Weeksy08 the ongoing racing trials and tribulations of a crazy teen

So this weekend brought Pearce Cycles round 2, Bringewood in Shropshire. It’s a place we’ve been before and tested but not raced it. They have a number of tracks there and this was a variation on one he’s ridden but not much.

Sat we arrived nice and handy after the usual 3 hour drive and kitted up, sent him out and it was dry with some greasy, but not raining. There were some showers on and off but nothing much on the Sat. I stood and watched Les Gets world cup DH while he rode and rode… Things were going OK but he was struggling to match his mate George, however George is a bloody good rider (as you’ll see) and it’s no shame, it’s not like he was being gapped, just nicked a bit.
Sunday was clear, dry and nice in the morning but plenty of threats of rain. This arrived just as 50% of the Youth had started, George his mate had set the fastest time and as the rain got more and more his time wasn’t being threatened by anyone, not even close actually.

The boy came down with a scrappy wet run and P19 on it, the rain and mud just getting harder as the riders came one after another.

Eventually around lunch it got drier, then drier and drier. the fast guys were now putting in fastest time of the day at 2.00 instead of the 2.20+ that most were hitting before that. The Juvenilies got a few dry riders but then, yup, the rain came again. And then more and more…. it looked like stopping but it was too late in truth, the track once again was proper wet.
We’d fitted an Argotal on the front but left the Kryptotal on the back which should have suited if it hadn’t rained again. But the rear let him down a little compared to the Argotal front.
He came down 2s quicker than run 1 and with a P10 on run2 (counts for Pearce points), but only improved 1 place as a few of the guys went quicker so ended 18th.

In reality we couldn’t have done a lot more on the weekend, he went up with the right rubber for each run when he left, but wasn’t right by the time he got there at the track bottom. Just one of those things really.
George ended up getting the WIN !!! His first victory of note and it was ace to see. We’d spent the night before pitting with them at beers and banter flowing and the boys off in the wood/river etc doing kid things, so we were really happy for him.

Next week we move onto Dyfi on Sat and then the MIJ race at the Forest of Dean. Pick ourselves up and go again 🙂
IMG-20240707-WA0010 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

randr-photo-13709187-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

randr-photo-13709186-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

randr-photo-13744734-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

I know it’s mid race run but we used to call those kind of t-bog attempts dick grabs. For a t-bog he needs to turn the bars 180 and lean right off the back of the bike but I expect he knows this.

Honestly no idea mate.. I don’t get involved, that was more my terminology than his 🙂

Can’t turn the bars 180 with dual crowns 😀  but they could turn more than they are, not that much though due to rubber bumpers 🙂

It was just him having fun in practice and i thought the pics looked cool, apparently he wasn’t impressed with them. :good:

Can’t turn the bars 180 with dual crowns 😀 

Actually makes t-bogs easier as you can just lay back and turn the bars until the forks hit the bump stops. I know I’m being a bit of an idiot here but just remembering back to when I was learning them and I would get the piss royally ripped out of me for that so just passing the karma along 🙂

Same with suicide’s – a proper sui requires commitment to leaning back and letting the front drop a little, it’s not just throwing your arms backwards there’s more to it than that. (for the dictionary entry see 1:34 into one of the greatest BMX videos of all time – https://youtu.be/YG9eLq-VM78?si=vAu8I7s1zjde22IN)

Doesn’t it depend on when the shutter opens though – that could be only a partial T-Bog . . . .

then it’s just bad timing, not bad style.  🙂

So it was another weekend of riding and racing and we spent the day at Dyfi on Sat, the boy had an awesome time lapping the recently refurbished Insta360 line a fair bit and really enjoying it. No incidents, no issues etc so we set off down to FoD to get set-up and camp overnight for the MIJ race on the Sunday.
The course was on part of Seths Corners, a track he knows fairly well. Practice went smoothly enough.
IMG_20240714_080736 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

It was a short track, but we both like racing these as there’s always fun to be had, loads of people we know for paddock and trackside banter, but also usually a fair bit of talent racing. Due to a lack of talent, plus feeling a bit delicate from Dyfi crashes i wasn’t up for racing myself. So i wandered down to watch instead.
Plenty of incredibly fast lads came past, just incredible through the corners, massively impressed with them. The boy came down and looked his usual smooth self.
Sadly when we met up at the bottom he’d put it in 4th place, only 0.4s off the leader and 2s ahead of 5th. The leader was our mate George who won at Pearce last week, with a fast rival in 3rd who we know from Nationals and a kid we didn’t know who it transpires races NZ Nationals and Crankworx races coming in 2nd.
Their times were all super fast though and very little in it obviously.

