The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

So this weekend brought Pearce Cycles round 2, Bringewood in Shropshire. It's a place we've been before and tested but not raced it. They have a number of tracks there and this was a variation on one he's ridden but not much.

Sat we arrived nice and handy after the usual 3 hour drive and kitted up, sent him out and it was dry with some greasy, but not raining. There were some showers on and off but nothing much on the Sat. I stood and watched Les Gets world cup DH while he rode and rode... Things were going OK but he was struggling to match his mate George, however George is a bloody good rider (as you'll see) and it's no shame, it's not like he was being gapped, just nicked a bit.
Sunday was clear, dry and nice in the morning but plenty of threats of rain. This arrived just as 50% of the Youth had started, George his mate had set the fastest time and as the rain got more and more his time wasn't being threatened by anyone, not even close actually.

The boy came down with a scrappy wet run and P19 on it, the rain and mud just getting harder as the riders came one after another.

Eventually around lunch it got drier, then drier and drier. the fast guys were now putting in fastest time of the day at 2.00 instead of the 2.20+ that most were hitting before that. The Juvenilies got a few dry riders but then, yup, the rain came again. And then more and more.... it looked like stopping but it was too late in truth, the track once again was proper wet.
We'd fitted an Argotal on the front but left the Kryptotal on the back which should have suited if it hadn't rained again. But the rear let him down a little compared to the Argotal front.
He came down 2s quicker than run 1 and with a P10 on run2 (counts for Pearce points), but only improved 1 place as a few of the guys went quicker so ended 18th.

In reality we couldn't have done a lot more on the weekend, he went up with the right rubber for each run when he left, but wasn't right by the time he got there at the track bottom. Just one of those things really.
George ended up getting the WIN !!! His first victory of note and it was ace to see. We'd spent the night before pitting with them at beers and banter flowing and the boys off in the wood/river etc doing kid things, so we were really happy for him.




Next week we move onto Dyfi on Sat and then the MIJ race at the Forest of Dean. Pick ourselves up and go again
IMG-20240707-WA0010 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

randr-photo-13709187-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

randr-photo-13709186-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

randr-photo-13744734-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Bloody hell these are not cheap.

One of the Trek riders spannered his chainring at Antur in practice a few weeks ago, which also took out his chainguide. So i thought i'd look for an emergency spare

https://www.singletrackbikes.co.uk/m7b3 ... ZUEALw_wcB



£115... that's a LOT for not a lot of materials.... Tried finding a cheaper version that's compatible but not seeing any.

[weeksy]

So it was another weekend of riding and racing and we spent the day at Dyfi on Sat, the boy had an awesome time lapping the recently refurbished Insta360 line a fair bit and really enjoying it. No incidents, no issues etc so we set off down to FoD to get set-up and camp overnight for the MIJ race on the Sunday.
The course was on part of Seths Corners, a track he knows fairly well. Practice went smoothly enough.
IMG_20240714_080736 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

It was a short track, but we both like racing these as there's always fun to be had, loads of people we know for paddock and trackside banter, but also usually a fair bit of talent racing. Due to a lack of talent, plus feeling a bit delicate from Dyfi crashes i wasn't up for racing myself. So i wandered down to watch instead.
Plenty of incredibly fast lads came past, just incredible through the corners, massively impressed with them. The boy came down and looked his usual smooth self.
Sadly when we met up at the bottom he'd put it in 4th place, only 0.4s off the leader and 2s ahead of 5th. The leader was our mate George who won at Pearce last week, with a fast rival in 3rd who we know from Nationals and a kid we didn't know who it transpires races NZ Nationals and Crankworx races coming in 2nd.
Their times were all super fast though and very little in it obviously.

Chatting to the lad he'd made a massive mistake on run 1 so felt he had more in him.

Fed,watered and bantered he went for run2 and even though going slightly quicker, still ended the day in 4th place. I don't think 3rd or 2nd moved up, but George found a bit to stay in 1st place.

