Round 4 of the Pearce Cycles 2010 race series went down at the weekend at Rhyd Y Felin, aka ‘Bala’, near Llangynog in Wales. The pictures are now up.

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 – 495 Pictures
10-06-12 Pearce Rnd4 Bala Best – 28 Pictures

Round 3 of the Pearce Cycles 2010 race series took place a Bringewood near Ludlow. The weather was warm and generally sunny on Saturday morning with just the top section of the track still a little damp. The track for this round was the old nationals track, turning right off the start hill, with two interesting corners in the top section before crossing the fire road and then down the long (now tree-less) straight before another mainly new section in the bottom woods. This had a steep section, some what reminiscent of race at Kidland Forest a few ago, then the trademark stretch limo of a table before the finish.

Within the first few hours the ruts got cut in and the faster more skilled lines emerged, this was especially true on the corners near the top and at the steep section at the bottom. The jump above the fire road gave some good action, I even saw quite a good suicide no-hander (unfortunately while I was getting my camera out – d’oh). There were only a few hold ups through out the day with the Pearce crew keeping things moving and the uplifts giving riders plenty of runs.

This time Irwin and I were camping with the rest of the lads – no Travel Lodge luxury this round. It was excellent weather for a barbecue, but unfortunately someone at Tescos had disguised a hand warmer as a barbecue so we waited ages for everything to cook. Luckily we had a camping stove so once we’d transfer some grub to that and we were cooking with gas (quite literally). The evening’s entertainment consisted of a track walk, in depth analysis of whether Brendawg really did jump from the fire road and land in the first woop at Round 1, Matt’s birthday cake, a quiz around the fire and watching Dogman digging a hole with a small machete and waiting for him to accidentally cut something off.

After a reasonable nights sleep, although not as good as a Travel Lodge, we awoke to find that mist had descended, but the forecast rain hadn’t materialised. This was good, for the most part, but had it rained it would have made for great footage on the steep corner on the top section. The uplift started early and I headed up for some flash photography in the woods and was impressed by the height some riders where getting off such a small roller.

Things soon warmed up as the sun came through and I got to the top, quite knackered, ready for the first race runs and trying to plan my filming and pictures to get the Monkeyspoon team and friends as well as the fastest riders and the, quite small, elite field in the best sections. I was shocked to discovery the organisers had not synchronised their watches before this operation resulting in races runs starting 3 minutes before 11:00!

As the temperature rose in the open section so did the speed of the riders, pumping and pedalling their way down the long straight. I got some good long shots of mates coming down, although I could have done with binoculars for spotting them dropping in 200m away. One thing I didn’t notice at the time but later spotted on the footage was the heat distortion of the air when filming down the straight.

For the second race runs I got to the bottom section in time to see the fast guys flying through the steep sections and dust ponds on the last corner in the woods. A lot of the bottom section was about pumping at high speed and with precision, and all this after 2 minutes of full on riding.

Ashley Maller won the Elite with 2:04.38 and Kurtis Knowles won Senior with 2:08.62. Out of Irwin, Josh (Hay), Nat and Tom, Tom beat Nat by 3 seconds, Irwin came closer back to form; 2 seconds behind Nat, with Josh, not quite upping his performance as much as the others, 0.7 of second behind Irwin. Roots and Rain analysis.

All in all it was another greater race weekend; Dave Pearce rolled another fat one.

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 – 875 Pictures
10-05-15 Pearce Rnd3 Bringewood Best – 48 Pictures

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