ATBA Downhill - Race Day

Coming live from the track after the 2nd timed run.

I can say right now that someone is winning. Don't know who...

Fun and games after Beiran decided to singlehandedly destroy the start gate on the very first run. But mountainboarders prevail!!!

Live from Dave! Night 1.

I am a pilgrim in an unholy land!

Coming to you live from Llanwty...Lannwy...lynwtrr... Wales! I can tell you now that it's rainy and the campsite is a little muddy...but the outlook for tomorrow seems better.

Apparently the track is running nicely and everyone here is looking forward to getting racing.

More in about 12 hours!

Remolition Roadtrip Roundup (well - my bit at least)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Remolition guys are having a roadtrip from Lands End to John O’Groats and are trying to get in as much riding as they can on the way. Even better – they are doing it for charity!

I really wanted to meet up with them when they got to the Lakes, but unfortunately I was stuck in work – so managed to take last Friday off and joined them on the first part of their Scottish adventure.

The plan was to meet up at Livingston skatepark “nice and early before the mini-scooters and crackheads come out” on Friday morning. After a brief delay and drive around Livingston, I met up with BFC freestyler Martyn, who was doing more jumpy stuff on a board than I have ever seen in real life before...craziness!

Soon enough Roger, Smilie, Wil and Daz rolled up and quickly got riding...with someone who shall not be named pulling a surprising amount of freestyle skillz out of the bag...

I had no intention of riding the skatepark; I had brought my NoSno brakeboard with 9’s/8’s and snowboard boots (I had bought some bits to give me a full 8 inch setup that I could easily swap in and out – but apparently they were delivered at home just as I arrived at Livingston...typical). But no one ever rides a skatepark on a downhill NoSno and the Rem guys thought it would be funny – so after padding up and some tinkering, I rolled in and managed to make it all the way to the other side of the park in one go before I ran out of speed. I rolled in again to the same effect – in the time it took to get out of my bindings, Martyn had pulled off about a half a dozen 3’s...

 

A bit of classy vandalism and a sweet photoshoot later and we headed to Edinburgh Bings. I had no idea what Bings were...I tried googling them but found nothing...I thought they were maybe a Scottish way of saying “pleasant little hill”.

I was wrong. Edinburgh Bings are essentially big red slag heaps with 60% gradients that make you cling on for dear life as you try to avoid extra’s from Dr Who and UPVC windows. They were insane!

Martyn showed us some good runs and we watched him and Roger nail some sweet rock drops before me and Wil tried riding what was essentially a bobsleigh run. I faceplanted at the bottom next to quite a nice peach coloured corner bath.

After our urban exploits we said goodbye to Daz (going home) and Martyn (nipping to Glasgow to “get some”) and drove up north into the Scottish lowlands and camped at an awesome campsite.

Saturday we met up with Dave and Al, who showed us a track that they had spotted going up a mountain named after spanish sausage or something. It was a nice walk up, but at halfway it was obvious it was going to be a b*tch to ride; rough and rocky in places and you would constantly be avoiding hanging your axles. Group consensus was that we would try and ride our way back down in stages to the smoother lower sections. I didn’t like the rocky parts – but the bottom section was a gorgeous track running through a beautiful valley.

Fom there, Al drove us to another track he had checked out – kind of like the Welsh competition track “Dave”; it was a great twisty turny firetrack that was a peach to ride.

Back to the campsite for fire and food overlooking a stunning Scottish valley.

Sunday was an early start (for mountainboarders...) and we drove up to Dunkeld to meet with Martyn, Dave and Al to ride at the Hermitage. This was more my style of riding – big firetracks though a pine forest. Al was good enough to be the uplift and drove us around the forest so we got loads of riding in; we rode one of the Scottish Downhill competition tracks (I’m going to need a ton of practice to get a half-decent time on that one – it was really slidy in the wet with loads of corners that you had to take “just right” or you would lose your speed) and a few contenders for the second competition track (a fantastic 1mile+ track which had unfortunately been ruined by recent logging and another which was the fastest firetrack I’ve ridden with two challenging 90 degree corners).

By early afternoon it was time for Al, Martyn and me to head off home and leave the Remolitious explorers to venture further north into wolf country...

If you’ve ever ridden for two days back-to-back you will know how knackering it is. After three days I was shattered. These guys have ridden every day straight for nearly two weeks solid! If you haven’t already – please support their charity efforts.

Remolition Roadtrip - Friday Morning

Early start, empty M6 and mountainboarders without a sat nav means that I've got time to kill...

Soon heading off to Livingston skatepark where my NoSno on 9's, brake and snowboard boots will obviously do me well! Luckily freeriding to follow.