Report : NPS 4x Round 3

Round 3 of the 4x serries was blessed by stunning weather and a dusty hard baked track. Martyn was invited to join the 4x team for the weekend and sends his account of 3 days intensive racer-jump practice and the comp itself.

Sunday May 24th 2009 and what a day. Bank Holiday weekend usually means rain here. Not this weekend! Temperatures soared, girls undressed, not a cloud in the sky, and a chance to go 4x racing!!!

I did intend on racing both rounds at the weekend, but stupidly I had hit up the BMX tracks of Cheshire so intensivley, that my poor hands were in no fit state for a white nuckle ride.

Saturday was rescheduled as a spectating day and gate start tuition. I was once told 'a clever person learns from his mistakes, but a wise person learns from those of others'. Never could this ring more true!!

never have i felt more sorry than when a junior rider fell sidways out of the gate, just as 'riders ready, whatch the gate was called!'

After an hour, or so trying to understand when people start to react to the gate, lights or sounds, i took a walk down the course to see what i needed to start worrying about.

The first straight was really simple. 3 big rollers which could be pumped, manualled, or for the quick boys pump in double out. Then after another few cranks a small step up with a long landing area to catch those who over jump.

The racing wraped up at a helthy 6pm, with 'Boom Boom' taking the honors by a healthy meter. just in time for the coutry air to fill with the sound of party and the scent of burning meat. this is when i snuck under the tape for my first run of a 4x track! and boy did I land with a bang!!!

Race day came, and i headed up to the gate for my first attempt at taming teh Beeps! boy do i need to pratice that!

In teh race i won 3 of my motos, and got a 2nd behind scroobs, my team mate. allowing me to progress to the knock out phase.

In the first race a got a good gate, and then held 2nd down to the line.

In the semi's i tried to hard at the gate and did a wheelie up it! not advised. had to back of the pedals for a moment until the front end came back down. it was all over after that and i finished 3rd in the semi.

gutted, but i will be back to stick it to the 4x contingent again soon.

jhgj

dsfsdfsd

REPORT: NICE PRICE SPECIAL

The headline event for Yeti in 2009, the Nice Price Special, was a two day race at Cannock Chase. With qualifiers on Saturday and the main event on Sunday it was something a little different to your usual XC.

Another thing a bit different was the weather - heavy rain, created deep mud. But the team raced regardless with the return of Martyn Brookes. Matt sends this report on the weekends action:

"For the first time in 2009 the entire Yeti team lined up on the same starting grid - a rare occurrence because usually we're all in different categories. Spirits were high and there was plenty of banter, with organisers Pat and Ag joining the mocking of Martyn's news ginger/sun bleached look!

With 30 seconds to go that all ended and we were ready to hit the first singletrack. Still tired from a week in the Pyrenees I was pushed back into fourth with Chris and Martyn up the road. Conditions were made difficult by the mud, but thankfully the organisers had reduced the laps by one to reflect that. After lap one Chris - tired from the precious day of racing - let me by to try and catch Martyn. A combination of my effort and Martyn's flat tyre meant it wasn't long before that happened - I couldn't possibly comment on which contributed the most though!

We spent the next few laps sliding around on off camber descents and twisty singletrack. By lap three I was tired and the heavy rain did little to inspire me. However as the rain got harder the mud became less sticky and the course got easier. This contributed to a great final result as I finished second, with Martyn and Chris taking third and fourth.

Ruth was the only woman to finish as the others didn't complete the race! It wasn't a free-win by any means though - just to complete this race took serious energy.

The event itself was really good fun despite the poor weather. Banter between riders lifted the overall mood as did the marshals with cow bells, friends, family and other random people all of whom probably thought we were mad for racing in such conditions.

A big thumbs up goes to the organisers who, despite the weather managed to keep a light-hearted atmosphere. Hopefully next year the weather will be a bit better and we'll see a load more people racing this unique event."

REPORT: NATIONAL XC R2

Round Two of the National XC Series was a test event for the 2010 World Cup at Dalby Forest, so Ruth, Chris and Luke would be in for a testing race on a truely race-ready course.

Conditions on Saturday's practice were almost perfect in the afternoon, with the trails dry and dusty - however this did not last, with predicted rain hitting the course.

By raceday, the lap was soon returning to its original state and Ruth was the first to race. The tough climbing suited her alot better than round one at Sherwood and it was another seventh place in the Expert category.

By the time Chris and I had lined up for the Expert race in the afternoon there had already been some more rain. As we headed out on the first lap this only got worse and the first singletrack had an icey coating to the rocks! It didn't help that we both got a terrible start and were held up in the early stages behind just two riders!

When Chris did get through it was time for a game of catchup which would last 3.5 laps. In the end it resulted in a solid 11th place. I would mention that on lap three, Chris ran Medusa's descent, losing ground on George Budd - a move that essentially cost him a top ten finish! However, it hardly seems fair when my own 'sicknote' performance was nothing to write home about.

The next race is the Nice Price Special - a two day at Cannock Chase that sees the return of Martyn Brookes!

REPORT: ENDURO SIX

Just got word that Matt and Chritian finished third in the Elite men's pairs race. Full report and pics now live thanks to Matt and Rob Crayton.

