Well that’s racing……. Daughters foray into Down Hill

So my 13yo Daughter decided to have a bash at DH last year with the 417 Crickley Flyers Go-Ride series, thoroughly enjoyed it and did quite well.

So this year she wanted to progress so she did first round of the MIJ series in  June.

This was her first race on something other than a blue so was taking it cautious but again didn’t do too badly.

I had promised her a Down Hill bike for NEXT year….. but due to the alignment of the stars and the STW forumites I ended up building her on recently ( NBD – Downhill build ).

We missed the second round due to being on Holiday (but as a bonus we got to ride the Fort William WC track).

So this weekend was the final round of the local Racers Guild of Cannock Chase Spring Cup, which was the first round that she entered. The race used the Ridge Run course which we’d had a bit of practice on last week.

Race Report
Not the day Imogen wanted, but that’s racing!
Practice runs went really well and all features ticked off and lines sorted.

We had some fellow club members spectating and cheering her for the day too.

First race run didn’t go to plan with an ‘off’ that caused some (understatement…)  mechanical issues that weren’t fully apparent until we’d pushed back up to the top:
Broken spoke
Broken rear mech
Bent chain
Deflated tyre

Still, she’d managed to complete the run to get a time on the board.

So with not much time to get the bike fixed before the second race run the team jumped into action!

With Darren sorting a tube out for the deflated tyre (spoke through the rim tape….), Alison gave me a lift home to fetch a spare rear mech, cable and other bits if needed – I didn’t have a spare chain though…

So with tyre fixed, rear mech fitted and chain straightened as best we could, she made it just in time for category start – great effort, thank you so much guys!!

Second run went a lot better but still taken as a ‘safe’ run due to the slightly dodgy chain and ‘roughly’ set up gears.

Still finished with a 2nd place, but a fair way back due to the cautious run.

So the main take away is that Dad needs to be more prepared with spares etc.

Next race is Round 3 of the MIJ in September.

It’s a bloody tough sport mate and well done to both of you for getting up for a 2nd run.

I’ll see you at MIJ in Sept.

Well done.

Bloody photo’s…….

At last!, photos……..

If it would help mate i could have a chat with Ian the organiser/Timekeeper and me and her could do a run before anyone else to keep the pressure off her ? I’ll lead or follow, whatever her preference is.

We’ll likely be over on the Sat as Mrs Weeksy is away and the boy likes camping, so again, more than happy to ride a lap with her if needed. I can probably borrow a fast girl Katie Charlton if that would help more and she relates better to girls ?

Cheers @weeksy , she’ll probably be OK tbh.

I’ve told her to start chatting to a few of the competitors and trying to follow if possible etc.

We’ll likely be down on the Sunday morning again.

Have they said which track they’re using yet?

I hear a rumor it’s Corkscrew, but that’s very unofficial. It won’t take in the lower rooty section but will come left after the fire-road crossing and finish on the push-up of Launchpad i assume.

But that’s not confirmed for sure at the moment. If i hear in advance i will let you know though

That’s awesome to see! Well done Dirkpitt Jr.

Epic to a whole new level ^

??

Round 3 of the MIJ series at Forest of Dean this weekend – Only 6 entered in the Female Junior category for this round.

We’ll do our usual of travelling down on Sunday morning.

Track for this round is Sheepskull – another track that she hasn’t ridden before, so it’ll be a few practice laps and then a safe race run and see how she improves on the 2nd run.

Luckily there’s uplift available for this one, so I don’t have to keep pushing back up lol

Track is an interesting one and more tech than the previous race she did. The root garden sections are great and varied. My lad skips the first one and most of the second one by sending both, although he’s still yet to do the full-send down to fire-road off the top of the 2nd set of roots. But they’ll deffo keep her on her toes.

There’s then a fireroad sprint as the trail finishes 50m left as that’s the only place they can put the timing beams, so it’s a flat sprint into a tight right which gets shredded and makes line choice massively important. Then finishing with a couple of fast berms into the line.

Longer and more tech than her previous race for sure.

Looking forward to this one ourselves, last time on this track the boy took P1 but as always it’ll be close and he’ll need to be on his game. He’s got his mates and close rivals both racing who’ve both beaten him in the last few races, but he’s beaten them in the last few as well.. So who knows.

