The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

Bizarre, thanks

[weeksy]

Well as always this won't be the shortest one. Fri brought traffic, driving and eventually getting to track to set-up. We parked in the same place as the previous year and tried to save space for our mates, which worked out nicely and we had plenty of space and friends around us. I sent the boy out on track walk while i set up the pit and got some food on the go.
IMG_20240511_183737 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Sat morning/daytime was practice and he spent the day with his mates riding, going crazy and having fun. The bike was running sweetly and he was happy with everything. The evening almost turned things sour as they were all playing on little bikes made for 5 year olds and doing ramp jumps, just about every rider came away with some bruising or cuts. But they were having a laugh and being kids for once at a race meeting. It was SO nice having a few beers, catching up with people and just seeing everyone enjoying it. The weather held and it was honestly just a brilliant evening.
I'd spent part of the day rebuilding a Hope Pro4 wheel for one of our paddock mate, re-taping it as it was losing pressure and sorting a few other bikes out too. The gazebo was so hot, but i was rewarded with a beer every now and again, so it's always nice.

Sunday was of course race day and it was time to play. The lad did 2 runs of practice and i then spent the next 2 hours sorting out a complete new drivetrain on a Specialized Demo which had ripped everything apart. It was cause IMO by a Chainguide that was fitted poorly, once that was realigned and a new mech, chain etc fitted it wasn't too bad, i sent that lad back out to play.
IMG_20240512_075718 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Race run 1 i still get a little nervous as the boy has crashed a few times at Rhyd-Y-Felin near the finish area. He was the 4th rider down the hill and came in with what looked a decent time, but as the field came down he was always going to drop a fair few places of course. His run was a little scrappy he tells me but not a bad run all in all.
Last year his best result at Pearce was 22nd, yesterday on run 1 he stuck it in 11th.

Run 2 we changed a couple of little things, sent him out and thought we'd see what he could do, he felt he had something left to pick up some places potentially but you just never know what can happen. The weather was getting a bit dodgy, rain and thunder/lightening forecast and the sky was darkening.
A couple of small delays due to crashes but eventually he came down and his time was 0.008 different than run 1. He ended the day in 11th place.
I'll be honest and say it was slightly bitter sweet as pre-season he planned and set out "Finish top 15 at Pearce" which he had of course managed. However as we got closer to the race he'd targeted a Top10, so slightly unfortunate there
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event12601 ... /#h-15-16m

Happily though race run 2 was 8th quickest of run 2s, so that'll give him a little something. But he was really happy with 11th, it's a damn fine performance and even though the gap to some of the guys ahead is fairly substantial, it's not the end of the world. Of course Felix is a mile away, but that lad is a World Cup podium in waiting, so you know what, we accept some are just quicker.

To top the day off, his teammate Katie managed to get the win in the girls Cat, which was honestly brilliant for her and completed the day nicely.

The rain and lightening then came and the day was canned mid-way though some of the other Cats, but apart from getting slightly damp putting stuff away, it didn't affect our day.

Eventually we made it home at 9.30pm and after unloading, a shower, it was basically straight to bed... It's sooooooo hard both as a parent and as a racer, the weekends are just LONG !!!

He's back to GCSEs this morning, with English Lit as the days exam, he spent 2-3 hours on the way home revising yesterday and some of Friday, so hopefully he'll get on OK with it

[Count Steer]

Looking at the gap between 1st and 2nd (10s ) I'd argue that Felix is in the wrong competition, ergo Weeksy Minor came 10th really.

Nice work chaps.

[weeksy]

As i say, Felix is a bit of an outlier, his brother is a World Cup racer, he's on a full Pro team and has been for a while, so getting insane amounts of bike time with super fast riders which of course makes him stupid fast, in the results you'll see his brother Oscar who's also incredibly fast. In simple terms, if the boy from 2-10 want to be the best, they've got to work out how to get to these lads, otherwise you're not going to get to the top.

