It was round 2 of the Northern Downhill race series and Hamsterley Forest was the venue. Hamsterley forest is our main local track so we pretty much know it like the back of our hand, but when we arrived Friday night, to our surprise the track was completely different to what we had expected and was a completely new track that we had never ridden before. 

The course set off from the 4X track over the first jump then cut off right into the trees just off the side of the second jump on the 4X. From here it was a long pedal along some rooty, rocky single track and keeping your speed here was imperative so you had to make every corner count and miss the nasty little compression bumps.  

 

Once out of the relatively flat single track section you turned right into a short burst descent with loads of braking bumps that seemed to sap your speed when ever you hit them. The trick here was to come out of the corner early and stay well right to the side of the track almost clipping the trees to get a smooth line down which kept your speed well for the next couple of corners, then hop over a dirty great rock or risk having your ankles smashed off and slowing right down to go in-between the rock and the tress from here it was back on the pedals over the first fire road.  

From the fire road crossing the course went directly down the hill into an “old” new section that hasn’t been ridden for years. You really had to keep you speed over the fire road to get through a big rock garden littered with roots which claimed many a victim over the weekend. There was a choice of two lines into and out of the rock garden and both seemed as quick as each other but most riders opting to go straight into the rock garden dropping off the rocks, ploughing through the section then hopping over a compression at the end.  

 

After the rock garden were a couple of double corners that lead onto a multi line choice root section. The fastest line here was swing stay in the middle of the track and use a rock and tree stump as a berm to push you into the left hand turn which made a straight line through the rooty shoot. At the end of the shoot it was a tight left and right over the second fire road crossing into the best section of the course.  

 

Over the fire road you had to take as tight as you could inside line round the left corner some even went into the tree as such to get a better exit for the 3 switchbacks. Here you could use the berm to get round the first right hander or take the high line over some roots and make the corner a lot longer and straighter. Once again depending on riding style both seemed as fast as each other and it was a tight left, right switchback afterwards where you really needed to maintain your speed in order to gain those few vital mili seconds. Once out the switchbacks it was on the pedals through 2 fast flat out bomb hole sections where the middle line was defiantly the fastest line choice both. This brought you out above the finish round a tight left flat switchback, on the pedals for a quick sprint down a steep right switch back onto the bottom step down where the old NPS course goes into the berm and cross the finish line.  

 

All weekend everyone was looking quick and confident and this came to light at the end of the race with NEFR Racing grabbing 3 podium spots in 3 different categories. Lee Podmore 1^st in Vets, James Risker 3^rd in Senior and Joe Young 3^rd Junior. I must give Joe a special mention. Joe has been so, so close to getting on the podium on countless occasions with god knows how many 4^th places, I am so chuffed for him he has finally got up there and we all hope this is the start of many more to come.  

 

 

 

All in all an excellent weekend racing and I just want to personally thank all the lads for a great time and for riding so well and of course our sponsors for helping us out over the years, Nema, Fibrax, Peddlers, Skins, Muc-Off and Maxxis. Thank you all for the support and well done to all of you guys lets keep up the good work.  

Also thanks to all the photographers for the images, John Chambers, Rich Easton and Gavin Lowe. Cheers guys!!!

NEFR Racing at Hamsterley Forest NDH Round 2 >>

Tags: Hamsterley, NDH, NEFR, NEFR Racing, Northerndownhill

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 10:30 pm and is filed under General news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.