Manx end 2 end

Matt Simmonds, Jon Adams-Martin, Lee Howen, Jim Le Tip, Matt Akers and myself all ride on a Wednesday night as part of the WWW! Wild Wednesday Wheelers! It was suggested we entered the Isle of Man end 2 end event. The entries for the this filled in less than 24 hours, a record entry of 1700!

The route

We all arrived at Liverpool for the ferry early Saturday morning and with the windy conditions it didn't look like it was going to be a smooth crossing! It wasn't.... sick bags were handed out to everyone, drinks were falling off tables, Simmonds couldn't deal with Lee Howen's banter and had to make use of his bag! 

Queuing to board the Manannan ferry


The Team

We arrived in Douglas and let the stomach's settle before popping to sample the local ice cream on the sea front! We checked into our hotel and signed on for the race. 300 People had already dropped out so it would only be 1400 on the start line! 

We had to be up nice and early to get a bus to the start line at 7.30 am, for the start at 10.00 and it was pouring with rain with the hills covered in cloud! 

The start,
The top 100 finishers from last years event were set off and then the other 1300 started a few minutes later, Jim, Simmonds and I pulled a few sneaky moves and got ourselves started in the first 400 or so. We set off down the road at a serious pace overtaking loads of riders. The first 10 k of the 75 was on road and then the remainder off road. For around 5 minutes we held a solid pace of 25mph on the xc bikes! At this point Simmonds moved away and I didn't see him again till the finish line. The first half of the off road section was following enduro tracks through the hills, with plenty of big ruts, it was a good feeling riding through them fast and overtaking so many people! I reached the half way point in one hour 34 mins, so was pleased to be well on target to complete the route in under 4 hours and I was still feeling OK. 

Jim and I kept passing each other on various climbs and descents, before he finally put the power down and set off on his single speeder! 

After a solid 2 and a half hours there were some great downhill sections in fresh woods, nice wide turns allowed for some serious overtaking, I think I made 6 moves in about a 30 second section, but sadly it wasn't much use as I hit the next fire road and my back tyre went flat!

I was fuming, and couldn't get the tyre off, then the tube wouldn't pump up, after some serious time wasted I got back going........ but after 10 minutes the back tyre popped clean off the rim and stopped me again , so after sorting that i got back on track! By now my stomach wasn't feeling too good after all the energy gels and drink! 

3 hours gone I knew I must have been getting close to the end although there were still some big hills in front of me! 

I was still passing riders, with many walking up most of the climbs ,at this point, struggling with cramp. Entering some fast downhill field sections, my gears were having some problems, resulting in 3 stops to put the chain back on, so I was stuck with the first 3 gears, spinning away!!!!! the last time I looked at my watch it was on 3.43 , and the last few sections had some amazing downhills before it was 2 miles to the finish. I made it in with a time of 4 hours 12 mins, which I was pleased with after all the problems id had, so I finished in 123rd position overall and 17th in the seniors! Not to worry though as it was an amazing event, there were plenty of spectators cheering riders on all the way as well. In the words of Simmonds "I blew up" He finished in 3 hours 59 minutes and 45 seconds, which was a time in the gold category. Jim finished in 3.42 which was a very good time, but nothing compared to what Nick Craig did, 2 hours 53 minutes to win the race. It was also great to see Nick staying around at the finish to see most of the riders finish the event.

Jon, lee and Matt all completed it and were happy with their times, they also had many problems on route including punctures and snapped chains !

Some riding pics :
http://murraylambden.zenfolio.com/p1002707313/hf803bf5#hf803bf5
http://murraylambden.zenfolio.com/p1002707313/hf803bf5#h8ef16e4

This was a great event, very well organised and a great course! Cant wait to have a go again! Next up its a 100 mile sportive, followed by the final BDS race at Caersws and then another 100 mile sportive! All the best! Cheers Simmonds, Jon, Lee, Jim and Matt and Plentyskills for the bike!

Europe

Three weeks, two World Cups and a week in Morzine with two downhill bikes and two road bikes, Ralph Jones and I headed down to Dover for the standard midnight ferry. A couple of hours driving into France before pulling in for a sleep in Hotel Van ! Waking up the next day at a French service station, the mighty Scotty Mears was also pulled in for a sleep in the next parking bay !

5 star !

La Bresse
Used for the first time in 2009 it was back on the circuit ! The French seemed to put  a lot of effort in to the event, with some great features on the natural track. Everyone seemed keen to have the event in town and there is always a good buzz in France after the Tour de France.

