Top work team weeksy!
Have a good journey back.
Great result. 👍👍👍
👌👍 Well done that man. Keep up the good work.
Well there's an epic almost over. We're in a £31 Travelodge tonight near Preston as it's a bit far to do in 1 hit.
I guess it's a bit of a write up time. The race weekend is a weird thing, on Thurs I was lying in the van snoozing after the drive up from Weds night, completely chilled and relaxed. Bike was sweet, I was content.
But by Friday things change a little as more people arrive and the laps grow in number, he did 13 over the Thurs and Fri and did his first rim of the weekend.
It was a Nukeproof Neutron and fairly old, so not a major shock but transpired to be a bit complex. He's running 27.5 on the back now and we only have 2, but still have 2 spare 29s of course.
The complexity came from the ERD, effective rim diameter, this is what dictates the spoke length and 554 is apparently not that common so non of the rims we could lay out hands on were correct. Usually one of the wheel guys has a spike cutter so could have made them, but he'd forgotten it. Long chats took place and a paddock mate arranged for 5 Reserve rims to come up at 7am on Sat morning. They were 556 ERD so compatible.
The rim was sorted while he was out practicing and trying to go fast on Sat morning, his times were decent he felt and the sunshine was helping us all.
Seeding, well that brought rain of course, after 2.5 days of dry practice, seeding was wet. But he stuck in P15 which then somehow changed to P13, weird, but brilliant.
When you think back to his National race and his P2, lots of the top runners were out at Loudenville so missing the British round, so at best we thought P15 realistically for the National Champs. A few of the big hitters had DNF so they'd be off first in Cat on Sunday.
Sat night was the usual banter and chat and talking rubbish with beers. I stuck a new gear cable in his as he was having issues. He'd also killed his 2nd wheel of the weekend so it was off to buy another Reserve rims and another Nukeproof went in the bin.
Sat night brought a lot of rain, with the morning rainy and storms predicted so they move practice 2 hours shorter and race runs accordingly. He was now running the Reserve on the back with a Kryptotal super soft. I'd been re tensioning the Nukeproof after every run with an average of 4-6 loose spikes showing 5 or less on the Park Tools tension gauge. But the Reserve was holding up ok thought practice. Instead of me chilling in the back of van or snoozing in the chair you're up and about all the time, walking to see the rider, the runs, checking he's ok and wheels are ok.
After run1 of practice he was complaining about the gears still, I noticed his mech was ridiculously stiff on the arm, so I whipped it off and threw on another, with a new inner, but it seems that one was removed previously as it was knackered so a 3rd mech came out and I got them sorted of acceptable. I'd checked the hanger with DAG and it was straight but the gears were still a bit crap. I need to find out why.
He went up in the rain, but he was dry as he'd had a shower and clean kit after the drenching of practice. fed and watered he was ready.
We have a bit of a thing before he heads off with a fast bump and "go fast" before every run, practice or races. Some weird reason I forgot and as I walked away, he goes "I don't know what to do" ..... "Go fast mate, go fast" it brought a little lump to my throat that sometimes he's still a small boy inside
Race runs are fraught with massive tension, especially the biggest race of the season, not that we expected the jersey or even top 10 (or 20 lol) but they're still tense, especially at Fort William. As the riders come down 1 by 1 Felix Griffiths was sitting in the hot seat. I see his rival George on the timing sheet as setting off, they're currently sitting in P1 and P2 in the overall British DH rankings, which is mostly because the fast lads are at WCs.
George popped in with a 5m 10 which was quicker than his seeding run by a fair bit, even in worse conditions.
I'm waiting for the boy and he pops into sight, I glance at the clock and he's looking ok. He drops in 4th at the time with a 4m 59, his target was a sub 5, so job done. He was happy as he's also beaten George, not only his rival but his mate. Our out mate Isaac was already down with a good time which ended up 25th.
Obviously after his seeding run there were still 12 more riders to come down so he's drop places of course from P4.