We should be parked nearish to uplift. Get there early…. 8am latest really if you want a half respectable space. We were planning on staying over after Sat practice but the weather looks crap so we’ll head home and come back in morning.

Not the best day’s racing yesterday.

The weather was better than expected – it stayed dry apart from the odd bit of drizzle, never had the forecasted downpour.

Practice went well, used the uplift and had 2 pretty decent runs.

Race category times were 13:25 and 15:35 – no problem, we’ll get to the uplift early and we’ll be sorted………

For some inexplicable reason* there was only 1 (yes 1!!) uplift bus for the entire day, they were trying to give priority to the racers but this was hacking off (understandably) those who had paid for a days uplift.

So we get to the uplift around 12:30 only to be told that he’s done his hours for the morning (tacho on the bus) and has to have his break – uplift will resume at 13:30…… We’ll be pushing up then!!

Nice slow steady push up with a couple of the other girls and she does her race run. From what I saw of it she seemed to hit most of the lines – so banker time done put’s her in 6th.

So we have some lunch and go and scope out a couple more lines.

Chatting with  a couple of the other parents it seems that they’ve bought the start times forward – no problem get kitted up and go to the uplift.

Looks like she should be ok to get on, and then 4 guys with day passes turn up and take the last slots.

Bugger – do we wait for the next one? with a bizarre turnaround time of around 40 minutes (no idea why it was taking so long….)  we decide to have another push up.

This time I push the bike to give her a bit of a break.

I make my way down the track, watching several riders and then nothing – no one on course……

Turns out that the Ambulance had been called to an accident on the pump track, so until that had been dealt with and the Ambulance was back on the course nothing was happening.

Think racing resumed about 45 minutes later – so she’s been at the top of the hill for well over an hour and then had to wait around another 30 minutes for her category.

She come’s down and she’s not hitting her lines and generally not looking like she’s enjoying it – understandable with the massive wait.

So didn’t improve on her time and stayed in 6th, which she was pretty upset about, basically said her concentration had gone with all the hanging around.

So not a great day, but not a disaster as she managed to keep it rubber-side down and ticked off all the features.

Next round on the 6th October.

* Turns out there had been a ‘miss communication’ between the race organisers and 417 (who run the uplift) with incorrect numbers being given for entries – they were unaware that the race was a sell out and there would be best part of 200 competitors turning up……

That’s a shame mate. The delay issue is where riding more and more races plays a factor, partly because it’s honestly completely normal. Very few days run smoothly as people crash (usually racers though) and you as a racer kinda just get used to it. Me and the boy were racing last year and the delay was over 2 hours. But on top of that, you find as they ride and race more they make more friends and my lad and his mates just spent the 45 mins delay ripping eachother apart and having banter up the top of the hill.

She seemed really happy after run 1 and i thought it was a tougher course than she last raced, so well done to her for cracking on and getting the job done 🙂

Yeah, it’s just one of them things – hopefully the mental side will improve over time.

She was pretty pleased after practice and first run and knew where she could make up time, it just didn’t translate to that second run.

Did your lad manage to gap those roots?

He didn’t try for it as it was race time so no real point risking it.

Yesterday was the final round of the MIJ series at FoD – this time the track used was Ski Run.

Wasn’t the best of days if we’re honest.

Got there just before 09:00 and signed on, noticed that there were 2 uplift buses parked up so that was a bonus as I wasn’t feeling great about doing the push up as I had COVID the other week and still feel a bit naff.

Sent her off up for practice and she did 3 full runs with one where she stopped and decided to session a couple of sections that she wasn’t too sure about.

Had a small off towards the bottom of the second practice run, but got back up and came down pretty happy.

First race run from where I was watching she looked pretty good.

Got to the bottom and found a very disgruntled daughter with a front flat….. so a DNF that run.

It’s my fault as I dropped the tyre pressures was it was a bit greasy – dropped it too much and she burped the tyre.

So got back to the car and stuck a tube in, check rear pressure and decided to put another couple of PSI into be on the safe side as I’d noticed a bit of sealant around the rim.

Went off and had some lunch and walked up checked out another couple of sections of track before second race runs.

Just before She went up for second run she mentioned that the gears felt really stiff, so on investigation it turns out that the ‘minor’ off in practice had bent the barrel adjuster on the shifter…..