La Bresse

The track was quite short, but had plenty of line choice and options and some new jumps from the old track, the finish jump had to be made smaller after some serious cases ! After some good practice I was feeling good for qaulifying, but after missing two lines and losing some valuable time I was worried I wouldn't make it into the final as I knew the times would be super close ! I ended up 54th which was all good as I knew I had more time for the finals !

Half way Chalet huck !

Race day and the rain came, changing the dry track into a boggy fest and it looked like a lot of riders were struggling ! I put a full spike on for the final and was looking forward to it ! Sat at the start I could see the 2nd turn which had some deep ruts in, the line I was hitting had filled up with water, no time to change lines now so I planned to back off a little through the puddle ! As I left the start and got the first few ruts nice and fast I completely forgot the plan and hit the rut flat out, going straight down in a big splash !! Game over, I was soaked but nailed the rest of the track and ended up 75th, on such a short track you couldn't make a mistake let alone have a big crash ! Never ride through puddles if you don't know how deep they are !

On the deck !

Minnaar won with a storming run, Barel's run was awesome to watch and he finished 4th later annoucing his retirement. His race runs will be missed, he was the man for one off races, have a watch of his worlds run below ! Al Bond ended up 19th with a bent chain ring his splits were top 10 ! This was one of the best World Cups I have done, good organisation and the crowd was immense, on a short track the crowd lined it the whole way down !

Race run !

Morzine
A nice chilled week before heading to Italy, after a bit of a stitch up we had another night in Hotel Van, before Al Bond hooked us up with some top accompdation. We hit the Avoriaz climb on the road bikes, round about to round about, I completed the climb in 48 mins, Ralph was infront till the Yop got the better of his stomach ! Al Evans finished just behind me and Bond ten minutes behind on his xc bike ! Morzine seemed pretty quiet 'til the Shrewsbury massive of Titley, Meercat and co found some bangers ! Most of the tracks were pretty beat up but we still had a few good days riding ! Later in the week Ralph destroyed me on the time trial Morzine to Les gets and back ! Headcam from Morzine below
Thanks for help and Go Fast haircut Roland !

Morzine

Italy

Italian motorways 

The valley of Sun

Val Di Sole

The toughest track I raced on in 2010 and it was the same in 2011, really hard to pick a line and keep your speed, and it was tough on the arms and brakes. This year the sunlight made things even more awkward in the woods with patches of sun in the dark dirt making it difficult to see.The BCF failed to enter me for this, even after a reminder, eventually I got it sorted ! After some good practice runs with Matt Simmonds I went into my qualifying run feeling OK. I made two mistakes ending up in the tapes twice, ending up 121st a lot of other Brits didn't make the final, so it was a weekend in the sun for Ralph and I, Ralph just missed qualifying by .4  !

Roots and Rocks

After not qualifying for the finals, Ralph and I decided to have a go at the road climb to the top of the mountain, 24 kilometres of climbing, 1 hour 28 minutes for me and Ralph four minutes in front, then we enjoyed beating the cars back down the 24 k !

Aaron Gwin won the race, with another one of his standard runs that he has been doing this year, a different league at the moment ! Should be interesting at the champs if its muddy though !
Danny Hart's run was awesome to watch, and what hasn't been seen on any of the videos was how big the cloud of dust was that he sent on the last corner ! Troy Brosnan looked fast all weekend and got his first podium, Simmonds finally getting back up to speed after injury finishing in 16th.

The long drive home and a couple of races left before winter ! Cheers Ralphy, a top few weeks

All the best

Barel Worlds run !  Committed

National Championships and Bala

The National Champs were at Llangollen, or if your listening to Al Bond CLlangollen ! As this is the biggest British race the organisers wanted to test the riders so they decided to use the original top section in the woods. This is the steepest track that is raced in the UK, and when walking the track it looked like it was going to be tricky in the muddy conditions! Luckily for the organisers the sun did its job and started to dry things out making it a little easier to ride over the slick log drops! I managed 6 practice runs on Saturday, its not a great uplift system so 6 or 7 was the most that could be done, some slackers even managed 2 or 3! 

Race day, i got on one of the first uplifts that set off to the top, which didnt go to plan, as one of the local farmers decided he needed to move his cows from one field to the next blocking the uplift road! Top bloke!

After 2 practice runs i went up for seeding and came down in 14th with a steady run! For the finals i had the main man Steve Peat following me down, which was a bit of a worry! I had a good run, just making one mistake which proved costly as i finished 14th just 0.5 seconds from 11th! Top 15 was all good though, and i thought i would have some good UCI points, but someone pulled a sli move so it was just the top ten getting them and not top 25! Ruaridh Cunnigham won the race with a storming run, Al Bond took a deserved 2nd, showing he could deal with the pressure of his local fans, Adam Brayton slipped himself onto the box in 3rd after he seeded in first! 

