mfxairart.com bike painting.

The damp conditions early on in the week changed the track conciderable over the course of Friday and Saturday. It was far rougher than last years with a tricky wood section pu in the middle of the track. A great section so see at a World Cup.

I managed to Crash out in my Qualifying Run, I struggled to get up after Winding myself extremely badly and hitting my thigh off a Stump before going into a tree, Well i think that was it. I got back on my back and with the adrenaline flowing i cruzed down to the bottom. 118th i went into, not qualifying for the finals. An extremely annoying result. From wanting to crash at te start of the year im not wanting not to crash, anyone that can help please get in touch!

Champery World cup Round 2!

I thought i'd riden some steep tracks in my time, The top of Dunkeld, some of Strathyre and some of my local tracks. Champery took steep to a new level, it was scary to look at. Vertigo would set in if you marginally took your wheels of the ground. Minnar dislocated his shoulder walking it!
This was my first World Cup as part of the Scottish Junior Squad, myself and Gump (MFX painted!) traveled out with our Coach Chris Ball, Machanic Rich Beard and another SC coach Gary Willis. We stayed in the pimpest of Pads, the 1st ones in a brand new half million francs (£200,000) appartment. It was lush. An added bonus was the natural hot springs right out door. It was well relaxing after a day of unpleasant smells lingering around your saddle!
Practice was great here, 3 days to hone your skills and try and make a full run down, and thats trying not to crash aswell! No one made it down the hill without a crash over the weekend, and a crashing hurt. There were a few lines to start with in places but as the weekend progressed a more one line track began to appear. Any lines which i did have were quickly scrapped before Sunday after heavy rain making high lines trickier and very risky. I had a safe qualifying and stayed on the bike coming in into 51st. I knew i could improve alot on this and did in the final. One second quicker, 2 more crashes. I finished 44th and got my top 45 i was after. I wasn't overjoyed with my run as i just pushed it a little more than i should in some sections and payed the price.
There's no rest now im back home, away to the SDA at Fort Bill this weekend then on Monday i'm flying out to Canada for the 3rd round of the World Cup were i hope to better my result from Switzerland.

Saturday practice went pretty well, a few crashed, a bust pair of forks and also i bent my hanger and derailer. I was loving the track though. A few good changes at the top and almost a different track at the bottom made the weekend even better. It keeps the local lads under control! The 1st right hander was one of the hardest at dunkeld to appear in a few years. High or low? I had a number of sketchy one footed drops of the inside there in practice.

Well i guess Saturday couldn't have gone much smoother, i was woken up by a Mr Thomson at 7.30 with some nice Fox 40's to replace my blown ones. I got 2 fairly good practice runs in then straight into the race runs. I had a solid steady 1st run and put in the fastest Junior time. My plan was to go for a flat out 2nd run and improve my time by 4-5 seconds but i seemed to go for another smooth steady run, hell knows what i was doing. I did go a second quicker and managed to increase my lead to almost 4 seconds. I'm chuffed to get the Win and it is a huge confidence boost coming into a busy June, two world cups, an SDA and hopefully a week in Whistler training.

The track at Vigo is going to have to be one of the best i've ridden before. A good mix of tech, fast corners, jumps and rocks litter the route down. It wasn't as pedally as i thought i was going to be but it had some places where you had to be up spriting to be on the pace.

Qualifying was on Saturday afternoon. I felt like i was riding really well and was confident about qualifying comfortable. Joe was looking great again this season and went on to show his ability in the qualifier placing 39th. I was pretty unfortunate i'd say in my qualifier. The first corner leads on to a big rock slab with a small compression at the top and a step down of it. I came into it realy confidently but as i hit the 1st compression i heard the most horiffic bang, had a shootgungone off?. I only wish it had, id bottomed my chain device out and caused the back bash ring to bend out to an almost horizontal possition. I didn't know what had happened but battled on. Somehow i managed to put a fairly good time in despite hardly being able to pedal and dieing by the end in my efforts to. I missed qualifying by 2 seconds. Even though i didn't make the finals i am confident about how my ridings progressing this year and can't wait to give it another shot at Champery.

