White small/ medium frame.

Sram xo rear mech and shifter
Fox 32 Talas RLC forks
Hope mini brakes with custom master cylinder covers
Hope pro 2 hubs
Syncros rims
Hope Headset
Renthal bars and stem
E13 chain device
Truvativ Holzfeller cranks
Funn pedals
Easton seatpost

In really good condition. Not had much use.

£850 or nearest offer

for more info get in touch- neil@neildonoghuecoaching.co.uk

I have been working up in the forest for a few months now on the North Shore sections in the new red and black trails. We had a ride around yesterday to check it out in its entirety and loved it. The new section of black that starts from just before ‘the twins’ is amazing. A long section of jumps and drops with a nice gradient feels like a mini ‘A Line’ in North Wales.

Here is what OPA have to say about the new trails-

UPM Tilhill and Oneplanet Adventure are delighted to announce the opening of brand new sections of both Red and Black graded trails at Coed Llandegla.

The 6km of new trail (which run almost the entire length of the forest) were made possible by funding from Forestry Commission Wales’ Better Woodland for Wales scheme and investment from the forest owner UPMTilhill.

The design and implementation of these new trails has been a massive undertaking and has resulted in a close collaboration between land owners UPM Tilhill, facility operators Oneplanet Adventure and several local contractors including mountain bike world record holder Jason Rennie (world record for the longest ever mountain bike jump and is also handy in an excavator!) and World Cup legend, Neil Donoghue.

The new trails will be open from Tuesday 1st November 2011 and will mean that the red trail back to the centre from the Triplets will be ridden on flowing single-track – an improvement that we know many of you were crying out for and one which we truly believe takes the trails at Coed Llandegla to another level.

The new Black Section (2.6km) departs from the red trail immediately before the Twins on a new section of North Shore before taking you on a true roller coaster ride through the trees where table tops, doubles, drops and some surprise features are the order of the day. The trail then ascends back up to rejoin the new red rail above one of Coed Llandegla hidden valleys before heading over to North Shore Island.

For your safety there are new trail maps and waymarker posts and we recommend you pick up a map from the visitor centre prior to embarking on your maiden voyage down any of the new sections. Remember LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!

Everyone at Coed Llandegla is extremely proud of the new sections of trail and we hope you enjoy them for many years to come.

So coming into the weekend i had a good idea that it was going to be a physical weekend, add to that the big loop to get to all 5 stages and it was definitely a challenge.

I will get the excuses out of the way now

I didn’t have the greatest of weekend’s racing. I put it down to the effect of being very busy with work (running awesome jumps and drops courses) and my lack of preparation in the form of a very messy stag do weekend and wedding of my old buddy Jonny Cheetham.

The stages favoured the fitter guys with only stage 2 having any serious technical parts.

Stage 2 was a new cut dh track that was like something out of the late 90s Dragon DH era. It was going to be where the race was won or lost. The other 4 stages were about riding fast and absolutely blowing your lungs out.

So stage 2 was a disaster for me and probably cost me the chance to win the overall Elite category for the season. I felt confident that i could put some time into everyone on it, except maybe Gary Forest who is really good DHer. So i set off on a mission. There was a quick sprint and tuck down a fast fire road and then you dropped in to the mother of all muddy, rooty bastard downhill tracks you have ever seen.

Within 20 seconds of hitting the hard stuff i had caught my man in front. A shouted rider and he kind of kept on going, not too keen to pull over and let me by. He dropped into a really steep, hard switch back and crashed right in the middle of the track. By then i was committed and had no where to go other than into him and his bike. I went flying. i could see a hose hanging from my bars, all i hoped was that it was from my dropper post and not a brake. So i jumped back on and it quickly became apparent that it was my front brake.

That was that, i struggled through the last 3 stages having to brake really early. In the pouring rain.

It was a disappointing end to an otherwise great year. I finished 5th Elite for the day and 2nd overall for the year. Well done to Gary Forest who took the overall.

Big thanks to everyone who has helped me out this year with some amazing kit.

