Andy Carnell rips it up

As I stood in my backyard hosing down two mud covered bikes it seemed hard to believe that nature can be so cruel. With the sun on my back I soaked up the rays and watch the last of the clumps of dirt fall onto the slates, trickling into my drain. The day before, just ten minutes ride down the road, Newnham Park had seen one of the dirtiest massacres of a mountain bike track in recent years.

Saturday’s NPS XC action kicked off in high spirits. The sun was out and making a hard job of an already wet track. Tyre choice was an impossibility as the conditions changed by the hour. A wet track with fast cut lines became a tacky track which in turn became a track with nothing but thick, sticky gloop. Our boys got a reasonable start to the season, turning in top 20 rides, but the weather and mud only made the home advantage more frustrating. There is nothing worse than seeing your favourite trails sliced and diced in front of your very eyes.

But racing isn’t all about fun. Some people do it for a living and earning their keep the best was Oli Beckingsale. Flying away from the chasing riders, Oli kept a comfortable lead all the way to the finish. The race behind him was alive though; Adrian Lansley, Phil Spencer and William Bjergfelt jostling for position and in the end finishing very close. In the women’s race Jenny McCauley finished two minutes ahead of Jenny Copnall. The new Raleigh team were looking good with Beth McCluskey their highest finisher in third place.

Saturday evening was supposed to be the time and the place for Short Track. But thanks to the tough conditions in the day’s races, riders were looking a litle thin on the ground. A format change turned the short race event into a long race with a short track. Twelve riders started with a neutral first lap with one rider eliminated from the back each lap thereafter. I managed to avoid being the first off the back and hung in there for a few eliminations, while our DH Elite rider Ashley ‘mundane’ Mullane made a rare XC appearance and made it through to the final one lap showdown. His lack of Lycra held him back though and, despite an awesome spurt of speed, he got wasted by his XC Elite riding counterparts. Maybe next time, Penelope Pitstop.

We used the evening sun to get together with XC racer and Commonwealth games rider Niki Harris. She was looking hot so we got some pictures of her ready for our ‘Girls love Dirt’ issue due out in June.

Shreditor Steve Toze, lazy air in the Short Track

When I woke up on Sunday morning I was smug, despite the Southern Comfort headache I was experiencing (who called a drink that busts your brains that name?). It wasn’t raining and it wasn’t misty and horrible. With me being too minging to drive, Aimee took the wheel and pointed the Shred van towards Newnham. Almost without hesitation the weather started to turn and a slow drizzle became a full-on knitting needle shaped downpour. The Shred/Bikemagic.com crew were up for some team race action in the Trek 6-4-2 enduro, trying to follow on from our second place series result from last season. Things started out well until one of our riders went out and lost a good 15 minutes. OK, it was me. Still, I enjoyed myself and although it was wet and freezing the slippery 8.6mile track was a lot of fun – note the new resolution “no more alcohol the night before a race”.

So it came to quarter to four and nearly the end of the race. We were running third, with the second-placed Shokwave team in the changeover area waiting to see if we were going to send another rider out before the 4 o’clock deadline. The Shred boys were stood around looking into the hills for our man Andy Carnell but we knew that it was hopeless. We made the decision not to send another rider out and wondered if we should do the sporting thing and let the Shokwave boys know… All of a sudden Drew pipes up: “Come on Andy, you’re catching ’em!” We look around into the woods and then back at the Shokwave team – they hurriedly push their last rider, a small lad in clean kit, out into the disgusting conditions for a last lap to seal their second place and our third.

We laughed at our own evil streak as Andy rolled in some 12 minutes later.

Shred/BM Elite DHer Ashley Mullane leads Nick Craig in the Short Track. Briefly

Enduro big ups have to go to Nick Craig who smiled everytime he rode past the Shred/Bikemagic.com camp. The real heroes were the people that had to sit around bored out of their skulls waiting for husbands/wives/brothers etc to wrap up their rides in the wet and cold, that must have sucked.

So my final rundown goes like this. The Premier Series is a diamond. All it really lacks is rider participation. The prizes and good, the courses are good, the organization is good, the entry fee is cheap – in fact everything is good yet you guys all seem to hold back… Why? More riders means more money in the pot, thus better events and also more people make for more fun. Perhaps the female of the species have got it right, there were more women riders than I can ever remember and the standard of riding was really high. Next round is coming up on 14 May at Builth Wells – we’ll be making the epic drive and I think you guys should definitely have a go.

Until next week when we bring you the lowdown on round 2 of the NPS DH, keep it rocking… Full results and details of the rest of the Premier series can be found at www.inevent.co.uk.

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