And so the seventh and final round of the 2011 British 4X season came round last weekend at a new Redhill track. Over the winter, the local boys (Morgan Hampton et al) did a sterling job adding two new corners to the top of the track, and two new straights to the middle, including the biggest step up on any track this year.

Practice was, as ever at Redhill, immensely fun. The track was running quick and dusty, I got my lines nailed and for once felt reasonably confident. I knew there would be first corner carnage, but if I came out of that alive then I knew I could hit the rest of the track as flat out as I could. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, trying silly lines – credit to Dan Bateson for attempting to backflip the stepup!

Then…raceday. It had rained overnight and the track looked a bit slick. It was OK for morning practice, but more rain looked like it was on its way. This led to interesting tyre choices. Redhill is not like other tracks when it gets wet – there is no slick layer to cut through and find grip underneath. Once the top surface gets saturated, it quickly goes from tacky to slick, and then there’s simply no grip to be found.

Will Evans and Tom Dowie, final corner 

I presumed that the weather would hold off, so I stuck to my dry tyres, lending one of my spikes to my team mate so he could run a full set. He was less optimistic with the weather. Come 5 minutes before the start of motos and Keeny was thinking about changing his tyres back to dry ones. I was laughing, it was all looking rosy…and then it happened. A true deluge. It hammered it down, and completely soaked the track. Too late to change tyres now, people were running what they had on.

To put into perspective how little grip there was, I don’t think there was a single moto in the first round where at least one person crashed. I crashed twice in mine, some crashed three or four times in one race. On dry tyres there was simply no grip, and the big loose grassy bottom corner was drift heaven if you could hold it, or an embarrassing slide over the line on your ass if you couldn’t. Some people were so slow they were caught up by the following moto – on a one minute track!

Everyone changed tyres between motos to try and find some grip, and with the sheer volume of riders and the rain easing off, the track dried out. The threat of further rain never really happened, so by the time finals came around, it was back to dry tyres and hitting it flat out. Redhill gets wet quickly, but it also dried quickly, which made for very entertaining racing!

Full results are on the British 4X website. The big stories of the day were that in Juvenile, Dylan Grell-Delsol came 4th on the day, but took the overall easily after a dominant performance this season. Josh Bembridge won the Youth category, but Luke Cryer did just enough in coming second to narrowly take the overall.

Lewis Lacey on his way to 2nd place

Juniors was as hard fought as ever, with all riders in the fight for the overall crashing in motos. Matt Jones took the win, taking advantage of uncharacteristic slipups from Isaac Mundy and Alex Metcalfe, in second and third respectively. As hard as he tried, Alex couldn’t get past Isaac, meaning that Isaac won the overall by a mere two points. Epic.

Seniors was the most emotional race of the day. With big hitters and local boys Tom Gethin, Luke Limbrick and Rich Lane in the final against Gareth Parr, it was all to play for. Gethin wasn’t letting this chance slip, and he pinned it, flat out, so smooth, it was great to watch, but Laner wasn’t just going to sit down and let Geth walk away with it. He powered out of the last tabletop and into the straight, cutting outside Gethin and sprinting for the line for all his worth – and it was so nearly enough. They crossed the line together – I was standing 30 metres away and I couldn’t call who won. It turns out Gethin edged it, just, and with it he had the overall title. Rich lane was second (6th overall), Limbo third (2nd overall) and Gareth was 4th (3rd overall). Congrats to wideopen’s very own Alastair Keen, racing with a concussion, busted shoulder and busted thigh, and he managed 5th on the day and 5th overall. It’s been a pinned season!

A surprise in the ladies was junior world downhill champion Manon carpenter turning up and schooling the girls on how to ride in the wet, with a very fluent first place. Suzanne Lacey came second and took the overall for the second year running. Credit to Jess Greaves for taking 3rd on the day, off the back of some great moto results.

Jess Greaves Foot out Flat out in the late sunshine

And so to Pro-Elite. It was good to see Duncan Ferris back racing again, but he could only manage second in the B-final. Scott Beaumont finished as he had begun the season, in dominant style, pulling ahead of the competition in the final. However, he didn’t have it all his own way, as Nathan Parsons and Lewis Lacey pushed him hard (Nato even beat him) in the motos. Still, Lewis Lacey looked a consistent threat and once again took second. Tom Dowie always seems to ride well at Redhill (when he’s not DQ’d for flag violations) and he took a stirling 3rd place, with Nathan in 4th. This meant that Scott Beaumont was once again the Elite national series champion, with Nato second, PCJ third and Tom Dowie 4th – the young guns really stepped it up this year.

