First up, this is a big old post containing an overview of what happened last weekend from my point-of-view. For anyone looking at this and thinking TL:DR (only found out what that meant the other day!) then in summary, great day, fantastic people and pleasant weather. Those of you who couldn't make it really should check out one of the remaining rounds. Anyway, I've not done a looooong write-up in a looooooonnnnnng time. There are probably mistakes and I'll probably do a few edits as and when I remember stuff. Should photos be preferable to you then I'll shove a load of links to various media as and when they emerge to the bottom of this post. Also, I didn't make the freestyle, any comments on how this went appreciated!
That's enough of my ramblings - lets go!!!!!!!
Lets begin at the beginning. Phill and I left Derby at 6.15am Saturday morning, both eager to get to site early to check out any recent updates, get registered and get a couple of practice runs in before the track got too crowded. Hour and a half later fuelled on hot coffee, Relentless and adrenaline, we arrive in good time despite stopping off for supplies along the way.
Not intending to stay the night, we parked in a position close to the gates and wandered over to the ATBA tent to find Roger looking his usual calm and relaxed self but otherwise not a huge amount of activity yet - it must have been a good night on site. Pick up our very professional laminated numbers and wander on meeting up with Rob Goodall, one of the last of the remaining KMC riders.
So, a good an opportunity as ever to get padded up and get rolling; the sun shinning and the forecast looking promising for once. "Do you want to see my lunch for today?" asks Phill, who had the foresight to make sandwiches the night before. He shows me the contents of the Tupperware pot that appears to contain half a pound of mince meat. That'll be the wrong Tupperware pot then - I thought he looked a bit bleary eyed this morning!
Early training runs showed the mid section of the course to be a bit treacherous, especially to the right of the track where it has got quite sandy. Phill took a blow to the head early on and another lad dislocated his shoulder around the same place. A bit of on site maintenance by the on-site crew to firm up that side of the track and a bit of carpet in place seemed to do the trick (plus a mental note to stay to the left as much as possible).
Still, once I'd tightened up my trucks a smidgeon and hit the bottom section a couple of times, it was time to head up to the top, especially as
Team BAD looked to be nailing the course already. Had a breather half way up and had a change encounter with Nat Gaydon, him being the one who took time out to teach me the basics and advised me on Trampa Dampas and heel straps right back in 2006. Top fella!
Strapped in at the top. Looked down the course. Went through my short (but effective) mind control technique to calm the nerves and 'get in the zone', and promptly fell out of the gate. Hahaha. Convinced myself that it was inevitable that this was going to happen at least once today and it was better now that during racing. (They are tricky staring gates - you have to almost launch yourself out horizontally. Try to roll out and you do get caught up on the rear axle, or maybe it's just me).
Couple of runs from the top to bottom clean and things are feeling good, though I'm a little cautious as my legs are feeling a little tired and there's still no sign of the uplift. Bump into Cheb from the
'Mountain Board Diary' blog who is very well travelled having come down from Newcastle as well as attending a Court Farm event a couple of weeks previously. Great blogger and equally nice guy which is always nice! He's driven down with Andy Dumelow who's nowhere to be found. (Evidently, he was still in bed and later got up the hill just in time for his first race - good man). Still, it's time for a breather as the horn has blown for the 9.30 riders meeting.
Usual stuff: non contact racing, stay in your lanes, wear protection - sort of thing. Then "to keep costs down, we have no ambulance here, so any first aid volunteers appreciated"! Best not injure myself then. Not like Mark Sewell who broke his fibula (leg) 6 weeks earlier after being hit by a Royal Mail van. 'So I'm taking it easy by racing in the senior category' he states. If coming a close 4th in the final is taking it easy, then good grief!
Back to practising and the announcement that 'racing is delayed until transport back up the hill is sorted'. Good opportunity to catch up with Rich Sykes on life up in Leeds and possible plans for a new centre in that neck of the woods. He's thinking of an building an intermediate level of features as a step up between beginner and some of the Hales' larger stuff. Sounds interesting and being only around hour and half up the M1 will certainly be worth a trip up at some stage.
The sun is still shining, the hill is getting busier, Tom Kirkman and the
ATC Productions crew are going wild on the freestyle. Life is good. Then the news that transport is sorted, the starting gate works, everyone is in place - Qualifiers are on!
Numbers of people appear to be slightly down - it is GCSE/A-Level exams for a lot of folks so the consequence of qualifying is not whether or not you will be racing (you will), but rather to determine who gets first lane choice. I quite like lane 4 on the right hand side taking the outside lane into the first corner and hopefully staying out of trouble.
First of my qualifiers up against Steve Morris and Mat Lunt; Mat of whom turns out to be reasonably local living in Donnington Park. Decide on a slow start and make it clean out of the gates. All's good till the second feature where all I can remember is things getting wobbly and crashing out. Disaster - the top bit's supposed to be the easy bit! This setback means I have to hop all the way up the 3rd feature - a step-up which is no mean feat with a noSno strapped to the legs. I ride the rest of course cleanly finishing 3rd/last, but survived which is always a plus. Half way back up and Simon Neck of
PUATB informs me that Steve had fallen just after the steep section half way - had I stayed on then 2nd place could have been a possibility! Wishful thinking maybe, but spirits high for the next race.
