NPS Round 3

Moelfre 11/12th August 2007

This weekend we were in Wales at Moelfre for round 3 of the NPS series. The weekend was very dry and the track was dusty which made a change from the wet races in the previous weeks.

From the start the track goes across the tops of a valley winding down with fast, flat and grassy corners. Off a rocky drop and over another jump leads you over a hole in the ground where you have to hop over to avoid getting stuck. This section is very fast and runs into two ruts going right then left and over some small drops. Here a small jump which requires care in the strong wind leads you into a sweeping left hand corner, keeping on the inside all the time to save time.

Along a short straight sprinting to maintain speed and you go to the right down a loose corner and straight back to the left on grass. Here you go over two small jumps landing on rocky terrain and then into the tight switchbacks. Now you go to the left and into a set of 10 very tight corners which are made up of loose soil and deep ruts so getting through this section was key to a good run.

Out of the last berm and you go up to the right and over a hip jump where landing on the lower lander was the fastest line to take. Over the hip and you cross a stream and into a few flat rocky corners where a lot of loose rocks are ready to catch you out. Through the rocks and you pedal over a fire road and up to the left onto a long section of single track which runs all the way down the left hand side of the valley. Along this section there are a lot of very fast sections where a lot of pedalling is required to maintain speed. Over a small drop and you hit a hip jump up onto the banking on the left and then come back down to the track. Here the track turns round the corner of the hill and goes down a couple of small shoots with loose soil where the banking is falling away.

A small rock jump takes you through a gap in an old stone wall and onto the final sprint. Keeping high all the time you go down to a section with rough, wave like bumps and then turn sharp right onto a drop over a long rock slab. Crossing the road leads you down onto the final jump which lands in a field. Down the field and you go through the only two trees on the track, cross a bumpy fire road and go round the last flat and grassy right hand corner through the finish line.

In the seeding run on Saturday afternoon Ben finished 6th in the youth category. After some rain on Saturday night the dust had settled well and come Sunday afternoon the track had dried out a lot again. The top section of the track was very windy so care was required on the jumps but Ben put in a clean race run with a time of 2:46.87 and finished in 7th place missing out on a podium finish by just 2 seconds.