As you may have gathered from some of our posts, getting my boy to the top isn't quite the plan, getting him to the top tier, well maybe that's the dream, to get to where he's pushing some of the top 5 lads, that's kinda our goal. That may be possible, maybe... but not everyone can be the best of course. We'll keep plugging away at it, keep putting in the practice (although with Exams it'll be quiet for a few weeks) and seeing what we can do.

[Noggin]

That's awesome for WeeksyJr

And you sir are a total gentleman. I know you have the skills and possible the time, but there are few guys that would take the time to totally rebuild someone else's bike to help them out. You rock

[weeksy]

That's awesome for WeeksyJr

And you sir are a total gentleman. I know you have the skills and possible the time, but there are few guys that would take the time to totally rebuild someone else's bike to help them out. You rock

You'd be surprised you know. I saw 3-4 others bikes sorted and repaired by competitors parents. I'll be the first to admit, i only repaired bikes who had bugger all chance of beating my lad
Strictly speaking though they were the only ones who needed help and came to me. I'd have fixed them even if they were faster, maybe

But the paddock is awesome "oh shit i've broken a brake"... "come this way kiddo lets sort it" etc etc it's just how it's done in the MTB paddock. Even the parents of my boys closest rivals are people i stand and chat with regularly, of course they want their kid to beat mine, but there's nothing in the way of bitterness that you see in some sports.

[Noggin]

That's awesome for WeeksyJr

And you sir are a total gentleman. I know you have the skills and possible the time, but there are few guys that would take the time to totally rebuild someone else's bike to help them out. You rock

You'd be surprised you know. I saw 3-4 others bikes sorted and repaired by competitors parents. I'll be the first to admit, i only repaired bikes who had bugger all chance of beating my lad
Strictly speaking though they were the only ones who needed help and came to me. I'd have fixed them even if they were faster, maybe

But the paddock is awesome "oh shit i've broken a brake"... "come this way kiddo lets sort it" etc etc it's just how it's done in the MTB paddock. Even the parents of my boys closest rivals are people i stand and chat with regularly, of course they want their kid to beat mine, but there's nothing in the way of bitterness that you see in some sports.

I guess like a lot of sports? I know I had some amazing help from people on trackdays and race meets (Hill Climb and Track!). Not that I was ever going to beat any of them tho

I still think you rock. So there are others that do similar - you all rock. It's kindness and being willing to help that makes these things so much better for everyone. So you all rock and are great

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

The boy just messing about on Weds evening with Katy, going through the details and picking up little snippets of information week in week out from her. Her (and his) dedication is fantastic, I sometimes wonder if she dreads my emails as i spend a lot of time picking her brains. But in reality she seems to love it

The Session has been golden for a while now, whatever issues we had have not been present and the bike is running sweetly. We're heading into Fort William next weekend so it's all be little details for me on the spanners, things like the idler bearing area cleaned, checked bearings, the lower chainguide bearing cleaned, checked etc... Little tiny things like that.

We're currently breaking in some new pads, yesterday he was out bedding them in. First set is a set of EBC and we've got a set of Galfer Pro to try this week if we get out. I was chatting with the boy/Katy about braking and whether we can make up time using the brakes in different ways. We've run Uberbike race matrix pads for ages, but the fact he's getting 6 months+ out of a set of pads makes me wonder if we're really making the most of the brakes in terms of pads/performance, hence wanting to try something else.

I tried a set of Hayes Dominion on Katy's bike this week and they feel AWESOME... but chatting to my mechanic, they're a bit up/down in terms of rebuild, servicing, repairs etc and the SRAM Code RSCs really are incredibly simple on his bike. We've never had an issue with them and they just 'work'. The mechanic was selling me on the idea of Tech4 Hopes, so he's going to grab a set of spares and we'll fit them to the Session for Antur Stiniog shortly as a 'test' and see if the boy gets on with them. I'd then need to find my big boys wallet to get them bought lol.

He's still mid-GCSE mode and working hard, so this weekend racing is taking a back-seat, which i'm fine with, we'll soon have them done and be back in full flow.

[Taff]

Super super smooth, so smooth he almost looks effortless.