To put into context there were 9 current World Cup Juniors present this weekend.
As it all played out the boy ended P12 and we were thoroughly ecstatic with that, a damn good job
It cost me a small fortune this weekend with 3 broken rims, 1 crap mech and 4000 litres of diesel but it's all worth it lol. Every penny.
Well done James and Team Weeks 👍
It's time for a bit of fun for him...
https://www.mbuk.com/articles/nominate-your-mbuk-rider-of-the-year-2025
Nomination time for MBUK Newcomer of the Year has been requested by one of his sponsors, as well of course as submitting the boy for this.
I don't know if nominations from 'everyday Joe' counts for much, but it can't hurt 🙂
If you fancy nominating him based upon his exploits, well, crack on, we'd all appreciate it
Reserve have a decent warranty policy should you need it in the future: https://reservewheels.com/pages/rider-support
Reserve have a decent warranty policy should you need it in the future: https://reservewheels.com/pages/rider-support
Indeed mate, that's exactly why we bought these particular rims instead of a few other options. But thanks for the pointer anyway
Reserve have a decent warranty policy should you need it in the future: https://reservewheels.com/pages/rider-support
Indeed mate, that's exactly why we bought these particular rims instead of a few other options. But thanks for the pointer anyway
I did almost edit my response to say 'when' rather than 'should' 🤣
Fingers crossed the warranty is good, I have a set of Reserve Alu wheels and 3 sets of Fillmore valves. partially down to the warranty (Santa Cruz are usually pretty good). I did get a Roval (Specialized) rim replaced under their 2 year no quibble warranty last year after denting it landing on a root.
5 minutes lol
However that was seeding on Sat, it did whole of Sunday including race run looking exactly like that. It'll come off tomorrow but that's kinda good, kinda bad. Lol.
So we've now got 7 days until we have to leave for Spain. Honestly at the moment i'm pretty fried, mentally and physically. It all just takes it out of you. So we've canned any away-day riding this weekend and i'll just ride locally.
We've got a list of jobs as always but i'm sending the bike out to Rotec for them so i can just chill. There's nothing i can't do myself, but at the moment i'm just done 😀
Gearing issues, i don't know if it's outer or mech, but it's just not quite right in all gears. I went to fit a new outer yesterday but somehow i have brake outer, not gear outer. GRRRRRR. I think potentially i need a new spare mech to take with us to Spain as well.
Wheel/rim. That needs stripping and a new rim fitting. Not sure if we'll get the Reserve back from warranty in time so it'll get built with whatever Rotec has/orders for now. If the Reserve comes in time it'll go with us in a box just in case.
After that it's really just a check-over and strip/sort. Things are getting a bit bonkers (aren't they always).
So we drive to Spain next week, we've got 4 days in La Molina for the European Champs, then on the Monday it's driving straight to Pal Arinsal Andorra for the day on the WCDH track for him.
After that we drive to Morzine for 11 days. Then leaving on the Thurs and driving straight to Llangollen for the British National from the Friday onwards. Eventually we'll get back on the Sunday night and collapse.
I'm hoping Morzine is a bit more 'holiday' for me than some years, i don't think i'll be riding nearly as much as i may once have done, i'll be in the pool chilling and relaxing a bit i think.... but i'll get some riding in for sure as i've got mates out at the same time.
I did the MBUK thing & it froze when I submitted it.
Thanks for trying mate, appreciate it... It worked OK yesterday.
I did the MBUK thing & it froze when I submitted it.
Thanks for trying mate, appreciate it... It worked OK yesterday.
Also just tried and the page just hung.
As an aside I'd just like to mention that I voted for Wyn as the legend, just because he is.
Agree 100% with that.
I did the MBUK thing & it froze when I submitted it.
Let's get on their forum and give 'em hell! 😅
So here's how today's conversation with Reserve went
"Oh, that's a shame you've dented it, please destroy the rim, the new one will be with you tomorrow "
Can't really ask for much more can we. So it'll get rebuilt tomorrow afternoon and ready for next week
That’s good news! I do like my Reserve’s, would definitely recommend to anyone else looking for an alternative to DTSwiss.
