My world adventure begins!

 

Thursday 1st May

Yesterday was one of my final days at school, other than exam days, because today I am going to Italy for the testing on the World Championships track, so I am sat here in the departure lounge at Newcastle International airport, and for the first time ever I have internet in an airport so I am happy! I am going to be boarding any minute so…

I have just arrived Gatwick airport and I have no Internet so I have resorted to writing to you, that flight was good I just went to sleep for a quick hour. My next flight is at about 6.15 it is now 3.30, so I have a long time to wait! This airport is so much busier than Newcastle, there is just 1000s of people, loads of kids, massive shops, and loads of girls. What more do you want? Everything is so expensive here I just went onto one of the airport computers and it cost me £3 for 30 minutes, and it was free at Newcastle, but, what more do you expect from these southerners eh? This is the worst part of travelling to races all this waiting, but its ok gets me away from home!

I arrived safely at Verona tonight and came straight to our hotel in Commezzadura, via the Motorway Service station where we picked up some of the nicest Pasta I have ever tasted, and then I got to my hotel and went straight to bed because Vasquez was already flat out in bed! Tomorrow we will be riding the downhill track so till then folks, goodnight!!

 

Friday 2nd May

I didn't get the best nights sleep last night I was quite cold, but, no wonder all my covers ended up on the floor, I woke up at 5am, and had to put my T-Shirt on, then I slept like a baby until 8am, when David woke, and we went to our typical European breakfast, consisting of Bread, Ham, and hot chocolate? Nothing like the poached egg, beans on toast from last week. We arrived at the track which is about 200 metres from our hotel which is handy, I had a mooch about for a bit, then me and David got the bus to the top of the hill, there is a chairlift here, it is brand new, and pretty much finished but it needs to be signed off, so that will be ready for worlds in about 1 months time!

So the course... it is super rocky all the way, the whole track is a lot like the bottom section of Dunkeld, but it is a little bit softer, it is also about 2 times the length, and more rooty. The track is really technical with a lot of off camber roots and massive rocks! Practise at first was not good, I was all over the place, in my first run, I fell off once on one of the off camber root sections, I think I always expect to much from my first couple of runs, but later on in the day I was riding really well, I did a few runs with Justin Leov, and David Vasquez, and they said that I was riding good, so at the end of the day I was pleased with the day. And I just got back from a massage, from the team physio, just to prepare my body for even more of a beating tomorrow! Tonight we are all eating in the hotels restaurant, we ordered food this morning ready for tonight, then hopefully get to bed early and get a good nights sleep…Just tucked up in bed now after an ok Tea in the hotel, I got Lasagne, and Chicken, it was ok nothing special, but it was good food for tomorrow! Ciao!

 

Saturday 3rd April

Today was up at about the same time as yesterday, around 7.45, went to breakfast at 8.00 and got the first uplift at about 9.00. The track today was quite a lot drier than yesterday, for the first runs, I had a spike on the rear and a normal tire on the front, but after three runs I took the spike off the rear and ran two normal tires. Practise was going really well and I was loving it, the track is really hard but yet it is really enjoyable, it is weird because normally when the tracks is really hard, it is hard to enjoy it, but this one you can. Then on my final run, disaster struck, I was having a really, good run, me and Wynn were just having fun, I hit a few different lines which were a lot better, because the track was getting very blown out, so you had to go tight or wide on a lot of the corners, I hit the last section flat out, and hit a compression, and my wheel just folded, sending me onto my head in no time. So unfortunately now I cannot move my thumb, and am not sure if I will be racing tomorrow.

 

Sunday 3rd May

So I wake up this morning with very little movement in my thumb, so I go to breakfast, and I don’t think I am going to ride, so I was not very happy, I didn't have much for breakfast and then walked up to the track… I had my hand massaged just to see if would work any better and maybe ride, but it was no better, and I tried David’s bike just in the car park and it was not good, so I decided to rest up, which I wasn’t happy about because I wanted to get a good result for the worlds team selection. However, I didn’t want to ride and get a bad result and people start saying I rode bad! I went to the top with Cyril and Christophe from Fox to watch the racing, the Italians are so passionate, every time an Italian rider came down they went crazy even if they are not that fast they go mad! I watched the faster riders in the middle section of the track, and I have to say that the riders that looked fastest were, Justin Leov, Sam Blenkinsop, and some of the French riders, I don’t know how Cam Cole got up from a massive crash, he went over the bars massive and his bike was about 6-7 feet in the air.The end results in elite were;

