Sorry it has taken me so long to sort out a proper write up.

Thought i had better do something as the second round is less than a week away. Like always this series is as popular as always, and as soon as Pearce cycles opened the entries the rounds very quickly became full. Showing what a huge support there is for racing in this country. With a number of Elite riders in attendance in both the men’s and women’s category’s keen to test out how there winter training had been going.

Anyway the track was changed at last minute due to the poor weather conditions in the week before the race. So the track used headed down onto the bomb holes followed by the left hand open section into the legendary super flowly bottom section. After an early start we arrived on the Saturday morning and after a good slide around in the muddy field i headed up to begin practice. With most riders opting for wet screams. These were the most use on the top of the course although during the day the track did begin to dry out with some riders starting to switch.

Pearce sure know how to put a race on, and i dont think anyone else has go an uplift anywhere as good as them. With specialised design trailers carry you and your bike, not only is it speedy but it is also safe. With most riders getting 10 runs in on the Saturday you cant complain.

The weather across the whole weekend was great with only a couple of short showers on the Sunday, and as always the spectators were lining the course giving encouragement. Jeff had his work cut out aswell with alot of photographers on course all weekend.

The open section was one of the hardest parts of the track with a series of rollers/doubles on the way in and a tricky rooty right hander to exit back in to the woods.

Some riders kept it low over the rollers others doubled them up, possibly even tripled them. A section to make or loose quite alot of time.

My own race runs went okay, after catching someone in my first run I posted a time just outside my own target of 3 minutes, which put me around middle in my category i was feeling good and though I could push on a many get inside my target. But after a so so run I posted a time about a second slower. But still pleased and looking forward to the next round and improving.

With such a large number of world class elite riders it did bring a heighten excitement with various rumours circulating thought the weekend of elite riders taking various crazy lines.

Our pictures from the race (& practise) are now available on RootsandRain and some of the best and mates are in the Image Gallery.
Day 1 & 2 Pictures on RootsandRain – 602 Pictures
10-03-27 Pearce Rnd1 Bringewood Best – 36 Pictures

Here’s a little summary of our recent rides over the snow Christmas 09 period. With a video with footage left over from two rides from the latter part of 2009.

24th Dec 09 – I (Jeff) went out for some Christmas Eve riding on Win Hill, with the group of young people collectively know as ‘The Kids’ (this name could stick til they’re well into their 30′s). There was a reasonable depth of snow at that height and we sessioned a corner, with mixed results – some slid like a squid, while others went down like a clown (editors note Jeff wrote this bit!). We also went up and rode the root section below the steps – knowing where all the roots are here pays off. It was signification colder at that level, once out of the woods, so it wasn’t long before we headed home.

09-12-24 WinHill JK+The Kids, 16 Pictures by Jeff

26th Dec 09 – The Epic Christmas ride was even more epic than normal! With a serious amount of snow even at lower levels the full epic route was going to be a serious challenge. But we (James), Shane, Jeff set off with that route in mind. It soon become obvious that we might have to rethink the route! Although the snow made for a very picture perfect December calendar shot. It wasn’t so great for riding in with the up hills being rather tricking epically once we had made it up onto the western side of Win Hill where the drifts were even deeper meaning that pushing and carrying your bike were the only options in places. Once we reached the ridge we had hoped that the gradient might be enough to all us to ride the bikes. We headed off down the ridge just about staying on the bikes. After stopping off to test how deep the snow was in some of the bomb holes (answer very deep). We carried on down towards hope cross. Where the snow had completely filled in the bridleway approaching the the start of the Hope Cross bridleway. So although it was rather nice to continue the tradition of a Christmas ride we might have been better heading out on the sledges or just making a Giant snow man somewhere!
See the the footage from this ride in the second half of the video at the bottom.

Our route – roughly 11km / 7miles long, plus some road afterwards
09-12-26 Aston+HopeX DH+HaggSide JI+JK+ST, 19 Pictures by Irwin & Jeff

31st Dec 09 – After the rather disappointing Christmas ride (in terms of riding) myself and Jeff decided that we would head up to Hope Cross to do some riding. With the Trees around this rocky bridleway providing some welcome shelter from the still snowy conditions still effecting most parts we thought we would be onto a winner. I (James) was eager to test out the full capabilities of my new Transition Bank. The idea behind the build was to create a all purpose bike that i could ride down the pump track, take to Bolehills, ride some longer epic rides on and still be able to enjoy the downs on. And so far i think it easily covers the job! With both myself also taking our cameras there was a fair amount of pictures taken on various parts of the track.

09-12-31 HopeX DH JI+JK, 22 Pictures by Irwin & Jeff

21st July 09 – On a damp Tuesday evening we (Irwin, Shane & Jeff) headed out after work to ride some of the Hollins Cross and Mam Tor bridleways, which are great for short rides as you can park at the top of the hill and don’t have to ride far to get to some pretty good tracks. Shane was on his first outing with his new SPDs (that magical invention that lets you attach yourself to the bike so you don’t need to be as fit when climbing hills ). It wasn’t long before the inevitable and he stopped but didn’t manage to unclip, fortunately (for Shane) Irwin was stood next to him and made a good temporary leaning post.
We rode the top section of Hollins Cross – BackTor Bridge and first section of Hollins Cross – Greenlands. Shane manage to get two punchers – one on each bridleway (the second in exactly the same spot as a previous ride), probably caused by a bad mix of XC single ply tyres and his DH riding style. While fixing the second puncture we decided it would be more fun to head back up the ridge and ride the short descent that goes around the side of Mam Tor. We weren’t wrong! With the previous rain it was quite slippy and muddy in places, this made for a great final run, with water flying everywhere and sketchy moments had by all.
See the the footage from this ride in the first half of the video below.