Harry Molloy Reports From Round 5 Of The BDS

Final round of the BDS series at Caersws;

It has been an awesome weekend. The whole atmosphere of it seemed way more relaxed and fun. Josh and I took a step back from the usual Premier Inn or B&B and camped over for a couple of nights. The whole team did loads of runs together on Saturdays practise. Everyone loved it, the sun was out, the track was dry and dusty and smiles were all around.

Check out this Go Pro helmet cam of me following Noshy;

That evening we all watched everyone’s videos from the day on the big TV in the GoPro van. I suppose mainly to look at different lines but it ended up influencing more banter towards each other’s mistakes, funny shapes and overtaking opportunities...”Josh”, cough, cough.

We had dinner with Andy and then he went into mechanic mode so that the bikes were still tip top for race day. The rest of the night consisted of putting Ben Deakon in his place... well... kind of/kind of not. I just about managed to flip him onto his back but just after I done so he owned me! Then it was a movie night of 3 Minute Gaps in the truck.

The night in a tent wasn’t my best camping experience but it wasn’t my worst. Wind was battering the sides forcing them in and taping me on the head now and again. And when you wake up at a race in a tent to hear the pitter patter of a cloud warming up to dump its contents on the track, it’s not usually positive thoughts running through your head.

Morning arrived without rain and even the odd blue bit trying to shine through the clouds. I looked at the 24hour forecast on my phone and it wasn’t looking great. From 1pm – 7pm heavy rain was due. This would be just in time for seeding runs.

I did 2 runs down with Jacky G in practise. Then it was just all about preparing for the storm. I got the water proofs out, the tear off’s on and the spikes on the bike. Everyone on the team got off pretty well with the weather for seeding besides Jack and me. I went up hoping for rain considering the changes I had made and not before long it was chucking it down! My qualifying run was going well until a new section near the bottom caught me out and the line that I had been doing had a couple of new roots in it. I fell off going slow already... not a crash I was happy with so the rest of the course was flat out. I was quite happy that I had the same speed trap as Steve Peat though!

After that I was 12 or so seconds off of the pace with a crash and this gave me good confidence. My race run went well. I had a few of your normal little mishaps and only 2 mistakes would have cost me more than a second or two. I came through the finish in 2nd place... eventually pushed down into 12th in the end. It was a good result and I am pleased as there were nearly 30 elites. It’s just I am fed up with an average result. I wanted to end up on the podium at the end of the season like last year. But I guess it’s only going to play on my mind more over winter which will be good for training.

And I have one more chance this coming weekend at the English Championship.

See you there!