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20/08/2010

Firstly............... if you are new to riding or are looking to up your skills AND you live around the Midlands (or further away if you're willing to travel) then you may be interested in trying out MTB Skills coaching from Craig Rogers at www.chaseskills.co.uk I could go on and tell you all about it on here but that would be a waste of my time and I'm pretty lazy as you have probably noticed with my last entry on here being 4 months ago! So....... Just click on the link and take a looksee! Plus he is now doing 1 hour Essential Sessions' for £8

So yesterday I celebrated my 36th Birthday! my god I'm getting old! I went to Cannocks excellent Stile Cop DH trails to hit it up on the SX trail, Pulled my helmet on and looked at my reflection in the car window........ Damn Crows feet around my eyes! (yeah............... I'm definately getting old!!) Anyway it was awesome, I finally took the plunge and hit the shallow but long gap jump on the 'New Line' that I have always chickened out of.... don't know what all the fuss was about lol! still haven't plucked up the courage to hit the last jump on the Fantastical Pumptastic Megaline But I will one day, I've hit bigger and badder jumps (including the New step-up one built at Hanchurch a few months back) so I know its just me being a Wuss with this one! I must mention the new stepdown at the end of the Black Run......... the original stepdown into the big berm is still there but the landing has been reshaped to make it smoother and the Berm has been rebuilt to actually be useful, BUT the best bit is that the old jump that used to catch a lot of riders out (many a Air Ambulance called) has been destroyed and thanks to the efforts of a few dedicated riders they have built an excellent new Stepdown drop that is fun to ride and feels sweet as you land on the transition! there has also been a few other bits of building and tidying up of jumps...... the first little jump at the start of the black has been built up and the jump at the bottom of the Fire road push-up path at the end of CDL and the Red Run has also had its landing rebuilt which feels sweet to land on now, also the very last gap jump on the 'New Line' which took a beating last year when somebody came up short on the landing during a Guild Race has been repaired and the harsh narrow landing has been reshaped to make it less Do or Die!

 

25/04/2010

Been Kinda busy lately, laying new kitchen flooring/ decorating/ tidying up the garden etc....blah blah blah!

But....... Cannock chase opened it's new trail, Finally! The Monkey trail, and oh what a trail it is to! you start off on the familiar follow the dog then after the long long fire road climb you enter the woods again on the left and go pretty much flat with a tiny up hill then out onto a fire road, straight across and back into the woods, this section is a pretty good one with a few jumps and berms, twists and turns then you get to a point where you start to climb back up hill again to the final stack of logs finish back onto the fire road..... except now you don't climb back up to the log stack finish, at the lowest point the trail splits into two with a map of the trails and a sign pointing to the two options, there's obviously only one real option! that'll be the left one to THE MONKEY TRAIL!!!!!

You head off and it's pretty much fun from the off with a link that takes you down to the railway crossing (please close the gate quietly so as not to upset the residents) and the crossing of the A460, this link has some pretty washed out corners already but that'll all change as the rain sets in during our brilliant wet summers then the sun will hopefully bake it dry and hard again! after crossing the A460 you head along a bit of a fire road and near to where the original (unofficial) Monkey trail used to end you enter the woods and start a climb right up to a high point, from here it's pretty much lots of off camber and swooping turns and berms, little jumps and some narrow tree sections, every time you loose altitude you come to gain height again on a series of switch back turn climbs that really challenge your balancing skills, we managed to do every climb on the entire circuit without dabbing once, which was no mean feat!

There are few very easy wooded sections that pretty much pose no challenge but are rather to get you across a wet section or stream, then around 2/3 of the way round you get to the black graded rock sections which are a pretty good challenge especially if you haven't ridden them before and are clipped in, as you enter the section you have a really tight line onto the rocks, I had to bounce the back wheel around trails bike style to get into line cause I wasn't looking up ahead enough and didn't want to unclip and start off again and try to get my balance, then it's just a matter of letting the brakes off and going for it really on the rock sections, I think there are 2 or 3 big rock sections to descend, followed by a series and very fast off camber corners and berms and jumps! Finally you reach a high point and there are a few viewing area benches to take a break on, then it's the final descent back to the fire road to the A460 crossing, the last few berms are very well built and give that sort of Held in feeling!

