BDS Llangollen, Round 4 - Death Woods
At least, it was supposed to be Death Woods. Initially when Llangollen was confirmed as a venue for this years BDS it was advertised as using the woods track known to most racers as "Death Woods". I was looking forward to this super steep and technical track as much as it scares me, it's where my strength lies.
In the run up to this event it was leaked on social media, that a new track was being built at this venue and the BDS would be racing on it. Preview videos made this new track look like a motorway just full of big jumps and berms with little or no technical features. I had made my mind up before even arriving on site I didn't like the track and was not excited or looking forward to it.
Track Walk
Once I arrived at the venue and set up camp it was time to head off and walk this new Ride Portugal sponsored track. Passing a few friends on the way who had already walked the track, they were all saying "good luck" not sure what they meant by that, but I carried on regardless. At the bottom of the hill was a huge gap jump/step down, which had a spit you up in the air take off before landing on a steep down ramp that sent you into the finish area.
Carrying on upwards through a network of big berms not really paying any attention as it was proving my first impressions right, then we started to run into trouble as the track got steeper. It got slippier and slippier to the point we couldn't walk on the track and had to scramble up the bank through the undergrowth and even that was proving difficult. Now I knew what every one meant by "Good Luck", this was steep and a little more interesting than expected on foot at least.
Saturday practice
Although Friday had been dry and sunny, the parts of the track that weren't out in the open were a little muddy and slippy. It had rained overnight and was damp and miserable, so the first run down was going to be interesting. I took my usual approach= of just a slow run down to find my feet and warm up. Well the top was like an ice rink and going slow wasn't working, but as I didn't know the track I wasn't brave enough to go any faster.
After wobbling my way through the top section I got to the bridge where the real steep section started. I could see the marshals holding people up on the bridge before being told to go. The next guy sat and waited and then was told it was clear to go. This suddenly made me nervous, as running this system meant they were waiting for riders to clear the section before letting another rider enter, as it was a problem area and riders weren't getting through without crashing.
I dropped into the first steep chute ok which seemed to fire you up the opposite side at mach 10, then you had to compose yourself for 'happy valley'. You drop in and and the sides of this little valley were so steep, you had to basically wall ride the other side on slippery roots and try to carry enough speed to get back up the side you just dropped in from, but the transition in the bottom was so sharp it was quite disorientating. I somehow managed to do the 'wallride' but didn't quite make it back up the other side, as I had drifted a little wide and ended just off the edge of the track. Once I had pushed up out of the bomb hole it seamed easier from there down, apart from a few tricky off camber sections.
As the day went on, my runs got cleaner still struggling along with most of the riders to get back out of that 'happy valley', but by run 5 I had it and was enjoying it though I still hadn't plucked up courage to hit that final jump. Despite enjoying, by 3.30pm I decided to call it a day to save my energy for race day. But before heading back down to the pits I decided to watch/study riders hitting that final jump, most were doing it and clearing with out any issues, it actually looked fine.
Sunday practice
The track seemed a little drier than where I left off on Saturday but this morning my mind was on the jumps. Second run down I was coming through the final few berms to find my old team mates were spectating and cheering me on with a a mega phone. There was no way I could not send that final jump with them standing there, sometimes a bit of peer pressure can help you overcome fears, so I went for it, cleared it and landed as smooth as "get in". Lets race....
Seeding Run
Although the track was relatively dry it was slow rolling and a hard slog to get the bike up to speed from the start. I flowed quite nicely through the top section, cheering back at the crowd after getting though "happy valley" cleanly. Before I knew it, I was sending that last jump and sprinting over the finish line to hear the commentator say I had seeded first with only one rider left at the top. I got bumped down to second as the last rider down crossed the finish line with a faster time. But I was pretty happy with where I was.
Race Run
Off the start, things were going well until a rooty corner before you drop down to "happy valley". This corner was one of the only places on track with multiple line options, and guess what, I missed the line I wanted. Usually if you miss a line you should just keep pressing on and deal with the line you are on, but during race runs normal thinking goes out the window. For some reason I tried to cross over some ruts to get back to where I wanted to be, this took my eye off the ball and I forgot till almost too late to change down my gears to be able to pedal out of "happy valley".
Then I decided to put a couple of pedal strokes in down the ridiculously steep muddy rock steps to make sure I had gone down enough gears, but this sent me way too fast down the 1st chute and I nearly lost control trying to make it round the corner. Slightly panicked by this I reigned myself in and tried to calm down and refocus, I lost a bit of speed on the next section while I was trying to get my head back on track. But I managed to get focused for the off camber section, which was a rutted mess, as you can imagine I was relieved to enter the 'bike park' section where I could let it go and rail some berms before sending it into the finish area. In the end although I took a couple of seconds off my seeding run, everyone else upped their game too and I ended up 3rd.
