FOD Mini DH

Only things really for this wekeend is to watch some others on the top rooty section, the fast kids will be hitting the Triple up there. There'll be plenty of them riding it tomorrow, if he wants to jump on my lads wheel he's more than welcome to.
We'll be doing uplifts for him from 10-12 tomorrow, then i'll be riding and he'll session for a few hours. Sunday practice is short !!! I can't see people getting 2 runs... maybe 2 if you're lucky.

Other than that, i'm taking his Privateer up on race runs so he can pedal on the fire road to keep warm, along with hand warmers for his pockets. Just to try and keep the cold away really.

The 100% races are pretty relaxed, there's nothing 'different' about them. Run 1 will be numbered, run 2 will be slowest first, fastest last off..

You can get race numbers on Sat afternoon in cafe... There's 75 in Youth (15-16) so will be chaos... the car park will be completely insane.

Thanks weeksy, that’s really helpful, especially the keeping warm bit. he sessioned the rooty bit last weekend, don’t think he’ll be doing the triple! I’m guessing it will have dried out a lot this week, was a mud fest last week.

Will be there most of the weekend, will look out for you, think I might recognise your lad or his bike, from the trials and tribulations thread.

We are supposed to be there on Saturday, Is there anywhere else to park?

200m down the road away from Parkend direction is 'speculation' car park, which is also free.

@dafoj from 10-12 just up from the uplift will be my transit which will be doing runs up, then waiting for him there, if you time it right you can throw your lad in.

Alternatively he can pay £4 PAYG for uplifts.

Thanks weeksy, will look out for you and say hello, thanks for the uplift offer, will see what he wants to do.

On overflew parking, if all the lay-bys are full, we park down by Cannop ponds, there’s a few spaces by the entrance, then ride up the family trail to the bridge over the road

Or in Beechenhurst lodge, which is quite close, this and the cannop ponds road are pay and display, same as the cycle centre

Thanks guys. worked out ok. Plenty of parkig in the overflow. Tried to see where you were to say hello @Weeksy but no luck.

Got there about 10:30. So cold 🙁 but once out it wasn't so bad. Spent the day getting in the way of the youngsers on the trails from the top of the push up road.  And getting jealous of the eBikers making easy work of it. Had to smile about the guy towing his kids up the road. 🙂

I can see now where an eBike makes sense especially if your local trails are climbs like that. Where I ride it's mostly flat flowing single track in the summer and a mudfest in the winter. No real need for one, but if I lived somewhere like that it would be top of the list.

All in a good days riding even if it was a bit busier than I'm used to.

I can see now where an eBike makes sense especially if your local trails are climbs like that. Where I ride it’s mostly flat flowing single track in the summer and a mudfest in the winter. No real need for one, but if I lived somewhere like that it would be top of the list.

that’s why an awful lot of the locals mostly ride them in the winter round here 😆

It’s easy to average 1-1200m of climbing over 20km without really having to think about it, which starts to add up.

And the stuff around the cycle centre is way more gentle in terms of climbing.

Yup, it's why I bought the Orbea yesterday.

@dafoj how did he go?

Not as hoped, he slid off to the right in the middle section/traverse just before the push up and into a tree! Just a bruised hip, but he didn’t go for the second run. Bit of a shame as he had a good session on Saturday, I uplifted him for a couple of hours, and he was looking good in practice in the morning.

Great weekend though, just about thawing out now,  how did your lad go? We didn’t hang around for results

Just seen your post on the weeksy thread, great result! He’s  flying on that instagram, especially on that corner after the fireroad, I was spectating there for a bit, saw so many get it wrong and hit the tree.

Mad conditions, even sketchy walking down the push up! 

Ah man, gutted for him... it's a bloody tough sport 🙁

Hopefully he'll get the fire back for Jan or feb 🙂

He’ll bounce back, was a good experience anyway, he knows he can do it now. And that he needs  to ask Santa for warmer gloves!

I think we did 7 pairs of gloves over the weekend. On Sat morning he was running double gloved, then we went to 100% Briskers on practice on Sunday, then he went with race gloves.

We also used USB chargable handwarmers, 2 of them while waiting at the top of the hill with him, along with an extra jumper and coat, as they called his number i took the jumpers/jacket. It did make things a bit crappy for me as i had to then walk down not knowing how he'd done in either run, but it did mean he started each run both dry and warm which was more important.

It's all above the Brailsford sometimes lol. Little tiny things can make all the difference. I saw loads of kids at the top with teeth chattering, freezing. The lad was doing squat jumps, star jumps, stretches etc.... then back to hand-warmers, then a bit more...

Deaks filmed his time there.

Weeksy - we raided the shop for a pair of the Brisker extreme on Saturday morning, which were better than his Briskers, they must have done a great trade this weekend, a shock buying full price after all the discounting. I think I need to up my race support game!

That Deaks vid is a good representation, it was carnage there, some hitting the inside corner tree too

I think I need to up my race support game!

DOn't be too hard on yourself man. There were very few parents in their age Cat doing anything like that... But funnily enough i did end up taking 3 jackets back down so 2 of his mates could ride in their jerseys. But we've been doing winter racing for a while and had a few of these frosty ones where they all end up freezing at the top, so we've kinda got used to it and the process.

All a learning experience, must be massively full on for you doing it regularly.  I guess you need to have all your systems and processes sorted, and the washing machine running constantly!

Between myself and Mrs Weeksy we've kinda got it down to a fine art now, but it doesn't help that every weekend if he's riding/racing then i am too. The bikes always need 2 cleans in winter, one as we get home (or at site) and another the next morning, then a dry, a blow-dry and a lube etc...

This weekend was 4 jumpers, 2 jackets, 2 jerseys, 2 pair of shoes and 2 helmets that are all now drying. I guess it doens't make it better that even of weekends of not racing, we're still riding, there's never a weekend where we're not doing anything. It doesn't exist. But this is where we are in the world and we all enjoy it (mostly) so we just run with it. It's easy to get hooked, both as a parent and as a child.

I can see how you could get full on into it and hooked, especially as your lad’s got the talent for it.
There was a great vibe over the weekend, everyone super friendly and in the trenches together. FOD is brilliant, seem to spend all my spare time there these days, such a great place. Roll on summer though

A pair of nitrile (thin) gloves worn under normal gloves can make a massive difference to how warm your hands stay.