Descend Hamsterley Winter Series Rnd 1

First i should apologise for the delay in this post as the event was last week but I've had one of those weeks when it feels like you have been busy as hell but when you actually look back on your week you haven't done that much at all.....so sorry for my laziness..

The Descend Hamsterley Winter Series Rnd 1 is the first part of 3rnds downhill mountain biking in witch you can gain points and use to enter the coming NPS (National Points Series) and also to keep you biking during the crappy weather.

I rocked up on the Friday night to a place called frosterley where i would be staying with Jammy a lad who i had met in France this year doing the Megaavalanche, I met his father then the two of us headed to the local pub for a pint and a game of pool to catch up on things, while we were in the pub we got asked if we wanted to enter into a raffle for a mixed grill! we were both up for it until we found out you only won the meat, so that meant cooking the grill yourself!! bollocks to that. We got ourselves loaded up on Noby's peanuts and headed home for an early night.

Saturday morning we headed to Hamsterley where I met Ed and Andy 2 other lads who i had met in France Andy would be staying with us at Jammy's so that was good also i met up again with Rob Young whom i had also met in France through ED , Callum,Bonga and Ross locals on the NPS And SDA scene who i had met through a mate .

 The weather was pretty bleak, it had been pouring don during the night there was grey cloud covering the sky but spirits were high and i was eager to get on the track and start riding. After a few runs i was soaked and covered in mud but was starting to get the hang of the lower section with it's rock garden, drop offs and off camber shoots. After about 3 runs i decided to really let go and see how i felt doing a full run at almost race speed, so off i went pedalling like a maniac on the first section which is like a big freeride section with lots of pedaling some berms, drops, rock sections and massive 28ft table finished off by no brainier road gap and onto the fun stuff (Well the kinda stuff i like) mud, rocks and roots. I came into the Woods fast and made it over the roots no problem then headed onto the rock sections which I was finding pretty grippy and made some good speed on this section i hit a couple of drops and felt good, i tried to take one corner to fast and made a mess of and tried to sort myself out for the next section of drops but came up short and ended up over the handle bars to everyones amusement watching Ha Ha Ha (not!!) I picked the bike up and realised i had bent the axle in my pedal and ended up doing he rest of the track on one pedal.

Although this is a short course due to the landscape  the guys down at Hamsterley need a massive pat on the back as the tracks are great fun and technically challenging, Well done lads.

 

By mid afternoon everyone had done about 4 runs and the weather was very poor it had started raining and people were heading home early as the track and the conditions were worsoning (pussy's) and people were making more mistakes or just sick of not being able to see out there goggles, i took mine off after as i found it was a lot easier to see what was going on although with the first section being fast and pedally and the weather being cold sometimes it made your eye's water and that's not a good thing!!!

I got going again about 13:30 and after damaging my pedal changed from flats to SPD's, my first run down my brakes were making an awful noise but i disregarded it as grit and grime in-between the pads and disc, I had a crap run crashing through a barrier on the track with my mate Callum standing watching, i felt like a wright mincer!! My next couple of runs went OK and i was starting to feel comfortable in my SPD's again.

My brakes were starting to sound even worse and the last run or two i was sure that they weren't stopping me as well as they were in the morning, however the end of the day was upon us as the dark sky's called and early stop to the day due to low light. 

So it was 3pm and time to head home.  While getting ready to leave the weather suddenly changed and turned bitterley cold, then, it started snowing everyone was rushing to get into there vans non  more so than Callum, Ross and bonga 3 mates who were camping the weekend and i had lent my Genny and heater too.

On Saturday night Andy,Jammy and myself  went to the local pub and met up with Bonga and the boys for some grub then us three were heading into Darlington to see the first showing of 3Focus which turned out to be OK but not what i had expected, still good though.

That night the snow lashed down and i was certain the race would be cancelled but Jammy was a bit more optimistic. 

Come the morning the Race was cancelled as the weather was as low as -3 and the roads were covered in snow which made it almost impossible to get someone out safely if they were injured.

Some people stayed and rode the top section which was OK, so a few of us stayed and watched for a bit along with Danny Hart (Team Lappiere) who Callum was winding up to get his bike out and style it on the big table top but his Dad wouldn't let him lol.We were just about to head off went this guy rode down and started puling massive whips no hander's and a superman everyone was buzzing so it was a good way to end a poor day due to the weather.

