Photos: Dave Franciosy

Yes, it was a muddy one...!

If this were a cinema trailer it would read ‘In a small village in Kent a group of hardy mountain bikers battled wind, rain and mud to fight it out for 4X glory.’ However, more accurately, we spent a weekend sleeping in cars, hiding from the rain, slogging through mud, getting wet and trying not to slide about on our arses!

So Sunday saw round 2 of the British 4X series down at PORC in Kent and weather aside it was a really good one! Most had travelled down saturday but not many had braved camping with both me and Dave opting for kipping in the car!

The track hasn’t really changed over the years with the odd tweak here and there but generally consisting of a very short first straight jumping into a jump into a wideopen (boom!) left had corner with a couple of pump bumps on the inside and a tight exit straight into a right hand corner. Once you’ve navigated your way through here without colliding with other riders (or the floor if you’re trying an inside move) you’ve got a lot of pedaling to pick up speed along the longest, fastest straights in the business. This consists of a small double that had to be pedaled over in the mud, a wooden bridge (that you can jump in the dry) landing down a long steep bank that throws you into a small table that required some squashing followed by a long triple and a double. You’re flying down here and at the ends a big tight 180 berm that was pretty squirly in the mud and an even tighter inside berm that resulted in some die hard passing attempts a lot of which ended up in a heap on the floor. From here down it was 4 corners linked with the remains of some straights that had just turned to a quagmire which were manageable on the racing line but either side it was just goo!

Practice started pretty much on time but no one was really too hyped on riding so apart from the younger guys the first hour was fairly quiet. Having missed saturday I got on the go fairly quickly and first run down with normal tyres on I was more a passenger than a rider! Out came the Conti Baron Tyres and 2nd run I found some grip, with massive ruts in the mud it was still pretty hard to go in the right direction at times but the more people riding the better it got! I’d like to say who was looking quick at this point but most people were either brown or in waterproof gear so it wasnt too easy to tell who was who at speed!

At the end of practice there was an announcement that the compressor had broken that runs the gate so there would be a break while they went to buy one and racing would start at 1. This gave some time to clean bikes, get food and dry off a bit.

Next announcment went slightly differently, they were unable to get a new compressor and would be using a manual release with a random drop. At first everyone was a bit doubtful of this, but as we went through the day it definitely evened things up and made for even better racing!

The weather brightened up!

Race time came around, the weather brightened up and right from the start it was pretty action packed! With the combination of totally random gate and track conditions the corners were getting a lot of action…

First up were the Big Fun cats and they may be having fun but there’s some pretty talented riders in there who’ll be hitting the main categories pretty soon! In big fun Ash Brown on his new Nuke Proof was storming all day either leading from the front or coming from behind! Unfortunately while in second in his semi, he had a collision with a track marking post just feet from the finish leaving him out for the count and in a pretty bad state. This left Mr commentator Andrew Cooper of Redneck racing with a clear run in the final to take the win! Props to Joe Wells who was sitting at the back of the final so decided to throw a no foot can mid run for the crowd, lucky the man from BC wasn’t looking!

The seniors category is always one of the biggest and with some of these boys plenty fast enough to be in the elite field and the rest wanting to prove them selves it makes for exciting racing! Dave Richardson and Dave Roberts were the boys to beat here and they were making the others work for it! Massive well done to Matt Hillyard in 3rd, he spent a lot of last year out with a broken wrist and the year before was only a novice so he’s come a long was in a short time!

In the semi-old mans category Gareth Parr was really giving it some boost and every time I saw him he was in the lead with a massive grin on his face! Fox Willis of P Yates Cycles was loving the conditions and taking full advantage of his dh background getting 2nd in what could be his first 4x race?

Juniors are young quick and bounce more than us old boys so there was a lot of first corner action here and the dh boys from Pearce Cycles were getting stuck in to the challenging conditions with Zac Emmett taking 2nd ahead of Joe Mallison of 44 Racing. Jordon Lunn of Identiti has dominated this year though, after proclaiming he was done with 4x on Facebook just before round 1 I bet the others were wishing he had stuck with that!

The Wideopen boys discussing tactics

Now on to the big category of the day, the Elites!
First up the ladies and with 4 experienced world cup 4x riders, most of whom have been having a go at dh, and a freshly converted dh master battling it out this was a close one! Joey Gough took the win with the bmx edge on the gate and seeming to have a bit more power on the long straight. Emily Horridge was rocking a cut dh spike up front and a trusty Conti Mountain King on the back so was planning on making some moves and move she did putting her dh experience to use on the loose insides and really battling with Joey all the way down in the final swapping the lead between them all over the place! Suzanne Lacy was right on their arses all the way down with Cara Murray trailing after losing pace in the first corner scuffle, Jess Greaves rounded out the podium taking the B final win by a country mile.

