Last weekend was the 2nd NPS round, on a brand new track.
UK riders are a whinging bunch, and have long complained that we've not had any new courses on the national circuit in recent years. Also, the current courses haven't changed enough to keep up with the progression of the sport. And they're right. Somehow we produce a lot of the best riders in the world, but most of our race courses are - dare I say it - a little tame.
Certainly not all of them - Dunkeld, Fort William, Rheola, etc - but decent hard tracks are definitely in the minority.
Anyway, Steve Parr & Si Paton stepped up to the mark with a brand new venue. Discovered initially by Matt Simmonds (I think) there was a lot of hype surrounding it, plenty of people claiming it as steep as Champery. Some said it was foolhardy - if it rained the event would have to be cancelled, such was its alleged steepness!
Well I have to admit the organisers DID get lucky with the weather, but tbh the course cut up so much and got so loose that I don't think rain would have been much worse. As the weekend went on my runs became more and more about survival, trying to go into sections as slow as possible so as not to have hit mach 10 at the bottom of that next steep loose chute!
I'll happily admit I wasn't man enough for this race. I think I would have really loved it if just riding it for fun, but I never quite got my head around racing on it. I think I had 3 crashes in my race run, and it wouldn't have been a competitive time even if I hadn't! That said, I loved every minute of it, and can't wait to ride/race there again!
Anyway, this vid shows it much better than I can ever describe it. And remember, things are always a lot steeper in real life than they look in vids!
http://video.mpora.com/watch/YaNanBemW/hd/
UK riders are a whinging bunch, and have long complained that we've not had any new courses on the national circuit in recent years. Also, the current courses haven't changed enough to keep up with the progression of the sport. And they're right. Somehow we produce a lot of the best riders in the world, but most of our race courses are - dare I say it - a little tame.
Certainly not all of them - Dunkeld, Fort William, Rheola, etc - but decent hard tracks are definitely in the minority.
Anyway, Steve Parr & Si Paton stepped up to the mark with a brand new venue. Discovered initially by Matt Simmonds (I think) there was a lot of hype surrounding it, plenty of people claiming it as steep as Champery. Some said it was foolhardy - if it rained the event would have to be cancelled, such was its alleged steepness!
Well I have to admit the organisers DID get lucky with the weather, but tbh the course cut up so much and got so loose that I don't think rain would have been much worse. As the weekend went on my runs became more and more about survival, trying to go into sections as slow as possible so as not to have hit mach 10 at the bottom of that next steep loose chute!
I'll happily admit I wasn't man enough for this race. I think I would have really loved it if just riding it for fun, but I never quite got my head around racing on it. I think I had 3 crashes in my race run, and it wouldn't have been a competitive time even if I hadn't! That said, I loved every minute of it, and can't wait to ride/race there again!
Anyway, this vid shows it much better than I can ever describe it. And remember, things are always a lot steeper in real life than they look in vids!
http://video.mpora.com/watch/YaNanBemW/hd/
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