Sam Hill/Monster Energy/Iron horse…3.19

Steve Peat/Santa Cruz Syndicate…3.24

Fabien Barrel/Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team…3.26

Florent Payet/Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team…3.27

Justin Leov/Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team…3.28

 

The final results in Junior were;

Josh Bryceland/Santa Cruz Syndicate…3.29

Antonio Ferreiro/Massi…3.35

Sam Dale/Cannondale Factory Racing…3.39

Remi Thirion/Team Sunn…3.42

Dennis Dertell/Lanna Sport CK…3.45

That was it for today really, I really wanted to ride.

 

Monday 5th May

Today we had a bit of a sleep in because there was nothing much to do. After me and David had breakfast we set out on a little mission on the road, we had been going at a fair pace for about 20 minutes, and I got a from puncture so I had to make my way back, and it was quite far to ride with a front flat, so now I am writing this, and just going to have a shower!

I went and chilled out at the bottom of the track this afternoon, and watched some riding, and tonight I went to Adam Braytons place for a bit. At 10am tomorrow we are setting off to Maribor so I am all packed for that, it is quite a long journey, I think it is about 6 hours so…

 

Tuesday 6th May

Woke up around 8 and we hit breakfast up, same shit for breakfast, haha, me and David had a little English lesson going! Then we were on the road, listening to a bit of a bit Vanilla Ice. We arrived at Maribor and we are staying at the top of the mountain, so we had to go and find the key for our apartment, and me and David went to find some where to get some washing done, I didn’t realise how much it cost to wash a pair of socks, €0.40, they had better be shining for that price. Our place has a swimming pool so me and Cyril sessioned the whirlpool for a bit, then went for our tea, or dinner as these Euros call it! Sat on facebook for a bit, and here I am now writing this! Tomorrow I am going to try and ride, see how my hand is, hope it is good.Cya later ladies and gentlemen!

 

NPS Round 1, Ae Forrest

 

Thursday 24th April

Today my parents and me set off for Ae Forrest for the first round of the NPS series in the Scottish boarders. This journey is a little easier for me because I don’t have to check in any bags or worry about getting to the right place! I just jumped into the camper and went to sleep haha! We arrived quite late and it was really wet so we just went and parked in the hard standing car park! Chilled out and had some tea, watched a bit of TV, haha watched some Crime Watch! Then just went to sleep!

 

Friday 25th April

Today I had a little sleep in, this morning we moved to the field and my Mam and Dad put the awning out while I watched TV. I got up and decided to have a ride round on my XC bike, because I was bored and there was nothing to do. I went and spoke to Si, to see what the track was like. My Mam cooked me up some poached egg and beans on toast, after, my late breakfast\early dinner I changed the handlebars on my bike, just because I had been riding my other bike in Spain with wider bars on and it felt a lot different. This afternoon a few more people turned up, so a few more people to talk to. I also walked the course with my Dad, the track this year had a new top section, and a new section in the middle so I thought it should make for some good racing if the track held up, and that was a big IF, because the track was fresh! Tonight we just chilled out. I helped Will Longden put up his easy up’s he had three new ones, so I took a fair bit of time, but as always it does on your first time. I just chilled out for a little bit and wrote this! Tomorrow is practise so I just went over my bike and checked my new cleats in my new shimano dx shoes, just to see if they were straight.

 

Saturday 26th April

Today I was up early because I had to get some breakfast, also because practise started early, and I wanted to be on the early uplift because I needed to practise quite a lot, but I didn’t want to be first man down because the track needed riding in a bit, however, we were driving up and they had made a loop so that the trucks and buses never caught each other up, so we set off up the hill, and caught the first lift up, as the gate was locked, this school boy error resulted in about 3 uplifts being stuck before having to turn around after 1 hour and go up the other way!? When we eventually got to the top of the bank and started riding our mountain bikes down the hill, the top section just turned into a mud fest and was like trying to ride our bikes in quick sand. But it was the same for everyone, it got to the point where on the top section you could not find a line, but you just had to get on with it. Seeding runs got sacked off because of the big investigation on trying to get the gate open, which they did in the end. So it was practise till quite late on in the day I decided to wit till the end of the day before I did my final run, I only did 5 runs which was unusual for me, I only did this because I wasn’t really enjoying it that much. Tonight I walked the track with Dave English, Zach Hubbery, and Tom Reed, this is when you really realised how knackered the track actually was, maybe to be fair it was a lot worse when everyone had walked it but it was just carnage! Haha On the way down we were just messing about, because they simply wasn’t many lines, I fell over like twice in 20 metres and was filthy, so me and Dave decided to slide down the elevator on our arses haha.Later on tonight I just went and spoke to Tim Flooks the suspension man who knows all! Then got an early night. Tomorrow is racing so concentration nation in the morning!