Oneplanet Adventure- coffee and cake
Santa Cruz- Blur LTc, most fun bike ever and looks amazing
Fox Racing- nicest technical trail riding kit
Fox Racing Shox- 36s are the best forks known to mankind
Mojo- got the ‘know how’
Hope- lovely green brakes
Renthal- completes my wannabe mx fantasy
Continental- super secret tyre compound that i attribute both my wins to
Syncros rims- for putting up with my clumsy riding all year
Calypso Sports Anywhere- for making me a star in the app store

Photo- Barbara Sztyk

Luckily for me it is my local woods, where i do a lot of my riding so all eyes were on me to take the win on home turf.
Fortunately i was able to do it and not let the pressure get to me! It was nice to be back racing at Eastridge, i love the trails. I have also got a lot of good memories, especially winning the Junior National Championships back in 1999, 12 years ago!

If you haven’t ridden Eastridge, get yourself up there, it is well worth a look. The trails are a mix of rocky and loamy singletrack. There are loads of old DH tracks dotted around the woods and some of my favourite singletrack in the world.

Stage 1 was a mix of fast technical/ rocky singletrack, wide open drifty turns and dust so deep it was like riding in sand.
I had a pretty solid first stage and felt like i was up to pace from the get go. It can be hard to judge if you are pushing hard enough though. But sometimes you had to be cautious in the really dusty parts because a lot of the turns had blown out since you had practised them.

There seemed to be a lot of people really enjoying themselves and i heard lots of compliments on the riding, the credit goes to Alex Langley and the trail partnership crew that have puts loads of hours into trail building this last year. I have lost count of the amount of days those guys put into maintenance and building when they could have been riding.

All in all it was a mega enjoyable weekend of riding and racing and it just reinforces my enthusiasm in the Gravity Enduro scene. There really isn’t a more laid back type of racing. Lots of banter on the ride between stages, but more importantly the riding is amazing and i love the challenge of putting in 5 good runs on different tracks.

Photo courtesy of Iain at Turnip Towers and available on Roots and Rain where you can also find full results.

It was my first time in Kielder and the things i noticed about it are-

1 It is in the middle of nowhere.
2.The trails are pretty good.
3.There is no phone signal for 20 miles, so no texting, tweeting or internet for me. The humanity!
4.The pub is a shithole.
5.The Midges are relentless.
6.The static caravans are cold and damp.

Sounds good eh?

Ha, maybe it wasn’t all that bad. The stages had a good mix of technical and physical. Stage 1 was like an old school midlands DH race on a new cut track through the forest. After riding the stages in practise on the saturday, in torrential rain, i was a grumpy bugger. Not only was i cold and wet, i had absolutely no energy.
Sunday morning i felt a lot better and the sun was out! Maybe the two things were related?

The race was a mix of pushing hard on the technical stages and trying to survive on the physical ones. My preparation for this race had not been good, i hadn’t found time to do a training ride in almost 2 weeks, so that is probably why saturday almost killed me.

I managed to do pretty good on stages 1, 3 and 4 but got killed on 2 and 5.

I ended up with 3rd in Elite which i was pretty happy with to be honest. I am happy with how the series is going for me and i am still the leader of the series.

My Santa Cruz Blur LTc is the perfect bike for this racing/ riding. The Dirt bike check video seems to have gone down really well and people are really interested in the bikes we are running. It has had more than 360,000 views!

I must say i cant be happier with my bike it really flys up and down. Aren’t Mountain bikes amazing these days!

Roll on Eastridge where i know the trails.

Oh yeah, finally, you can get my MTB skills app free on itunes for your iphone or ipod here.

Coming soon to Andoid.

Photos courtesy of Peter Stevens Photography

It is part of the Calypso Sports Anywhere campaign that i am part of. Taking MTB into schools PE lessons and letting kids have a go at riding mountain bikes. We kicked the tour off last week in Surrey and it went down really well. Some kids have never really tried MTB and they are all shy to begin with, but after half an hour or so they are loving it and don’t want to go back to lessons!

You can find the app on itunes or search MTB skills, or check out the Sports Anywhere website.