Team Naked Racing – One Industries took the overall team prize. Team Wideopen (with their 2 man team) finished a very creditable 14th.

And so ends another season. It’s been a great one – thanks to Chris Roberts and his team for putting it all together so well. However, the season has been marred by the injury to Scott Shepherd at the second round. Scott’s making progress which is great to hear, but he’s still got a fair way to go and our thoughts are with him – heal up quick dude.

See you all trackside next year. I’m off on holiday to Shred some Gnar in the Lake District – Laters!

The wideopen team would like to thank Orange Mountain Bikes and the following sponsors for helping them to an overall national series senior podium this year:

However, this isn’t going to be your standard race report. There was an interesting sub-story going on throughout the weekend involving Wideopen’s very own Alastair Keen.

Now, this time last year it was the national 4X championships, hosted at this very track. Keeny was there, racing in the novice category (a.k.a. big gay fun), and he came stone dead last. Yes, maybe at the end he was racing his downhill bike and pulling whips on the jumps, but he just hadn’t looked competitive all day. The same could be said of most of his season last year, and he’ll be the first to admit it.

Now, fast forward one year and things have changed. Keeny’s already had a 3rd and a 5th in the senior category this year, and on Saturday he got himself second with some impressive gates and ballsy riding. This is a second place in the biggest category of the series, with 5 or 6 riders looking to move up to elite next year. So, trying to get myself some tips, I asked him how he’d turned his form around so massively in a such a short space of time.

Keeny on the podium. Good lad!

Basically, if you want to get quick at 4X, this is how Keeny suggests you do it.

Firstly, spend time on your bike. All bikes, every bike, there is absolutely no better way to get quicker than to ride. I know for a fact that Keeny rode 4X bikes, road bikes, downhill bikes, short travel XC bikes…everything in the last year, and he put 30,000 miles on his car just getting to places to ride. I didn’t say this would be easy – but the end crowns the work.

Secondly, gates. Gates gates gates. It’s a fact of life with 4X, you need a good gate to do well. Get down your local BMX track over the winter and put in the time getting your snap on.

Thirdly, enjoy yourself. When riding starts to become a chore, it’ll get put on the back burner. Keep spicing it up and keep it varied.

I think Keeny’s proof that you don’t need to be a gym freak to be a winner in this sport. Yes, at the elite level it’ll play more of a part, but most of the time Kenneth will be riding but he won’t call it training, even though that’s basically what it is.

So, this might be a little tribute to my team mate, but I don’t know any other riders who have come so far in such a short space of time – ask anyone on the 4X circuit, Keeny came out of pretty much nowhere with his speed, having not won a lot for the last 7 or 8 years!!

Important – if you don’t look after your bike, it won’t look after you.

However, there were other riders at this race. Alas, only 4 girls made it (3 on Sunday after Nichola damaged her knee) after Katy Curd’s epic crash/injury from the last world cup kept her out (Heal up quick). This was a bit disappointing as most of the girls motos followed the same pattern. Fair play to Cara Murray for starting to step it up and take the racing to the other girls, but it was Suzanne Lacey who took the win on Saturday and Sunday.

Isaac Mundy was absolutely on it in juniors, winning on both days, though Dan Bateson was massively unlucky to go from first to last on Sunday after ripping off a pedal. Dylan Grell-Delsol had to fight for once, but he still came through in the end in Juveniles, also winning on both days.

Dave Richardson won both the Master’s races – it seems like if you won on Saturday, you’re odds on to win again on Sunday. Alas, this wasn’t to be for Tom Gethin in senior. After narrowly beating Keeny on Sat, he lost out on Sun by not quite making the pro-line, allowing Damian Groves to take the win. Unfortunately for Keeny, Sunday wasn’t so kind to him, even being beaten by me in one of his motos…!

