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!).
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| 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.
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| 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!
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