NPS Series, Round 4, Moelfre, 10th August 2008

With dad taking the day off work on Friday we headed up early and arrived in a field at 1:30pm and the sun was shining. After spending about half an hour deciding where to park we spent a further half hour attempting to level out the van on what seemed to be a 45 degree slope. Finally we got set up and got the easy-up tied down so I went for a walk of the track. From the top of the hill the track went round some off camber corners with a drop in but due to the bad weather and high winds at the top, the start line was moved down to the quarry drop 200 metres down. Pedalling off the start you go round a big dip in the ground and it’s a sprint round the first 3 corners which were all cut inside on the grass. Round to the left on a grassy corner and you go off a small drop and into two big double jumps which fortunately were sheltered by the banking so you could jump them.

From here you go through a series of switchbacks and down a set of small, off camber drops which wind down the side of the valley and into the road crossing. Due to high winds, 99% of the riders didn’t even bother to try the road gap so you do two smaller jumps instead. Crossing the road you go down into a bomb-hole and then back up onto the side of the valley. Here you have a sprint all the way along the side of the valley consisting of rocky ground and some small but fast drops and a bus stop jump. Round the end of the valley takes you through a broken down wall and onto a long off camber section keeping high and putting a few pedal strokes in to make up time. The right hand corner before the road crossing was very off camber and only got a decent rut dug into it by the end of Sunday’s runs. Off the rock slab and over the fire road you go over the inside of a double, trying to keep low to avoid the wind. Keeping a road tuck position down the field and cranking the pedals leads you through the trees, past the ticket2ride team van and over the final launch through the finish line.

On Saturday the rain came down hard for most of the day and the track was getting to the stage of being a bog in places. Several clean kits later and Saturday practice was over. That evening there was a long jump contest held on the launch jump in the field. When the prize was announced as a crate of Monster energy and £60 I decided to give it a shot. Several flat landings later I came 3rd in the long jump clearing 39 feet, just 3 inches off the win. Gutted!!



Bubba’s got nothin on this boy!!! (Photo courtesy of www.fastlanephotography.co.uk)

Sunday was better than Saturday with the sun finally coming out before racing started. As there was no seeding it was number order and I was one of the last juniors down. I sprinted off the line all the way down to the switchbacks and then kept a low profile to reduce the drag from the wind. At the top Joe Flanagan had a skin suit and no peak on so I was determined to prove this as a false concept. I did this and came through in a time of 2:23.842 and I got 10th place in junior, beating Joe by 5 seconds.



The added bonus of being parked next to the Monster energy speakers gave me a few headaches but the music was at least very good. Now driving home in the van I’m enjoying my last few hours as a 16 year old. So tomorrow, “watch out there’s another idiot on the road”, in the words of Steve.