I have been looking forward to it for a long time and was nice to be loading up the camper and heading north. As you probably know, the weather has been amazing in the UK in the last few weeks but that was all to change as soon as i crossed the border and was welcomed by torrential rain and thunderstorms that pretty much stayed around for the whole weekend.
The Gravity Enduro series is new to the UK race scene and the format is much like a car rally, with 5 timed (mostly downhill) stages with linking stages that aren’t competitive.
The stages were all pretty good with 1 and 5 being awesome and the ones in between having there good and bad parts for me. Stages 2,3 and 4 were all pretty physical with some long flat sections but i guess that is the name of the game on these races. The final stage was the downhill track at Ae that was pretty rough and rutted from all the rain and 300 riders going over it twice.

Qualifying was on the Dh track saturday afternoon which was already hard going. I managed to qualify quickest in Elite which meant i would be last rider down the hill all day.

Sunday rolled around and it was time to race. I opted for the waterproof jacket but was still soaked through to the bone after about 20 mins, it was torrential! It was pretty wild weather and the next 4 hours were all cold ones.

I was riding my Santa Cruz Blur LTc which has 140mm travel on the rear and some Fox 36s upfront with 160 mm travel. I think my masterstroke of the weekend was running my new prototype Continental DH tyres. I chose to run dual ply tyres because one puncture on a stage and it would be curtains. I chose to run the fast compound Contis that i have been testing and i think they were a pretty important factor in my result. These races are all about pushing hard and trying to conserve energy where you can so you need a robust tyre to put up with the ‘not so light’ riding when you are sat down trying to save some energy. Within 30 seconds on the first stage i was already passing one of the fast guys, Chris Hutchens, he was out of the race already!

All the stages seemed to go pretty good for me, there were some good lines out there and i just tried to get from a to b as quick as possible and smoothly, carrying as much speed as i could so i wouldn’t have to try and pedal too much to get back up to speed.

We came around to the final stage which was back down the Dh course with a few alterations. By now it had stopped raining and the track was really hard work. Dropping through the finish it was a relief to be done, it was epic. Lots of miles and lots of sprints on the stages.

The times took a little while to get sorted out, but fair play to the guys organising, they seemed to do a good job all weekend and soon enough it was time for the prize giving.

I won the Elite by an overall 59 seconds, with wins on every stage but one where Gary Forest put 2 seconds into me. Stoked!

I have to say i didn’t know what to expect, but it felt amazing winning and putting in a strong performance. Big respect out to Box and Crawford who put a few seconds into me on the overall times. Those guys are hardcore and showed they know how to ride!

Big thanks to all my sponsors, Oneplanet Adventure, Santa Cruz, Hope, Renthal, Fox, Fox Racing Shox, Syncros and Continental.

Roll on round 2, i am getting the feeling back for this racing malarkey…

Here are a couple of shots, credit to Ian Linton

I showed up late friday night, not knowing what to expect. I have driven past Glencoe, like most others, loads of times but never actually ridden it.

All i knew was it was a mass start race, first to the bottom wins. Simple.

Saturday morning we all took the 2 lifts up and then pushed our bikes the final climb to the start line up on the snow. Then it was time to check out the track, leaving our bikes at the top, so we could be reunited later with the help of a chopper.

The track was wild, literally. Just open and fast with some very generous taping. Lots of fast straights with boulders that had to be avoided and huge bogs. Not to mention the soft snow.

So, not long after i got to the bottom it was time to kit up and get ready, i was on the first chopper flight so had to get my ass in gear.

I have to say, i was more nervous about the Helicopter flight than the race, it was pretty damn windy and we were landing right on top of the mountain, about 30ft away from a huge drop off the back. It turned out to be amazing though, straight into the front seat of the 5 seater and within 2 minutes we were landing at the top. In all in took 4 and half minutes for the chopper to take us up, land to drop us off and then get back to the bottom! Nuts.

So i had chosen to ride my Santa Cruz Blur LTC, my Gravity Enduro bike. Earlier on, before i had walked the track, everyone was enjoying telling me that it was definitely a track for a Downhill bike. But i think they underestimated how rad my LTc is! haha.