It'll be interesting to see how they hold up in the real world. Fort William is such a complete and utter stand-alone instance of a track and destruction, so isn't really a fair comparison as to how wheels will manage a season etc.. but they've been 100% good to their word, which is all i ask. Rotec should be on the case and getting it built once it lands and then getting the gears made sweet.
Once all that is done and the bike is collected i can start getting it loaded up and prepped for Spain next week.
It'll be interesting to see how they hold up in the real world. Fort William is such a complete and utter stand-alone instance of a track and destruction, so isn't really a fair comparison as to how wheels will manage a season etc.
I've been running a DTSwiss 350 / AL30 wheelset for just over a year (bought after denting the Roval rim on my Kenevo SL which was replace under the Roval 2 year warranty). They've done 2 weeks in Morzine on my uplift bike and ride most weeks on my Kenevo, still running straight with only the usual cosmetic marks from stones/rocks pinging off them (caveat that in the SE it's mostly roots rather than rocks).
So I know people have said about the rankings not counting for anything, I've often disagreed with that.
However that said, I understand that several riders haven't been racing as much in the UK due to WC rides.
So this is the current BC rankings after National Champs.
Today we got an email with the below. Whilst it's not quite the WC jersey, it's a big big chance
Selection is for
Les Gets
Lenzerheide
Mont Saint Anne
Lake Placid
Dear Rider
You have been selected as a Reserve Rider for the British National Team for all of the rounds that you have applied for from Rd 7 to 10 of the DHI UCI World Series.
Great news!
You should all be very proud of what you've achieved.
Well done 👍
Wow, that seems a pretty massive deal, the recognition of all the effort and progress. Well done James and team.
But there goes your holiday allowance and bank balance 🙋😂
Wow, that seems a pretty massive deal, the recognition of all the effort and progress. Well done James and team.
But there goes your holiday allowance and bank balance 🙋😂
Both of those are a massive thing yes. It looks like my holiday in Morzine may now not happen and i'll have to fly back 10 days early after European Champs and head for work, leaving Mrs Weeksy and the boy there instead. I dunno, we're weighing up all the considerations and options. It's a tricky one as obviously it relies on circumstances outside of our control for us to get there, so i could end up not having the holiday and not getting the ride and then, well, i've missed out 😀
But this is of course the 'dream', the goal and the everything we've worked for. I chat to the boy regularly just to make sure it's HIS dream we're chasing, not mine, i'm pretty convinced that it's as much his as anything 😀
So anyway, we've got to put this to one side at the moment as there's nothing we can do about it. It will be whatever it will (or won't be) and nothing we can change.
So we're onto 'NEXT' thing which is the European Championships. This is being held next weekend in La Molina (Spain).
We're driving there next Wed morning in the Transit as always.
Today the bike was picked up from Rotec, it got a fair bit of TLC
New Chain
New Cassette
New GX 7 speed DH mech
New brake lever
New gear outer
New gear inner
Reserve rim installed.
It's running like a dream of course with all the new shiny bits on there, i do envy the Pro teams who get all of this week in week out, that would be LOVELY lol but there's only so much i can manage.
Obviously we've never been to La Molina, but neither will have 90% of the field, they did hold the Spanish Nationals there last weekend but not sure if it'll be the same layout or not. But watching some videos it looks like a track that won't be completely radical to what he likes, so with a bit of luck he'll be OK. The place has a swimming pool complex, nearby shops and stuff, so we won't starve over the 4 days there.
As you'd expect there's likely to be some big players in the juniors and hopefully senior rankings, so he'll have to find something of his A game. We'll do what we can, but i think we're pretty prepared.
Somewhat amusing one today when we were out.
"Bikes making a horrible clunky noise"
So he goes over a root garden and yeah can hear it. Sounds like the end of the bloody world lol.
I take off his bottle, cage and tool bag.