In Elite, it was good to see Lewis Lacey back racing 4X. He took the fight to Scott Beaumont, along with a rejuvenated Tom Dowie. However, chatting to Boom Boom it was clear that he was really enjoying both the track and his racing, and it looks like he’s got his edge back, which is ominous for the rest of the series. Fair play to him for taking two very clean wins.

Good luck to all the riders out in italy for the world cup this weekend. Next stop for the rest of us is Redhill next month for the final round – be there!

Lewis Lacey over the rock garden on his way to second on Sat and Sun.

Thanks to all wideopen’s sponsors over the current season, getting us on the podium once again this weekend.

(That’s Keeny on the left!)

No surprise that Graves qualified in first, put Prokop was a fraction of a second back, putting Slavik into third. Keeny was on a stormer of a run, looking certain to knock Graves off the top of the time charts (well…maybe…) until a puncture through the rock garden saw him get a bit ‘squiffy.’ He ended with up 70th. Gutted, but there’s always next time.

Slightly more fortunate was Pete ‘Mophead’ Goddard…in his own words he took a steady run, and qualified in 64th (of 64) by 0.1 seconds. Janner!

But he really is lucky, when you consider that four (British) riders were DQ’ed for minor flag infringements (hopping into a berm and accidentally letting a wheel just drift over the top of the flag, apparently). But good luck to mophead tomorrow, up against Graves and Scott Boom-Boom Beaumont in the first moto.

Scott Roberts and Joey Gough were the fastest Brits, with Suzanne Lacey, Katy Curd and Nichola Anderson also qualifying in the women’s. It’s hotting up to be a cracking race – check it out tomorrow evening over on freecaster. Also a big shout out to Robbie Rickman for qualifying at his first world cup – and commiseration’s to  Alex Metcalfe, with a puncture also ruining his chances.

The weather improved though and so did the track, which on the whole, was mostly well used and much loved sections of trail with the additional bit of cheeky taping to keep things interesting. By Sunday morning the track had dried out, and riders were getting happily dialling in their lines for the afternoons race runs.

Everyone managed at least one run in the dry but a brief rain shower made things a little slick in places for the second timed runs. Anyway, enough from me. I’ll leave you in the capable lens of John Duncan who was trackside all weekend to bring you this edit. Enjoy….

For full results from the weekend head over to rootsandrain.co.uk, overall series results should appear on the Alpine Bikes  site soon.

Finally thanks to Borderline Events for putting on a great series. If you enjoyed these races and want more, or maybe you didn’t get a chance to enter the winter series, then you should head over to their website and get yourself entered into the Northwest Champs race at the end of next month.

UPDATE:
Another banging edit from Stuart ‘Stuz’ Leel

More Mountain Biking Videos

In the DMR Pumptrack race it was Bernard Kerr who pumped hardest for the lads and Katy (again) for the ladies.

It was also a pretty awesome weekend for the Wideopen team with new boy Alastair Keenbean taking the 3rd spot in seniors.  The Beanmachine was joined on the podium by Wideopen riders Ellie Maxfield who scored 2nd at the Pearce race and also Steve Larkin who bagged a 7th at the Alpine Winter Series. Nice work pinners!

Stay tuned for a full repo in the mag! Thanks to the following awesome brands for powering the Wideopenmag team in 2011. They’re making us strong like BULL!

If you didn’t manage to get yourself down to the Aston Hill Black Run race on the 27th of March to race or just to watch you missed out on a good treat. For the riders the Black Run track was dry and running really fast which created good viewing for the spectators and good riding for those on track.

Aston hill have recently picked up there game to get the tracks up to standard for all sorts of riders from DH racers to XC whippets.

The track for the race had a nice mix of terrain, which gave every rider from any background a good chance to have fun and a good chance of doing well. The track started off with a good pedal, which I am sure everyone enjoyed massively… I know I certainly did (not!). A good pedal in a track is something that you can’t really avoid racing in England, but I feel like the middle and bottom section made up for it and talking to others they only had good things to say about the track.

Practice started super early on Sunday morning which felt even earlier because of the clocks going forwards. The track was also open on the Saturday as well so a few people could get a bit of cheeky practice in. It was quite easy to learn so every level of rider had time to getcomfortable and up to speed before the race started.