So the time came around to race, we had to have a le Mans style run to the bikes because it would have been carnage if 100 riders went straight into the snow. Bit of a rant here- i know not everyone is there to try and win, but a lot were, like me. These type of races are pretty easy to cheat at if you really want to, the only thing stopping someone doing it is if someone sees you and dobs you in to the organisers. Something Fraser from No Fuss had made clear at the riders meeting. But at the start, more than a few people chose to start the run from up on the side of the hill, therefore missing out the hardest part of the run. Credit where credit is due, most of the fast boys (Joe barnes, Rowan, Danny Macaskill etc) made sure they didnt have an unfair advantage, but not all!

So we were off, a fall or two from me on the run, then we got the bikes. The snow was pretty much impossible to ride, i found out after someone ran past me flat out! So it was running for me as well.
I managed to get throught to about 5th from a pretty mid pack start. There was a gnarly, steep straight that i managed to get into 3rd on. I was behind Joe Barnes and Mick from MBR.

Into 2nd and not too far behind Joe. I was coming down a fast straight and all of a sudden, it was as if someone put a log through my front wheel. I hit a bog. I was on my face, then ass before i even knew i was crashing. My bike was cartwheeling down the track! Poor Blur.

So anyway, i jumped back on it and rode off, then realised i couldn’t actually see the course tapes anymore. I had got disorientated. I stopped i pushed back up to where i could see the tapes, but a group of about 5 riders had followed me and almost ran me over when i started to push. I shouted to them they were going in the wrong direction but they carried on. By the time i got going again, i could see the group had put a big gap into me, but as i got down to the fire road i could see them stuck in no mans land having to jump over bogs and streams. Unlucky!

So that was about all the excitement for me. By about half way down the fire track i still couldn’t see Joe, he was miles ahead by then. I got down the final fast straight and came into the finish, 1 minute behind Joe, with Danny not far behind me.

I loved it, what a crazy event. Even though i felt like my lungs were bleeding. I had a chest cam on for the race, borrowed from Stu at MTB Cut so hopefully that should show up on the web somewhere.

Well done the No Fuss guys and thanks to all the marshalls/ volunteers.

So i got my new carbon Santa Cruz V10 on wednesday and spent a few long nights getting it built up. Big thanks for Oneplanet Adventure, Santa Cruz, Fox Racing, Hope, Mojo, Fox Racing Shox, Continental, Syncros and Renthal for helping me out with kit at last minute.

I got it sorted finally on friday night and had a couple of runs down a 30 second track at Eastridge. I have to say, i hadnt really ridden a DH bike for a quite a while but it felt amazing being back on it. I forgot how nice it is to have something you can thrash down rough stuff and not worry about bouncing off the pedals.

So Moelfre was my first taste of BDS racing. My last national being the final round in 2008 that i won at Innerleithen. At that time i was pretty over them. I remember my prize money didn’t even cover the fuel bill for getting there and i was given a pair if tyres that i know my team manager had just sold to the organisers for a fiver each. I was fuming, i know it sounds like i was a spoilt brat, but that was a joke for winning a British National. Anyway, i’m glad to say times have changed. The BDS at Moelfre was impressive, the pits were big and it looks a lot more pro than it used to. Also the prizre money is a grand! Not that i was thinking about that coming into the weekend, i was just hoping to not get embarrased.

The track was rad and it felt amazing to be back racing. Nothing can replace that feeling off having one chance to pin it and not fuck up. It is a tough sport. I actually felt surprisingly good on the bike considering i had no real practise coming in. Dont get me wrong i have been riding quite a bit still, but only on my Blur LTc trail bike.

The race ending up going ok. I seeded 22nd with a pretty average run so i was thinking i could maybe sneek it in the top 20 if i had a good final.

The final diodnt go that well and i only went a couple of seconds quicker, which dropped me to 28th. It is crazy how quick you get swallowed into the pack with a couple of small mistakes. But overall i had a wicked weekend racing and i can wait to get back on it now!

Oh and big thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome on my return.