I didn’t have a spare with me and didn’t want to try too hard to straighten it with the fear of buggering it completely.

So I managed to stick it in a middle’ish gear and sent her off on the uplift…

Second run didn’t go well – looked ragged and missed some of the lines, but she got to the bottom with no drama.

Finished last of the runners in her group, and think she was just glad to get down, she was disappointed as practice had gone really well.

So one more race before the end of the year at Stile Cop in November.

Ah that’s a sodding shame matey… Gutted when it doesn’t work out as planned. Hopefully there were still some positives from it though

A shame – but fair play for her cracking on anyway. ??

Cheers @weeksy – it was another track ticked off the list.

We’re possibly going at some point in the near future so she can ride them all again and have a go at the others too.

Looking to get her some additional coaching in the off-season too.

Trying to decide what races to look at next year – hoping to get booked onto at least a couple of the Pearce series, but that fills up really quickly.

@matt_outandabout thanks, she’s not one to give up, so she’ll always pick herself up and keep going.

All experience that will help her next season. Fair play for keeping going after the off. Always got to take the positives!

For Pearce you do need to be on the ball for booking yes. But also be aware they’re double the length and double the difficulty of a FoD in a way. Sure on Ski Run there’s techie bits, but Pearce are harder fore sure. Not trying to put you guys off, just be aware of it. She’ll also have proper fast people in practice with her, like National Champs, national podium racers etc.

However it’s a brilliant brilliant series and super friendly and supportive paddock, great organisation all round. It is the logical step up from FoD.

I’d start her with 100% races if you can in early season, they’re on the same courses as FoD of course but with faster guys out there which will help her get acclimatised to it.

I’m sure I don’t need to talk about my coaching preferences, but wherever you pick should be really helpful for her.

So we didn’t race at Stile Cop the other weekend as she wasn’t really feeling it.

We’d been over for a few runs in the lead up to it, and the track was just greasy – very little grip, which she wasn’t too confident with. Big school trip coming up next month so she decided to ditch doing the race in case she spannered herself.

Not much planned at the moment over the winter – although have managed to snag a coaching session with Katy Kurd down at FoD just before Christmas.

Looking at a couple of the 100% Mini DH races in Jan/Feb (their website is awful…) one of definitely at FoD, no idea where the other one is though!!

Few jobs to do on the bike over the break including new frame bearings, trying a coil shock and just generally giving it a good rebuild before the season.

She’s still carrying on with coaching at the local club and getting miles/fitness in with them and the turbo.

Also looking to get on some of the Firecrest Gravity Development days next year too.

Could do with building some upper body/arm strength but not sure of the best way for a 14yo girl.

Think she finished joint 5th/6th overall at MIJ, not bad considering she didn’t have the best of race runs.

All their races are fod. They range from Ski Run, sheepskull and even Cougar Roots and Endo. They used to like Ski run V2 which is now Twisted Sister.

I’m not sure yet which course the 1st is as I was debating entering as the boys ex teammates dad is entered, he raced on my Status a while ago but has his own bike now that works.

The season doesn’t really end for us generally, we’ll be doing both the 100% and Stile Cop in next few weeks. But it’s less important over winter for sure.

As you know, I love Katy and what she’s done for him. She is now running a girls academy which may be worth asking about? Katy will pick her apart, build her back up, picking small details, little issues and showing her the difference between ok and great.

Work on reading tracks, lines, why, what, when. All you need is 1/10th on every corner and suddenly you’re 2s quicker.

Not many of the girls seem to work on strength/gym stuff a lot, not as much as the boys from what I’ve seen anyway, however I don’t know why that’s the case.

What I’ve seen in the last few years in terms of the racers who progress most is 2 things

Desire

Bike time. Give her as much time on the bike as possible in places that she rides easily as well as push her harder. Confidence can be found in both ways.

Thanks @weeksy wasn’t aware of the Female academy – will look into it.

Will see how she gets on in December with Katy and have a chat about it with her.

I keep toying with the idea of entering a race but my confidence on steep stuff is shot at the moment…..

I keep toying with the idea of entering a race but my confidence on steep stuff is shot at the moment…..

We can be rubbish together mate. Pick one and we’ll embarrass ourselves and then have a beer