After crossing the A460 and railway (please close the gate quietly so as not to upset the residents) you head up a pig of a long drag climb that takes you to the end of the trail that you branched off to join the Monkey trail with the log stack at the end, you follow the usual follow the dog trail but then where you used to come to the road and turned right down 'Chain slapper' you now have to go straight onwards as 'Chain slapper' has gone! Not a problem though at all! the new second half of Follow the dog is absolutely brilliant with jumps drops and some of the best berms you'll ride! ending with a series of rollers that are apparently supposed to be, well 'rolled'. In my opinion they should be lower and longer and jumped instead of rolled but I didn't build them so naturally have no say in the matter! (I still think they would be better as jumps though!!)

So to sum it up......... Would I have recommended Follow the dog to a rider from outside the area? NO probably not BUT!!!!!!!! Would I recommend the New follow the dog and Monkey trail, absolutely! I haven't ridden my Trail bike much over the last twelve months or so BUT it has definitely been dragged from retirement since the trails were officially opened by Oli Beckinsale and I reckon I could be a regular visitor there again to! 10/10 (welll 9/10 really until they sort out those rollers at the end! LOL)

Distance is about 15 miles in total! and on our first attempt with me snapping my chain 2/3 of the way around it took us totally unfit granny ring climbing monkeys about 2 hours!

 

28/03/2010

Febuary did not see any Racers Guild due to Snow on the access road to the trails, the problem wasn't really the riders not wanting to ride in the snow but rather the inability of the emergency services to get to the DH trails in the case of a rider injuring him/herself and so was called off! (this suited me fine as a new car without roof bars meant I couldn't make it anyway! ha)

March on the other hand turned out to be quite the opposite, it wasn't called off but due to rain only 47 riders turned up! (there were other riders who turned up but didn't bother putting in a timed run and just spent the day practicing or just freeriding/sessioning the jumps etc)

The course was the Ridgeline, The long and narrow rut of a start was particurlary wet and muddy with quity a few ruts and pot holes starting to appear here and there, then its the gas line drop and straight into a slimy left hander around a tree then a right hander down to a small jump, big pedal down the trail and into the Ski jump onto the small jump, a small set of S's and into a new finishing set of off camber corners and finally through the bog of eternal stench to the finish line!

I was marshalling this month which worked out to my advantage because I wanted to get a few pictures of the day, I took 1st marshall spot for the 1st hour and was marshalling down by the alternative line/ new set of off camber S's before the finish line drop, this was good as I got to see how the corners were shaping up before my run, as it happened by the time the start of the timed runs the corners had completely changed from practice and now sported LOTS of exposed roots on the corners which made things a little more interesting!

After my Marshall spot I made my way up to the start line, nervous as hell as usual, off a went down the trail not doing to badly everything going swimmingly until I came out of the Mini S's and into the new alternative off camber corners, I just wasn't paying attention and missed my line then again missed my line on the second more important set with a 2 line choice, the left hand line was easier to get intoi but meant that you had to scrub lots of speed to get tight around a tree with a drop off (this is the line I accidentally took, DOH!) the right hand line was harder to get into as it was tighter BUT meant thatr you could keep more speed around a better line past the tree! from here it was just a few drops and squirms to the finish line of stinkville! My time 56.4 sec's Not bad I thought, at least I hadn't fallen off!

On my second run the rain had really started to come down a little more and I was also getting pretty warm from the pushing up, my goggles were pretty filthy and I had nothing wipe them with but thought Oh well what ever! Off I went (partially blind from useless goggles) Somehow, this time I got both corners in the alternative ending off camber corners dialed and took them on the fastest lines BUT when I got to the finish line I really couldn't see where I was going (as with the rest of the run) and was without my knowledge heading straight for a tree stump about 10 feet from the finish line, at the lasty moment my tyres slid and I missed the tree stump with about 10 inches to spare and crossed the finish line with a 56.1 sec's! The riders hanging around the finish line were wooping and laughing at my narrow escape with a unmovable tree stump! I really had no idea it was there and only the tyre skid marks on the ground backed up what they said had happened!

On my third and final run I thought you know what? Screw the goggles I can't see anything through them so who cares! This time I just had to squint a little to keep the rain out, it wasn't lie there was any trees on the trail that would poke my eyes out so I rode without them! My run was pretty much like the the last but this time I could see! Woohoo, a near perfect run (for me) crossing the finish line 2 seconds quicker at 54.1 seconds! Booyaaa nice one! my best finishing position to date 15th position and only 7 seconds behind 1st place! Super chuffed was I!

Can't wait till next month? Check out Racers Guild for more info and Richie's write up!

Results < here

A few piccies below!