When racing startedthe crowds threw themselves to the side of the track and the atmosphere picked up dramatically as racing started. Racing down the track there wasn’t a point where there wasn’t people shouting for you and giving you encouragement. As racing got faster, the crowds got louder which pushed the riders to go faster and hard. Some maybe too far which offered a lot of crashing!

Full results are on Roots and Rain here but it was Jack Geoghegan that took the win, followed by Harry Molloy and then Oli Burton. Amie Wills was fastest girl with Nicky Belton and Anna Glowinski taking 2nd and 3rd.

I had a crash in my first race run but managed to up my game for the second and bag a third place in Junior.

If anyone from the south of England is thinking of having ago at DH racingthis is a perfect place to start as it offers everything you need to have a good time. Personally I think that for racing around the south there isn’t anything like Aston Hill tha tgives riders and spectators a change to see what racing is all about. I would encourage anyone from the southeast area to go and check it out as soon as they can!

Thanks to Brandon Love for the race report. He’s our Junior pinner on the Wideopen team. Thanks also to Neil Cane at Aston hill for his support (and photos that we’ve stolen!!)

Brandon and the Wideopen race team are powered by:

This season the team consists of two riders, both racing on the awesomely quick Orange Miii.

Without further ado:

First up is Dave Thomason; he carried the 4X flag for us last year and is back doing what he loves, racing NPS and Euro 4X. He’s also looking forwards to having a go at the DMR pump race series, and the occasional DH race. Dave’s a 21 year old bloke from Dorset who’s at uni in Bristol, and he can’t wait to see you trackside!

New boy Alastair Keen joined the team a couple of months ago after he really started showing potential at the end of last season, and he’s been building on that speed all winter – we definitely reckon he’s one to watch this season! Keeny’s a 24 year old pisces and he’s been racing 4X for over 10 years now. He works at John Atkins cycles in leamington and spends his spare time riding, racing and being the centre of some friendly banter!

We can’t wait to get racing again. If you see us trackside, come say hi, we’re a friendly bunch! But of course, the team is only as good as the support we get from our sponsors. We’re very proud to be supported by the following awesome companies:

For those of you who haven’t met him yet, that’s ‘Chewy Wonka’ on the left (Apparently Keeny looks like a cross between Chewbacca and Willy Wonka…)!

Nathan Parsons and the RLS crew have made a number of changes to the track since I rode it last year, all for the better. The track is now slightly longer with a lot more flow, four doubles and some rollers in the first straight before a big, loose, fast corner into the big triple.

Most riders were trying to double it up and land in a manual, but the big boys were clearing the whole thing. Then there’s a left hander, double, right hander, two doubles, right hander, table and then the option between a big pro-line (two long tables) or a smaller rhythm section.

(the double in the bottom of the above photo is at the exit of the triple, there’s a right-hander out of shot on the left and the pro-line/chicken run is out of shot on the right!)

The movie shows Keeny hitting the bottom section of the track. Alas all the pro photographers and videographers were off enjoying themselves at the BDS so you have to contend with me and my mate James Lancashire for the photos. Quality will improve throughout the season!

The track has a gravel surface on it akin to a BMX track; if it doesn’t rain heavily before the race, it’s going to be INCREDIBLY loose. A bit of rain should settle it down nicely. We were testing out the Continental X King race tyres over the weekend, with Keeny’s 2.2″ tyres providing impressive amount of grip with a lower rolling resistance than the 2.4″ I was running. The 2.2′s are my tyre of choice for this season. Keeny spent the weekend getting used to the new kit from sixpack – so new he didn’t have time to cut his bars down. This ghetto setup took some skin off my elbows in our many pump races – not sure he’ll be allowed it at nationals.

Here at Wideopen, we can’t wait for the start of the 4X season, I highly recommend you head over to Leamington in two weeks to see the country’s finest battling it out on what is going to be a very open race. Being smooth is going to be the name of the game!

We’re proud to be powered by the following awesome companies:

A race team just makes so much sense for us here at Wideopen.  The team will be out representing the magazine at the races, they’ll test products for us and they’ll travel far and wide to gather stories for the mag. Most of all they’ll make sure the mag is more than just a couple of nerds with internet connections – they’re our eyes and ears out on the trails!

