Finally back in the office. What a weekend. Big thanks to Mike and all the crew for running one of the best organised events I’ve ever been to.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and within 30 seconds of getting on the farm, we were well and truly stuck in a field. Naturally, this resulted in someone else doing the driving whilst spraying me with a thick layer of sticky mud from the front wheels. Finally, unstuck, we managed to park the caravan in prime position, right outside the finish area.

Friday was brilliant. We were the first riders down the track, and were taken up on the uplift with just the four of us sat on the trailer. As the driver put it, “I get paid from 9, so lets get on with it”. In the first two runs everyone fell off on the super slick grassy corners at the top. Friday resulted in a whole load of runs with only around a 15 minute turn around and no uplift queues whatsoever. After spending most of the day trying to sort my suspension set up, I was finally sorted and ready for the weekend’s racing. The evening involved one of the guys drinking far too much, and at about half eleven he obviously thought that despite all my warnings, he’d puke in the caravan anyway. One wrecked sleeping bag and a load of clothes covered in vomit later, we had him cleaning the carpet with dettol! The caravan still stank though, and the windows stayed open over night, the new sleeping bag I only bought the weekend before coming in very useful, keeping me warm and sleeping like a log.

Saturday morning came and the sun was shining. Glenn was even feeling OK after his episode from the night before. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, and after a couple of runs in the morning, the dry tyres came out of the caravan and onto the bikes. Shame it decided to have a brisk drizzle almost straight afterwards. The rain didn’t last long though, and the sun was soon back out gracing North Wales with some bright rays. The afternoon meant the jump competition was here. I was going to enter, but ended up rebuilding a set of 888WC forks, on a workstand in a field. Thank god for non slip mats and parts trays! We relaxed into the evening and got the barbecue going, and cracked out a couple of beers with the other guys from around the camp. There was a rather large bonfire going so we socialized for a bit, keeping up on the news from the world cup on my phone and relaying the information to everyone else around. With racing the next day, we all headed for the caravan early so we could be in the best condition possible for the race runs ahead of us.

Raceday arrived with even more hot sun. Dry tyres were definitely the order of the day, with some even saying the track had never been ridden in a state that dry. I spent my practice runs in the morning fettling my suspension setup that still wasn’t right, while Sam was looking well and truly rapid. Racing was lightening quick and provided some spectacular spectating. I think everyone who was involved in the weekend, whether a spectator, rider, or organiser will agree just how successful it was. Cheers Mike.

Here’s some random clips from the weekend badly edited and tied together…

http://mpora.com/videos/dFHKa3A9l
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And here’s a Helmet Camera video of the track…

http://mpora.com/videos/HHG0iI0o3
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