Diary #2

Sadly there wasn’t quite enough money in the piggy bank for me to head out to Cairns for the second round of the World Cup, so instead I headed straight back home from Pietermaritzburg and into Easter week, which has got to be my favourite week of the year. It’s normally been dry for long enough that the tracks are sweet, it’s sunny, and generally I just have a damn good time with my mates riding bikes. I’ve remembered it like this since I was a kid leaving school for Easter holidays, it was just two sunny weeks at the dirt jumps…and loads of chocolate. No wonder I remember it as a good time.

I got my new Orange Five built and headed over to Llandegla XC loop on it with a couple of mates; James (Hughes) and Adam (Taylor). For me growing up racing they were two of the people that always seemed to be around. Saying that, Taylor was normally in a cast and Hughes should’ve been in a cast more often! Wild pair, so it’s good to get out riding with them and we found some mad lines and jumps which turned into ‘one upping’ each other. Definitely a mates ride.

On my way back I didn’t just want to get home and not be riding so I stopped off at Delamere forest which was the main place as kid for Easter dirt jumps. The dirt jumps are no longer there but there are loads of short tracks which are amazing for the little bikes so I spent hours there just sessioning some turns. It’s easy to forget time on days like that, which is refreshing.

DH was the next day and then a flat out day of filming with Gee Milner for the Orange Five edit that was out a few weeks ago. If you missed that they you can find that here. Overall it was just a mint Easter.

Since then I’ve been getting some good days on the DH bike in North Wales doing the van uplifts. That is fun in itself getting a group of you and just being hoodlums in the forest for the day. We got some secret tracks which have got some wild technical sections which has got me on the ball riding my DH bike. World Cup tracks can be pretty technical but generally just fast so when there’s a chance to scare yourself on a track and you’re happy just to get through a section it’s pretty cool.

Same again tomorrow, and with some new stuff over the next few weeks I’ll be ready for the Fort…

HH