Great start to the UK BDS series

Even with one World Cup already done this year it still doesn’t feel long since the last round of the 2011 series. For this year Si from the British Downhill series has added another round making it a 6 round race series and with a new venue in as well which would be the setting for the opening race of the season. It’s great to have a new venue, Combe Syhenham was an old national track from a few years back, I have never been there before and after having a walk of the track on Friday I was very excited to ride it. It looked like it had a great mix of section to it and kind of reminded me of the Pietermaritzburg WC track. Of the start was a couple of cool rooty bus stops before some flowy switch backing turns leading you in to a open jumpy field section before a cool technical and rocky woods section to the finish.

After a bit of rain on Friday night the track started off quite wet and slippery with a lot of riders riding spike. I have moved over to Schwelbe tyres for this year and have been getting on with them really well. I played about during practise with the Dirty Dan and Muddy Mary and found both tyres working great but went for Muddy Marys as the track was rapidly drying out as come Sunday morning we had blue sky’s and sunshine.

After seeding I was sitting in 11^th place with a solid and clean run. In my race run I put another 2 seconds in to my seeding time which was happy with and finished 15^th. I’m really happy with a great solid start to the year and looking forward to Round 2 in Fort William, Scotland in 4 weeks time.

Here's a run down the track from Sunday morning practise with DriftHD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLhHMw-Hm60&list=UUtmP2_EQIZkrlt7ly1PJSXQ&index=1&feature=plcp

Big thanks to Norco, Fetish Bike Co, One Industries, Gamut, Adidas Eyewear, Kore, DriftHD, Sun Ringle, 661, Schwalbe and Sram.

WC Round 1, Pietermaritzburg South Africa

WC Round 1, Pietermaritzburg South Africa

Round 1 of this year’s UCI World Cup series was held in beautiful surrounding mountains of the city of Pietermaritzburg. This with my first time to Africa and I was really excited to be back racing. I was coming into the race confident with a new bike and lots of new sponsor and all the training I had don’t over the winter but was also feeling nervous to if had done enough training and the right type as well.

My first impressions of the track that it looked supper fast the whole way. The top section looked supper fun with some nice turns and jumps. It then shoots you out in to the gully were you can get 60K an hour down in to three big jumps which I was spinning out for in last gear with a 39t chain ring on. The track would be very physically hard because if the pedalling sections but really fun as well.

Practise went really well. I felt fast on the track and got all my lines sorted ready for qualification. We had a bit of rain during the night which made the track a bit slick for practise but with the 25C plus temperatures it soon dried out again. I had a good qualification run and can down in 48th position. I had a goal for this race to get things going with a top 50 finish and after my qualifying run I knew I was on track.

We had an extra day of practise on Saturday and this is always my favourite day as qualification is out the way and the race isn’t till tomorrow so its supper relaxed and fun. We also have the afternoon off so we look this opportunity to test out the hire car a bit.

The night before the race brought so more rain and this time it was really heavy. It was hard to tell if the track would stay wet as practise was a bit slick but sure enough it pretty much completely dried out come race run time. My race run went really well, I had a great top section and got the big table perfect giving my good speed in to the peddle section with I gave it everything I had. I can over the line more than 2 seconds up and I was supper happy as I had had at least achieved my goal for the race. I ended up finish 27th in the end which was the 6th fastest British rider. I’m supper happy to get such a great result at the start of the year and I’m looking forward two round 2 in Val di Sole Italy in a couple of month’s time.

Winter training in Spain.

Spain training trip to Malaga.

During the month of Febuary I was lucky enough to be able to go to Malaga in Spain for nearly a month to help get ready for the fast aproching World Cup season that starts next week in South Africa. I went to Spain alongside Matt, Joe and Matti for Team CRC and also Rob Smith and Perry Gardener. After a long drive and a very long very crossing we arived at out villa greeted by this sun set.

Here is our awesome villa. This thing sleeps 10 with loads of space and it was perfect for three weeks for training. If you’re interested in staying at this great place please go to http://www.stunningvillalucia.com/

I wasted no time and headed straight out for a ride on my new Norco Sight. I got the bike just before I came away but didn’t get time to ride it before I came away so its madden voyage was to be on the rocky, dusty tracks of the Spanish mountains. Perfect terrain to test out the bike and my new Sun Ringle Black Flag wheels. After a nice hour and half’s climb Joe and I arrived at the top, ready to hit the 15 minute downhill track back to the town. It was a clear day so we could see the Strait of Gibraltar in the background.

Nigle Page (Team CRC manager) and Michael for CRC came out for a week’s riding and to see how the guys where getting on. Dinner time was a big thing as there was always a lot of hungry mouths to feed.

The newly named “Gingers” track was a very popular track to ride. Fast loose and rough, it was a great track for setting bikes up. I was really starting to feel great on my Norco Aurum and getting her set up perfectly.

We were lucky enough to be able to use the CRC Vito for uplifting and it made for a quick turnaround with the 3.0 liter V6 under the hood.

One of the best step-up’s jumps I have ever ridden. The jump is at the bottom of the Dusty Valley track and Punchers Paradise (didn’t live up to its name this trip) and is a joy to jump after riding 3 minutes of rough gnarly rocky track before you get to this point. Here is a video of me and Joe riding the (Very) "Dusty Valley" track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAdmFbsRKns

Such a great trip. Big thanks to Salva at The Bike Shuttle for sorting us with a gym, taking us to all the tracks and uplifting as well. Check them out for the best Mountain Biking experience in southern Spain. http://www.thebikeshuttle.com/

Chilly start to racing!

