I have had a great few days in Viborg, Denmark, with the guys from www.trialaction.dk. They have created an incredible place to ride out here and such an inspiring community of riders. There are heaps of young riders here, completely the opposite to the UK scene. Its an inspiration and has been created by Ole Kristenson. I hope one day we will have somewhere like this in every town! It’s been so good to train and chill with my friends from the world circuit, like Abel Mustielles (World Champion), Jonas Kristiansen Danish Champion), Joacim Nymann (Swedish Champion) and Eirik Ulltang (Norwegian Champion), just to mention a few! Seems like the Skandanavian countries are leadin the way with trials at the moment, especially with their National Champs being aired live on TV!
Such a great trio and I can’t wait to return already! Big thanks to everyone involced for making it such a good trip!
So in 2014, probably the biggest, hardest longest most challenging and rewarding weekend was in August for the Prudential Ride London world record day. We custom built a full course of sections and specially built a load of euipment to break 8 world records! We achieved 7 in the end and all walked away with world records. We had arguably the best 6 trials riders in the world there and it was such a great event. The wether for the record day was superb and the crowds were really into the event and got behind us. Check out the videos below for a low down on the event.
So, the 2014 World Champsin Lillehammer were pretty awesome. The event team did a great job in producing some really fun and challenging sections. It definately wasn’t my best event of the year, placing 9th place in the 26″ category and 13th in the 20″ category. Unfortunately I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffered concussion and a bad head injury the day before I flew to Norway. I could barely put my helmet onn for the first few days. But I had an awesome trip and learnt allot from this year. Next year I will make sure I have the week before the worlds to rest and not let some stupid drunk guy ruin my year! I also got to catch up with my new team mate Thomas Remvik Aasen, or TRA for short. He is one of, if not the most, powerful riders in the world. He isn’t really into the competition scene as its too much cardio for him! haha. But its was great to get a couple days riding in with him. He is also a top photographer, so we did a few shots by the river and below a huge dam. The results speak for themselves, check them out below……
Its always nice to do shows so close to home and we had a greate crowd down on the Quayside in Exeter for the UnEXpected festival set up by Exeter City Council. Despite the weather being very cold and quite wet we put on four great shows and had some great crowds with lots of kids getting involved and getting the bikes between shows.
Thanks again the Mark Campbell from On the Mark Photography for the great shots of the event!
This year we were at the start of the Tour of Britain, for the 6th year running! We had such a cool location for the show with Jack Gear and Joe Seddon and myself, Andrei. We set up just next to the start line on the Beach on Sidmouth Sea Front and were right next to some of the rocks that we ride on in our spare time. It made for a great back drop and gave us a challenging and interesting area to work with. The crowds were absolutely fantastic and made so much noise. It was really nice for me to be back in the UK and doing shows again after being abroad so much this year for other events. Check out some of the great shots taken by On the Marc Photography!
Each year, in a little town called cahors in France, they organise an urban motorbike trials competition with all of the best riders from around the world. For the last few years they have had a biketrials competition on the saturday evening. The mountainbike riders have to ride exactly the same sections as the motorbikes! It has a different format to normal trials events, using the french open-free format. where you gain points through section, the harder the obstacle, the more points you get. This is the best format for the spectators and is great for the riders aswell. It was a great event and I placed 5th at the ned, but the whole field was world champions and was a very high level competition. We all had a great time and put on a great show for the crowd. Check out the shots! We also rode a big speed trials competition after the main competition, I ended up in second place just being beaten by Vincent Hermance at the last second!
So, round 4 of the UCI Trials World Cup was not so good for me. The sections were great and teh organisation was perfect. Unfortunately I just made too many mistakes and couldn’t keep my concentration. I ended up in 13th place. But this meant I ended up Comentating the Super final for French television. I had allot of great feedback about my comentary, but for sure I would rather be riding the super final! Still, all in all it was a great weekend in the Alps.
So I have been in Belgium for the last round of the UCI Trials World cup, held in the city centre of Antwerp. The competition has been held here for 4 uyears in a row now and has gotten better every year. It was a great turn out with 130 of the best riders in the world from 19 countries! The sections were set out really well, if a little confusing with so many turns, but it made for a very technical competition. I qualified in 4th place with just 8 points in total. In the semi finals I had a great first lap and with is 4th place with just 5 penalty points. But I made a mistake in the rock section which cost me 5 extra points on the second lap which dropped me all the way to 10th place! the results were so close, just one 1 point less and I would have been in the final! I finished on the same points as the Hungarian Champion Lazlo Hegedus and he sneaked ahaead of me with more cleans. This leaves me in 10th place in the world cup at the end of the season. After only competing in one round last year I was in 40th place or something at the start of the year, so I have done well to climb back up through the ranks. Now its time to train hard through the winter and come back even stronger next year.