Both the guys were on ASRs and running the Kenda Karma/Small Block tyres - apparantly they hooked up great on the one dry day the UK has had this year!

"After a week of heavy rain I wasn’t looking forward to racing in six hours of mud but when we turned up on the Sunday I couldn’t believe how dry the place was, even the water splash was a bit of a damp squib.

We set up at the far end of the paddock with the Yeti easy-up which dwarfed all the fishing brollies and makeshift awning to keep kit dry; the bloke next to us was well chuffed that he was going to get some free shelter just in case the forecast wasn’t right and it rained before 4pm.

Christian drew the short straw for the run (thank god) and finished it in a very respectable time and way faster than I would have.

Our plan was to do double laps and we’d already been joking around about who would get the fastest Yeti lap and with Christians second lap coming in at a blistering 0:25:21 I was starting to worry he’d already done it !! As the battle raged on I slipped into the lead of the times battle but amazingly when we checked the time after the event we’d both clocked a 0:24:57 so it was a tie.

For those of you who’ve ridden the course as part of the Enduro Six or SITS the organisers have ploughed a lot of money into making the course more resilient to the elements, they’ve dug out and hard cored the trails through blue bell woods and a couple of other places. Personally I don’t think much thought has been put into building the corners on these sections but as the race carried on natural berms started to appear and track just got faster and faster so be the end it rode well.

All in all it was a cracking race, we had some good banter with our fellow Yeti riders on the trail and getting 3^rd place was the icing on the cake.

I’m taking a few days off the old bike and having a play on the local climbing wall and will get back into some steady mile before going to the Pyrenees with a couple of friends training to do an Ironman (mad fools).

I believe the next event for the Yeti team is round two of the British Mountain Bike Series where our two Expert riders Luke and Christian will be going head to head, that should be interesting ;)."

REPORT: MIDLANDS XC R1

Last weekend the team were in the Midlands and Matt took the first podium of the year - third in the Masters race. Here's his very brief report - he asked me to flower it out a bit but I'll let you fill in the gaps - Matt prefers to let his pedals do the talking!

"I’m pants at writing stuff so I thought that if I passed on some info you’d be able to make it sound good!

Ruth got the win in the Expert women’s, Christian was fourth in the Expert men’s.

Warm weather, cool course, very fast with attacking climbs and fast singletrack which showed the difference between mountain bikers and roadies. Tyres worked fantastically on the dusty ground, Karma on the front and Small Block 8 rear. Standard tyres run tubeless that worked just fine.

Next event for me is the Enduro 6 with Christian (Pairs) this Sunday them I’m off to the Pyrenees for some hill training… good times…

Not at the next round of the nationals I’ll be in the sun, but that is balanced out by the pants weather forecast given for Sunday. Oh well, to coin Christians phrase; 'Win or Die (of hypothermia) trying…'

Finally, in an update from Germany: Dibbers (Martyn) is doing 50 miles each morning and when he isn’t riding he’s climbing grades 5 to 6 out door routes on the local crags… He’s going to come back twice as fast as he left!"

So, that’s the word from inside the Yeti UK camp. Not sure what to worry about more; Brookside smashing the miles in or Fatty off to the Pyrenees. Guess we’d all benefit from turning the pedals hard and therefore avoiding the wooden spoon of slowest rider at the next race!

NATIONAL XC R1

Two weeks of mixed fortunes for the team! I can't really report well on what happened at the first round of the British Mountain Bike Series as I was not there. After resting and coming into form I got hit hard by the sickness bus and there was no way I could race, ride a bike or do anything in public. Our other riders could at least have a go.

Joining me in the ranks of 'unfortunate times to have something go wrong' was Chris who had his saddle fall off halfway round the Expert race. He spent an hour wondering exactly how he'd explain any accidents to the medics. Fortunately that didn't come through and he finished 36th.

It does get better though. Ruth rode well into 7th Expert for the ladies and can't wait for the hilly courses. And Matt got the result of the day with 15th in Masters - otherwise known as the ex-elite category. Don't believe me? The top five had a clear two minutes over sixth place, which Matt was only one minute adrift from...

Next big race is the National XC round 2 at Dalby on May 10 with a host of regional events in between for the mistakes and illnesses to be ironed out.

REPORT: Gorrick R4

It doesn't get any easier having a bad day at the office - even if you are used to it! The Gorrick didn't exactly go to plan - I knew the form wasn't great coming into the race, what with the National next weekend. But I was still up for having a go in the race.

At the Gorrick Series, Expert and Elite riders are grouped together, which means the top ten is always out of bounds. Today was no exception, but soon I was up with the 'leading' Expert riders. Although I felt bad I figured the performance was still good so kept going, riding a couple others off the wheel.

Two crashes later though (the second one being a 180, still clipped in and then slamming to the dust!) and I was out of the race. Too much pain to mention. I can only thank the riders behind for not slamming into me...it was a pretty close run thing as I scrambled off the track!

This morning the injuries are alot better, post-race I thought my back was twisted but it seems the only lasting damage is my panda-hand, that will be fine for Sunday though where I hope to be flying...just not through the air!