Dragon Downhill Gethin Rnd 5

In mid May you might expect it to be sunny. Wrong. After a week of rain leading up to the weekend, Gethin was wet. With torrential rain the night before there were even certain parts of the track that the run-off water had turned into a mini river! Last week I made a few changes to my Marzocchi 888 forks and this was the first time I could try them somewhere really rocky. The infamous Gethin Rock Garden gave 'em a good work out and the feedback at the handlebar was "bumpy but not too bad at all". Jolly good.

A new style of uplift was in action this weekend. Dragon organiser Jason Carpenter and Masters rider Jules Poffley have been hard at work welding up a couple of trailers to hold the bikes, each one separately so it doesn't rub on another, and a couple of buses were hired for the riders to sit in. The good old Bob Gay lorries were in use too. There were some very long queues, but unfortunately it seems slower to load the bikes the new way to comply with the new Forestry Commission regulations.

First race run came and went, with lots of silly stops and setting off with one foot not clipped into my pedal. When I crossed the line I had a winning time of 3.52, and even managed 100th overall, out of about 250+, so I'm pretty stoked!