First week night ride... welcome to 2008!

Well with wednesday down in the calendar as the night for the regular week night ride, what were we doing out on a Thursday?

Earlier in the week Jon had texted me to say he'd bought a bike and was picking it up Wednesday night... with that in mind, and to ensure the biggest turnout for week one I rescheduled for Thursday.

As for the new bike (a Specialized Pitch Pro - that he's now got his mits on, I'm sure photos will follow soon) it wasn't ready so in the end only Leo and I turned up this week - me with a filthy hardtail un-washed since Scotland, and him with a bike that hadn't turned a wheel for 4 months.

The evening weather was good, nice and warm in the sun and good chat - stories from China aplenty. We were lucky to suffer no mechanicals despite Charity Lane being freshly rocky (for some reason) but great fun.
Down to Standing Stone I launched off the 'verge ride' to the delight of some walkers, at least the old lady smiled!

A short one - no action shots - but next time... who know.



:: CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW ::

FO on Dirt

Check out this - FO team rider Aaron Bartlett, whilst filming for his upcoming film Footoutflatout was caught on camera at NPS Rd 1 at Ae forest.

Linkeo

Scotland weekender...

Well it's been nearly a week since we got back and I'm the first to get on here and do a writeup! Personally I'd have been up here quicker if it wasn't for running round like a mad-un trying to sort Wideopen Issue 6 (which is out now by the way).

We were not blessed with the best of weather but un-deterred we headed north at the crack of dawn on Friday and hit Palnure for Kirroughtree forest shortly before 11am.
The setup there is quite good, little bike rental shop, cafe and toilets, and on a Friday it was quiet...

It's always fun to ride a new location - the anticipation of what you'll find keeps you going... unfortunately Kirroughtree was a bit of a dissappointment. It was good but just never really seemed to get going, the flow wasn't appalling but the descents never really materialised... we won't be going back.

Up to Peebles via the red roads and James and Ross beasted across Rally style in the thirsty scoob - Phil and I also headed cross country whereas Chris and Jon went via Dumfries... in for 7.30pm and a nice bit of grub.

Saturday brought SNOW!!! and it also brought Tez! Yeah with the white stuff under foot the road to Buzzard's Nest car park was closed and we faced the mammoth road climb from the hub to get up to the red route. It was COLD and hard work and fairly slippy in places. Spooky Woods was an experience, lots of grip where it was clear but mid berm you could hit a snow patch and kill yourself sliding into a tree!! All fun. It cleared up but with the temperature we headed back early. Out Saturday night for the obligatory curry in brief Scott won the darts and the Keg was 'interesting' as usual.

Sunday the group split, half doing the black route at Inners, and the other half doing the black route at Glentress. I can't speak for the Inners boys but at GT we had an awesome time... I really am falling in love with the wilderness and more rugged natural trails on the black route versus the manicured red route.

Monday and we headed to Inners for a push up session on Caddon Bank. After discovering my rear wheel on the Coiler Dee-lux had 3 snapped spokes I joined Jon on the hardtail and proceeded to whoop Chris and Phil's full sus asses!

Home time came to quick leaving us with the nagging question of how soon can we go back?

20 minutes of footage is now on the Mac, and will be edited up. We didn't take many photos - I've captured some stills from the footage (which will be on DVD at the end of the year!)...



:: CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW ::

Rock on.

Mid-week riding

Managed to get a lift down to Glentress last night for a quick blast round the red route. Out of the car it was pretty chilly but things warmed up nicely by the top of the first climb. It was nice to get out on the trails midweek as they're so quiet, we only saw one other rider all evening.
In a bid to motivate myself to do a little more XC I'm entering 10 Under the Ben as part of a quad (the slackers option) at the end of May. After which I may hang around for the world cup. In the mean time I should really be studying over the next few weeks so the bikes may not see too much action other thatn the odd Pentlands ride.

SDA Round 1, Dunkeld

After failling to get entered into the first two rounds of the SDA races up here in Scotland I found myself on the other side of the tape on Sunday. And I'm quite glad too. Never have I witnessed so many crashes in one day. Everyone from first time racers to the seasoned eiltes were coming off their bikes on one of the toughest tracks known, made harder by the introduction of a new middle section. Talk to anyone who was riding and they wont start talking about "that difficult corner", because there wasnt any, the track went pretty much straight down the hill.
In the end Dan Stanbridge went home with the first win of the season with Fergus Lamb and Chris Hutchens took second and third respectively.

As for me, I wont be doing much riding over the next month or so due to Uni. This does mean that the bike is being treated to a bit of lovin'. I've a whole host of stuff to bolt on to the Holeshot in the next few weeks...

and there's more to come. Can't wait!

Goats

Yeah of all things to interupt a ride you'd have goats fairly low down (at least behind crashing and punctures!)

Chris and I headed out tonight and expected 'exciting' conditions after stories of how Jon buckled a DH rear rim last night on his hardtail! Apart from the cloud though it was good riding weather.

Charity Lane has changed again, the fast line at the top is different again, but I found it and to be honest probably didn't ride as flat out as usual - however it felt faster because it flowed much better... horses and courses lol!

We decided to do the loop for fitness, just after Standing Stone we were confronted by two families of goats - the kids were awesome but struggling to get back over the wall into their field - we waited a while then pushed past - and on for a fitness climb and fun descent.

Scotland news:
Tezza is coming Saturday/Sunday! Great news.

Alpine Bikes Winter Series, Round 3.

The third and final round of the winter series at Inners was held on the 23rd of March in possibly the most wintery conditions yet. Snow fall threatened to put a stop to racing on the day with the uplift unable to make it up the hill. Things carried on regardless, with riders pushing to the top for the morning practice and luckily the snow had melted enough for the uplift to run by the time it came to racing.

Racing the hardtail category again I managed third step on the podium this time round after two over the bars incidents. It was enough for the series win though, so now I have this

hanging proudly on my wall.

Overall winner on the day though was Gee Atherton who was a good seven seconds clear of the rest of the field. For a full report head over to wideopenmag.co.uk to download issue 6 (very very soon).

Talk has already moved to another series next year, but between now and then I'll be keeping you up to date with all the SDA happenings.

News from 2007 team rider Matt...

Just got a cool email from FO team snapper Jacob 'Milky' Gibbins, who's been out filming with Matt Simmonds this weekend gone for the new flick 'Foot Out Flat Out'.

Matt's just got his hands on his new Intense and team gear for Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense. Unfortunately due to the deal he's not able to continue with Fearingout in 2008, but has enjoyed his year with us and will be working with the team on Wideopen throughout the year.

We'll have the full lowdown, interviews and more in Issue 7 of Wideopen!
An update on filming for the flick 'Foot Out Flat Out' will be in Issue 6 (out VERY soon)

Footoutflatout teaser 2

The latest installment from Mono is now up on his video mini-site (www.footoutflatout.co.uk)
Go check it out!

New Bike

Check it out people, new DH bike ready for France in the Summer!

Oh god it's so smooooooth! Well chuffed. Anyway here are some pics.

Thanks to Jim at WRPphoto.net for the shots!