into the flow and made up time. Just before the jumps near the end one rider was catching me up and I was determined not to let him pass. He got close at the top of the bottom section but then I floored it as I knew it was nearly over.

I could never have been happier to cross that finish line, my whole body had been abused and I couldn’t breathe! Having now lost my mass-start virginity and learned so much about how the format ‘works’ in regards to the types of bikes needed for these courses, I am looking into getting a small full suspension rig kitted out with view to doing some of the Megavalanche races.

Watch this space...

(photos and video to follow)

And now introducing…….. Angela Coates!

I would like to take the pleasure of introducing the glamorous Angela Coates to you all, the newest rider coming into The Development Mountain Bike Team fold.


A blindingly fast 26 year old whipper-snapper from the North East of England, she has already taken the Northern Downhill Champion title in 2010 which she aims to retain for 2011. Thanks to a little persuasion from her brother James and a briefly loaned Mr Big bike to get to grips with she was soon found to be wrapping herself around the trees at Hamsterley Forest, face it, it’s the only way to learn. As she says, “Although I spent my early days crashing my brains out I was completely addicted from the word go!”.

A birthday trip to Fort William in September 2007 came about where she was planning to just take photos of her brother and friends. When they arrived her brother pulled a Kona Stab downhill bike out of the boot of his car and said “There you go, you’re coming riding with us too!”….. She was left dumbstruck, “At last I had my own bike” …. “the last bike I had was when I was 10, it was pink and called ‘Blossom’, so this was a slight improvement!”

Angela continues, … “I was spoilt at Christmas that year as James bought me a full entry to the Hamsterley Winter Series, this is where I cut my teeth. Hamsterley is part of my local area so I got some good practice under my belt and came 3^rd overall. I couldn’t believe I was sharing the podium with Helen Gaskell, I really couldn’t believe it!”

“After that I was pretty hooked and Descend Hamsterley sponsored me for a while, it is a brilliant training ground there and has pretty much everything for all disciplines of riding. All the time I was improving and a year later I was hooked up with Fox Racing and have now been with them for 3 years. Aaron does an amazing job in making sure I’m head to foot in Fox, I feel so proud! Big thanks to those guys.

I have moved into the Elite category for 2011, and am really happy with how the training has been going; it’s been stepped up, spending more time on my cross-country bike over the winter months. I’ve been hitting the weights and working on my upper body and have just sorted out a road bike to strengthen my legs and improve on my power. Which will help me immensely on the ‘motorway’ section at Fort William!

For 2011 I’m racing the British Downhill Series, Scottish Downhill Series, Northern Downhill Series and some other endurance type events. So far it has been going well, my times have improved since last year and I feel a lot fitter. I will be doing the World Cup at Fort William as part of Team GB. It's such an honour and I can’t wait! There's an immense feeling racing with the world’s fastest riders, totally unreal!

When I’m not working and racing, I work for Berghaus which is also really cool, over the winter months I do fell running and generally getting covered in muck! Last year I did a 28 mile event with my dad and we got the 2^nd mixed team back, completely over the moon! (Although I had to go up the stairs on my bum the next day, ouch!)

I’ve been asked about my favourite rider and have to say it’s my brother James. It’s brilliant watching him rail turns and doing massive whips! He’s such an inspiration for me. Fave pro? Brendan Fairclough, man does he look cool on a bike or what?! Hmmm, fave female pro? Might get told off for not supporting a British rider here but Emmeline Ragot, so loose! And oh yeah, gotta love Sabrina Jonnier too for the sheer fact she wears flowers in her hair!.....”

This season she’ll be riding alongside Nick Turner and raising the bar at the British Downhill Series, Scottish Downhill Series, Northern Downhill Series and selected rounds of the Megavalanche, iXS Series and the penultimate UCi World Cup where she has been chosen to represent Team GB. You can’t get much better than that now can you? 

Yowzers!

2011 Team Strip

Confirmed for 2011:

FTW Industries

GoPro HD Cameras

Royal Racing

Urge Helmets

EVS Armour

Hayes Brakes

Sun-Ringle

Maxxis Tyres

RockShox

SRAM

Burgtec

Thomson

Oury Grips

FiveTen

And so it begins....

A belated "Happy New Year" to everyone out there, it has been a very busy, busy, busy time lately and not forgetting rather snowy, snowy, snowy to boot as well! Thankfully the snow has thawed, for now anyway, along with the sub-zero temperatures and the new year has come around with gusto. Can anyone remember seeing the New Year in? No? Looks like you had a good time then!

And so it begins..... The Development Racing Team are proud to announce the 2011 sponsors, first and foremost we're staying onboard with Frank Wadelton's 'FTW Industries' frames, we have been blown away by their performance throughout 2010, they're absolutely amazing, strong as you like, hardcore downhill weaponry. In addition to FTW we're working in conjunction with 'GoPro HD' cameras. Completely over the moon with GoPro coming on board. For those not in the know; GoPro are the market leaders with onboard high definition video cameras, they are simply awesome and very highly respected. You will literally be there riding with Nick down all of the courses and so much more besides, we have various camera mounting hardware so there's going to be a lot of footage coming soon. For more information have a look at their website: www.goprocamera.com

Will keep y'all in the loop once videos have been edited and uploaded, exciting times.

On top of this we have a new helmet sponsor for 2011, Urge. They are a French company who have been working hard with a top pro downhiller, Fabien Barel, on their product range, it has certainly turned up trumps. The result is a very protective and indeed aesthetic lid like no other on the market, it's just gorgeous isn't it! More info can be found here: www.urgebike.com

There will be another blog shortly once the strip design has been finalised.

A big, huge, massive, mammoth THANK YOU is going out to all the people involved with the 2011 team, without you guys we simply wouldn't exist:

FTW Industries - frames

Hayes Brake Company - disk brake systems

Sun-Ringle - wheels

SRAM/RockShox - gearing and forks

Thomson - seat posts and stems

Maxxis - tyres

Oury - grips

Burgtec - bars and pedals

Five Ten - shoes

Royal Racing - racing apparel

EVS - body armour

We are going back to having the team jerseys custom made this year, it's very important for the team's professional identity. Alongside the strip design work I am also planning new t'shirt designs as well, this is certainly keeping me out of mischief!

Nick has been busy with his winter training regime; sweating it out at the gym, rock climbing, putting the miles in on the road and hitting the trails at Hamsterley Forest. He's feeling good about his year, so let's get it started!

Thank you once again to everyone involved, here's to a great 2011 season.

All the best out there,

Lee.

A blog of its own

Just how good is this photo of Nick at Caersws eh?