Now the big guns (and me), the men’s elite field! With 11 seasoned elites, 3 fresh fast kids and 4 of last years top seniors it was a pretty stacked category and everyone was hungry for the win. The random gate and tight first corner really had its biggest effect here causing some real surprise results and showing a bit of cunning goes a long way! As usual the 4 main men to watch were going to be Scott Beaumont, Scott Roberts, Lewis Lacy and Nate Parsons, but they weren’t getting it all their own way with Nate going out in quarters and all of them fighting for the lead through the day. Young guns Alex Metcalf and Isaac Mundy were killing it all day taking it to the big boys every chance they got! The Slam 69 boys were having totally different days, National champ Limbo couldn’t catch a break all day with 2 crashes whereas Rich lane was giving it all he had to take 6th overall. Last years senior star Tom Gethin retired early after an over zesty blocking move left him no where to go but off course and into a big crash. Finally for the star of the day, me haha! After injury put me out of round 1 this was my first elite race and damn was it hard! Moto 1 I did a great job of following the others down the track, Moto 2 went a bit better however. I got drawn against 3 of the quickest boys going, Beaumont, Roberts and the ever creative Duncan Ferris and being in gate 4 I wasn’t holding out much hope, the gate dropped and they went, knowing full well I couldn’t keep up on speed I decided try going round the back of them and diving down the very inside of the first corner and it worked, the Scotts came out in the lead side by side but I was right next to them and was slightly stunned but they pulled away as soon as the pedals started turning leaving me trailing and Duncan breathing down my neck. The entire main straight I was doing my best to sit in the middle of the racing line waiting for the pass but it didn’t come untill the big 180 corner, I went outside and Duncan dived round the inside berm getting a massive lead but was carrying a bit too much speed for the chewed up berm and washed out on the exit!

Final Moto was a good one, I got drawn with Mark Milward and my old senior rival Luke ‘limbo’ Limbrick. I was in gate 1 Mark in 2 and limbo in 3, the gate dropped and I edged a few inches on the others and moved over on them to set me up better for the corner, little known to me at this point the other came together and went down, coming out of the first corner I was pedalling my ass off to hear the shouts from the crowd “keeny what the hell are you doing” I look back and the others were no where to be seen, I was grinning and playing on the jumps the entire way down to my first Elite Moto win! Stoked! Quarters were next and I had a hard one, Will Evans, Mundy and Milward again, I was in gate 3 and as soon as it dropped I gave it every little bit I had and was leading down to the corner but not enough to get an advantage and Will and Isaac were just too close so too late I tried swinging wide and getting round them but too little too late and I got stalled on Wills back wheel, despite my best efforts to catchup i’d lost too much ground and came 4th.

Back to the action and the main final, Beaumont led from the off with Roberts hot on his heels, Isaac was holding 3rd with Lacey trying desperately to get by but Mundy was blocking him left right and centre, and that’s how it finished.

All in all some of the best racing I’ve seen and big props to Chris Roberts and his team for making the most of terrible conditions to put on an awesome race!

Big thanks to our sponsors, particularly this weekend Continental for keeping me upright and Fox for all the kit that kept us dry and clean!

Meet the Racers - 4X Pro Tour Round 1.

Phwoar, it’s all going down here in Houffalize. As I mentioned previously, yesterday morning was spent messing about (skids and wheelies), sightseeing and eating waffles. Registration for the 4X started at 4.30pm, eventually getting under way after some confusion regarding payment. Riders were then told to get to the top of the hill for 7.30pm for a group rider photo.

Skids and Wheelies

I rocked up for 7.30, kitted up and ready to ride. The schedule said that practice was from 8pm, so I only took my fox track jacket with me, as I didn’t expect to be standing around much. My mistake! The Cross-Country Eliminator (XCE) overran, and as it used part of the 4X track, that held the 4X back.

You’re welcome to your opinion of XCE, but I’m yet to speak to anyone who think’s that it’s a better spectator sport than 4X. Anyway, full credit to GB’s Annie Last for taking the win in the women’s, and to former 4X legend Brian Lopes for winning the men’s.

After the group photo, all 100+ riders went up to the start…but we were held there for what seemed like another hour (not entirely sure of the timings at this stage, but it was another unwelcome delay) as the track had to be cleared of all the XCE tape etc. I will say that none of the delays were due to the Pro Tour organisers, but due to compatability issues with holding different disciplines on the same track.

Tom Dowie Railing a Berm (Photo credit: Charles Robertson)

We were finally allowed to ride at some point in the late evening (but had to stop at the last corner), which created a mega-avalanche style mass start, with potentially nearly all riders on track at once. A great time to pull some sketchy practice lines!

