Rd 2 British Downhill - Moelfre Round Up

Well folks, the dust has settled from a great weekends racing at Moelfre which admittedly isnt my favourite track on the circuit, however the weekend was blessed with amazing sunshine but the dreaded Moelfre crosswinds struck during saturdays practice and unfortunately took their fair share of casualties (at least 3 air ambulance trips in total)

SPS Team Pit Area

On the friday evening most of the SPS team got together, walked the track and then chilled under the awning with Team Manager Tristan turning up the bass as we listened to Radio 1's 20 year celebration for Pete Tong which was pretty cool.

Saturday practice went well apart from the fact that there wasnt enough foam for the uplift to protect the bikes and pretty much everyone I spoke too had scratched their bikes unnessarily, Note to the BDS organisers this is surely basic essentials, the damage is now done but come on guys lets sort it out to prevent this kinda damage happening again at future rounds. Round 1 at Nant G was fine so how come this happened here!


Having fun in practice


The track was pretty much the same as last year turn for turn so everyone soon got the hang of it and the sun also made for a proper good atmosphere both down in the pit area and up on the hill. The SPS Santa Cruz V10's were eating up the braking bumps with ease.

Sunday morning I just did one clean pactice run, my qualifying run was quite early on so I wanted to take some time to check my bike over and get rested up ready for action. SPS team mate Tom Kelly had brought his turbo along so I made sure I had a good warm up on there to raise my heartrate before heading up for qualifying, ending up in 3rd place..

I was sorry to hear the news that the man mountain and possibly the nicest rival on track big Dave List had taken a tumble on his first run and had been chauffered to hospital with a broken collarbone, genuinely I wish him a speedy recovery and just hope they didnt have to cut his brand new race kit off... Get well soon Listy.

Race runs soon came around and it was great to have my family turn up to support me, it was a real job to stay hydrated with the sun beating down and it made a change from the last weekends wet and muddy Hopton.

Racing went pretty good although I rode the top section with a bit of caution, anyway I came over the finish line and in to the hot seat with only two riders left on the hill, both of which went faster leaving me with 3rd place overall behind Hughes and Page, pretty stoked with that for both me and the SPS point of view.

The rest of the crew all did well with most riders really improving and heading towards their own personal goals. I'm under no doubt that the help, support and information that the SPS provides us all and the time that Steve, Tristan, Ratboy, Andy Kyffin and Ricky Bobby put in/volunteer is totally invaluble so huge thanks guys, just wish I'd had this insight 10+ years ago!

Noteable mentions to Nathan who took 2nd in the Experts and Jenny who romped home in the senior womens to also take a podium. The junior category is mentally close this year and arguably the most competitive category, watch your backs front runners because the SPS boys are a coming. Oh and not forgetting the Boss who finished a close 2nd behind Gee Atherton and I hear Steve also took a nice new Tag watch home for his awesome speed trap effort, big props.

Catch you soon