Caersws cup – round 3 – English championships

To start off Dad drove us up after work Friday night so we got there in the early hours of the morning but it was really cool to go to a race with my dad especially as he was going to race this one.

Walking the course in the morning wasn’t the usual Caersws that I was used to. The course was open at the top due to the felling of trees and just foot high stumps were left. The course went a totally different way at the start and it was wicked to ride a start that was fresh and undoubtedly going to get very rooty. The rest of the course was at a fast pace the whole way down and a lot simpler than the usual tracks there. It was also quite pedally and one of the most important tracks to be able to keep speed through.

Saturday was dry and the top section was bedding in quite nicely with more roots raising from the track to make it that bit harder. A new bus stop section had some awesome roots in that made it very hard to get through a tight off camber section that caught even some of the elites out. The lower section of the course was rolling seriously fast and had some drifty berms, big jumps and some pretty big ruts and braking bumps. I did about 6 runs in practise but I sectioned some of the more involved sections. I was happy with all my lines and Brandon Love and Oli Burton helped with a few things as we compared our choices.

The much talked about rain storm touched down over Saturday evening and night but when we woke up Sunday, it was looking as though it was clearing nicely. The track was totally different and most of the lines that I was happy with had to be changed to a safer option. I planned to do 2 runs to see what it was like and get used to my new lines but I got a puncture so I was limited to just the one.

The course was drying up all the time and a delay before racing commenced left me thinking that I should have put the high rollers back on.

Despite all this I was having a lot of fun and had a lot of confidence going up. I knew that first runs were going to be pretty irrelevant if it was to keep drying up as it had already gone past the stage of where the cloggy mud was getting cleared from the lines. I took a steady run down and had a pretty slow section at the top. As I got closer to the bottom I was having so much fun whipping the jumps and pushing it that little bit more. I over took a couple people in my run which was a pain but I came through in 1st position and managed to keep it as the rest of the juniors came down. I was on 2 min and 19 seconds. The fastest time after the elites was a 2:16 so i was happy with 4 seconds off of the respected Intense rider, Ralph Jones.

I went straight to the van to change to high rollers for next runs.

I spoke to Leon Rosser on the way to the uplift and he said that I was on the right choice so that gave me some confidence as he had only just gone down at that point.
My run was a bit sketch on the top section; I knew it was that much drier so I went back to jumping a few stumps out of a corner as I was on Saturday but I landed too inside of a corner and nearly went over the bars drifting into it. I had the rest of the course how I wanted it and pretty smooth. I ran out of gears into the finishing field and came through in 2nd place behind Gareth Brewin. I got a 2 min 14 seconds and a second behind Gareth. However this did mean that I was now English champion which was pretty cool.

Here are the podium pics;






















Looking forward to seeing how national champs goes this coming weekend for sure!

Thanks to Last, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Funn, Bell, Thor, KMC, Nike 6.0, Mojo suspension, and Shimano.

National round 3 – Fort William

Despite being at Fort William a month before for the World Cup I walked the course on Friday afternoon. It was well worth it as there were a fair few changes just in how the course was taped. However there was only 2 little sections that were changed and made the course a bit faster.

I said to myself on Friday night that I would do no more than 6 runs. I knew where the corners were i just needed to practise a few different lines and get up to speed again. I didn’t want to wear myself out like I did at the world cup before my seeding and race run. My practise runs went well but I took a fall in the new wooded section. I was now jumping a root section but when I landed a new root grabbed onto my pedal and sent me on a little journey though the air. Apart from this I had a really fun day trying my best to whip the big jumps of the notorious motorway section.

Sunday morning I limited myself to 2 runs to keep my energy. In my first run the inner tube that was protecting my frame decided it would get pulled into my cassette which didn’t help pedalling matters. I had a good run down without pedalling and I felt that not being able to pedal made me try that much harder to carry speed and be smoother which was good. I wanted to do a race speed run down for my 2nd run but I got red flagged 2 times so my run didn’t go to plan but I was confidant about seeding runs and was just having a lot of fun.

My seeding went pretty well and I took it smoothly and pedalled pretty hard through the motorway section. I tried my best to whip the last few jumps and mess about a bit. I came through in seconds place and by the end of the category I got moved down to 3rd. I had a 5 min and 8 seconds. This would have been enough to qualify in the World Cup a month before and I am sure it was down to not being tired. I waited around for good friend Oli Burton to come down and see how he got on in senior. I waited at the finish and the clock ticked over 6 mins. I thought he must have a puncture; we had been messing about with tire pressures all weekend and we were managing to run them fairly soft without getting a puncture. I saw Oli slowly come over the last jumps and assumed he was ok despite he looked like he had a crash. When I asked him what went wrong he replied, “I think I hit my head”. It wasn’t hard to tell that he had been knocked out and didn’t really know what was going on at all. I had a chat as I walked him to the medics and he looked pretty lost. When he was surprised to see a chairlift and couldn’t remember what he had for breakfast I knew it wasn’t good. I was warming up on Mojo’s turbo trainer when he came out and got whisked away to hospital.

After all that had gone on i just wanted to put a good time in for race runs and see how Oli was getting on. My race run went well. I didn’t have any major mistakes just a few slow sections. I definitely put everything into pedalling the last section. On the compression I couldn’t hold myself up and the tire buzzed my arse which soon made me stand up straight again. I came through the finish in 2nd place but by the time everyone finished i got moved to 4th position. I was pleased with this and my time of 5 min 5 seconds. I think it put me around 21st overall too.

After podiums I went to the hospital and Oli was complaining about how he was bored so back to normal there. He looked fine now but they needed to keep him overnight to keep doing checks etc. I stayed in a B&B with his mum and picked him up in the morning. As unlucky as he was to have hit his head that hard he was lucky he hadn’t broken anything and postponed riding. He must of had quite a fall.

here are some pictures;

- Taken by Fraser Leadbetter
- Taken by Fraser Leadbetter
- Taken by Paul Mears
- Taken by Paul Mears

Thanks to Oli and his mum for taking me along and for a nice weekend away and of course Paul Mears and Fraser Leadbetter for their pictures. Thanks to Last, DMR, Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford, 2026 distribution, Funn, Bell, Thor, KMC, Nike 6.0, Mojo suspension, and Shimano.