Chatting to the lad he’d made a massive mistake on run 1 so felt he had more in him.

Fed,watered and bantered he went for run2 and even though going slightly quicker, still ended the day in 4th place. I don’t think 3rd or 2nd moved up, but George found a bit to stay in 1st place.

It wasn’t quite the day we wanted, at these race you always want to be hitting the podium (how nice it is to be able to think that though, 2 years ago we were in the back half) but it just wasn’t quite there for him, a couple of mistakes, dragging the brake a fraction when he shouldn’t be, just off the podium it seems.
But we had fun, bonded with our mates and he went rapid ! So all in all, a decent weekend out 🙂

Just a couple of tenths off 2nd.
MIJJuly by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

The boy and Mrs Weeksy are out, so I’ve had an evening with my wallet out and so e tyre changing kit.

No, not the Scott Gambler, but tyres.

National Champs weekend looks horrendous in terms of rain and wet.

So set 1 will be running Hydrotal front , Argotal rear

Set 2 will be Argotal front , Kryptotal rear.

Obviously if he wants it we can go Argotal Argotal but on non matching wheels lol.

It does mean a bit of waiting for Postie as both the Argotal are worn, so a new one is ordered and on way, the Hydrotal we’ve not tried yet so that’s ordered too. I also threw a spare Kryptotal on the order, but I’ve got 2 already. 

It doesn’t worry me too much as when he’s had the prime life out of them, they get fitted to my Status/Orbea (or the Gambler lol)

Hydrotal looks properly spiked – bit like a Maxxis Wet Scream etc. Guess you’d need biblical mud for that.

Gambler? New bike or an in joke I’ve missed?

0.4s top 4 is so close, but then it’s 50 second races. 2 seconds in a 4 minute race. Yeah, still close.

These short races that you favour, how much are they? Seems a lot of work for little riding/experience (says me with 0 downhill race experience)

I was thinking of the Gambler for myself. But arguably i should spend the money in other places really so i probably won’t. It’s a nice bike and a decent spec, but in reality i’m struggling to justify it when i already have the toys i have and the lack of abilty i have that goes with them.

https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain-bikes/scott-gambler-910-mountain-bike-2024-in-green__43771?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=290158010&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnK60BhA9EiwAmpHZw2jPb_spkbpZIPlRw5j44W6VnnjSEp_RDyMVHTZL9cno3VrnPeVQZBoC2VEQAvD_BwE

We do the little races when there’s nothing bigger on. We’d been to Dyfi the day before so we’d got plenty of time on tricky stuff in and the boy enjoys racing in whatever format, whether it’s Nationals or FoD it’s £40 and we like to support Katy the coach and it looks good to have her team racers doing the local races. It’s £40 for entry, so not exactly that expensive. It was a nice way to break up the drive back from Dyfi and i got to have a few beers and chats with mates.

Some would say it’s a waste of time, but we both enjoy it, it’s going fast between the tape so i’m not convinced it’s a waste of time at all. I may be right, but equally i may be wrong, who knows 🙂   He got 7 runs in of practice and 2 race runs, so even though it’s not the longest course, it’s still a decent chunk of runs down it.

The lads around him are National and International racers, the 2 Brit lads are both doing National Champs this weekend and Champery for the European Champs in a few weeks, so it’s not like we’re going there just to race yokels who can’t ride, there’s always fast lads. Even FoD Thursday this week which is a ‘fun’ race had Billy Pugh and Will Haines both racing who are current DH World Cup racers, Tom Elsmore was in another few until he screwed his knee at Antur Stiniog.

Hydrotal looks properly spiked – bit like a Maxxis Wet Scream etc. Guess you’d need biblical mud for that.

Lets just say the Forecast looks like we may need it. We may not, but i’d rather have it here just in case we do. The top section at Rhyd-Y-Felin may not exactly suit the Hydrotal as much as the Argotal, but the bottom half will suit it a lot more… So it may be a case of a few tester runs in practice to see which works best. He’ll be having a look at the track on Friday evening and we’ll discuss with him, the team mate and Katy to make some decision on what he runs.It’s not always (often) down to me to make decisions on stuff like this, but i like to have the option there for him just in case.

