National Points Series Round 1

Most people know, but in case you don't, the NPS has a new team of organisers this year - Si Paton & Steve Parr aka SPS Events. We just had the first round and it was one of the best races I've ever been to in the UK. The course was mint, steep, technical, tight, flat out fast and really good fun. The weather was dry and the atmosphere was great.

I was enjoying myself in practice but in seeding I was disappointed with my time as the run had felt reasonably rapid. The following day I just had a few things I want to work on before the race run. Just before my run I felt super ready at the top, but then some nerves got to me a little bit. I was over-cautious in the top steep bit which I'd had nailed all weekend and ragged as you like through the middle steep bit. I hit the flat out fast bit pretty quick but unfortunately caught the end of my bar on a tree and it took me right out. I was ok, but when you lose that amount of momentum/time on such a fast bit of the track you're pretty scuppered. So I was a bit disappointed with my time and a 4th place finish but that's racing. I really enjoyed the weekend though, if every track was like that it would be awesome.

Dragon Downhill - Round 1, Abercarn 8 April

Abercarn is one of my favourite tracks of the Dragon series. I thought I knew it pretty well but I was unprepared for just how flat-out fast it was running this weekend.. I don't think we've had rain for maybe 2 weeks now and Saturday and Sunday were no exception. Hot, dry, dusty and soo fast, the track was mint.

This was the first time we experienced the new Dragon race schedule, with practice til 2 on Saturday followed by a chainless seeding run. Loads of people dropped out of the chainless run, I don't understand why, perhaps they have no sense of fun.. But after a mech-snapping crash early on, I'd been riding chainless all morning so I was all set. Monet, Aimee and me practiced running starts at lunchtime to the amusement of Tracy Moseley who had come solely to do the chainless race. But then up on the start line we found we had to start with one foot on the pedals.. how gutted!


Photos by Dave Lane - Fastlanephotography.co.uk

I think Jason's idea with the chainless run is to get us all into pumping our bikes more, eaking every last little bit of speed out of our bikes as we can, and pumping is a key way to do it. I have to say I didn't really pump any more than usual because the track's so steep, but later in the year on some of the flatter tracks its going to play a major part in the chainless race!

Anyway, Tracy did a 2min run, I was on 2.13, Aimee did 2.14 and Monet did 2.26.

Next morning it felt more like the traditional dragon with a couple of hours practice then two race runs. There were more riders today as a fair few didn't take up the option of practice on Saturday. Practice was just as fast as Saturday but I had to work hard to keep off the brakes and trust my tyres a bit more.

First race run was totally the opposite of that, I braked too much everywhere, and was lying second with a 2.06 behind Aimee on a 2.04. Sue Mahony was on 2.09, so things were quite a bit closer than usual which was really cool. Messing about between runs I found I had too much air in my tyres which might explain a few things.. I got it sorted and in the second run let go a bit and took the win with a 2.03. Aimee was second on 2.04 and Sue also went faster with a 2.06, nice one Sue!