Getting Aquainted

As you all know the new SPS Santa Cruz V10's turned up in time for the first round of the http://www.halobritishdownhillseries.com/homepage.html and now just over a week has past by and I've gotta say I'm still not bored of looking at it...

Keeping it local

First up, it's always nice to take a new bike to your local trails, you know what things should feel like up there and it's a great place to get stuff dialled in. Got to be honest, the V10 seems to fit me just right and i've settled right in on it almost straight away. It tracks so well in the corners and over the rough stuff it gives you time and confidence to ride hard.

My boy Josh, same corner, different style..!

This weekend is round one of the Pearce Cycles DH being held at Hopton, ive not raced at this venue since about 2000 so it's gonna be pretty cool heading back to an old stomping ground. Hopefuly catch up with some of the SPS team who are also attending.

Any way, if you make it to the races, come track us down, say hello, have a brew... whatever

Cheers Tom for the shots

BDS dh Round 1 - Nant G

Well I've got to be honest I didn't sleep much on the lead up to the weekend, not sure if was the excitement about getting my new Santa Cruz V10 the fact it was the first big race of the year for me and the newly formed SPS team, too much protein shake or just a combination of all these things



Check out this picture of the dream team building up my bike... Big props to all at Northwest Mtb Centre who worked damn hard to build a staggering total of 14 complete V10's in one shift under the watchful eye of pro mechanics Andy Kyffin and Ricky Bobby.

We travelled up to a very sunny Friday afternoon at Nant G with my main man big George behind the wheel and also SPS team mate Ben Humphries jumped in for a one way journey and was subjected to the obligatory Jurassic 5 funky beats.




Soon after we arrived I couldn't wait to get over to the Steve Peat Syndicate pit area, say hello and more importantly get my grubby mitts on my new bike.... Needless to say it looked the absolute shizzle with the custom team graphics on which really set it apart.

We all did a track walk with Steve and J. Bryce late in the afternoon after we bagged a lift up the hill in Peaty's flash new Vito Sport.!


Friday evening sunset was insane

Saturday morning came around super fast and all of the team were decked out in their flash new Royal Racing gear and 661 protection ready to go shred on the new bikes. Conditions were pretty dry for north Wales and everyone was soon getting their bikes dialled in, I had a little mishap on trying a dodgy line and bent the rear disk real bad, luckily with the backing of the SPS and Sram I was soon back on track after the SPS mechanics kindly fixed her up for me, cheers boys.

Saturday evening the rain and the wind came in real bad and caused some carnage in the pits...

The whole team were buzzing come race day despite the damp conditions, I only managed one practice run which was dead smooth and I hit all my lines so decided to save myself for seeding/racing.... This paid off as I qualified 3rd with a steady run.

Some of my friends from Hereford had travelled up to watch so the pressure was on to make my race run count.!

I'd hit all the technical section pretty good and managed to keep up my corner speed, went through the speed trap pretty fast and felt strong on the final pedally section (maybe all the training is paying off www.adywatts.co.uk) came over the finish line and into the hot seat with only 2 riders left, pretty stoked. Listy was just off the pace which makes a change and then the legend Nigel Page (CRC team manager) was last on the hill, he went faster by just over a second and took the win leaving me with 2nd place and bagging the first SPS podium of the day. It was rad having Steve and a load of the team there at the finish line to congratulate me, cheers guys.

Michael and Nathan both won their respective categories and all the rest of the team who stayed on done good. Hope Freddie heals up quick.



And to finish a great weekend off what better than having to wait till 19.30hrs till we got towed out of the bottom field, that's racing folks...

Thanks to everyone involved with supporting the SPS team, in particular Tristan and Steve for their hard work in pulling it all together. It's gonna be a great season for the SPS for sure...

Lastly, hats off to George who despite breaking his hand during Saturday's practice wanted to stay and let me race rather than go to A&E, they breed em strong up Shobdon






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SPS Training Weekend - Hopton

Well as far as weekends go, that was right up there with the best of them.

This last weekend was the second time the whole SPS team had got together and it was pretty cool to catch up with everyone and see how their winter riding and training had been going. Also had some extra big time pro's and friends of the SPS came along for the weekend by the names of Josh Bryceland and Marc Beaumont. It was ace to catch up, hang and ride with these guys.



The whole team were lucky enough to be staying at http://www.blazingbikes.co.uk/links, these guys have got an amazing set up going on with the new bike shop, camping pods and the awesome Station Inn pub next door. Big props to Richard the owner who
is a top fella along with all the staff especially Will and Mike who got things sorted for us all. Be sure to check the facilities out if your over that way!


We were blessed with some dusty trails at Hopton on the Saturday and the excellent Pearce Cycles team took care of the uplifts. We got a few runs in to loosen up, Ratboy loosened right up and had a biggie early on, hit his head hard along with splitting his eye open so decided to rest up for the rest of the day... The rest of us then did a load of sections with Peaty and Marc which was ace, Marc sent a huge gap off the back of a berm which looked insane. Both Steve and Marc shared some lines with us and pretty certain everyone came away all the faster for it.

We all headed back to Blazing Bikes HQ to get cleaned up and check the bikes over, then hit the pub for some much needed dinner and of course some hydration...

Steve and Tristan surprised us all with some goodies from new sponsors http://www.evocsports.com/ and http://www.smugglingduds.com/ which basically comprised of a sweet new trail riding pack from Evoc that that was rammed full of new boxer shorts. Loosedog Lewis managed to slip in to a little posing pouch for us all and wowed the restaurant guests by getting jiggy, Sheffields answer to the mankini, good work pal.

Sunday morning started pretty wet under foot after heavy rain during the night, we all had some breaky together and then headed off to Hopton again for another awesome day on the bikes. My boy Josh tagged along and was more than stoked to ride with the likes of Steve and J Bryce. Cheers boys for helping him out and looking after him, he was made up to say the least especially with Steve following him down and Bryceland helping him out on sections.

The weekend was soon coming to an end before we knew it so it was time to pack up say our farewells and hit the road home.

So, everyone is heading to the first round of The BDS next week at Nant G, the bikes are being built as we speak so look out for us all next weekend we'll be on the spanking Santa Cruz V10's and sporting some fresh togs from Royal Racing and looking the

That's it for now

Catch you all soon