NPS 4 Caersws, Newtown

Round 4 of the National Points Series was held at Caersws near Newtown this weekend. It was super windy and rain did threaten but the track stayed very dry and very dusty (but still more grippy than the maxxis cup last weekend!). Highlight of the weekend for me was jumping the giant jump in the field cos it was just waaaaay too slow to do the little one and go round some pretty tight corners. Pretty damn scary every time!



Practice went well and going into seeding I felt pretty confident. The whole thing seemed to be going pretty well until I hit the first really steep bit.. You turn a tight right onto it and then go straight down. Right at the top my front wheel hit something and I pitched over the bars landing right at the bottom! I took my time continuing down, it was fun, and I hoped for better luck next time.


Woah! My bike is upside down!! Photo by Trig.

Practice was a bit shady for me on Sunday but I tried not to let it bother me and chilled out before race runs during the afternoon. I got off to a reasonable start but it all went wrong and I ended up crashing twice! I was a bit gutted but that's racing, and hopefully I'll be back on it for the World Cup at Schladming in early September.

Caerphilly Trails

I hit Caerphilly trails a little while ago. Lots of work has been going on but the main thing is that they rock! There's a mint hip line there, and I do love hips, as you might be able to tell from this photo.

Maxxis Cup, Montgenevre, France

I finally made it out to a Maxxis Cup three years after my last one! It didn't disappoint. The track was pretty steep, loose, rocky, but most importantly, mint fun. The weather was good and the atmosphere super relaxed. Two full days of lift serviced practice meant about a month's worth of riding in a day, or at least it felt that way. I managed 5 runs just on friday afternoon!

I crashed in both my runs but still managed 4th quite incredibly. It's just a shame this was the last round of 2006, but maybe I'll make it out to a few next year, its definately worth the effort.