Joes succesful qualifying was hit hard in the finals when the dark clouds rolled over about 30-40 riders in and just dumped it down, hails and heavy showers changed the dry, dusty trails to a bit of a mud fest in a lot of sections. This spell of rain caught out a huge number of riders including the Giraffe Cathro him self after his 31st position qualifier.

It was going to be an exciting weekend trip to Portugal for me, not only was it my first race of the year it was also the first time i was going to ride the new 224. I had a busy trip down to Peebles, making two stops to pick up some Hopes and also the new Team tops, Matching names all round!, where i was meeting Stevie Ruffel and his dad. We were all set for the early morning flight ( 6am )

We flew from NewCastle with a transfer in Charles De Gaulle. We had a feeling our bikes might not get rerouted and unfortunatly we were right. We hung about in Porto for the next flight but nothing turned up. What a blow but we battled on!

Friday morning arrived and with a lot of Phone calls the night before our bikes turned up at about 11am. Both damaged but atleast we could ride now. The track was fast, dusty and for some reason was littered with drops. Drops which broke bikes! They all seemed to have flat landings. I was really enjoying riding again and it was sweet to get back on an Orange. It was feeling a bit odd as it is totally differant to the old 222. I began to get more confident on it though into Saturday practice and really wanted to race and get the first one out of the way and concentrate on getting used to the bike for the season ahead.

I ended up finishing 12th which wasn't exactly good but i wasn't to down hearted as i felt like i was beginning to get on with the bike and i felt super fit and strong throughout the weekend. All that winter trainings paid off then!

The trip back was probably more eventful than the trip out. We firstly had to pack two bikes and three peoples baggage and bodies into a fiesta, we did manage somehow.We slept in the airport until 4am, then they charged us 315 euro for 1 bike! 20kg! Then during the landing in Paris we tried to land 3 times getting closer to the runway each time before thrusting back up into the ski to try again. Luckily no belly landing was needed and they got the Under Carriage down for the 4th attempt. We however missed the transfer. Stevie managed to get free food coupons from the airline which was quite good, wasted some of the 5 hours i guess. The trip ended on a high though, we got the bikes and arrived in a snowblizzard at Newcastle.

Everything arriving this week, i got a delivery of some very shiny new components from Fisher Outdoor at the beginning of the week. Goodies included some Sram X.0 kit and truvativ cranks and all the steering part - quite important for Downhilling. Heres some pics to get you drooling! Right now im about to head up to Balahulish and pick up my frame and forks and a few other bits and pieces from the Barnes. Joes back for NZ, he better be ripping!'

Thoughts about the team - The development of the team has been really exciting and it is continueing to grow with new sponsors coming onboard. Its great to be riding alongside Coatsey, Brian and Joe and being team mates with them will make a big differance over the season. With the forces of Brian at TheCyclejersey.com and Al from MFX air art joining its going to mean we're the pimpest looking riders on the hill!

Thoughts about the bikes - I've dreamt of the day when i get back on an Orange and its finally happened! After a number of seasons on a bike which wieghed that of a tanker and i never felt truely comfortable on, it is a huge confidence boost getting on a bike which weighs nothing and is British made. My bike should be running amazing all year with the support from Mojo and components being supplied by Fisher Outdoor where ill be running Sram and Truvativ kit. Going down to the Orange Factory and seeing how the bikes are made was a superb experience and my appreciation of bike frame has grown a huge amount. The time and effort which goes into making the 224 is exceptional. You cant imagine it until you see the production line. Amazing!

Hopes for the season - My hopes for the season are to gain a top 45 at a World Cup, this will allow me to race at the World Championships at Fort William and represent Great Britain. It will be an honour to race there but its myself that will get me there. I also hope to race at the European Championships where i need to get a top ten places to have a chance of racing at the Worlds. I also intend to win the Maxxis Cup series again this year aswell as win the British Series and National Champs. This is my last year in Juniors so im giving 100%. Its racing so anything can happen, fingers crossed it all goes the way i would like it.