National Points Series – Round 4 – Caersws 16/08/09

It was a windy weekend in Wales for the 4th round of the National Points Series (NPS) held at Caersws, Powys. The track is well known for its steep incline and relatively short runs, making every split-second count.

The track was very similar to that used for the 2007 Nationals with some nice variations all the way down to the finish. As the riders left the start ramp there was a big step down jump to clear straight out the box, and with the strong winds blowing sideways this was not one for the feint hearted. There were many lines to choose from up top making it very interesting and with a steep and technical mid-section including further jumps and drop-offs it felt very tight and fast. After crossing the bottom fire road the track was flat-out wide open with big swooping turns and drops including a big table then an amazing section of gap jumps into the field. The final field section had some man made wooden jumps incorporated, but these proved very awkward as the cross winds continued to throw riders off throughout the weekend.

Saturday is now all day practice with no seeding run, but the riders found it hard to get a rhythm going and pushed for pace throughout the morning session, after lunch they found the rhythm and lit it up for the final afternoon runs feeling comfortable to leave the venue ready for race day on Sunday.

An early start Sunday morning saw all the team members on the first uplifts of the day, bagging two practice runs before seeding.

First off for her seeding run was Emma Wareham in the Elite Womens category posting a solid time of 2:05.746 placing her 5th and 10.473 secs off 1st place Katy Curd.
Next down were the Expert Men with Andy Woodvine (Woody) going first, with an inconsistent run, crossing the line with a time of 1:46.614 putting him 18th and 6.845secs off the leader Luke Marshall.

Then it was the turn of Richard Challinor (Chally) who crashed out on the steep switch backs, but got back on and posted a time of 1:48.228 putting him back in 23rd and 8.459secs off the leader.

The final team member to hit the track was Jethro Whitfield (Jed) who after a big crash in practice earlier that morning posted a solid run of 1:46.714 putting him 20th and 6.945scs off the leader.

Everyone in the team knew that they were capable of more and wanted to prove this in the race runs.


Again Emma was the first member of the Leisure Lakes team to prove herself in the race with an amazing run of 2:02.790 knocking almost 3 secs off her seeding run and putting her on the Elite Womens Podium in 3rd Spot.

Now it was the turn off the Expert men with Chally going first with a blinding run of 1:40.868 taking almost 7.5 secs off his seeding run and putting him on the Podium in 5th spot only 1 sec off the leader Kyle Farrow.



Then it was Jeds turn posting a quick race time of 1:45.262, 1.5 secs faster than his seeder placing him in 15th position.

With Woody being the fastest qualifier this meant he was the last team member to do battle, and he brought it home with a time of 1:42.701 almost 4 secs faster than seeding and putting him in 12th spot.

Overall it was an outstanding weekend for the Leisure Lakes Downhill Team with podium postions in Elite Women and Expert Men and a further twelve and fifteenth position finishes in Expert Men.

I would like thank everyone for their hardwork and we look forward to the next round in September.

Sandy Plenty (Team Manager)

NPS XC National Champs

What a weekend! One minute it was sunny the next torrential rain. Saturday was practice day. This was a hard course with one big up and one big down. It was a very technical climb with lots of roots off camber, rocks and of course lots of mud. Once you got to the top of the course the views were amazing but there was no time to admire them. It was time to descend, which was the hardest descent I have ever ridden let alone raced, it was the red run of a downhill course. Very technical, steel, big roots and a rock gully. Once you hit the bottom it was straight back to climbing, no rest bite on this course!

I had a good race. No mechanicals and I beat a few expert riders, which has given me the confidence, as this is where I’ll be next season. All in all an excellent weekend on a “proper” mountain bike course ~ Neil Hayward

UK National Champs 2009 - INNERLEITHEN

It was another wet weekend for Team Leisure Lakes (minus the quarantined Rich Challinor), who once again headed north, this time to Innerleithen for the UK National Downhill Champs.