[weeksy]

They say Ebikes can't jump. LOL. First time he's ridden the bike. It did make me laugh as me and Katy were discussing what bike to use, she said "Ebikes would be great to maximise time/laps, but only if he's confident on it"

I replied with
"have you ever my him before?"



I don't really get involved in the coaching aspect, but i can see from the videos and the track at Fort William what they were going for, keeping smooth, keeping tucked, maximising speed through pumping the downs etc etc.

[weeksy]

Interesting last few days have seen another sponsor come onboard for the lad.

https://kaliprotectives.com/collections ... 6295549022

IMG_20240522_150552 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

That's all you get for today hahahahaha. But Kali have come up with helmets and gloves for the boy. They're a partnership with Oxford who supply us with cleaning products, lubes etc..

We spent some time this week trying on different sizes, pads, helmets etc and then they popped one on the courier van for us which arrived today at Rotec.
It'll get a full showing off on Sat morning when we get to Fort William and he does with his full new race kit.. I'm excited for him.

Getting ready for the long long drive now, the bike is ready, his stuff is ready, sadly the weather isn't looking like playing ball and 2 of his riding mates are no longer going after spending time in A&E this week, 1 with concussion, 1 with a broken arm... So it's kinda a double edged sword that the boy isn't going up early due to doing a GCSE exam on Fri morning. But i think we're as ready as we can be.

[2xtwins]

All the best for this weekend, Steve and James. Is Ceri going too?

I love reading this thread .

I'm just amazed you have time to work too

Kev

[weeksy]

All the best for this weekend, Steve and James. Is Ceri going too?

I love reading this thread .

I'm just amazed you have time to work too

Kev

Thanks bud. Yeah this is one she'll come to. Mostly as it's a bit of an adventure and a bit of a hardcore track etc.

I managed to keep the boss happy I think, so all good there. Got today off and headed out for a 6am ride as obviously I won't be riding this weekend.

[weeksy]

Another one down. Kid we know pretty well and always chat to his old man

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

IMG-20240525-WA0004 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Well as always that was some weekend.

Sat brought a load of new kit, jersey, helmet and gloves. So the boy was looking pretty flash.
IMG-20240526-WA0003 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

IMG-20240526-WA0002 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Saturday brought great weather, not too many flying insects and lots of flying riders, some well and some badly! The attrition rate was pretty high, although not as high as it was for wheels.
The wheels on the Session though survived well, but for some reason we don't seem to suffer wheel issues. He was running 22F and 22R with an Argotal front and Krypto rear, both DH super soft.
Practice went well and he went into seeding pretty happy.

Seeding he placed 24/72 which wasn't bad, but he felt he couldn't quite let go like he should and does on other tracks. But a solid run down.

Sunday started dry and went well again, more crashes and more people off for A&E. But ours went smoothly enough.
As we got to 12ish and the rains came, hard and long, staying for a chunk of the day. This changed the track massively and my cleaning job for race

IMG_20240526_142310 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

But he's happy in the wet so went up for race run. It went well enough, he was 4s slower than yesterday in the dry, so we were happy with that and more importantly, both him a d the bike in one piece.
22/68 he placed. Not quite hitting 20th which was his goal for 2024. But the field as always in Youth is insanely hard, people fast as heck everywhere. So we came in happy overall.

I'll write a bit more when back next week, but for now, that's your lot.

[weeksy]

We ended up coming back last night instead of today, i think everyone had peaked and just wanted their own bed, so instead of stopping half way down for the night, we just stopped for food there and i made the final jaunt getting back at 10.30pm .. So everyone a bit tired.

The weekend though was awesome again, the Highlands of Scotland are a lovely place (if you ignore the midge bites i have now) and the track/racing is incredible there

_DSF9596 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

_DSF9606 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Cool pic by Hannah at Singetrack forum

He'll have to get on the case of picture purchasing, but for now this one will do.

