Monday 14 June 2010

SDA Rnd 3 - Innerleithen

Nick:

Here's a little run down of the weekend, pics now uploaded below.

I knew before arriving that the track was not going to be the same as the iXS cup track, but I enjoy most of the tracks up at Innerleithen so was absolutely fine with that. The SDA boys chose the "Cresta" run for this weekend's racing, there are no major challenges nor much choice of line, it's just really rapid through the tight trees and great fun.

The track was mostly rock solid however it was really greasy at the top, particularly on the rooty corners. Saturday's practice went down with no real drama, just took a few runs to try get a fast line in and out of the first corner which was a slippery root monster!



Sunday came along and I managed to squeeze two practice runs in which went pretty well. I also managed to time myself on the last one putting in a 3m50s with a few hold ups catchin' riders up, I was happy with that.

When leaving to go up for my race run my pedal felt weird and looking down it was hanging off. Luckily I whipped the ones off my hardtail straight on, somehow the bearings inside exploded on my right pedal, argh!

It had been raining a fair bit between practice and the race runs, being concerned about the top section expecting the roots to be really slippy I took the start with caution. Once on the track it felt fine so pressed on harder, unfortunately I had let my guard down and washed out on a root. Scrambled back on the bike feeling a little unsettled, making a few more silly little mistakes, I came over the line in 11th with a 3m54s


I was feeling much better on my second run. It was weird though because although I felt faster, smoother and I stayed on, the clock said I was slower, bizarre!

Well moving on, the new bike should be built up and ready the next NPS at Llangollen if Parcel Force ever get it here (useless @~*%s!) bring on the new era and RIP to the old rig.

Full report can be found on Descent-World here: http://www.descent-world.co.uk/2010/06/14/sda-dh-rd3-innerleithen/

Photography courtesy of Ian Linton: http://www.ianlinton.com/

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