The track was a mixture of old and new – some slippery straights led into the first wooded section where the fastest riders hopped high above the roots. Jump over the fire-road and it was into the darkness; flat-out through the ‘tunnel’ and back into the daylight through some ruts, briefly turning back into the woods before launching onto a grassy straight and round a widely taped corner - rumour has it that Peaty wasn’t even sniffing the brakes through here…
Down a long rut and drop steeply off the fire-road, once again returning to the woods for some typical Inners-tight-corner-action, leading nicely into the brand-new finish section. Somewhat reminiscent of Llangollen, the track wove steeply down through a series of switchbacks and into a final greasy, off-camber chute which would claim many victims over the course of the weekend.

Several hours of rain meant that conditions were far from ideal as practice started on Saturday. The two mile ride to the uplift, combined with the push up to the start of the track made it hard to get in more than five runs. Tom, the team’s legendary mechanic was busy all day keeping the bikes running smoothly in the mud. Tyres were swapped by the dozen as the sun appeared and dried the course out, only for the heavens to open again as practice drew to a close…

After a less-than-peaceful night’s sleep, thanks to the noise from a nearby all-night rave (yes, RAVE!), it was race day. More overnight rain had left the track greasy and the team unsure as to how conditions would be for seeding and race runs.

In the Senior Women’s category, Emma Wareham had a frustrating race run, catching a Masters rider who fell in front of her in the switchbacks. Having crashed on the final chute in seeding, Emma was annoyed not to have a clear run through the section this time around, but with the Senior Men already on their way down the hill, there was no time for re-runs. Although the incident cost her valuable time, she was pleased to come away in 7th place with a time of 3:56.4.

With no Chally, it was left to Jed Whitfield and Andy Woodvine to fight it out with the nation’s top riders in the Senior Men’s Championship. After putting in a solid performance in seeding, Jed was unlucky in his race run, with his chain coming off at the top of the course, writing off his chances of a good result. This meant it was all down to Woody who, having clocked an outstanding time in his seeding run, was feeling the pressure. Always the professional, he didn’t let it affect him and stormed down the hill in a time of 3:02.6 to take 33rd place – a fantastic result!

Although initial thoughts about the track were mixed, it turned out to be one of the best tracks so far this year and definitely worthy of the National Champs. Innerleithen is often slated for being over-used but the combination of retro sections from old tracks and the awesome new finish made it an all-round quality weekend. Yet again Team Manager Sandy Plenty brought home another good result, finishing 6th in Masters 1 – massive thanks to him for all his patience and hard work (and for getting the van stuck in the field)!

Next stop: NPS Round 4 in August (wherever that may be)…

Race Report - NPS Round 2 - Llangollen

The 2nd round of the NPS took place this weekend at the new venue near Llangollen. The word on the street was that the track was STEEP, and they weren't wrong! ..... but amazing fun to ride!

After track inspection on foot on Friday it was on to Saturday practice and then seeding runs on Sunday morning. Unfortunately Emma Wareham had a nasty accident on Saturday badly injuring her hand putting her out of the running for the Elite Women category.
First off for the seeding run in the Expert Men category was Andy Woodvine, next off was Rich Challinor and finally Jed Whitfield who banked 5th, what a run!

Both Andy and Chally knew they had to do better in the race runs and Jed wanted to repeat his form in the race run. Again Andy was first to tackle the infamous Llangollen battle ground, but the track bit him back as he hit the deck and went off track losing valuable time, he got back aboard and posted a worthy 02:25.6 Placing him 30th, Chally was next putting in a “safe” run posting a 02:16.2 placing him 14 th. Next off was Jed who had an eventful run but kept it lit and brought it home with a 02:17.3 finishing 16th, well done lads!

Overall the weekend was a mixed bag of emotions with many top riders crashing out and results were all over the place really. The experience of riding such a full-on track was beneficial to the team in terms of experience and we can all build on that for the next round.
A big Congratulations to Sandy Plenty the team manager who had a blistering day and finished 5th in the Master Category – big up Sandy!

Also a big thank you goes out to Tom the mechanic who once again kept us all on the track, after numerous scuffles with trees and salad.

Top Marks to Si Paton and Steve Parr for putting on a superb event that ran like clockwork.
See you all at Fort Bill 27th & 28th June

Saab Solomon Enduro – Ae Forest, UK

A couple of weeks after Kielder the enduro fraternity moved north again, this time to Ae Forest in Dumfries. After the solid but conservative approach of Kielder the plan here was to open the taps up a little. Especially as this was a stand alone event and we weren’t looking for series points.

