Hopton Castle located north of Ludlow was the venue for the second round of the Pearce cycles downhill series. After a dry week leading into the weekend the track was extremely dry. The track used started from the none trig point start, heading straight into a fresh tech wood section. Before hitting the open section, which had the speed trap on it during race runs. The track took the left hand fork towards the bottom of the open section, twisting down passing over two fire roads before the step down to high speed berm.

The uplift queue was kept short all weekend, meaning most riders could get 10+ runs in on Saturday and 3 on Sunday morning before race runs began.

The open section of the track which covers a large part of the hill was running extremely quickly, making it an ideal spot for a speed trap, and Jeff to film! Pearce said that they didn’t use the speed trap at the first round as there wasn’t anywhere suitable on the bringewood track. It made for a great addition to the timing ending the age old argument between riders of who was going to fastest (on that section anyway). With a prize available for the quickest time through the trap on race day everyone was pushing hard. After the result of round one I was looking to build on it but come race day I record what felt like two of the slowest runs I had ridden all weekend. I blame it on the long wait it in the sun between end of practice and my first race run!!

After the star studded first round the elites were a little bit thinner of the ground. With Matt Simmonds taking the first place in Elites, he also recored the fastest speed trap of the day at 44.40 KH.
Round three is less than a week away, see you there.

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 – 827 Pictures
10-04-24 Pearce Rnd2 Hopton Best – 42 Pictures

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

So Fort Bill has been on my to do list now for quite some time, as it is one of only two tracks in the UK that has a Gondola to the top. The other being in Glencoe which is currently closed anyway! Just incase you don’t know anything about Fort William or as it is also known as The Nevis Range. It is home to the legendary Off Beat Downhill track which is the only official world cup dh track in the UK. This year they also added the Red XC track, don’t let the name put you off. This track admittedly is much smoother and even includes a couple of uphill sections and hundreds of meters of Northshore,but is awesome to ride and a great alternative to the main downhill track.

From the top Gondola station the view (when you can see anything) is breath taking. After a rather damp first day our second day was much dryer with the sun even making a couple of short appearances, The view of the Red XC decent looked very epic with no trees on the top sections there was very little to block your view. The amount of effort that has been put in to build this track is truly epic. The track has four contrasting parts the top fast and wide singletrack with small rock drops and well positioned rock gardens/shoots which take you down into some tight switchbacks. Then onto lots of very wide and fast boredwalk which is very slippy in the rain After a long section of this you hit the middle section of the track which has lots of massive bedrock slabs including some uphill sections. Which is mixed in with more singletrack, sections of boredwalk. After passing through a deer gate you hit a awesome section of berms before crossing a stream and connecting back up with the main downhill track. You can then take a red route all the way down to the bottom, which Jeff said was just fireroads or blast down the Off beat downhill.

The Gondola gives you a good chance to watch other riders as it follows the track for lots of sections, which proved to be rather useful when we used it to film large sections of the track. It worked out rather well as we used a walky talkie allowing the riders myself and Shane to communicate with Jeff. Shame the gondolas don’t have windows you can open. Riding a track that is used as a world cup round and in the past for the world champs certainly gave me a renewed level of respect for the guys and girls who ride at the top of our sport. So Fort Bill is also home to a 4X track and XC trails so it really is the complete package and is easy to see why the world cup circuit has stopped off here so many times. We had a go at riding the 4X track but it wasn’t ideal on a DH bike. If I am being honest even on a hardtail that was set up for it I would have felt a little out of my depth.

So overall Fort William is a awesome place and the building of the Red XC Track is a great addition and makes for a nice alternative to the main downhill run. So to help split up the journey on the way back we decided it might be a good idea to ride Glentress.

As it is roughly half way between Fort William and home, apart from riding Dalby I haven’t ridden any trail centres before. They offer an accessible alternative to other riding locations to many people. With Glentress being the centre of the 7 Staines trail centre network. Trying to convert a downhill bike into a XC bike wasn’t going to be easy but I had a go. Narrow 2.35 Highroller tyres (45 psi), 150 psi in my rear suspension and a XC helmet gave me a fighting chance. Shane and Jeff had much better suited bikes for this section of the trip. So the plan was to complete the Red XC loop which included the Spooky woods decent which I had been told was great fun. And I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. As we headed further around the Red loop we picked up the track that links you upto a section of the Black loop called Ewok Village (a star wars link) but after a 10-15min push we were met with a rather disappointing site. All the North shore had been removed and was pilled up at the side of the trail, which was a bit of a blow to say the least. But we headed on anyway mixing up between section of the Black and Red loops and after one final long climb back up to the car park we had completed the loop.

So after eating the Pasta in spicy tomatoes we had made earlier that morning we headed over to the freeride area which includes many tables,berms, drops and jumps of many different sizes which was a good way to end what had been a busy couple of days riding our bikes. Unfortunately Shane damaged his mec hanger which stopped him being able to ride his bike, I let him use mine for a bit. Again Glentress was a great days riding with descents being great fun, on the correct bike it would have been even better. Well there is always next time after all “It’s all about the performance”

The trip in numbers

• 822 miles
• 17 hours driving
• 48mph average speed
• 132 litres of fuel
• 60 minutes trying to find an Asda in Glasgow
• 2 fish & chips with brown sauce!!!
• 1 shower each
• 24 bottles of Powerade (12 litres)
• 3 tins of beans
• 24 sausages
• £2.50 spent on drying clothes and gloves
• 162 mentions of “It’s all about the performance”
• 1 puncture (Jeff)
• 2 drive-chain problems
• 5.5 crashes (4 by Shane, 1.5 by Jeff)
• Runs at Fort William: Red: 3, Black: 4 (Jeff: 3, 2)
• Total distance ridden at Fort William: 27.4km (Jeff: 22.1km)
• Total height descended at Fort William: 3849m (Jeff: 2739m)

09-09-03 Scotland – Fort William+Glentress ST+JI+JK, 37 Pictures by Jeff

Here is a video filmed by myself following Matt P on a recent trip to Wharncliffe. Including full runs of (in order) Diamandback, XC descent line and NEMBA. Summer has final arrived with Wharncliffe almost being dry.

So myself and James W have been riding at Wharncliffe a far bit recently. So I thought it was about time we got Jeff along to do some filming. There have been some new additions and alterations to the tracks at Wharncliffe of late which is great to see.

We were joined by Matt P not long after we entered the woods, once he had found us he took a couple of pictures in-between riding. Although he did complain to me that the sun was catching him out. As it was very sunny one minute then rather overcast the next.

We rode a couple of the old favourites such as “NEMBA” and “The fast course” and even had a quick attempt at “Peatys” and then ventured onto some relatively new stuff. “Dogs” as it is known is abit shorter than most of the other tracks in the woods as it goes almost straight down the hill. I have to say it must be one of my favourite tracks in the woods. Anyway enjoy the video!

09-05-02 Wharncliffe JI+JK+JW+MP, 5 Pictures by Matt P