It wasn't quite the day we wanted, at these race you always want to be hitting the podium (how nice it is to be able to think that though, 2 years ago we were in the back half) but it just wasn't quite there for him, a couple of mistakes, dragging the brake a fraction when he shouldn't be, just off the podium it seems.
But we had fun, bonded with our mates and he went rapid ! So all in all, a decent weekend out

[weeksy]

Just a couple of tenths off 2nd.
MIJJuly by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

8th overall and would have got on the elite podium

[weeksy]

The boy and Mrs Weeksy are out, so I've had an evening with my wallet out and so e tyre changing kit.

No, not the Scott Gambler, but tyres.
National Champs weekend looks horrendous in terms of rain and wet.

So set 1 will be running Hydrotal front , Argotal rear
Set 2 will be Argotal front , Kryptotal rear.

Obviously if he wants it we can go Argotal Argotal but on non matching wheels lol.

It does mean a bit of waiting for Postie as both the Argotal are worn, so a new one is ordered and on way, the Hydrotal we've not tried yet so that's ordered too. I also threw a spare Kryptotal on the order, but I've got 2 already.
It doesn't worry me too much as when he's had the prime life out of them, they get fitted to my Status/Orbea (or the Gambler lol)

[weeksy]

This is roughly the track for the weekend. It's often a variation on a few bits, but won't be a million miles off it potentially.



Obviously the boy won't be picking up the National Champ jersey of that we're sure... but would be nice to see a good performance and result

[weeksy]

Well that's an interesting development. The boy came home last night with a "we need a bit of a family discussion"

Ummmmm OK...

so it transpires that his team-mate Katie and her mum are offering to take him out to Champery 5 days before we're going. What this means is that he can get 2 days of practice in at the Euro Champs track before racing it... They're closing it a couple of days before we head out so he wouldn't have got any practice in.
It's a bit of a leap of faith, but in reality it's impossible for us to say no really. More practice can only ever be a good thing, especially on a track he doesn't know and is a World Cup level of difficulty.
I guess we're going to be saying yes then .. but i need to sort out some logistics there.

[Noggin]

I guess one question is, who spanners for him if you're not there?!

But that's a fab opportunity

[weeksy]

I guess one question is, who spanners for him if you're not there?!

But that's a fab opportunity

His team-mates mum has been spannering/learning via me this season, tomorrow in fact we're stripping the bearings out of her sons Trek Session and sorting/replacing them, her task is to watch the first ones and then do the rest while i supervise. We've done quite a few tasks this year from bleeding brakes to headsets and bearings..
It's only techincally 2 days of riding as they close the course anyway. So really shouldn't be a massive amount of issues to find/fix. Worst case scenario is that he walks into a hire shop in Morzine and walks out with a hire bike for £100 a day until i arrive 2-3 days later

But between them and the shops there, it should be fine... i'll send him with enough spares to keep him going and she also has a tonne of spares as they're both on the same bike.

[Noggin]

I guess one question is, who spanners for him if you're not there?!

But that's a fab opportunity

His team-mates mum has been spannering/learning via me this season, tomorrow in fact we're stripping the bearings out of her sons Trek Session and sorting/replacing them, her task is to watch the first ones and then do the rest while i supervise. We've done quite a few tasks this year from bleeding brakes to headsets and bearings..
It's only techincally 2 days of riding as they close the course anyway. So really shouldn't be a massive amount of issues to find/fix. Worst case scenario is that he walks into a hire shop in Morzine and walks out with a hire bike for £100 a day until i arrive 2-3 days later

But between them and the shops there, it should be fine... i'll send him with enough spares to keep him going and she also has a tonne of spares as they're both on the same bike.

Whatsapp video calls can help!!

But, sounds awesome for him

[weeksy]

Weird one tonight, we went out for a ride/beer and he noticed the pivot bearing was dead on his brake lever. He was very much correct as it fell apart when we took bolt out. Leaving just the outer race in place.
Happily it came out easily and is £3 for a new one.

IMG-20240718-WA0005 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[weeksy]

So as you've established this weekend was the National DH Championships. Anyone who's anyone and everyone else was there, so it was a great weekend. Lots of paddock mates, lots of banter

We got there Fri afternoon after a morning of insanity with the Crowdstrike IT issue all resolved. Set up and started with testing our new Amazon cooker thing... to say it was GREAT is an understatement. £18 and an absolute bargain !!!
IMG_20240719_200242 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Pepper and mince done with an Old El Passo mix to knock up fajitas Mmmmmm cheese, lettuce, gooooooood

Saturday practice went smoothly for the boy (although Katie the team-mate was declared unfit to race after a crash and bashing her head) so we were absolutely GUTTED for her. Harsh one indeed, but of course, the right call.