Practice then turned into a more regular uplifted affair, with gated practice for the second half of the session. With only 1.5 hours of scheduled practice, it was always going to be hard to get everything dialled in, especially when it was near impossible to get a clean run. I think you’ll find the below video of the track quite entertaining…fortunately the Drift HD is a hardy camera and can take all the abuse I throw at it!

Wideopen Magazine 4X Rider headcam Down Houfflize 4X track, fourcross pro tour round 1 from David Thomason on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, that run was taken just before the end of practice, and although I expertly commando-rolled out of the worst of the crash, I knocked my knee rather badly. After practice, there was another delay as the women’s qualification was run (and then halted as the gate malfunctioned), and by that time my knee had stiffened up so much that I was unable to complete a qualification run. Gutted.

Still, the racing went on for everyone else, and I had a grandstand seat. World Champion Anneke Beerten qualified fastest for the women, with Celine Gros second and Katy Curd (after one of the most horrific first straights I’ve ever seen) getting her head back together for third. Lucia Oetjen and Emily Horridge finished off the top 5. With 12 women racing, there will be quarter finals, so all the women qualified.

Fifth place qualifier Emily Horridge considering lines under the Bridge.

In the men’s, Czech national champion Jakub Riha beat fellow countryman and former world champiion Tomas Slavik into second place by 0.321seconds. Joost Wichman was third, with Felix Beckeman and Michael Mechura finishing off the top 5. GB’s Scott Beaumont recovered from a slipped pedal to take an impressive sixth. Of the 94 riders, only 64 could qualify, and a few big names didn’t make the cut; Tom Dowie, Adam Stasek and American BMXer Blake Carney suffered from punctures at various points on the track, leaving them just outside the required time to qualify.

Finals are taking place this evening, so stay tuned to wideopen for a full synopsis of the results!

Yours Truly (Wideopen Team Rider Dave Thomason) Enjoying the Belgian Sun.

Right, so here I am in the press tent at Houffalize, firing over a quick update on the status here at Houfflize. We (myself, Jess Greaves and Emily Horridge) vanned it over from Bristol in style yesterday, did a cheeky evening track walk and a couple of unofficial cruises down. We’re here to race the first ever 4X Pro Tour race, the new series that is replacing the world cup 4X.

4X Track winding its way down the hill in the centre, with the XC taped far left and right.

The track is identical to the Euro round held here last year, with a techy first straight, flat out middle section with some massive berms, corckscrew bridge, jumpy straight and steep finish. It looks like the pro-line is not going to be part of the final track, as forcing riders onto the alternative line is thought to make for better racing – to be confirmed!

A helmetcam of the track will follow, hopefully this evening, but the world cup XC is using part of the 4X track (riding up it – nutters) so we’re not allowed back on it until official practice at about 7pm tonight. Qualifying will be immediately after, and with a massive entry list (well in excess of 100 people) this could turn into quite a late night. Racing is to follow tomorrow evening.

The track isn't open until 7ish, so Emily Horridge killed some time with some tricks straight out of the 90's

Overall, Houffalize is a pretty awesome place with a semi-alpine feel. The town is rammed full of xcers, with an xc eliminator tonight and the world cup xc on sunday. I’m led to believe that there is no live coverage for this 4X race, but there will be for those later in the season. Stay tuned to wideopen for more information as and when it happens!

Unlike the DH team, we’re staying consistent and both Alastair Keen and Dave Thomason will be racing for us again in 2012. They’ll be focusing on the national 4X series and the new Pro Tour, with Euro and non-4X races fitted in between. It’s looking to be a busy year – after tomorrow, Dave will already have hit up 5 racHes this year!

Dave racing DH on the Snap (Photo Credit: Peter F Photography)

And so to Dave for a few words…

“Keeny and I are both stoked to be back racing for the team again this year, it’s going to be awesome! I’m sad to say goodbye to Orange Mountain Bikes who have supported us for the last two seasons; but really excited at the opportunity to ride the Nukeproof Snap – a bike I’ve always wanted to race. The bike is a little slacker and slightly more forgiving than last season’s and this seems to suit my aggressive style. I’ve raced the bike at BMX tracks, DH tracks and uphill (Red Bull Hill Chasers – silly idea!) and ragged it round 4X tracks and XC loops, and I’m loving it. Can’t wait to start the 4X race season. We’re also massively proud to be supported by a select band of awesome companies this season – Nukeproof, Fox, Five Ten, Continental, Unior, Fenwicks, Roost DH and Action Cameras. Stoked!!”

Dave and Keeny in their 2012 Kit

So yeah, I’ve already done a few races, and I hope to get a couple more under my belt before the first national at leamington on April 1st. Keeny’s stepping up to Elite and I’ll still be racing senior, but we’ll both be heading out to Houffalize to race the first 4X Pro Tour Race in mid-April.

It’s shaping up to be an awesome year, stay tuned for more chat and banter as the year progresses!

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: