Llangollen BDS round 4

Llangollen BDS round 4 Llangollen is one of the most anticipated venues of the British DH Series. It’s the one everyone wants to win at because it has the least pedalling; it’s as steep as tracks get and is all about having the best skill on a bike. The pressure hits hard on the guys that have been claiming that pedalling is their downfall. It was a bit slow going for most on Saturday. It had been raining all Friday night and the course was sopping wet! I couldn’t wait to get practising though and was on the lift for one of the first riders down. I put my spikes and Neoguard on Friday evening knowing it was going to absolutely dump it down over night. Practise was awesome! I got 7 runs under the belt. The sun was sucking out the splashy bits though and by the end of practise a lot of people were on high rollers. Jacky G and I were the only loyal spike tyre lovers left in the team by the end of practise. Following Jacky G down in practise soon opened my eyes to a looser level. It was wicked pinning it down and was such a help to find the fastest line. I woke up Sunday morning to the ray of sun shine peeping through the curtains. It was ordered by the weather man that we would have a bit of a heat wave with highs of 28 degrees c. That’s exactly what we got. Parts of the track were already dusty first run down and the temperature was rising. I tried out my new DRC Timer for the first time Sunday. I could time the different splits on the course as well as the overall time and compare my runs. It sounds silly but just having the time on it is a massive help to know where you’re at in practise and if you should stop or carry on getting the runs in. It’s going to be a massive help in Mont Sainte Anne this week to not over do it and to gage where I’m at. We also got some new team Madison shorts... nice and light weight, zipped pockets, really breathable and look the part for sure! I did a couple of practice runs Sunday. Jacky G and I were still representing the spikes but I think we were the only ones out of everyone. I guess they must have been slower fractionally on the straights but in the dusty steep corners they were ripping up the turf. My seeding went alright. I deserved a parking ticket in one of the tight corners but apart from that it went smoothly. I was 5.5 seconds off of the fastest time which I was really happy about. I thought I would be able to make up 4 seconds if all went as planned which would have given me a strong podium. I was relaxed into racing, there’s not any pressure for the ranking side of things as I’ve not had a good first half to the season. At the moment I’m thriving off of wanting to show what I can do. I took a good race run down. I knew I was going faster for sure. I parked up in the same corner as last time, missing a high line which annoyed me. However it’s beyond rare that you get a good race run all the way down and the rest of my run went according to plan. I came through with a 1min 49seconds, 3 seconds faster than my seeding time. I was eventually bumped down and was again 5 seconds back off of winner Josh Bryceland. I ended up 12^th. I wanted to do better but there was a huge line up of top World Cup racers and it’s a start to turning my season around. I’m off to Canada tomorrow morning for the next round of the UCI World Cups. I am loving life and can’t wait to ride Mont Sainte Anne! Keep it lit, H