This weekend is obviously round 1 of the Halo British Downhill series and is the first official meet up for the team. We’re all now en route to the race and will soon be smashing out runs and celebrating a winter of hard work pulling it all together. Thanks to the riders, the sponsors and everyone that’s made it happen!

Without further ado…

Wayne Appleby
Appleballs is back for 2011 after a solid year with us last season. He’s from North Wales, he’s racing a Solid M9 and he’s in seniors.

Brandon Love
Our brand new young gun. Our mate Chaz Curry recommended Brandon and after a quick look at his results we snapped him up. Brandon is on a brand new Specialized Demo 9 for 2011 having been smashing out runs on his knackered Carrera hardtail all winter. Look out for the Love Machine in Junior this season.

Ellie Maxfield
Ellie won EVERYTHING she entered in 2010 until she smashed her leg up at Llangollen. She’s back, she’s got her trusty Turner sprayed up and she’s just got back from 2 weeks of smashing out runs in Spain. She’s had a podium already this season and is on the hunt for a lot more.  Be warned ladies!

Steve Larking
Steve is the longest running member of the team and is our chief bike smasher and product tester. He destroyed the hardtail category at the SDA and Alpine Winter Series in 2010 and has just upgraded to a Morewood full suss for another season of Scottish racing. He’s just getting up to speed and has already got 2 top 10′s under his belt.

These guys will be racing the Halo British Downhill Series, Pearce Cycles series, Caersws Cup, Alpine Series, SDA, mini downhills and more.

Of course, the team is only as good as the support they get from our sponsors. We’re proud to be powered by the following awesome companies:

That’s it for now – see you this weekend! Remember to stay locked to Wideopen for updates all weekend long. Cheers!

Right, well, I haven’t had a chance to do a blog for a while (want to know my excuse? I’m an aeronautical engineer, researching a steam engine for use in an aircraft!), but I finally have a spare few minutes to speak my mind, and today’s topic is…do you need to train for 4X?

I was down the local BMX track with a few national 4X boys last month and obviously we started chatting about what we’d been up to, getting ready for the coming season. Their general consensus seemed to be that spending time on the bike is all you need, at least to win at national senior level. However, I’m still not convinced…now, obviously time on the bike is important. Vital in fact! But is it the be all and end all? Should a rider also have a gym regime?

(here’s a picture of me on a real bike, outside!)

So, For and Against:

For: Well, look at the pro’s: watch the Atherton project and see the gym time they put in in the off season. Surely there’s a reason for this? Well, you might say that to be at the VERY top level everyone has a similar ability on the bike so the differences will be down to fitness. Ok, second example: take the season opener at UK Bike Park last year. It was an absolute fitness fest; the mud was so sticky it just wasn’t possible to be smooth and quick like you can be at some races. Most senior races hated it, I quite enjoyed it – because I was making up places down the last straight in every moto, where other riders were tiring out. Ok, so maybe it was a freak race?

Well then, let’s look at the last race of the season. Nathan Parsons stole the senior national overall championship by 1 point because he put in a move in the last corner in the last moto of the last race. It is widely acknowledged that the move was actually after the corner, and he got past because of sheer power out of the corner. This kind of power comes about through squats, lunges, leg presses and various other gym based activities…no?

Here’s a picture of me on a bike in the gym (yes, I’ve changed!)

And so for the other opinion:

Well, look at some of the top senior national racers. Take Tom Gethin for example…he’s ridiculously quick, an incredibly smooth and talented rider yet never frequents the gym. He just spends his winter digging and touring various BMX tracks.

Um, so what’s my point? Well for me the gym is vital. This time of year – being a student who actually does have to do work and not live the workless student dream for 7 days a week – means I start at 8am and finish at 7pm. Not a lot of time for riding my bike, but I can fit in an evening gym session a couple of times a week. But is it necessary for your average rider? I think there’s a correlation between the importance of gym work and the level that you’re riding at. I think senior level nationals is probably where the break even point is, it’s where gym work will start to shine through. Below this level, it’s about bike skills. At this level, it’s about fitness and bike skills, and above this level bike skills are generally comparable between riders so the gym work becomes all the more important.

So my conclusions…if it works for you, hit the gym, but unless your at an elite level of competition…Just get out and ride!

Take it easy,

Dave.