Innerleithen Alpine Bikes Winter round 2

One month on and we were back for the second and final round of the Alpine Bikes winter series at Innerleithen. Dad and myself arrived on Friday afternoon at around 8 o’clock and after taking our bags to the B&B, we immediately headed for the pub. This weekend the team were all meeting at glentress to have a ride so we met up with some of the guys and had a game or two of darts. Team Moorhouse were victorious.

On Saturday morning I walked the bottom section of the track and then met up with Steve for practice. After about 3 corners we agreed that not walking the track was maybe not the best decision of the weekend. From the start it went to the left through the dark woods and down the steep rocky section from the NPS in 2008. With some new lines being added and the track being taped very wide it made for some interesting line choices. Coming down a new section onto the road crossing you go to the right and down a long chute over a garden of roots which proved difficult for many riders over the day. This section was slightly cambered and proved difficult to get right every run. After this you’re onto the faster motorway sections winding down over some natural steps and round root filled camber sections before pedalling hard along the open section with 2 bus stops along the way. Keeping youre speed out of the second bus stop it’s a sprint out into the sunlight and jumping back into the woods you keep low through the tight trees.

Now it’s a sprint down to the road crossing and over the fly off before sprinting back up to the right and into over the small doubles. Now the track has two options. Left and through the tight trees for some riders. Or right and low for those riders with slightly wider bars shall we say. Jumping down onto the bridleway you then let off the brakes and use your drifting skills for a while. A technique which scared the life out of me in my race run. Shoulders scrubbing trees down the steep wooded section lets you launch the step down into the open air and over the smaller jumps next to the red bull run. Over the hip and blasting down the breaking bumps into the arena leads over the root jump and down the elevator drop which took some riders out over the day. Here there was another drop onto a rut which was inches deep in thick mud and caught me out a few times in practice. Round the final flat corner and sprinting over the line finishes your run.

After some much needed practice on Saturday and Sunday morning I headed up for my race run. With even more of the team being here to watch I felt I had to perform. I had a good run and felt fast on a lot of sections however some sections were cautious. I finished with a time of 3:27.791 and 2nd place in Juniors. With my result from round 1 this left me in 3rd place for the series overall.