Jack G chronicles.....

Moving house – So the past few weeks have been pretty manic, I have moved house! Well I say moved house, I have moved from the parents in with the girlfriend, it’s a pretty big commitment and I hope I’m ready for it! So as you can imagine the last few weeks have been spent painting walls and unloading boxes, which has meant lack of training time, which is not good. I raced at the Pearce Cycles round 2 at Bringewood, which seemed like an eternity ago. On the drive up the rain was coming and going which left the track on Saturday morning soaked through. The track that was being used was the old national champs track, well for the first few runs on Saturday anyway. Around 11 O’clock on Saturday the decision was made to change the top half of the track as it was deemed dangerous to ride (let alone race) and to be fair it was pretty wild. About a quarter of the riders were at the top of the hill as this was announced and then a new top half was created by us lot (riders) by simply picking out a new route to join into the middle section, and kicking out any stumps that may be in the way. By the end of Saturday practise the track was drying up and looking good for Sundays Race day. However Saturday night the heavens opened up and we were back to square one again. Sunday’s practise was going well for me and I felt good going into race one. I had a steady top section, jumped the triple, pedalled over the fire road and as you drop over the rock’s into the drop I got a bit sideway’s, unable to slow down I went over the bars onto my face. I got up and made it to the finish line but was well off the time. In between the two race runs the weather could not decide what it wanted to do meaning that tyre choice was on everyone’s mind, I knew that I would stick with the cut down’s and luckily I did! Just as the Elite category started, it started to hammer down and it looked like the first runs were going to be final. I had an average top section and then put my head down for the bottom half of the track. Coming in only 2.2 seconds off Ollie’s first run time I was pretty happy with that time and in the process I had the fastest bottom split. I ended up 4^th on the day with a strong field. Well done to Olly who won the Elite’s on team “Saracen Arbath!” The weekend just gone I managed to get out on the road bike with Team Manager Andy “uphill” Ayers who coincidentally, managed to complete a complete ride without crashing on any uphill sections! We only done a 30 miler, but with wind conditions it was pretty tough. This weekend we are off to Glencoe for the next BDS round. After that I am staying up for the week, for the Fort William World Cup the weekend after. Unfortunately due to lack of UCI points I will not be racing, but will be helping Andy out with Harry and Manon’s bikes and a bit of moral support! Keep it Pinned. J