MIJ - Nant Gwrtheyrn Round Up

Well the time had come after months off since my last race to load the van and get on the road for my first visit to Nant Gwrtheyrn which is a former quarrying village on the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. I was rolling with young Dan Coulson who's local to me, super keen and has style for miles.

We arrived on friday evening and with Dan being uber keen he did a torchlit walk of the course whilst I accidently found the bar straight away with a little help from Jason Carpenter! some old habits die hard.

Any way, after a lengthy delay SPS team player manager and room mate for the weekend Tristan Tunstall rocked up with his race prepped food from Waitrose (he doesnt do things by halves) and brought the rain with him.




The Makeshift Pits (Full SPS Enchalada to follow at all supported rounds)

We woke up on saturday morning and went about setting up the make shift pits with some help from the rest of the SPS team who were now turning up in full force (minus Jack & Ally)

Practice was pretty hard to get a good flow going because the steep course was causing some carnage with riders and bikes splattered all over the hillside. Now, i've had a few years away from racing DH up until last season but it has to be said this is a serious course remeniscent of some of the Welsh Dragons back in the day and made a refreshing change to ride a race track that makes you kind of anxious whether you're going to stay on or not each and every run, the secret was all about carrying good exit speed and keeping it flowing, do as I say not as I do....

Lamborghini Tractor (Farmers take note!) Plenty of BHP to get up the uplift road

Race day soon came around and everyone was up and super keen to try and get some qulity practice runs in without tiring themselves out on the bottom pedally section, which, even with all the training we've been putting in i think everyone would agree was brutal. I know my legs were burning!

Racing was a mixed bag of affairs and pretty sure no-one had a super clean run. I managed 3rd in my first run with a pretty average run then had a massive boulder to pedal interface on my 2nd run and hit the ground hard, luckily i had my 661 protection on as it defintely saved me from anything more serious, fortunately my 1st run time still kept me in 3rd place overall and i bagged my first podium for the team whcih i was stoked with.

CG in the woods

Some of the boys over cooked it both runs or had mechanicals etc which was gutting to see for them but i know they'll re-group, gather their thoughts and come back stronger for the next event, just you watch.

It was great to see a big presence of SPS riders making the podium and it soon became clear that as the team grows throughout the season there is some serious potential for many more podiums positions. Billy Matthews and Freddie Oxley both podiumed in the juniors and Nathan Vials put a storming time in to take the Expert win, great work.

Well, let the good times roll!