Still the same.
I feel headset and think "is that slightly loose"
So go to get his multi tool out of the bag and the bag is empty.
"Oh I only used it earlier to lift my seat"
"Is it the multi tool in the frame then???"
"Oh yeah, so it is "
Crisis over 😁😁😁
So once again it's the weekend of the European Championships.
Spain this time and La Molina as the location, but i don't know whether this will be the layout for it. But it was the layout a couple of weeks ago for the National Champs, so maybe a basis on a theme.
Hot take on La Molina:
Apart from the Catalan+Spanish champs the other weekend, nobody has ever ridden that track. It's brand new. Steep off camber up top (probably) and a flat motorway where it cuts across the green ski piste before the finish line (definitely).
The "supermarkets" in the resort aren't all that, so stop off at the Carrefour in Puigcerda for fresh meat, veg, etc.
See you on Thursday!
Awesome stuff, we were planning on doing a Carrefour on the way in, we're over in Chateauroux on Weds evening, then making the final drive on Thurs morning. I've got a massive pit of 10x5m as our mate has spannered himself at Les Orres this weekend and is heading home after surgery on his wrist which is now pinned and plated.
I think we're pretty much all good in terms of organisation, but i'll be we forget something. 😀
If my weather app is right at the moment, it could make the off camber roots/woods somewhat ridiculous 😀
Gazebo should make us easy to find in the paddock i hope 🙂
Deffo drop over this year for a chat and a beer matey.
Will do!
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot something major. You'll save 20cts per litre in Spain compared to the cheapest French supermarket petrol station. In Andorra it costs even less.
Will do!
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot something major. You'll save 20cts per litre in Spain compared to the cheapest French supermarket petrol station. In Andorra it costs even less.
Oh nice to know, thanks mate, not sure we'll get all the way to Spain on what we have in the tank, but we have to get breakfast on Thurs morning, so will throw in enough to get to Spain from there and then see what we can do. We're heading to Andorra on Monday if he's still healthy to spend the day on the WC track, so could fill up there for the trip to Morzine.
The day started simply, nice drive to Folkestone, then train. It was when we got to Paris that this went decidedly ropey. Why Paris you ask, well we're staying in Chateauxroux tonight and the Sat Nav took us through outskirts of Paris. It wasn't too bad until we appeared at a set of toll gates and height restrictions. It was apparently 6'0 and the Transit JUST fitted.
"It'll be fine" 👍
This ended up being a pitch dark 10k. Tunnel with signs that kept hitting the aerial! It was eye wateringly tight ! I was thinking, "any second now the van is going to be opened like a tin of sardines"
By the end of the 10km I was sweating and it was just hell.
We're now sitting outside a random Irish bar before going for food.
Bloody hell having a vegetarian in France and Spain isn't easy lol.
Wow, that's some trip. Good luck with the racing!
I thought your gazebo had shrunk, then realised the image was stretched in the previous pic.
First run, grumble, grumble, don't like the track blah blah.
Second run, likes it more, it's now moved to "it's alright"
It's not all hard work. While he was having lunch I went for a swim. But by jeepers it was cold
Try a lake of glacial melt water! I have never been so cold swiming!
7 runs of practice for him, all done.
We've been trying a few things with LSC on the front, he's ended now 1 click more of that.
We tried a different front tyre but he wanted a newer one for optimal grip, so a new Kryptotal front has gone on.
The headset/front end fit creakier as the day progressed, so that was all stripped, checked, cleaned and put back together.
Checked all pads and they're ok, although the back may be dead by Sunday, so will keep an eye on them
Then a clean and bolt check and it's ready for morning
Rider up, fed, bike prepped and out on track
Seeding day today, 3.05 UK time.
We think there's live timing but not 100% sure yet
"whatever you did last night, the bike feels 1000 times better"
Ummmm not sure I did a heck of a lot in truth. But I'll take it.
"bike feels loose, something ain't right"
Headset needed a slight tweak. Ok now. But my glory of being the best mechanic has ended
3.04 UK time
Well it didn't go great, didn't end in disaster.