He’s not the greatest at ‘swapping’ in testing but things like the Galfer pads have shown that testing can be a good idea.

This is roughly the track for the weekend. It’s often a variation on a few bits, but won’t be a million miles off it potentially.

Obviously the boy won’t be picking up the National Champ jersey of that we’re sure… but would be nice to see a good performance and result

So as you’ve established this weekend was the National DH Championships. Anyone who’s anyone and everyone else was there, so it was a great weekend. Lots of paddock mates, lots of banter 🙂

We got there Fri afternoon after a morning of insanity with the Crowdstrike IT issue all resolved. Set up and started with testing our new Amazon cooker thing… to say it was GREAT is an understatement. £18 and an absolute bargain !!!
IMG_20240719_200242 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Pepper and mince done with an Old El Passo mix to knock up fajitas 🙂 Mmmmmm cheese, lettuce, gooooooood

Saturday practice went smoothly for the boy (although Katie the team-mate was declared unfit to race after a crash and bashing her head) so we were absolutely GUTTED for her. Harsh one indeed, but of course, the right call.

Onto seeding and the track was nice, then yup you guessed it, it rained….. then his Cat started and it WALLOPED shortly after. A few riders got away with it but many never. He came down in about 9mins after being held for a red flag. 8 others with him and all were given the offer of a re-run for seeding times. Only him and 1 other took it up, i asked what he was doing and he said “well, it may be wet tomorrow so better to try it”… I couldn’t argue with that.
It continued to rain and he ended up coming down with a 21st in Seeding (out of 60 i think), which is a great run for him.

We settled in for the evening with beers and sausage pasta (beers only for me) and stripped down a spare DH bike for his team-mates brother.
IMG_20240720_085612 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

It was getting the full treatment, partly to get it ready for Morzine and partly to teach Katies mum all about changing frame bearings which she really enjoyed.
One of the lads dropped over with “can you have a look at our gears”, which ended up being a new gear inner fitted to his bike along with a lesson for the dad into how. But then he threw in “the cassette keeps coming loose too on this Pro5” which was due to the lack of spacer, so cassette off, spacer fitted and then re-indexed his gears, chatting over beers and spannering, awesome.

Race day after a lovely sleep (NOT !) in the van and the track was still soggy from the rain but it was the long grass in the mechs, etc that was the bigger issue. As the day dried the grass cleared a bit but the track was turning the tyres into a slick, just caked in mud, not a lot we could do, everyones was the same.
The boy had Katy Curd there all weekend with track walks, line spotting and video duties and honestly it was awesome, she really finds a way to inspire him and brings out the best in him.

Race time came and it was dry, looking hopefully like staying that way too. Mrs Weeksy was there and nervous doesn’t do justice to how she was feeling, she was shaking 😀
I in truth was nervous too, the National Champs is a big big day out and even though we were not going to win it, it’s the biggest race of the season. (well, maybe not now).

6 of the 8 who didn’t re-run came down first as is the rules and one of the lads we know Seb set a blistering time, 8s quicker than the fastest seeding run from yesterday, he spent a lot of time on the hot-seat today.

We’re then sitting waiting for the boy and the commentator says “James Weeks sets a blistering 1st sector time and is in 2nd place currently on the split”… Mrs Weeksy nearly had heart failure about then. As he came over the line he slotted into 2nd place, but of course with 20 fast racers left to come down, but he’d put in a bloody great time and was ecstatic with how it went.

Riders came down and as expected a fair few beat him (slowest to fastest come down in order) but he hung on for a fab 13th place. By a decent chunk his best National finish and considering he was 2nd last after a crash last year, by far his best National Champs finish. But also right in the melting pot with the ‘fast lads’, clearly not in the same league as Felix or Nath, but you know what, we were all jumping with joy with the result.

A hell of a long weekend had, a hell of a result and i think i may collapse pretty soon.

NationalChamps by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20240720_081018 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

13th, eh? Luck neither bad or good had anything to do with it. Well done that lad!

Great result for him and the team

IMG-20240721-WA0000 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Must admit, i love this pic 🙂 Just dropping in for seeding

Great result, bet he’s stoked with that.

That’s a great result. You guys must be pretty stoked. Congratulations!

Thanks guys. I mostly don’t comment on this sort of side of things any more, but yes he’s happy, we’re happy, Katy is happy, it’s all good.