Next up I'm up against Lee Campbell of Team BAD. I've seen Lee put in some solid runs already today and I know the other fella (who's name now escapes me) is quick so how I got into the first corner in 2nd place (despite my efforts) is anyones guess. From there onwards I've found the best tactic is to 'just go with it' - the course will spit you out at the bottom one way or another, so held on in there to get a second place - woohoo!! Back up to the top as the rumour is that there will be no stop for lunch. Everyones now at the top and the news comes in - one hour break for lunch. Mass Descent!!!!!
The timing couldn't have been better. I'd had a couple of Weetabix at 6am and half a Marathon (Snickers for the younger folk) mid morning. Fortunately, unlike Phill I'd remembered my lunch: the food of the gods, Ambrosia rice pudding. Rice pudding - check. Tin opener - check. Spoon? Arse biscuits. Daft thing is it certainly isn't the first time I've eaten out of a tin using the tin opener. Certainly stops you eating too quickly and a good opportunity to take my boots off. And relax.
Mark Hale wanders over to say hello and suggests that I need to get out of the gates quicker and 'make some trouble out in front'. Generally my tactic has been to stay back and worse case scenario, I'd rather be crashing into someone else rather than have someone else crash into me. But he's right in the sense that once out in front, in the racing line, then it is up to everyone else to go faster on a worse line. I mull it over with another can of Relentless (I'm happy to product place anyones products - please get in touch!).
Back up the hill and 'Now we are racing'. I thought we were racing beforehand but apparently not. In the whole 'randomness of nature' type of thing it appears that I'm up against Steve and Mat again (unless I did take a blow to the head and all of this is just dreams...). 'Riders Ready?!' and we're off, as I once again practically fall out of the gates. Nooooooo! Very slow start, but I'm on my feet so lets go for it! Riding clean all the way round only to see two balls of dust cloud on the final 'S' (or Corkscrew as Cheb refers to it). Think I can make it clean around the outside of both fallen riders but clip something, or someone falling merely metres away from the finish line. Steve is already up and riding over the line. Mat is up but rides into me. I'm finally up and tic-tacking and I'm told just over the line in second. All a blur but I know Phill had some footage so it'll be interesting to see exactly what happened. I've seen it before where people have fallen early on and could have finished in a reasonable position due to later events - I'm just lucky that luck fell on my side this time. First two go through to the semi finals so on we go.
Don't mess with the tires! Panic stations as I decide to let a little bit of air out of my tires. A bit of slime gets into the valve and as much as I fiddle with it, all I can hear up close is the inevitable Sssssssssssss as the tire slowly deflates. Arse!!!!! There's rumour of a bike pump at the top of the hill but this has disappeared. I don't think anyone was trying to knobble me but surely someone would have a pump. Inevitably, it's back to the hut to reinflate the tires and a slow climb back up the hill on legs that really could have done without it. Big, big thanks though to Raph of
Team Ironside who kindly offered me one of his tires in the worst case scenario. We didn't get to that point but the offer was very much appreciated, as was his sterling work all weekend. Point being, don't fiddle with your tires mid afternoon when you're supposed to be top of the hill waiting to race!
Semi final and I'm back in the starting gates with Raph La Roche, Steve Morris (again!) and Paul Butler. It was busy enough racing two others last time so curious to see this one play out. Couldn't keep up with Steve or Paul on the straight but had Raph in my sights and was able to take and hold third by the first corner (though I think he was holding back a little...). Once again, first two went through to final, though third in the semi finals is plenty enough to keep me happy.
All good for time so Phill and I stuck around for the prize-giving meeting up with Travis from the
Surfing Dirt forums in the process. Good to meet you Travis - we'll have to ride Macclesfield forest at some point!
All in a great days riding with some absolutely top fellas and ladies, all giving it some welly on the hill. Bring on Round 2 in a few weeks time and lets do it all over again! Cheers everybody!!!!!
Other notable events of the day included.....
Josh and Zak Campbell riding the closest race I have ever seen!
PUATBs Lisa showing the guys exactly who's in charge in the Pro category.
Plus loads of stuff that I can't remember right now but will probably add later on.....
Right then.......results of the competition can be found at:
http://www.atbauk.org/results.html
Lots of photos can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150197412258449.316005.44994738448
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150186348136044.311140.94440181043
and Travis' photos up now here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150206159404395.326455.503404394
Chebs write up of the entire weekend here including intreaguing cave exploration!!!
http://www.chebsite.com/2011/05/22/riding-atba-round-one-2011-at-hales-superbowl/
First of the vids from Ben Rye: (Appears to show my Race 3 collision and scramble aftermath...)
http://vimeo.com/24175757
Very fun vid from Cheb:
http://www.chebsite.com/2011/06/16/atba-uk-mountainboard-comp-2011-round-1-videos-straight-from-hales-superbowl-to-your-brain/
Plus more media as and when it emerges.