Click below to watch my-
Headcam from National Champs

Full results
http://www.rootsandrain.com/race291/2011-jul-24-bds-uk-national-champs-11-llangollen/#hsenior-champs-m

Top pics
http://www.rootsandrain.com/rider333/robert-smith-elt/photos/

Bala (The Shrewsbury track)! Always one to look forward to as the Pearce crew put on a great event and the track is always good, nice to see some changes on the track to freshen things up. Its a little weird how people can deem certain things on tracks dangerous, but on this one they were happy to have a barbed wire fence in the track! After some abuse from fellow elites i hopped over it in practice! The uplift drivers do a great job getting us to the top quickly at the pearce races, but it doesnt impress us when they try to drift round corners so we get to watch our bikes getting roosted by stones! Save it for the ps3!

Racing, after a few crashes earlier in the week and in practice i was covered in the muscle relief pain cream, and after a solid first run i was in 3rd place which i was really pleased with as there was some top competition in the elites. Second run i went a fraction of a second slower but still rode well and finished 4th on the same second as Joe Smith and Harry Heath who were 2nd and 3rd. Matt Simmonds was 5th, just cruising at this one ready for the World cups in the following weeks! Younger brother Ed's took 4th in the experts and David 7th in elites a couple of seconds behind me. Alex Bond (Shropshire/Wales border) destroyed everyone with a gap of 5 seconds between him and second place, everyone else was left speechless when his time popped up! A well organised race on a great track. 

Nice video from the race including me at 55 seconnds !
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/209566/

Full results
http://www.rootsandrain.com/race298/2011-jul-31-pearce-cycles-4-bala/#helitem

Ive been in Europe for the last few weeks so will have a report on that soon ! 
All the best !

Borovets and Miles

After having a quick look at Borovets bike park in 2010 I was keen to come back in 2011. The setup is amazing with a really good track, nice quick chairlift and hotel at the finish line, its a very popular skiing resort in Winter.
I was missing the BDS at Llangollen for this race, and younger brother Ed's was also doing the same for his first trip to ride and race in a foreign country.

After an all night drive down to Gatwick I wasnt feeling too good and we landed in Bulgaria to a nice 32 degrees ! We headed straight to the Ram factory to build our bikes and set everything up, once again thanks to all the guys at Ram for looking after us and sorting everything out.

Driving to Borovets

We went for a quick track walk Thursday night and the track was looking awesome with some fresh sections, but it was seriously dusty, so I was hoping for some rain which was predicted for the weekend !

1780 meters

Standard Bulgarian Hammer for Track maintenance !

Nice view from the start

Practice started Friday with no clouds in the sky and 35 degree heat, Ed's and me did 6 steady runs getting used to riding in the deep dust before heading back to the hotel and the swimming pool !

Konstantin Dimov, Lubomir Nedyalkov and pals did about 15 practice runs, and then as many laps in the swimming pool, before spending the night tuning their bikes and making sure they knew what to do if they ever needed to put out a fire with a fire extinguisher! Mad men! 

Talking of mad , it's worth spending abit of time watching the hardtail riders come down at these races, they pin it and aren't shy of having a big crash !!

Out the start and into the woods

Saturday was nice and cloudy and damp so a nice slippy morning practice session before the afternoons seeding run. I did 4 practice runs and then a good solid seeding run, going fast in all the woods but not pushing on the pedalling sections That put me in 1st place 7 seconds infront of Rossen Kovachev who was looking good in practice. Ed's had a solid run and put himself in 3rd which was good. Back to the swimming pool for a chill !

Practice

I have been to Bulgaria a few times now, mainly because the people are so nice and keen for riding and the tracks are amazing. Each time its cool to see the improvements the riders are making getting faster and faster, they just need to start putting some race runs together now and get some sleep the night before the race !!

Sunday, race day, it was sunny again so the track was back to full on dust with loads of the corners getting blown out. I went up for my run feeling good after a good 3 practice runs. I again did all the wooded sections nice and fast and pedalled the flat sections as much as I could, after a good run I backed off in a few blown out turns towards the bottom and crossed the line going into 1st place by 11 seconds , And it was Ed's who was leading before me so we both finished 1st and 2nd, awesome. Rossen crashed on one of the steep chute's towards the bottom but still managed 3rd place. 