I wen tround the finals with fellow british rider Jack Carthy, this years Junior World Champion. After dropping 15 points on his first lap he had allot to make up on the second lap to get to the Super-Finals, but he did it, with just 3 points!!! All of which were on time! So he cleared every obstacle an went through in 1st place, just one point infront of Gilles Coustellier. Jack rode like a machine in the super final dropping just 6 points in the 4 sections and won the competition 10 points clear of 2nd place! Jack is the first new winner of a major international competition in 10 years! breaking the rign of Gilles Coustellier, Vincent Hermance and Kenny Beleay. And he is just 17 years old! i think he has a great future ahead of him and it also gives me great motivation for next year. Huge well done to jack for his efforts and he finishes in 3rd place in the world cup at the end of the season.
Concrete Section
Harbour section, thanks to Marc Coen for the photo!
After Jack took the win, thanks to Tribal Zine for the photo!
So, it has been a crazy week out here in South Africa. The sections are absolutely fantastic. They have been set up to have a real South African them, so each section has a them, such as Giraffe, Zebra and even a huge section that is actually “South Africa”! The weather has also been crazy, for the semi finals it has been up in the 30 degrees area, so a real full on challenge as there is no shade in the area. The sections have been very challenging and very different to the European style world cups, as they are far more technical. There have still been some big power moves in every section, but each section has very little rest.
So I first rode 20″ semi-finals on Wednesday. After just one days practice on my 20″ in the last year, I was not expecting allot from my result, I more did it as a fun competition as I have travelled all the way out here. After my first two laps I had some really silly 5’s on a couple sections I should have cleaned, so I assumed I was way off the pace for the finals. Then, on the third lap, when I arrived at the last section I was on just 4 points! Erwin Bos from Holland told me if I had just one point I could be in the finals. The pressure was on as I had a 5 in the section on the second lap. I rode strong and commited my mind to it and managed to get one point! I qualified for the finals in 7th place!!! I was so happy! It had made my trip already!
On Thursday I had to ride the 26″ semi finals, I felt like the pressure was on a little bit as I had made finals in 20″ and that is not my actual category, but I relaxed and figured I had a cheived my goal of being top 8 in the world already. So I rode and tried almost every move, clearing some of the hardest of moves, but again, I made a few mistakes and took 5’s on the first two laps, having 9 on the first lap and 11 on the second. With such a strong feild I was quite far down the pack. Somewhoe on the last lap I pulled it all back, finishing with a lap of just 3 points! One of the bext laps from any rider. This flew me into the finals placing 7th! Honestly it felt like a lifetime waitingf or the other riders to hand in their score cards! One of my goals in my riding career was to be a double finalist in the world championships and I have finally achieved it! It am so so happy to be able to ride in both categories.
So, as the 20″ finals approached, the weather started to cloud over and get cold, really misty. Then, the heavens opened and it poored down, reluctantly we all warmed up and prepared for the finals. As I had very little experience on 20″ wheels I was not sure what was ppossible in the rain. I tried my best and after the first lap felt quite comfortable, but it was already a little late to start riding well. I had a great time and ALLOT of fun. I had allot of support from the Aussies and Dutch guys in the Audience which was great! i pulled off some great moves and overall I was happy with my riding. I finished in 8th place and this is my first ever World Championship final, and it wa sin 20″!!!
The nest day was the turn of the 26″. I actually felt pretty good despite already competing for 3 days. No real tiredness of aches and pains. Fortunately the weather was perfect. I went round the Junior 26″ finals with fellow Brit Jack Carthy. He rode like a machine and stormed his way to the Junior World Champion title. I warmed up and felt good, the sections were long and technical, which I think suits how I ride quite well. It all went quite well, apart from just two moves in the whole competition, bith pedal-ups to hooks. They cost me a total of 18 points in the final!!! that would have jumped me way up the results. But its shows where my weaknesses are and now I have to work on them through the winter for next year. I ended up in 6th place which I am so happy about.
All in all it was a great trip to Pietermaritzbourg and I would like to say a huge huge thanks to Kim Phillips and his family for putting me up and being such great hosts. I am sure they had a big impact on my results by making me feel so at home and welcome. Kim was also responsible for building the trials course and they did a fantastic job! So again a massive well done for that Kim, and his son Bruce!
So, although it was a fantastic competition Pra Loup this year on the 26th to the 28th July, as always, I had a bit of a bad day and ended up in 12th place in the Semi-finals. Although I cleared every obstacle through the day, my riding just wasn’t consistant enough. Looking onwards to the next competition now. And of course all of my events in the mean time!
