Farmer John’s DH course Race Weekend 2011
03/10/2011 13:21:00
10-11th September The time is 9:30am and I am already getting mine and Aaron’s bike out ready to put into the car and go to John’s DH course in Marple, near Manchester, for the race weekend, even though it does not start until 12pm and I live 20mins away! We arrive at the destination by 11:25 and start to set up the tents. One for the bikes and one for ourselves too. We then got changed and had some fun. It cost only £30 for the weekend to take part and that included overnight camping. This is cheap, and if you just watch and not take part in the practice day or any races, then it was free to enter. On the Saturday there was the air bag jump session. This cost a mere £5 and the big air jump competition was great fun to watch.  Cosy bikes bedding down.
But it was mainly practice runs on the new DH race track for me. Running until 4:30pm, the course then closed ready to open up for the night race. By 8:30pm it was starting to get dark and everyone started to prepare for a lot of fun night racing. My 1st run at night was a bit strange at first, hence why I had one slip up on the berms and then a crash right near the finish line! I still managed a time of 38 seconds. Then came my second and final run...I had a foot off the peddle slip moment on the berms again, but this time only lost one, maybe two seconds which gave me a time of 34.336 seconds and fourth place, just missing out on the podium L. After the race was over there was a few parties and camp fires with people having a good laugh and no trouble from anyone.  Night Race- The Big Drop Off.
The next morning with slightly sore heads (don’t know how that happened) we got up to a clear sky and the sound of pigs- we didn’t notice we had pitched up next the pig pen with the excitement of getting there yesterday!  Post race rest time.
It was practice again until 12pm, then everybody started to make the long walk up the hill to the start line. Most people, like me, were just there to have fun and make new riding buddies, but with the odd one or two that were so serious they didn’t speak while waiting, they just stayed in the zone. My first run was funny and exiting. As you fly past the crowd in mid-air, over hut jumps and off big drop-ins, then into nice tight twisty berms, through tree’s and over scary roots covered in mud. On this run I only had two little slips giving me 15th place. However, my second run was a complete mess from the start. I hit a jump too fast and landed almost on the Northshore section with no time to turn, hitting the ground hard. But, with the adrenalin rushing through my body, I couldn’t feel anything, leaping back on and peddling frantically, until I realised in mid-air on the next jump that my bars were twisted! So, I thought oh well, and peddled harder, but upon reaching the woods section I bailed yet again at the forth to last corner, the one that had made a cropper of many riders in both races. After the awards were given out, I had a nice cup of tea and then started to pack everything with Aaron, who also had an epic riding session on his runs too. All in all it was one of the best weekends I’ve had riding my bike. I really can’t wait for the next race. Farmer John’s course can be ridden all year round and is open to the public 7 day’s a week, so you know where I’ll be practice riding! So until next time….Ride hard, ride true and if you don’t fall off at least once, you’re not riding hard enough! Brian Monks 
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