During the week i'd been training hard with http://www.adywatts.co.uk/ who's really helping me out with my training this season, he's got an awesome studio with everything you need and nothing you dont, simple, he also really knows his stuff. With the lighter evenings i'd also managed to get out for a mid week XC ride which was a bonus.
The van was loaded up with the new steed and was Hopton bound early on saturday morning. On arrival I bumped in to a fair few local riders from Hereford who were all super keen to kick start their season off with good results. I signed on and decided to walk the course.
The top section was the same as we'd practiced a few weeks before when the SPS crew had their training camp here so I was already feeling pretty confident on my lines after being shown the way by the likes of Steve, Bryceland and Marc B so things were looking good. The bottom section cut onto an older course that I can remember riding bits of probably 10 years ago but over time it's been refined for the better and on the whole made for an awesome race track.
It was cool to bump in to a load of the SPS crew (Tom, Ben, Loosedog, Jen, Freddie and Michael) and all catch up and help each other out through the course of the weekend. Everyones pumped with the new bikes and kit and all getting to grips with the set up.
Saturday turned out to be a real beauty of a days riding, the sun was out, the track dried out loads a.m and was deep in dust by close of play. There were plenty of lines to be had if you took the time to seek them out or hung around to watch the fast boys through... The dry conditions gave me a chance to give the bike a shake down and get the suspension dialled right in, I'm still refining the set up at the moment each time I ride and it was cool to run a few things past friend and proprieter of http://www.j-techsuspension.co.uk/ Jimmer, who told me a few trade secrets, cheers lad, her goes up and down now very well indeed!
Hopton's just down the road from me so it was a luxury to travel home saturday evening, see my family and get a good nights kip.
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It was raining steadily for the first race run and the track was still pretty grippy on High Rollers, there was lots of last minute tyre changes going on in the pits but I stuck to my guns and went with the dry's.. Onboard the new V10 i'd been growing with confidence all day saturday and knew if I held it together and hit my lines i'd be capable of posting a good time. I managed to catch the guy infront for the last 150m or so which made me ease off a bit and distracted me from my lines a little but I came over the finish line and in to the lead with the fastest time of the day so far. I was so stoked but knew some of the fast boys were still on the hill. Luckily my time was good enough to hold on to first place after the first run which meant I was last man down the hill for the second race run. It was cool that my family had come along to watch and I definitely got a buzz out of them being there to support me even if the dogs did have one hell of a fight, all bets are off, the terrier won... paws down!
More showers came and went throughout the afternoon. I headed up the track and watched the Expert and Elite riders come down and witnessed SPS team mate Tom Kelly go down pretty hard on the final section, gutted, he looked right on the pace until then as well.
Second race runs came around with the majority of people going a touch slower than their first, i stuck with dry tyres which was a mistake and paid the price with a very average run, at one point I pulled a tear off from my goggles and pulled them half off my face so had to re-adjust and also got stuck behind the tree on THAT right hander before the fireroad right infront of Marc Beaumont who was watching and was well impressed, all amatuer stuff..... Luckily for me the time from my first run still stood and I took my first overall win for the Steve Peat Syndicate, mega pumped.
Check out full results here http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/race295/2011-apr-3-pearce-cycles-1-hopton/
Right.... off to wash all my muddy kit
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