The format was the same as Kielder: 7 stages plus the seeding run, ride between each of them and have all the times added together to establish your overall position, much like the WRC. The difference here was that the race was run around a loop rather than the toing and froing approach of Kielder, no repeat stages here!! Stage 7 of the race was going to be the NPS DH track, however, due to bad weather in the week leading up to the event it was cancelled, which was a bit of a shame.

Qualifying was run on what would be an uphill in the Ae Forest loop if you went there riding with your friends, which meant lots of flat hair pins and plenty of opportunity for washing out. This would also be stage 1 in the race and had probably the best section whole event, a muddy chute with a big rutted turn at the bottom. Team manager Sandy would have loved it!!

A steady run in qualifying left me 15th which would be improved on in the re-run which was stage 1 with a 7th. Stage 2 was a good mix of fast and open with a good bunch of turns. Sadly the ‘open the taps’ idea led me to fly off the side of a jump and loose some time fighting my way through the rough. A healthy ninth kept me in mix moving into the flat but fun stage 3. Stage 4 was the killer, with a minute thirty plus steep climb in it!! Luckily the closing section was quite good fun. Stage 5 I could barely remember from practice due to the horizontal hail we had to ride through, so it turned out to be a bit longer than I thought.

The final stage 6 was comfortably the most DH orientated and a whole lotta fun. I had good run, a couple of small mistakes but nothing major. As it turned out I managed to bag the final stage win which I was pretty chuffed with, my team Santa Cruz Nomad was absolutely awesome and I could finally and successfully open the taps up!!

The final stage win pushed me up to 8th Overall and a 2nd in seniors. Another great event and soon we move onto Round 2 of the Avalanche Trophy Series in Andorra for some bar bashing fun on an unfeasibly big hill! Hopefully I’ll make it down in one piece! For full results listing follow this link.

S.S.A.T. Round 1 - 2009 - Kielder, UK

Great weather an a dubious hire car marked the start to the 2009 race calendar for the Leisure Lakes Gravity Team as they went their separate ways on the weekend of 25th/26th April. Whilst the downhill riders headed off to Ae Forest for round one of the NPS, I set off to Kielder to battle some the best Enduro riders Europe has to offer.

Kielder is the only ‘Enduro’ format race of the Saab Solomon series, the rest being mass start Maxi and the better known Mega-Avalanche races. An impressive cast of World Cup riders past and present were there, not to mention the Enduro DH specialists. This is truly a great series, no-where else can you pitch up with almost any style of mountain bike and try your hardest against world class completion whilst getting to ride your bike solidly for two or three days. This open to all ethos will hopefully go from strength to strength.

So with Friday and Saturday mornings practice out of the way on the largely rocky and sandy tracks, Saturday afternoons focus moved to the Prologue, or seeding run. This was held on what was to be Stages 4 and 7 on race day which meant that the longest and most pedally stage of the race would be repeated 3 time – doh!!. A solid but conservative effort in seeding left yours truly 26th out of about 240 starters.

Race day started early for the fast guys and with 7 stages to complete, faffing around in the morning was not an option. Stage 1 was the most varied of the day and it was a shame it was the only one not to be repeated. Another solid but conservative effort (which seemed to characterize the race for me), a quick interview with Eurosport and off to stage 2 which was probably the fastest and most open. Stage 3 was the most DH orientated stage, and the most popular judging from the people I spoke with. Stage 4/7 was a repeat the prologue, 5 a repeat of 2 and 6 a repeat of 3. Apart from a couple of little wobbles the day went smoothly but I didn’t mange to improve on Saturdays qualifying position of 26th, which left me in 6th in seniors. David Vazquez took the Pro and overall win with Tracy Mosely Taking the Women’s title.

A bit of a wait now before round two in Andorra but ill be back with the next enduro race report from Ae Forest in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!!

For full results listing follow this link.

2009 NPS Downhill Round One - Ae Forest

After a long cold and wet winter of riding and training the 1st round of the National Points Series (NPS) was finally upon us for the weekend of 25th & 26th April, at the well known Ae Forest track nr Dumfries in bonny Scotland.

