Midlands Winter Series Round 2 - Bringewood

Can't believe the Winter Series is almost over! Round 2 has just been and gone, on the old Nationals track at Bringewood.

Saturday's practice was really muddy and slidy but still quite fun. That track is sooo tiring though. There's so much to do in the middle & bottom sections - pumping, hopping and generally pinballing your way between the trees. It was great to hit them with a bit of speed and double everything up though, just like you were riding trails. Nice.



The weather was dull but it remained dry, so by Sunday the very slippery top off camber corners were significantly more grippy and much easier to navigate. The rest of the track was similiarly more predictable and the whole thing was running so much faster. I got everything properly sorted in morning practice, and as the sun came out to warm us through it was time to head up for the first race run.

Right from the start it was a good-un, I hit the first two muddy corners near enough spot on, a little slow through the next few, but then onto the old track and things weren't going too badly. It was a bit steady the rest of the way but with no glaring mistakes I was feeling pretty good. Then right near the end I caught two slower riders who had nowhere to pull over. I felt pretty bad about yelling at them but it had to be done. I eventually got by and crossed the line on 3mins dead. I was stoked to have had a crash-free run after a long run of crashing during race runs, and was sure i could shave another 5-10 seconds off in the second run. Unfortunately my gears jammed near the start and when they freed up I was a little over-eager in making up the time and hit a section a little too fast resulting in a crash.

It was still a great weekend though - great uplift and organisation as usual from the Pearce crew. Also great to see Fabien Barel back from injury and choosing Bringewood to try out his new bike. Tracy Moseley was racing too - real good to have none other than the World Cup Champion to compare my time to! I finished 2nd overall and am the current series leader, and looking good for the win on at the final round on March 18th.

Dirtgirls in Mountain Biking UK!

Back in the summer I spent a couple of weeks coaching out in Morzine with Flow MTB who run women-only coaching weeks - the "Dirtgirls" weeks. Mountain Biking UK sent along staff writer Ruth Brooker on the second week, you can read what she thought of it here (2MB, opens in a PDF file). I'm back out there again this summer - the whole summer this time, coaching the Dirtgirls weeks, guiding, and generally helping out at the Flow chalet.

Oh dear... I think we've gone too far!

Yep, after a dead steep lungbusting climb, I had to say it, much to the chagrin of the group I was riding with! I was supposed to be navigating for us as part of the Scottish Mountain Bike Leaders Association Trail Cycle Leader training course (bit of mouthful that, isn't it.. SMBLA TCL for short) I was on, but it seemed to be going a little awry. A quick check of the map revealed that actually we hadn't gone far enough, so all was not lost and on we went til we really had gone too far, but fortunately not up a crazy climb, and not more than about 50 metres! After that it was time for Jim to navigate.

Its been a busy few weekends lately, but this one was one of the best! I was up in the Dolgellau neck of the woods,(if you raced the NPS at Rugog Farm last year, its about 10 miles further north, if you're interested!) Northish wales I suppose.

Me and a friend were staying down at Braich Goch bunkhouse, in Corris. I arrived first and bumped into a crazy bunch of Bathonian fell runners who very kindly offered me curry and then made me eat their home-made desert (very yum!), followed by making me play countdown. I have to say there wasn't much resistance on my part as they were a right fun bunch and made what might otherwise have been a rather dull evening quite a lively one - cheers chaps if you're reading! Ann, the lady who runs the bunkhouse, showed us her Corn snake, which is a lovely orangey thing. Only little at the moment, it can grow to something like 5ft I believe. Pints of guinness were downed and then bed time. The following evening we got our own back on the fell runners and made them watch bike films.

The weather was stunning, as was the scenery. Like I said, I was doing the TCL training course with Graham O'Hanlon who runs Snowbikers - based in the Barmouth/Dolgellau estuary at Taicynhaeaf. It was a very interesting weekend, getting us thinking about lots of different aspects of riding and guiding groups, including my favourite bit - the map reading and navigating. Even though I fluffed it a bit, I like maps alot and I'm usually pretty handy with directions so just a momentary "moment", hopefully! Plenty of time to practice between now and the assessment in March though, so should be on the button by then!

Next race is only a week Sunday, but in the meantime I've got Gethin uplift day to look forward to :)