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Dirt Orange World Team: 2014 BDS Llangollen Team Diary

The boys had a good time over the weekend and seemed to be loving the track in Llangollen. Tom Caldwell pointed his camera at the guys all weekend and his video shows they both had a good time. Bazza ended up slicing his leg wide open but then couldn’t get any stitches at the hospital. As he’s hard as nails he cracked on and did his seeding run which was going well until he punctured (tyre not leg this time!). Baz landed 12th overall, after sending it over a few corners thats a decent result.

It wasn’t that muddy but any rain in Llangollen makes things pretty wild

Here’s the word from Bazza ‘hard as a coffin nail’ Heath.

Crazy weekend at Llangollen with the most full on race track in the country. Bit of a marmite track, you either loved it or hated it as you either got it right or crashed hard. Sunday first run I slipped a pedal and gave myself a good shin gash and a trip to A/E to get it sorted out. After hours there and missing practice I got back in time for my seeding run by the skin of my teeth having to blag a special delivery uplift service from one of the drivers. Was on a stormer of a run being 3rd to the split time but then suffered a puncture lower down. Knowing I was on pace for race run I just pinned it again but sent myself off track at the top and then span out in one of the lower turns and finished 12th. Annoying as far as race run went but by far the most fun national all year!

Give Bazza a follow on these Instatwitterbook links…

Twitter – @harryheathtalk  Instagram – @harryheathsnap

Steep you say? Llangollen is definitely one of the gnarlier tracks in the British Downhill Series

Jacob Dickson had a great weekend and after a few spills in practice took it steady in the top woods section before opening the taps further down he came over the line in 3rd.

Here’s the word from Jacob on his weekend:

“I’ve been looking forward to the BDS race at Llangollen for a while, I love racing there and I didn’t get to compete at it last year with being injured so it was nice to see the place again.

My dad and I got the boat from Dublin to Holyhead at about 3 o’clock Friday afternoon, it was a 3 hour crossing with a three hour drive the other side so we got to the race site at 9ish and it was still light, I love these summer evenings. When we got there we parked up beside Joe Ward and I headed over to the team bus as I hadn’t seen Ben and Harry since the World Cups. It was good to catch up and see my wee Orange 322 all prepped ready for practice in the morning.

Big Dicko then ran us up to the top in Harry’s pickup so that myself, Harry and Joe could walk the track. When we got there it looked flat at the very top, we walk 30 feet and then looked and it was by far the steepest hill I had ever been at were there was going to be a race on. MAD! Was the word that came to my mind. We got down the top section then out into the open which was part of a track I had raced on a few years back so I knew were I was going from there down to the finish. Getting ready for practice I decided not to wear my neck brace, I didn’t think I could get my head lifted high enough to see where I was going, this was a wise move because I could see much better and it would have been very difficult on this track with the brace restricting my movement. I got a run in and the track was hairy enough but I got though it with clips on, came down and got my dad to stick flats on just in case I needed to jump off the bike. Practice went well I got 6 runs in and not too many off’s! Think it was the same for everybody each run.
Race day Sunday it had rained a bit in the morning so the track was very slippy for the first run, I had put my clips back on as my feet were bouncing around on the flats, I got down with a small love tap into one of the pads on the trees, second run got red flagged so it wasn’t a full run but I was happy enough and felt ready for my seeding run.

Seeding was delayed a bit because the timing cable got damage so it was about 30 mins behind, I headed up for my run and I was feeling more nervous than usual just to stay on and to make it a good run. Got into the start hut and off I went, I got to the first drop my front wheel washed out and down I went, not hard so I didn’t panic I got the bike up got sorted and away again, I have to say after that everything was sweet and I got all my lines and hit it fast and came down in 10th which I was happy with knowing how much time I had lost with my crash on the top section.
Race run came around quick as a lot of people had pulled out because of how hard the course was. This time I had it my head to just make sure I stayed on and to slow down. I have to say I rode down it like a granny and got my skirt caught in the chain a few times but at least I got the top section clean. This time I then pushed hard the rest of the course and came down in 2nd behind Reece and then got pushed back into 3rd, would have liked the win as do we all but still good for points in the overall. A good weekend for the team and great racing in the Juniors category with all the lads, I have a lot of respect for them, all very fast. Now I have to get ready for our Irish Champs in 2 weeks, looking forward to that now as well!! See you all soon.

Follow Jacob on the Facewittergram here:

Twitter – @jacobdickson19   Instagram – @jacob_dickson63

If you want to catch up with what the team have been up to during the rest of the season so far then check out the links below:

Ae Forest to Fort William to Leogang Blog

Fort William Team video

Ben Reid ripping on the Orange Alpine 160 video

Bazza Heath diary No.2

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