Onto seeding and the track was nice, then yup you guessed it, it rained..... then his Cat started and it WALLOPED shortly after. A few riders got away with it but many never. He came down in about 9mins after being held for a red flag. 8 others with him and all were given the offer of a re-run for seeding times. Only him and 1 other took it up, i asked what he was doing and he said "well, it may be wet tomorrow so better to try it"... I couldn't argue with that.
It continued to rain and he ended up coming down with a 21st in Seeding (out of 60 i think), which is a great run for him.

We settled in for the evening with beers and sausage pasta (beers only for me) and stripped down a spare DH bike for his team-mates brother.
IMG_20240720_085612 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

It was getting the full treatment, partly to get it ready for Morzine and partly to teach Katies mum all about changing frame bearings which she really enjoyed.
One of the lads dropped over with "can you have a look at our gears", which ended up being a new gear inner fitted to his bike along with a lesson for the dad into how. But then he threw in "the cassette keeps coming loose too on this Pro5" which was due to the lack of spacer, so cassette off, spacer fitted and then re-indexed his gears, chatting over beers and spannering, awesome.

Race day after a lovely sleep (NOT !) in the van and the track was still soggy from the rain but it was the long grass in the mechs, etc that was the bigger issue. As the day dried the grass cleared a bit but the track was turning the tyres into a slick, just caked in mud, not a lot we could do, everyones was the same.
The boy had Katy Curd there all weekend with track walks, line spotting and video duties and honestly it was awesome, she really finds a way to inspire him and brings out the best in him.

Race time came and it was dry, looking hopefully like staying that way too. Mrs Weeksy was there and nervous doesn't do justice to how she was feeling, she was shaking
I in truth was nervous too, the National Champs is a big big day out and even though we were not going to win it, it's the biggest race of the season. (well, maybe not now).

6 of the 8 who didn't re-run came down first as is the rules and one of the lads we know Seb set a blistering time, 8s quicker than the fastest seeding run from yesterday, he spent a lot of time on the hot-seat today.

We're then sitting waiting for the boy and the commentator says "James Weeks sets a blistering 1st sector time and is in 2nd place currently on the split"... Mrs Weeksy nearly had heart failure about then. As he came over the line he slotted into 2nd place, but of course with 20 fast racers left to come down, but he'd put in a bloody great time and was ecstatic with how it went.

Riders came down and as expected a fair few beat him (slowest to fastest come down in order) but he hung on for a fab 13th place. By a decent chunk his best National finish and considering he was 2nd last after a crash last year, by far his best National Champs finish. But also right in the melting pot with the 'fast lads', clearly not in the same league as Felix or Nath, but you know what, we were all jumping with joy with the result.

A hell of a long weekend had, a hell of a result and i think i may collapse pretty soon.

NationalChamps by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

IMG_20240720_081018 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

IMG-20240721-WA0000 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Looking full Pro

[Count Steer]

Nicely done Team Weeksy.

What's next? Morzine?

[weeksy]

Yeah he's/we've changed plans a little bit and he's heading to Champery early with his team-mate Katie.

He only gets 1 day of practice on the track before they close it for final setup and taping, but 1 day of practice is more than none.

So it's the European Championships next... which sounds somewhat daunting, the track is apparently quite insane, steep, tech and just utterly bonkers but as we know, bonkers is exactly what we do. The adventures keep rolling along and if some of the people involved get their way, this is just the start of the adventures. But that's a whole other debate for another time of insanity.

[Count Steer]

One of our France treks include a stretch of a mountain bike course. At one point I was reduced to clambering down what I can only describe as a rock face! Neither of us quite believed the signage that indicated that people raced down it on bicycles. It hardly looked like you could get down it slowly never mind at speed.

[weeksy]

it's all levels as with everything in life these days. Things i'd not even consider possible he flies down, some of the stuff i can ride, you'd laugh at the thought of... levels really.
It's amazing to see at times though for sure.

[weeksy]