Welsh champs, Llangollen.

Welsh Champs, Llangollen 1^st -2^nd May 2010

Bank holiday had arrived and we set of for Llangollen, the steepest track in the uk. 300 miles later we arrived at the venue and already we were excited and looked forward to the Saturday practice. After what can only be described as a Michelin star dinner cooked by the Mum, we hit the hay testing out the new insulation in the roof.

We woke up early to go and walk the new track being raced. The track was open and very steep. The first section traversed across the hill and then dropped down into lots of steep switchbacks and rocky shoots. It then led to a triple step down to the finish line. The track looked real hard and challenging in places.

Practice began and mid way through my first run I was already loving the track. There were some really cool sections and the track seamed to flow really good as well. It we evident that the track was going to change a lot as well because of the steepness you were on the breaks a lot so it became very ripped up very quickly. By the end of Saturday practice I was feeling pretty good on the track. I was finding it hard to push to go faster as I rarely get to ride steep stuff so every time I tried to push myself I just ended up mucking up or crashing.

After washing my bike and a bit to eat I decided to head up the track to see how much it was changed and if there was any new insides appearing or lines to stay out of the boggy turns. I found a few things I wanted to try on the way down which was cool. I then chilled out, had some dinner and went to bed looking forward to tomorrow.

It had rained a bit over night and the track was a lot wetter and very drifty, which made it really good fun to practise it was a lot more blown out and moto.

We had to race runs and in my first I had a bit of a moment at the top and nearly went completely off the track. I was sitting in 5^th but new I could do better. It was drying up over the day so I knew I would have to go faster to get a good result. I pushed more in my second run bit the track was so hard to go fast on because of it being so rutted up and beaten. My second run was better bit still had a phew moments but was still ok, I ended up in 6^th which I was ok as I found the track hard because it was steep and I don’t get to ride steep stuff that often.

Looking forward to Fort William next week and Maribor the week after.

Thanks To Specialized, Superstar Funn, Axo 661 and Maxxis.