After a 5 hour drive we arrived at the venue on Friday with the sun shining. Upon inspection of the track on foot, it was apparent that there was a whole new final section to the finish and a few tweaks here and there up the top, all appeared on first take to be for the better. Practice started promptly on Saturday morning with all the team riders heading up the hill together for their first chance at taming the hill. First reports back to the pits were good with most people finding the lines picked out on Friday inspection and the bikes were performing as expected (top drawer). After a full day’s practice and around 6 or 7 full runs the energy levels started to drop a little and some riders decided to call it a day, which turned out to be the best plan as the heaven’s opened for the final runs which left the track sodden and the riders caked in mud, and struggling for traction with dry tyres laced to their rims. Although it was a blast riding in such conditions and spirits were still high as we all retired for the day.

7am……..time to get up and change those tyres for some cut down spikes I reckon. This was a good decision as we headed up the hill for a final practice run before the timed seeding runs the weather was looking anything but stable.

Emma (Wareham) was off first in the Elite Women category and clocked a time of 3:13.840 placing her 4th which she was happy with but felt she could have gone faster if she could just piece everything together. Next off were the boys in the Expert category with Andy (Woodvine) first off the blocks posting a time of 2:28.603 placing him 7th, he was happy enough with a solid run but made a few mistakes and felt he had got more in the tank, next off was Rich (Challinor) posting a time of 2:30.576 some 2 seconds off Andy, he wasn’t happy as he had been off the track in the lower woods but again he knew he was capable of more. Jethro (Whitfield) was next to hit the hill posting a time of 2:35.415 which he was not too happy about as he knew there were seconds to be shaved off his time.

The bikes were then cleaned (again) and prepped ready for the race runs by Tom the mechanic (hero) who excelled all weekend in keeping the team above water and running smoothly. Again the first rider going to the top for their race run was Emma, we wished her well and she headed off into battle. She came through the finish with a time of 3:05.107 Shaving over 8 seconds off her seeding time placing Emma 6th and 17 seconds off the leader Helen Gaskell. Emma wasn’t so happy - feeling deflated as she had made a big mistake on the first right hander up top causing her to crash and drop precious time, regardless, 6th place is a serious result and a good boost for the team.

The boys were next to head into battle embarking on the coach taking them to the top of the hill. First man off was Jethro who screamed down the wet track posting a time of 2:31.897 knocking 4 seconds off his seeding run and placing him 23rd in the Expert category. Rich was next off, knowing he had to pull things together posting a time of 2:26.669 with a solid (ish) run and no crashes placing him 9th and 6.874 seconds off the leader Jack Reading. Andy was last off the gate with a finishing time of 2:27.086 placing him 10th just behind Rich, those boys can’t be separated. The boys & Gals were happy to have bagged their first results of 2009 and are now looking to improve on them throughout the season. So Watch this space.

This was a very successful weekend of racing for the Leisure Lakes DH Team, thanks to all the riders for their efforts and Tom the mechanic for all his support. A big thank you to Sandy the team manager for making it all happen and letting it roll, and hats off to the organiser’s Si Paton and Steve Parr who worked hard to pull it off.

Oakley Sponsor Downhill Team

We are pleased to announce a last minute addition to the sponsor line-up. Oakley make the best Optics in the world and have hooked us up with some new 2009 designs. We will be running the 'Crowbar MX' as well as the new 'Proven MX' goggle.

Keep an eye out for the new designs at www.oakley.com

Team Press Release

Following our great success in 2008 we are proud to announce our new team line-up for 2009. We have 3 new riders in the team, Emma Wareham in Elite Women, Richard Challinor in Experts and Alex Langley who will be racing the Saab Solomon Avalanche Trophy series; they will be riding alongside existing team riders Andy Woodvine and Jed Whittfield, both in Experts.

The Team will be attending all the NPS rounds as well as select Regional and European races. We also have a couple of new sponsors; Bear Back Biking Whistler, Wenlock Water and No Limits Clothing. We want to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors for their support: -

Santa Cruz
Fox Racing Shox
Race Face
THE
E13
SDG
Hope
Bear Back Biking Whistler
Persist Components
Royal Racing
No Limits Adrenaline Sports Co
Wenlock Water



With an even mix of experience, talent, and great components you are guaranteed to see the team on a podium near you!

And finally - LeisureLakesBikes would like to thank all involved.