It was great seeing the boy bonding with his mates again and riding all weekend with them, they're all becoming a tight little group and having fun, it'll be a shame when that invariably ends as people drift off either into teams or other sports, but for now we're really enjoying the vibe in the pits they all have together. Sadly though one of the crew broke her collar bone in the morning on Sunday and ended up having to head early to A&E to get it seen to, but as we know, that's the nature of the beast and sport. She's OK though and everyone has been really helpful and positive to her.

We had a few interesting fixes as always over the weekend, Katies (team-mate) Session needed a pivot main bearing set swapping, happily for her she had both me and the Trek mechanic from Cotswold Cycles on hand and it was swapped quickly and easily.
On the morning of Sat after run 1, our mate Isaac had an issue that his rear axle was mullered, the threads were destroyed. We set about a plan and sent his mum to Nevis Cycles and we tried to think of weird and wonderful fixes we could go with. I then thought i'd go see Andy at Viris. They ran GT Furys the same as Isaac previously. In a very weird twist of fate, one of Andys riders had lost his bottom shock mount bolt/spacer and was running round the pits like a loony before having to end up going home early.
So, I had one of these bolts/spacers and a deal was struck with Andy, he gets our spacers and we get the axle happy day. Isaac was back out racing
Over the rest of the weekend it was mostly wheels. Not for us, although we did have spokes loosening, but many many broken, battered and destroyed wheels throughout the paddock.

The boys race run was fairly solid and looking at the results his actual position in relation to various riders is about right in truth, that's where he is in the grand scheme of things roughly. So we're as always happy to get down in 1 piece with a bike that works and a rider that's not broken. He is again closer to the guys who are occupying the higher places and of course that's his job to work out how, why and what he can do to get closer and up to them. We will of course plan and work on that in the coming months (Starting with Antur Stiniog on Thurs) But the reality is, these riders are just bloody impressive as riders, any single one of them could 'make it' in terms of results in the coming years, it's no shame in being 22nd in a National DH in this Youth cat that's for sure.

So today it'll be into the garage later to sort, check, clean, etc both kit and bike, organise gazebos, chairs and everything else, it's half a days job at the end of each weekend and honestly really it drains you but, well, it's what we do

We are considering a bit of a plan change later in the year now, the plan is/was to race all the Nationals with Glencoe being the 3/4 Aug. However we're also racing Champery for the European Championships on the 10/11 so we'd be getting back from Glencoe on the Tuesday and driving to Morzine on the Wed and i simply don't think that's going to work. Add into the fact the midges and desolation of Glencoe, the £300+ expense of racing there and of course the potential for a mechanical/accident that would wipe us out of the Euro Champs, it's just not the best idea i think. So we're pretty much decided on canning Glencoe. Riding or skipping 1 National isn't going to make or break his season and define where he ends up in the sport and there's only so much we can realistically do sometimes.

[weeksy]

We are considering a bit of a plan change later in the year now, the plan is/was to race all the Nationals with Glencoe being the 3/4 Aug. However we're also racing Champery for the European Championships on the 10/11 so we'd be getting back from Glencoe on the Tuesday and driving to Morzine on the Wed and i simply don't think that's going to work. Add into the fact the midges and desolation of Glencoe, the £300+ expense of racing there and of course the potential for a mechanical/accident that would wipe us out of the Euro Champs, it's just not the best idea i think. So we're pretty much decided on canning Glencoe. Riding or skipping 1 National isn't going to make or break his season and define where he ends up in the sport and there's only so much we can realistically do sometimes.

We've canned the Glencoe race now. Partly because we're all absolutely fried right now after this weekend and the fact Glencoe would be at least as intense as that, but with worse nights sleep. But there's also the expense. Fort William was a pretty damn expensive place, considering the fact Scotland is a fairly poor place in parts, i can't see how average people can spend much time in places like FW, it was almost London prices (but i bet the staff don't earn lots), i'd guess the weekend cost ITRO £1100 with accomodation, even though with tenting/vanning we'd save £400 of that, it's still having to find £700 for the weekend... which doesn't really fly for us.

The boy will be disappointed, but i'm sure the Euros and the week after in Morzine will make up for it.