WDMBA MOUNTAIN ASH Rd2 - 17th June 2012 by Richard Acott Friday15.06.12 - late start out to South Wales for Welsh Downhill Mountain Bike Association Rd 2 at Mountain Ash. I had heard a lot of good reports about this flowing track so looking forward to trying out a new venue that I have not ridden before. Torrential rain and late arrival meant no opportunity for normal Friday track walk. Saturday 16.06.12 - still raining hard so opted for King of Traction tyre. First practise run is normally slow as I try to learn track but even this was not even possible because of a serious brake problem. Some adjustments were made for second practise run but straight out of start I could tell all was not well and brakes had soon disappeared completely. At bottom of track I was amazed to find my new Kevlar pads (sent to me as upgrade instead of usual sintered pads) put in brakes on Friday had worn and rubbing metal to metal. Talking around pit area it seemed many riders were experiencing brake issues. The combination of hard rain and gritty rock/mud did not help either. Unfortunately I could not get my usually very reliable brakes to work properly. I decided it was no longer safe to ride and unless problem sorted I would have to abandon race weekend. Looking into my parts box I found an old front brake that with tweaking came back to life. Further work and trip to mechanic and loan of rear brake took time and meant practise had almost finished. I decided a track walk would be good idea and may help lack of practise runs. Start was open top section with rock drop then several bus stops but not many line choices. Middle section was generally woody with interesting log drop immediately followed by tight berm. Final section was fairly open but with doubles, jumps and stream crossings. Sunday 17.06.12 - heavy rain had finally stopped and sun was trying to come out and on went Nevegal tyre. Bike had been fixed, brakes working and ready to race. Managed two practise runs and both went really well. The first race run was delayed by forty five minutes due to timing fault. Early into first run I crashed over bars but managed to catch a rider before crashing again. Suprisingly I managed a time of 4.45mins and went into lead by 19 seconds. After few questions to solve this mystery I found other riders had also crashed. Second race run I hit all my chosen lines and caught two riders managing a fantastic race winning time of 4.08, second Paul Burford and third Aron Charlton. THANKS to sponsors DMR Bikes/Tektro Brakes/Kenda Tyres/YBN Chains/X Fusion Battery Energy /kik clothing
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