It has only been about a month since I made the announcement of my change over to Norco bikes for this coming 2012 season. I have had my new Aurum downhill bike for about three weeks now. I have tried to get out on it as much as possible since it arrived and I have found that I got used to it very quickly. So much so, that I felt good enough to head down to the Forest of Dean for one of their winter races.

FOD is a great little venue, the tracks are relatively short only being about a minute long and are all great fun to ride. I went down on the Saturday to do a few runs on the track as I knew that the race was fully booked and there would be a good three hundred riders trying to get down come Sunday morning so Saturday was the best time to get used to the track. I did about five or six runs and felt comfortable on the bike and track.

Sunday morning was a cold one with temperatures only just making it in to the plus figures. Practice was very busy in the morning with a lot of riders out. I managed to get a good couple of runs in and got everything on the track dialled down ready for race runs.

There had been a lot of talk of rain over the weekend so wanted to put in a fast first run just in case the heavens opened between first and second runs. I got a low 57 in my first run giving me a 1.5 second lead over second place which I was pretty happy with. Second runs came around and still no rain so I decided I needed to put in another fast one as I thought that the track might be running faster. I came down 0.3 slower than my first run but I think this was because I was a little hesitant in the lower part of the track because it was getting dark.

Despite being slower on the second run I still took the win in Pro-Am and the race overall winner as well. I was really happy to get a win this early in the season on my new Norco and this has set me up for a great season to come.

Thanks to Norco Bike, One Industries, 661, Adidas, Kore, Sun Ringle, Maxxis, SRAM, Action Cameras

"Welcome to Norco"

After months of emailing and CV sending I'm happy to announce that I will be riding Norco frames for the 2012 season.

Hear is the official Norco press release.

"Olie Burton is a solo competitor on the World Cup circuit. As a privateer he has been making his own way to the races and fighting his way up through the ranks. This coming year he will be riding a Norco Aurum in all his racing endeavors. Olie is still on his own program riding for sponsors such as Kore, One Industries, 661, Adidas and Action Cameras but this year he has the power of the Aurum on his side.

In 2011 Olie injured his finger and was forced off the bike for three months. Disappointed, he struggled coming back and missed qualifying at a few of the World Cup rounds. As 2011 progressed he recovered and came back to finish in an impressive 68^thand 66^th at Mont Saint Anne and Windham and 62^nd at the world cup finals in Val Di Sole. These results were a great step forward and he is looking to improve upon them in 2012.

Some other highlights from this past year have been 4^th place at the Nissan European Cup in La Bresse, France and winning the overall Elite title for the Pearce Cycles race series. The Pearce Cycles series was a specific goal Olie had set for 2011 and hopes to continue through 2012.

Everyone at Norco would like to wish Olie a warm welcome to the team and offer the best support we can over the coming year. Here is to a great 2012! If you would like to send a message, you can connect with Olie on his facebook page."

2011 season round up.

2011 season round up.

My 2011 racing season is now over. I have had a great year on and off the bike travelling around the world with some great results.

This year did not really start as I had planned, I picked up a finger injury in January and was out for three months. I felt that this set me back a great deal in my training as it was a very key time in my program. As a result, I missed the first round of the World cup series in South Africa. It was a very disappointing start but come April my injury was all sorted and I was back to training. Being very close to the start of the racing season and I decided that my time was best spent on two training trips to Sam Remo in the north of Italy one with some top UK riders and the other with my new team, Team Abarth MTB.

I was lucky enough to get on a great team this year and their support definitely made training and racing allot easier. It was a great experience to be part of a team with a big name sponsor and ride on Saracen bikes. It gave me a great insight of what being a professional athlete is like and I really feel like I have learnt allot of skills about how to publicise myself.

I was very disappointed to have missed qualifying this year at a few of the World Cup rounds, very frustrating to be out by 0.03 of a second in La Bresse, France. But I have some great results as well as placing 68^th and 66^th at Mont Saint Anne and Windham and a 62^ndat the World cup finals in Val Di Sole. This was good but my goal was to be a lot more consistent in my finishes and place in the top 80 throughout but this is something that I aim to fix for the 2012 season.

Some other highlights for this year have been 4^th place at the Nissan European Cup race in La Bresse, France and just last weekend winning the overall Elite title for the Pearce Cycles race series. I goal I had set myself coming in to the year.

Check out this great edit from Morzine between World Cupshttp://www.pinkbike.com/video/214481/.

I would like to thank all my 2011 sponsors and everybody that has supported me during the season. Your support is appreciated and I definitely couldn’t do it without you.

UCI Downhill World Cup – Rd 5 – Windham USA

So today was the finals of Windham world cup round 5 in New York USA. Another day of great weather made me even more excited to get up on track and see how it was running with all the hot weather we had yesterday. The track had dried up a lot was running really fast. I went up for my third run and it was going great, before I had a big micanical at the end of the open section. My tryre popped of the rim and I was lucky not to have a big crash. When I had a look at the bike, it looked like the cause was a worn tyre bead. I decided the best thing to do would be to build a new wheel and and put a new tyre and tube on then I knew that there would be no risk of that happening again during my race run. I didnt have long to do this as my race run was at 2.18pm but everything went smoothly with the build so I was ok for time.

My race run went well, I had a clean run down the hill and hit all my lines, but just didnt feel like I’d pushed hard enough. I’m happy to put together a mistake free solid run but I know I need to push to get where I want to be. I finished up 68th today and really happy to get another top 80 result. Im looking forward to a few days of with my family in New York before heading home for some more training and our national championships at the super steep Llangollen track.