There was a 75min delay as some kid was air coptered off and a long long process for that due to his condition. I don't think this helped people much.
In his seeding run he made a few mistakes and some poor lines, or missed lines. He also had a slight off track excursion, but only minor.
"Just braked too much everywhere really"
We then walked the track and honestly I could put up the 20+ pics I took but they're pointless as it shows nothing of the craziness of it. It's sooooo steep, rooty, rocky, off camber, it's just utterly insane how anyone gets down it, let alone all of them
So many line choices with him showing me his line and me just laughing at the WHY anyone would choose it.
Massive rock drops, huge road gaps into a root fest landing and hips like houses!
I think he finished 53rd, which he's deeply unhappy with and feels he has so much more to give, but getting it done is sooooo tough
Good experience though Weeksy. Insane line choices and whether they are worth the risk / reward (and whether they are actually faster especially with exit speed / set up on following sections) is all part of it as you’ll both know more than me.
Plenty to take away and digest I’m sure. And at least it was a clean run so no injury!
Echo those thoughts. Well done James.
And another takeaway is that he knows he could do better. If he was disappointed but felt that was the best he could do then he'd be in a much worse place.
If he wants to compete he needs to push himself and clearly these events are a step up. So take the experience and move on. Lots to learn, all good. 👍
I think he finished 53rd, which he's deeply unhappy with and feels he has so much more to give, but getting it done is sooooo tough
I hate the phrase, but that’s where you have to ‘trust the process’
Regardless of the sport, each sport has steps up. It’s as much a psychological challenge if not more so than a physical or technical
It can make or break people.
When he’s had time to reflect hopefully he will see he had the technical and physical bit covered, and the next one he goes to he will be more mentally prepared for that step up.
Get him to look back at where he has been and how he’s overcome previous ‘step ups’ . It always takes a little bit of time to adjust
Yeah we completely get it. The Euro Champs this year is different in juniors as only certain people are allowed to race, it's based upon UCI points and if you've not got any, well, you can't race in juniors. So whereas last year you had some slightly lower riders, this year it's not.
Out of his field only 15 or so are not 'National Team's riders, 4 of the non Nationals are World Cup racers
But this is the level he aspires to, so the only way to get it is to come and get it, both in terms of riders and tracks. So that's the plan.
We're up and ready to race, new pads in the rear and bike checked over, let's do it. Practice only 1 hour this morning due to racing starting early. Maybe 2 runs this morning.
Last practice done before race. Race run roughly 2.08 European time. Boy seems happy and ready, just need to get him fed and watered and away we go.
Bike has been checked, rear caliper slightly realigned and is good to roll
Good luck to James. He needs to keep it rubber side down and not dwell on seeding. Easier said than done I imagine…
Sent him on his way, I can relax now.
Not really
Crashed into a tree, don't know the full story yet. But he's all good and about the same time as yesterday, which won't make him a happy boy. Going to be a long evening
He's happy enough. The weekend is complete, well apart from the new headset to be fitted, possibly some new tyres, a strip, clean and sort. But first it's beer and a relax in the pool.
Bit of a holiday blog type thing for today. We headed up to Pal Arinsal Andorra for some riding, for not other reason than, well, we both love riding bikes and it'd be rude not to when we're so close.
We both absolutely loved the place.
My trails were mostly blues, he was riding the World Cup track. Both were brilliant in their own way. The fact the blues had a bit more tech to them than Morzine really made them.
Commencal HQ/shop was visited but somehow I managed not to buy a new bike, not sure how, if we'd have been staying another day I may have ended up with a yellow framed ohlins shod Clash. But we still have nearly 6 hours driving to go, which I'll freely admit I've had enough of at the moment lol.
We saw Ventoux from a distance earlier
Plan is to head to Morzine tomorrow for 10-11 days of fun. But his much ill ride, I'm not yet sure. I'm a bit fried and peaked at the moment.
