NPS Round 1 - Ae Forest

26/27th April 2008

Walking the track on Friday night proved to be a good idea as the first straight didn’t follow the original start line instead it went across the moors through boggy and wet marshland and heather. Round the first right hand corner and through a pile of rocks led you onto another new section. Here there was a long straight section of what turned out to be a bog of wheel swallowing, axle deep mud. With some track alterations to the corner preceding this section on the Saturday afternoon, new lines emerged and some ‘cleaner’ ones became evident. Through a left hander and some more sloppy mud and you’re back onto the original track going left and right round some tight trees. Here the track again went into another new section of tight trees and roots which were a disadvantage for wide bar riders like me. Some of the worse roots were cut out during Saturday and ruts formed making the section slightly easier enabling you to carry speed out to the original rock garden and stream crossing.

Round the switchbacks and boosting some style out of the big double went down into the pinball section with muddy ruts and 3 big stumps to avoid in the fastest possible way. Round some more rutted corners and left down the road drop leads down to the road crossing. After a short sprint you jump down through the rock garden and left into the woods. Going right through the old wooded section was fast and furious, avoiding some trees with your shoulders. A new right hand corner with plenty of roots lead you onto the off camber section. With a nice rut forming to hold you on the top line and the track drying out by Sunday afternoon thanks to the sun, this section proved to be fast and flowing.

Round some final switchbacks and into the famous step down and the two huge berms. Over a small double jump and keeping the tyres stuck to the ground, round the final right hander leading you over the wall and down the final elevator drop into the finish arena.

After drinking plenty of Monster Energy on Sunday morning I set out to the uplift and went down to see the bog section before my run. As Sunday morning had proven to be a bad day for me I took the top section with some care then pinned the bottom section keeping all feet on pedals on the off camber. 2:58.6 was my time and 19th place, a decent result for the start of the series.

Looking forward to representing the team alone at Fort William. My best result last year, hopefully again