He’s flying at the moment and it’s hard to put into words how far he’s come in 12 months, it’s just massive.

But we know for sure as you get closer, the margins are harder and harder to close and riders like Felix and Nathan are just incredible riders. But we’ll keep plugging away and doing what we do.

We’ve a few weeks off racing now as this weekend is a rest and he’s then heading to Champery with teammate early to get a day of practice before they close track on the Mon morning. It’ll be very weird having him out there before we head down.

It’s then into The Euro Champs and seeing what he can or can’t do there, but obviously our target is more to get down than anything else, it’s a crazy track I believe and just racing at that level when we set out less than 2.5 years ago, well it wasn’t even a dream back then.

We still are trying to keep it as fun as possible and just enjoying the ride. So we’ll take that ethos with us and just go nuts.

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2 years or so of racing, we either need to retire or get more wardrobe space

I used to rationalise my number display onto two pin boards. One was the past year, one had all the special/important ones.

Yeah he had all his Nationals in another location, but he’s moved them for some weird reason. I’m just leaving him to it, his room his rules 🙂

It’s all a bit quiet now, we were both at FoD on the uplift this weekend having fun, but this week is mostly bike prep. I’m just sorting and truing the wheels, along with a pair of bearings in one of the rears, it wasn’t bad but i want the bike as close to perfect as possible as it’ll be a long 2 weeks coming up. I’m heading out on Thurs to the woods to get my suspension setup by RSR Bikeworks with data aquisition, no reason really other than i like to learn, to ‘know’ and to get more clued up on bikes. I  don’t think for a second mine is bad, but as always i’m sure it could be better. So a few hours work with the tech nerd should see me happy.

Tech docs, programme/ schedule etc all here.

Also live timing link
https://my.raceresult.com/299976/

https://www.uec.ch/en/event/220/2024-uec-mtb-downhill-european-championships

We have big pin boards in the garage and still ran out of space.

When she came home a few weeks ago she was working in the garage with her dad setting up his bike for our Alps trip and they were reminiscing about the races from the number boards. Every one has a memory.

So the boy is over in Champery with team mate.

‘I actually love it to be honest. We have only done one run. Steepest hardest thing I have ever ridden but it is sick. I just keep smiling and laughing and i can’t not like the track. ‘

Pretty pleased with that for a first report.

He’ll be lapping the track all-day today and then it’s closed until practice.

“almost had the biggest crash of my life but managed to save it”

Happily he’s got it on GoPro ??

They’ve called it a day at Champery and heading back to Morzine now for some Pleny laps.

Day 1 done

They boy tells me this was a nearly career changing crash

the Champery DH track is sick. Although its full on, so riding it at race pace must be a fine line between pure adrenaline and crapping your pants!

Good on him!

I was planning/hoping to try some of it but after watching his video and chatting to him, i’m not convinced i’ll even bother now. The Champery red looks and seems OK, so on the afternoon when he’s finished practice/seeding i’ll hopefully get a run on the Status on there, but the DH the week after, nah i don’t think so.

Morzine riding is taking a bit of a toll on the bikes already.

We’ve been having multiple discussions via Whatsapp video calls.

The boy had 0 pads in the rear, despite me sending him with pretty decent condition Galfer Green pads, they’re now totally dead. Of course when they fitted new pads they couldn’t get the wheel in as the pads were too close. So we discussed that and sorted. He’s now got new pads in which will hopefully last him till i get there and i can sort fully

Katies bike had a flappy chain which seems to have been the B screw loosening.

The lad had a crash yesterday and has a few bike scuffs on the fork leg, but nothing major by the sounds of it, but i think we’ll be needing a new invisiframe kit for the Boxxer lowers when he’s back from Morzine/Alps. He’s OK though, no injuries or anything.

Other than that, they’re golden and ready to play.

Those green Galfers just aren’t durable enough for my budget! The black ones however can’t be faulted for price and quality.

Mademoiselle is doing the track walk on Thursday with her buddies and then we’re going nuclear weapons testing in Morgins 😀 , so if you’re in the paddock I’ll drop by.

Yeah mate, we’ll be in paddock for about 3pm onwards i guess. We’ll be setting up pits and i’ll be giving his bike a once over and fitting new pads, tyres, etc along with checking everything else possible.

We’ll have a beer in the cold box with your name on it

He’s got some black Galfers as spares but we’ll likely be running the greens for the next couple of days… unless he’s doing a set per day and runs out lol.