All Terrain Cycles Ride in Peace Race Team latest …..

Chris Emsley and Tom Hooper headed up to Whinlatter forest at the end of March  for the first round of the Nutcracker mtb series, followed by Jez later in the afternoon, all flying the flag (or gazebo in our case) for ATC. Tom headed off in the expert category, me in sport and Jez in vets, all getting respectable positions on a very tough course, me finishing 10th, Jez around 15th in probably the toughest race with the biggest field, and Tom keeping up with the leaders until the last laps where his lack of good distance riding caught up with him, another lap would have killed me off too!

 

Great show and great fun had all round.

Mean while Gregor Notman gets to grips with his new 27.5″ Giant Glory DH bike

Couple little clips out playing on the bikes on Saturday getting stuff primed for next weekend! Stendec have done a with the shocks

. mint job

Chris and Jed Whitfield, as well as Simon Cheung had the same idea and  managed to get out on the new bikes at last at their usual training haunt, Hamsterly.

Got to say really excited to see how we go in competition as this bike feels a ton better than last years. Bikes really fun to ride and in my experience if your having fun your hauling ass, just need to work on fitness now. Its our first race next week end fingers crossed big thanks to All Terrain for supporting the elderly lol !

Huge big thanks to Dave Garland of Stendeck suspension for supporting Team All Terrain Cycles this year if you need your suspension tuning give him a call he knows his stuff!

Jane Chadwick and tandem partner Dan Treby won the non existent tandem category at battle on the beach on a half fat single speed tandem. 4 other tandems were racing. Soon to be featuring in a magazine.

 

Just brilliant loved it !

Tom Hooper kicked off the British XC  at the beginning of the month at Sherwood Pines. After torrential rain Saturday night and Sunday the course was turned from a fast, flowing track to a slow, muddy mess meaning that some sections you had to run.

He was gridded 31 from last years national rankings which helps on a mass start of 94 as the masters category is no more resulting in the expert category ballooning. Unfortunately, another rider took him clean out whilst darting along a fire road on the first lap.

 

Luckily there was no damage to the bike but I can’t say the same for his arm, back, helmet and shoe. He continued and clawed back a few places but due to an incident in the race results aren’t yet available. There was many casualties and one poor junior rider was air lifted after his heart stopped.

Those drawbacks aside, the weekend was enjoyed and I was happy to finish.

 

Simon Cheung got back on the DH saddle after some serious knocks.

His 1st race of the season was SDA Round 1 –  Innerleithen, this is his take on the weekend.

Track was great, weather was not. Power track with a mix of steep tech at the end, it suited us all well.

Saturday practise standard inners with us scraping just 5 runs in. Chris Whitfield by this point was flying and the old boy looks set to dish out serious damage this year. One run for Sunday practice and it was race time.

The weather overnight was constant rain but it had stopped for Sunday. The track was sticky and running slow. Chris put in a stormer run to tear the vets a new one. Obviously happy with the new bikes and the Stendec suspension set up courtesy of Dave Garland.

Jed put in some solid runs but a crash left him 4th just off the podium. Got a feeling were going to see more Whitfield domination this year! My race run started great. Hit the track hard and felt good. Came into a fresh cut turn about 50 secs into my run and my foot slipped off the pedal. It slammed the ground and stuck there. I carried on moving but my foot was stuck and instant pain set in. Game over.

A red flag and track closure was my fault as I was embarrassingly carried off the hill. A short morphine filled ambulance ride to the hospital and yes I’d knxxckered  myself again!

Long story short I’ve torn my MCL, damaged ACL and cartilage in my knee. Still waiting on surgery as it’s still too swollen to do anything Great results for most of us at Inners.

Down but not out yet !

Not to be out done Peter Barusevicus of All Terrain Road Team featured heavily in a double page spread of Cycling Weekly.

His racing for mid April started at with a 3rd at Coalville Wheelers Elite RR last Sunday on a very windy rolling circuit, at 80miles long.

All three Terrain riders got in the break, me Duncan and Matthew. At 20 miles to go 2 riders slipped away from the break. At 10 miles to go I attacked and got 30 seconds of the back of the two leaders at the finish. Duncan came in 17th. 8th today at Sheffrec Elite road race on a slightly windy circuit but with a vastly improved field containing Chorley GP winner Steve Lampier, former national circuit champ Graham Briggs, big unit Tommy Bastard, and a splattering of other elite riders.

I followed a few moves early on but everything was brought back together. After a flurry of attacks by me and a few other riders the bunch was strung out to breaking point on the crosswind finishing hill. I attacked here again and caused the race winning move, containing about 10 others riders including Bustard, Lampier, Dylan Byrne, Joe Moses, Alistair Rutherford and a few others.

We worked well for half an hour and then the attacks started flowing. I stayed with them all and continued working to keep the break smooth and away from the chasers. After many attacks and with 9 miles to go an attack by bustard was too much and the break split into two, with 4 riders in the leading group and me and 4 other riders in the second group. We tried to get them back but in vain and I lead the sprint out for 5th to get one last hard prolonged effort in, rolling over the line in 8th and beating some handy riders in the process. Now im very fatigued after a couple of good hard training weeks and next week is a taper week for Rutland.

 

I rode the team Giant today and I must say I was very impressed. I must have blamed the bike for my poor form last year!