This post has been a while coming for various reasons and it’s mostly all been said elsewhere a few weeks back. But I will say, that it was a great event with plenty of local familiar faces, either riding, organising, media-ing (yeah I know) or just coming along to watch.

Joe Bowman and Nick Hamilton from ThisiSheffield.co.uk, amongst others, were organising.

Rob Jolley was marshalling in the open section and also chief overseer of rider encouragement.

Bamford locals Alex Megson, Oliver Spence and Jack Read where racing, with Oli beating SPS sponsored Jack, coming 1st and 2nd in Youth, receptively. Irwin probably summed it up best: “I still can’t believe Oli beat Jack!”.

(THE) Alex Rankin (who made the Earthed series of MTB films) was filming for Freecaster along with a motley band of local video men (including myself), with a range of video cameras from camcorders and DSLRs to a GoPro helmet-cam in use as a zip-line camera. Alex explained the sort of thing he was after from us and gave out plenty of tips and advice while we walked up the track before the race runs. Having felt quite unprepared and like I was winging it for a fair bit of the race run filming (I’m used to having Saturday to scout the track and then know where I want to be for the Sunday race runs), I was very pleased with how most of it came out. A fair bit of my footage went into the official Freecaster video, including the novelty-tree-shot (which took about 5 minutes of shivering and hoping the tree would hold while waiting for a rider to come), so that was good.

After the race many headed straight to the Showroom cinema for Progression, Alex’s special edit for ShAFF of his Sprung and Earthed series of MTB films. There were plenty of laughs (mainly at Peaty crashing) and vintage footage from the early days of Downhill, it gave an idea of where the sport has come from and got to: its Progression – or, failing that, plenty of drunk racers to laugh at!

Following the film came Rob Warner ‘interviewing’ Steve Peat, I say ‘interviewing’ because, in classic Warner style, he hadn’t actually prepared anything and just relied on the audience for questions.

“Yes, you with the straight arm.”

“Josh Bryceland has just come in wearing a cap he thinks makes him look ghetto and cool.”

I think this actually worked better, with Warner providing some great banter and entertainment, while Peaty thought up good and in-depth answers. It was a laugh a minute, on a par with any stand up comic’s show, but also very interesting at the same time – a great end to a great day of mountain biking!

My video from the race:

Alex Rankin’s official race video from the event:

Some other videos are on RootsandRain.

Some of my better (edited) and general event pics are in the Image Gallery, all the rider pictures are on RootsandRain:

11-03-05 Peatys Steel City Downhill, 45 Pictures by Jeff.

Steel City DH, Greno Woods, 5th March 2011, 163 Photos

Other related pages:
Swinny’s Race Report on ThisiSheffield.
Joe’s Organiser’s Report, top results, thanks and sponsors on ThisiSheffield.
Full Results on RootsandRain.
Jack Read’s blog entry on Factory Jackson.

As mentioned previously we have some unfinished video business to resolve.

This video is the pump track riding from Bamford Pump Track and Joe’s Pump Track from 2010. So if you’re in need of motivation or inspiration for building or maintaining a pump track, ready for those warm light evenings heading our way, hopefully this will help; 6 minutes of berm to berm Pumptraction!
(Also, watch out of me giving pro-man Bowman a run for his money. )

If you didn’t see them at the time, here are the pictures from Joe’s Pump Track BBQ on the 17th of June.

Back in May last year, Irwin, Shane and I (Jeff), went for an evening session riding the track known as Mono6ti. The evening sun light made the top section look great and the camcorder did a good job of capaturing it. Irwin managed to get a puncher straight away and, without the right tools, only just managed to get his wheel off to repair it.

I had expected to some other footage to use with it and make a longer video, but that didn’t happen so here’s a nice short late one instead. I’ve still got some other 2010 stuff to edit so expect some more in the coming weeks.

Having failed to get out for proper group ride 2010, we put things right on the first day 2011 with the New Years Day ride. Irwin, Jeff and Matt A meet up with Jack R and his mate Joe Mallinson (who set the second fastest time at a recent Dual Race) in Aston and following an obligatory puncture repair, we sent off up the bridleway out of Aston. After many years of unblocking the tiny hole in the wall where the stream crosses the track, we were amazed to find a proper channel had been dug under the wall! Perhaps the track will not be a river for the rest of the winter this year!?

Jeff recently got a new stills camera, a Sony Alpha 55 (a DSLR with a twist), so was keen to take lots of pictures and try out the HD video performance.

Route on OS Map Length: 16km / 10 miles

11-01-01 HopeBrinks+HopeX+HaggTor+Gores JI+JK+MA+JR+JM, 38 Pictures by Jeff

The 3rd round of the informal mates race series took place last Tuesday evening in Swinny’s field. In practice it was easy going, but the lines soon got muddy and it was all about holding the slide and staying upright. Of the 16 riders (out of 27) who qualified to race head to head in the dual slalom eliminator, Shane got 5th place and Irwin was 11th. Not only did Shane set the fastest time of the night, but he did it on Jeff’s bike!!! – The long stem and low bottom bracket must have really come into its own.

For a full write up, pictures and results check out ThisiSheffield.co.uk.