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National Points Series 2006

Rugog Farm, Wales Rnd 1

9th April

Aidan Bishop crushes the opposition

First round of the 2006 NPS and what an awful event, special thanks to Aidan Bishop for writing the race report as I was never going to be out of traction in time........read his excellent report below:

National ‘Cross Muddy Hill’ Points Series Round 1 mudbog farm!

Early April 2006, time for the National Points Series to kick off once again. What an inspired choice for the first round, a remote peat bog hillside deep in Wales, a fresh track to bed in and a suspect weather forecast for the weekend, any ideas as to how the race may have turned out? I would like to say the sun shone through and the track was a fun yet demanding white knuckle ride to test the nations riders, I would like to say that but as most people could foresee it was quite the opposite, we actually had hail showers (to epic proportions) and the track turned into what can only be described as hell!! Good choice organisers..why Wales in April on a brand new course!?!

The course, to be fair would have been good if it was dry although it still would have got extremely cut up. The top section started with a quick sprint off a drop followed by an off camber left, hip over a rock to the right then pick up some speed and keep it flowing across numerous rises and drops, a choice in line then slow a little....drop right...and up over a big mound or keep speed high and fly off small rock and try to stay on a very narrow path along said mound, the penalty being a lot of time lost if you don’t stay on the path. A drop onto a small shale path (another mile of this would have made the track resemble a national course!) then a tricky off camber section. Hold on as you go off a blind bank drop followed by a fairly steep section of the course where you tried to keep the bike upright around several corners, some of which were added in during practice as there was a blind drop taken because it was claiming many victims.

Having fun yet?

If you made it this far you now had the hard stuff to deal with, popular line choice was to go wide around another drop off, this enabled you to cut right back high across the hill and set you up for a steep foot deep muddy rut, this then right off a rock drop onto an incredibly difficult off camber straight (very few could make across cleanly). Cross the uplift road then onto what was more a trials section than DH course, the main choice being a tricky rut leading onto a near vertical chute between some rocks into a mud bog, another bank and try to stay high on the camber otherwise your in a foot deep mud pit. Once past this it’s not over.....a straight line slid you through the dry stone wall into a left you either cut tight or tried to aim for the rut that developed to get you round, then cross the line and get excited at the prospect that you could get straight back in the queue and do it all again……yippee!!!!

What with the course developing every half hour, the decision was made to make changes to it (about 5 over the weekend together with multiple repairs), because of this it was decided to drop the Saturday seeding run so the tape could be modified and then extra practice time allowed. The team was almost out in full force, myself and Gummy had to share body heat to stay alive sleeping in the back of the van Friday night, only a couple of Buds and the gentle lullaby sound of heavy hail stones on a thin metal roof helped us sleep! Mr Bromley turned up bright and early and Stefan and Greg managed to haul themselves out of bed at stupid o’clock to arrive Saturday morning. A few runs later and every run brought a stumble or two at different points of the track but this was entirely understandable. Then we all suffered the wrath of the weather gods, with what can only be compared to standing in front of a shot blaster of ice! That managed to bring out the ‘fair weather ‘ mentality in Stefan and Greg who pussied out like girls and called it a day, they retired early to a warm house and bed…didn’t know what they were missing! (sorry Craig made me say it!).

Think summer, think summer, think summer!

After a very ‘relaxing’ evening in the local town of ‘Maklslerfhdbhghghfghhh’ we awoke for Sunday practice, with Gummy looking a little over relaxed we got with it and hoped for the best come race run time, knowing that staying upright for the whole run would be key to a decent finish. A nice hailstorm before our runs warmed us up nicely for the start, then it was Craig off first. Putting up a confident start, the first fast straight saw him perform an almost perfect front flip to cartwheel combo the best I’ve seen at high speed, the Olympics beckon Craig!! With some loud encouragement from his teammates ("get up you w****ker") he got back on to finish with only 3 crashes to finish…well he's alive! I was up next and set off with the best intentions (with Gummy abusing me off the start). I managing to keep it on both wheels for the whole run only one major mishap saw me having to lift the bike back on line and scoot for a section, and managed to post the eventual winning time of 3:28. I had to watch the last riders in class from the hot seat, Gummy came through shaking his head, he crashed a couple of times and ended up finishing 9th for the team. Top three in masters ending up myself, Andrew Titley second and a solid run from Si Paton taking third.

Ahhh screw it...

Elites ended up Gee taking the win, Matt Simmonds putting in an awesome run to take second, Marc Beaumont finishing third, all going sub 3minutes, quite an achievement given the conditions. It was a showing of how difficult the track was as I watched the majority of elites crashing or struggling on the bottom section. All in all it was a weekend I’m glad is behind me and staying there, but also quite content that the season is off to a great start for me and the team.

I’d like to thank Craig for being so kind as to crash so spectacularly in front of me and making me laugh so hard! Also like to thank Budweiser for making beer, Michelin for making spikes and to all sponsors for keeping us rolling on.