Something you don't see at a race very often and it just shows how close the community of riders are in Bulgaria, one of the older riders went to the podium and proposed to his Girlfriend with all their friends around, she said yes ! I got a nice bottle to spray in Ed's face , cutting my finger in the process ! Borovets is an amazing track and is a venue that could hold a world cup in the future ! 

Podium 1 - 2 !

 

Sunset over Sofia

Easyjet providing the views on the way home !

Thanks everyone that helped, it was a great race and few days ! Hopefully I will go back soon for some more riding ! Check some of the pics and the video in the links http://www.bikepornmag.com/?p=174 http://vimeo.com/26004372

Next up was a weekend of road riding and xc as I didn't have the funds to go to the two world cups in Canada and the USA. First off, along with Sam Motocross Hyde and Jason Hillclimb Powell, I entered an 82 mile sportive around Shropshire starting from Blazing Bikes, it was a perfect day for it 25 degrees and a slight breeze and the lovely Shropshire views !

Ready to go !

Team Haribo !

Me ! Full HTC !

After losing around 30 minutes waiting for a few friends who took wrong turns we completed the hilly route in 5 hours 41 mins, after plenty of water bottles, gels and bananas ! All good ! 

The following day was the CRC marathon, I planned to do the middle route of 50k around the Longmynd, but after a few kilometres with legs like Jelly I decided to do the shorter route of 25 k and have some fun overtaking on the downhills ! I must of had at least 5 guys have a go at me ............ sorry next time I will just walk down behind you ! ha ! 

Next up its National Champs and a few weeks of ebay action !

All the best !

Berty

Scotland, Weather, Scotland, Austria

After a few weeks break between racing I headed up to Glen Coe for round 3 of the BDS series, a venue not used for a National event before and somewhere I hadn't ridden before. Its good that the series is putting new tracks in. The weather forecast leading up to Glen Coe was not good with some serious winds whipping up! We got to Glen Coe Friday afternoon to walk the track, team water barrel filler Nick Jones had joined us for the weekend, and popped his best clothes on for the muddy track walk! He hit the deck 3 times!



The top of Glen Coe

Practice day, it was raining and seriously windy, practice got delayed a few times, and I managed more runs than most with a total of 3! Not good when you are trying to learn a new technical track! Practice got called off at 3pm due to the weather and a few other problems! At least we had plenty of time to watch the mighty Barca destroy United!

Sunday race day, I think everyone knew the race would have to be cancelled as the wind picked up even more, the organisers just tried to drag it out as long as possible! I managed 2 practice runs, bending a disc in half on one, Eds went for a 3rd run and his chairlift got blown into one of the pylons on the way up which was a common story between many riders around the pits, Eds then got blown off the track with a sideways wind ! 11 o'clock and a decision was made to cancel the seeding and race runs. I wasn't too bothered about that, although the decision to not offer any sort of series points or a small refund now benefits all that didn't bother to go to Glen Coe in the first place! At least we were home for a Sunday roast!

Fort William World Cup, I headed back up to Scotland on the Wednesday after Glen Coe with Blazing Bikes mechanic Ben, we stopped off for a steady lap at Glentress on the way, not so steady for Ben who took a big tumble trying to impress some hot talent in Lycra! Glentress is a top lap though!

Ben Nevis in all its glory

A couple of changes to the track at Fort William, and it was all dry considering all the bad weather they had

the week before. They usually have a good woods section in for the world cup, not sure what they were thinking with this one though , a nice uphill and not a lot of flow! That night we went to the 3Minute Gaps film premiere from Clay Porter , its got some pretty amazing footage, and it starts with Sam Hill and Rob Zombie!

3MinuteGaps premier

Qualifying day. A couple of practice runs and i felt OK on the track, although my timed run was to be my first full run, so I wasn't too sure on how hard to push. After a smooth top section, I went off line in the woods and hit a tree! I had an OK bottom half and went into 72 place, I finished in 86th place missing out on qualifying by just under 2 seconds! Annoying and disappointing!

Race day, I sat myself in the stands and watched the action unfold, it was a real exciting race to watch, Danny Hart's run was something else, Aaron Gwin 5 seconds up and crashed, Gee had a broken back wheel, Minnar put in a solid run and won at Fort William for the 4th time! Home time for me!

After getting home and opening my birthday presents and cards, I had a day to finish the birthday cake and get everything cleaned and ready for the trip to Leogang with Ralphy Jones! We took the 2 am ferry and drove through the night before arriving in Leogang at 4.30 the next day, we checked in to our pimp hotel right at the finish line and went straight to bed!

Leogang Mountains

The track looked good although they had made most of the harder sections from 2010 a little easier, it was looking very soft in places, and with the predicted non stop rain over the weekend, the track would be muddy! 