A rider dropping the gas line (Photog credit Stu)

A rider dropping the gas line a little hard! (Photog Credit Stu)

Me hitting the slimy corner after the gas line drop (Photog Credit Gaz)

Me in the next corner after the slimy corner (Photog Credit Stu)

Luke styling the Ski jump during practice (Photog Credit KitMan)

Alex Worrall in the tightest line of the 1st off camber corner (Photog Credit KitMan)

Mitch Ingley getting loose at speed on the 1st Off Camber corner (Photog Credit Tomo)

John Lee on the correct line around the tree on the second off camber corner!  

(Photog Credit KitMan)

 

 

04/02/2010

Racers Guild January 2010, The first Timed Run of the year and it all kicked off with a Hardtail Special Event....around half the riders were on Hardtails and it was a wise choice because the Runs were being timed on the Red Course which added in a section that I have never ridden before just after the flat section after the Big Berm and Ladder drop, then it finished across the fire road through the S's and over the Big root!
Me and Sam were riding our Big Heavy Freeride Bikes and after one practice run we were absolutely worn out! I went hell for leather down the top section of the course BUT then as I hit the Big Berm and hit the flat section all my energy had gone and the Lactic acid in my legs started to build up, not good as I still had the dips and fire road crossing to contend with! by the end of the course I was literally gasping for air! Sam was the Same and all the usual riders were coming back with the same feelings = Hardwork!
So that was it we thought...... No more practice, we'll just turn up and do our timed runs and spend the rest of the day messing about on the other runs, My first run came and I decided to lay off the gas on the top section and then pedal like mad from the berm onwards, this seemed to work and as I dropped from the pedally section I pumped the drops to gain as much free speed from them as possible ready to pedal again as I hit the Fire road crossing, I took the wide line in the S's and finished with a time of 1 min 32.6 sec's........ Not my best time But I hadn't fallen off and wasn't out of breathe so knew there was more in me!
Sam put down a pretty much similar run as I did and finished with a respectable time of 1 min 36.8 sec's.... We both decided to not bother to do another run as the course just wasn't suited to our bigger bikes (and our totally unfit bodies LOL) so went off and had a blast on the other trails, all were riding quite well concidering the amount of rain we'd had recently and we were having fun just ripping them up! We rode Wonderland, Ridgerun finishing down little Bringewood, then the New Line, then we decided to ride Ridgerun again but finishing down another new shoot off we had noticed to the right! we stormed off down the trail and I was flying I peeled off to the right down the newly cut line, as I was about 20-30 metres from the end I could see the exit and just let the brakes off to let it fly, as I exited the woods I hit some mud and it pointed me straight in the direction of a huge tree....Whack!!!!!! I hit it front wheel square on then handle bars then face (or rather helmet) I thought I was a gonna!! but I got up no probs???? (I do have a bit of a stiff neck but otherwise sweet!) I looked around to see if Sam was there but no Sam? 20 sec's later Sam appeared, he'd gone off the Big Ski Jump accidentally pulled a tail whip and ended up landing skeewiff and headed for a tree himself....we even had to walk up (it was his idea) to see the skid marks on the ground where his rear tyre missed the tree by about 6 inches! LOL
After this we had a play on the Mega Fantastico Pumptastic trail, then we pushed back to the start to talk to other riders, that was when they were calling for rider with a start time of 15:11 ??? he didn't turn up so I shouted that I would do it, they let me so quickly got to the start line..... my gears jammed, then I forgot to put my goggles on.... I managed to get them on just in time to be counted in for the 10 seconds to Go! Off i went but this time added a bit more pedalling on the top section and a better line in the S's, taking the shorter high line........ finished with a better time of 1 min 29.3 sec's
Excellent! that'll do for me!
Can't wait for next months Guild timed runs! Many Thanks to all the Usual Organisers and helpers that put together the Racers Guild!

25/01/2010
Well It's not all about Downhill and Freeride, I went out with Steve about two weeks ago to ride Follow the Dog on my Cannondale Prophet, it was snowy and cold (ish) but with the New Panaracer TrailRaker on the rear and a Maxxis WetScream (off the Spesh SX) on the front I was having a brilliant time carving up Follow the Dog! Steve was having Surgery on his Knee and wanted to get out before the Op, so we hastily arranged to get out for an easy going XC/Trail ride, it turned out to be pretty low key with a few fast Descents thrown in which suited me fine as I'm not the fittest! Glad I went though it was great fun especially chain slapper in the snow........ pedal like mad then hold on around the corners of slippery snow and ice then pedal like mad again! brilliant!