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)