Pearce Cycles Round 2 Bala

If ever there was a riders track it's got to be Bala. My experience in downhill is fairly limited still but the rocky and rooty track of Ryhd-Y-Felin near Llangynog in Wales has got to be one of the most fun and gnarly that I've ridden so far. It's not hard to see how the Atherton's are so pinned when that's there local playground!

The track is made up of a bit of everything which is what makes this venue so good. There's loads of super fast rocky fire roads mixed with some steep chutes, some woods and some open grassy corners at the end. The variety of the surfaces and the unpredictability of the weather made tyre choice a bit of a gamble, some opting for the all rounders and some going in for the cut down spikes. Or like me you were different and chose a mix which I think worked pretty well (at least that's what I have to say for being difficult!).

Un-official Banshee pits looking pretty factory

Practice was epic, doing run after run on one of the UK's best tracks with your riding buddies makes you just want to ride everyday though! Until, that is, you crash in the woods and snap one of your brake levers and have to drive for 30 miles to the nearest shop that stocks something similar to replace it with and then miss about 4 hours of practice, not so epic.

Railing a berm early in a race run, don't go off line!

But with that behind me it was race day and time to stop crashing and start putting in some good times. After my first race run I was 7th and knew that I needed to make up a shed load of time so went all out for my second run. I found another 3 seconds which overall landed me with 7th, a nice consistent result but time for some 'woods training' I think!

Pearce Cycles Round 1 Bringewood

This was my first experience of a Pearce Cycles DH race and also my first time racing at Bringewood... it was fast, dusty and so much fun! If you've ever raced a Pearce you'll know what I mean when I say that the journey to the top of the track would make for a good day out on its own. Jumping in the back of a 110 Landy with some dude hooning it to the top of the hill is so much fun, they definitely aren't afraid to get a little loose, it's like one of those experience days you'd get your dad for a present at Christmas  I'm surprised they didn't have timing equipment set up for the uplift!

The open section was fast and loose

The key to putting in a good time here was to get your flow on and keep your speed as much as possible, linking all the corners and sections together as smoothly as possible and getting your pump on through the last woods section to maintain momentum into the last jump and sprint. Just be careful that you don't do the little road-gap in the top woods and land to find that your back brake has decided to give up on you... that's not the one!

As the weekend progressed the track changed quite a bit with line after line emerging as you finished one run and got set for another. This made racing pretty interesting as even between first and second race runs the track changed quite a bit and after a quick track walk it was easy to see where time could be made up or lost. After getting immensely disappointed with my first race run I knew it was time to pull my finger out and find some time from somewhere. The plan, pedal like a steezy badman and get loose... if you're not verging on chundering at the end of a race run you're simply not trying hard enough!

Once the senior category was up I'd placed 2nd on the day which is an awesome result on such a tech course. I'd like to say a big thanks to the guys at Pearce Cycles for organising  the event and whoever was in charge of booking the weather deserves a raise.