Oscar de la Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao

GMANews.TV

Oscar de la Hoya threw in the towel before the start of the ninth round, giving the huge upset win to Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao's victory was officially a technical knockout. Just a year ago, Pacquiao facing de la Hoya appeared an improbable prospect. Pacquiao's victory over his iconic opponent on Sunday (Saturday, US time) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas could not have been thinkable in a lifetime. In a virtual passing of the torch, Pacquiao seized the mantle as boxing's top draw away from de la Hoya, the acknowledged king of pay-per-view TVNow, meet boxing's new Golden Boy."He deserves all the credit. He was the better man. He deserves all the accolades," de la Hoya said."He's just a great fighter. I have nothing to say bad about him. He prepared well," he added."I'm not shocked. At this stage, it's almost expected. I worked hard. I trained hard. But being here and training at the gym is different.

"In the eighth round, Pacquiao kept de la Hoya bouncing back against the ropes for much of the round. As the commentators put it, Pacquiao has been landing more punches than De la Hoya, who seemed reluctant to let go, as if waiting for his opponent to come and in and expose himself. Both fighters started the World Boxing Council (WBC) bout tentative in their moves as they sized each other up, but De la Hoya was visibly a bit more tense than Pacquiao. Pacquiao managed to sneak in several punches to De la Hoya's face in the first round, putting his fans into a frenzy of cheers. The Golden Boy had some trouble landing his punches on the visibly quicker Pacman.The fighters went through the third round with a slightly slower pace, but with Pacquiao keeping his aim at the Golden Boy's face. Pacman landed a solid jab smack into De la Hoya's face at one point.The fourth to seventh rounds went through in a similar pace, with Pacquiao landing more punches, mostly in De la Hoya's face. Halfway through the round Pacquiao had De la Hoya backed in a corner, attacking him with a flurry of punches. De la Hoya ended the seventh round with a burst of energy, but as the bell rang he was visibly winded, with a swelling under the left eye. - GMANews.TV

Megaavalanche Video From 2008

Here is a video of me doing a section of the qualifier on the megaavalanche route 2008


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsJwJ2z-LBQ

BOS Shocks

When the great excitment came that BOS would be back in the game with mountain bike suspension i was really excited and could't wait to get my hands on there forks and shocks.

It was June when the BOS Stoy hit the uk shores via Tf Tuned and i got one ordered for my socom straight away at a cost of £500. As normal with TF the Stoy came the next day and after i looked at it for about and hour i decided to fit it and give it a go. The shock worked brilliant and i'm not one who you hear talking all kinds of shit about how the bars give better feedback how the tyres roll great and how my new seat post is making all the difference, i mena sioome guy came up to me at the last uplfift at innerleithen and asked my what i thought of my Funn cranks i had on!!!! i just looked at him and said "well there just cranks".

Anyways back to the BOS business the shock did make a difference you could feel the back end hold the ground alot better and it felt grreat on heavy landings so i was happy as larry.

While out in France (3weeks after getting the shock) i cracked my socom and was unable to use the bike or the shock i phoned Intense and they said that the Frame would be replaced so out came the Visa card and i bought an M6 with the intentions of selling my new socom to cover some of the visa bill. Obviously the shock length is ddifferent on the M6 to the socom so i needed to have the shaft taken out the stoy and replaced with a longer one. I phoned Tf Tuned and they said no worries the parts are not in from BOS but they would have the parts to complete the conversion within the month, so i was happy with that and sent the shock down to get done.

Well its now December and the stoy is still sitting on a shelf at Tf Tuned ( No fault of Tf Tuned) the French pricks at BOS have still not delivered any spare parts for the stoy shock's and Tim at TF has been trying his hardest to sort it but has no luck with them.

There was a recent rally report that said Subaru rally team had just dropped BOS because of supply problems and at times had to fix there own problems with the shocks.

I hope this is not a sign of things to come BOS and I will not be buying anything they send out now if this is the kind of customer support you recive from them, its a shame because it looks good and worked well i think il just stick with the main brands in the future.

Sam hill and Brendan fairclough riding for Specialized

Well i never thought that Sam hill would end up at Specialized and i was shocked when Brendan followed him, that boy has been with more companies and been on more bikes than i have had hot dinners.

I hope Brendan does well though signs of his speed came through at the last world cup race.

Good Luck on yer Demo 8's boys