Track walk with main man Gee, walking into a storm !

Practice day, after a night of rain I put cut spikes on and banged out 4 runs quickly , getting all the jumps sorted, with the sun shining the track was drying fast so I tried highrollers before going up to walk the track and watch the top boys do a timed run.

Dropping into the finish

Qualifying, after another night of heavy rain it was back on to the cut spikes, I did 3 practice runs and then went back to the hotel for a nap! I went for a quick spin in the gym to get warm before heading up for my run, I had a smooth run with no mistakes, although I sat down for too much of the flat sections, I qualified in 60th position in a time of 4.02, some real close times as I was only 3 seconds from the top 30 ! There were around 270 riders trying to qualify in the top 80!

Qualifying run

Moto foam to keep the mud out !

Race day, even more heavy rain over night , now made the muddy track super muddy and rutty, I watched a few guys in the top section and it was mad to see some of the top ten riders really struggling to get through! I was pretty happy with my lines, choosing to go outside on most turns and carry some speed!

Race run, my plan was to get through the top section then get in the mix from there! That didnt quite work as I somehow managed to crash on one of the easier turns in the top section and get myself a muddy glove, I didn't really get going after that and ended up in 69th! Pretty annoying as I felt I was riding well! Loads of riders were crashing including Dan Atherton and Sam Dale who were both looking on it! Aaron Gwin took the win comfortably although Gee put in a stormer run and had a few seconds on everyone else in 2nd place!

Helmet cam from Leogang race day

Hopefully I won't lose my license after setting off numerous European speed cameras!

Thanks to John and Jane for the photos and sampling the dinner menu before us to advise us on what to choose! Top spectators and mechanics! Cheers

Next up I've chosen to miss the Llangollen national and race at Borovets in Bulgaria which is going to be one amazing track! Younger brother Edward is also joining me for the trip for his first race outside the UK!

Till next time! All the best
Berty

Racing And New Bike !

Hello again !
2nd Round of the BDS at Moelfre Hall was my last race on my old bike, the v10 has been a cracking bike over the last year and has given me some great results, especially this one, 12th in the elites with a full field of world cup stars, I was pretty pleased with that !. The red beauty is now for sale ! This was a great race with a great atmosphere over a Sunny weekend with a super fast track. Gee Atherton won with a 2.23 followed by Steve Peat 2.23.5 and Brendan 2.25, with myself in 12th with a 2.29.
Full results and Pictures at  http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/rider333/robert-smith-elt/results/

The next few weeks I had some time to wait for my new carbon V10 to arrive and take part in the Dyfi Enduro which is a popular xc event i entered with some friends and Matt Simmonds, sadly Simmonds knee wasn't ready for the 60k, but his carbon hard tail was so he let me use that for the event ! It was fast, but  I wasnt as fast at fixing punctures as i had a few. Still a cracking event and i completed the the 60k loop in 3 hours 58 minutes around 75th position ! Sweaty !

Popping a wheelie at the start !

New Bike ! Finally the box arrived at Blazing Bikes with the Santa Cruz Carbon V10 inside ! Look Out !

With the bike fully built i had a few runs at a local track before heading down to Pro-Bolt to get the bike tricked out with some titanium ! Thanks to Kevin for the help, check out http://www.tastynuts.com/

Bulgaria, my first race abroad this year was at Sopot, which is one serious track, and would be really good to get used to the new bike. I headed out to the race with Ben Baker, Ralph Jones, Ad Morgan, James Stock and Tom Tickle Gatton, via the lovely Easy Jet.

After a few rain storms the track was pretty slippy, We didnt get too much practice in as the cable slipped off the chairlift, an hour later it was back on and after seeding Ben Baker was first by 5 seconds, with me in second after a steady run , James Stock 3rd and Ralph 4th.

Stay safe !

Shambhala

New bike New kit

Race day, with the mountain covered in fog, it was pretty cold, and you could hardly see where you were riding in practice, sadly this was the case for one marshal who didn't see Rocking Ralph Jones coming and got hit at full speed, he didn't sound too good, hopefully he is OK now ! I had a solid race run and went into the lead with a 3.57, James Stock went into 5th and Baker 4th on his new bike, which got plenty of attention in the Monster pits, So a first place for me which i was really pleased with ! Ralph was 3rd and a young guy from Slovakia who will be one to watch 2nd. A good start to racing on the new bike ! Cheers guys

Photography: Georgi Kazakov

Podium after a Champagne fight !

I now have a few weeks before the next BDS and rounds 2 and 3 off the world cup ! All the best