 

Sunday 27th April

My race run today wasn’t brilliant, made quite a lot of mistakes, my run just wasn’t as fluent as I would have liked it to of been, but it is hard to put a run together on a track that never suited me at all. However, my result wasn’t to bad, I got second, only 3tenths of a second from Joe Smith the winner today, so I was not that fussed. Also practise never went very good, so I went into the race with not as much confidence as I would have liked. My coach Alan Milway really helped me with my warm up today- I was disappointed that I never got to finish it, because I got threatened with a 10 second penalty so I was made leave the start before my start time, if I never went I would have had a 10second penalty so it was stupid really, I would have got a time penalty for leaving the start on time!!!

 

SAN REMO DIARY

 

Tuesday 4th March

Here I am sat in Paris airport, bit of One Night Only blasting on the Ipod, sat waiting for boarding, reading the texts on my phone from my Mam and Dad, ‘Where are you’, ‘are you ok’… why cant all airports be as small as Newcastle or Teesside?

I am on my way to Nice, for the official Fox Testing in San Remo, Italy. I heard from Will the other day and he is over there now and he said the riding is really good, so I can’t wait, I just want to get there. Airport is packed can hardly move, prices for drinks are ridiculous, but, you have to pay. I suppose there is going to be lots of this to come, anyway, why am I complaining, at the end of the day, its better than being at school isn’t it… school is rubbish, its just exams, exams and even more exams, the teachers love it I’m sure! Well boarding has just started so I will be off!

I landed at Nice at around 5:30, with no chance of getting a trolley. So here is me struggling to carry all my packs, to be met by the team manager Cyril Lagneau, from nice we headed to San Remo, via the Intermache. I was surprised how cold it was I was expecting it to be stupidly hot. The travel was about one hour, but a good half of that was on the rally stage, and Cyril was driving like he was in a rally car. We arrived in this little mountain village to be greeted my a good old Italian fellow, to show us to our apartment. It was up these dark scary steps with no lights, we then had to do a couple of runs for the food bought for tea. Cyril then got to work in the kitchen while we waited for team mechanic, Jack Roure, and my Spanish team mate, David Vasquez Lopez. The next thing I hear is the WOHOOOOOOO of Lopez. They arrived with our bikes. Ready for tomorrow, for the testing with Fox testing, so till tomorrow.

 

Wednesday 5th March

A dodgy nights sleep, waking up with all my covers all over and having to go to the bathroom to sort myself out, because I knew Vasquez would be radged if I put the light on. A bowl of Meil Pops and we were out walking the track and I was amazed at the difference in sections, top section flat out and really straight and the bottom section was corner after corner and hard to remember, with a quite flat pedally bit. Next thing I knew I was almost getting run over by Dan Atherton, today is their test day. After walking the track we got all our gear on and went for a bash.

First run was reasonably slow, the bike didn’t feel too good. I was getting rattled all over the place, but, I persisted with it because I thought it was just first run, maybe it was just me going slow and hitting every hole on the course. But still it was no better second run, so I changed the front spring to a softer spring, and it was so much better I felt like I was in so much more control of the bike underneath me. The uplifts ran really well today, and there were a lot of top class riders riding such as Gee Atherton, Dan Atherton, David Vasquez, and Cyril Lagneau.

We finished riding and came back to the apartment and chilled out listened to music. We had tea, yet again Cyril cooked pasta and beef, we also watched The Great Outdoors motocross DVD and them riders, Villopotto, Bubba, Carmichael, all opened our eyes, to the skill involved in motocross.

Tomorrow should be better as I know the track a little bit better. I am going to go get some kip…catch you later!!!

Thursday 6th March

Up for an early one once again, necked some cereal, and away we go to the track. I changed my spring to a lighter one, because the one I had on was still just a little big for my weight. I did some runs with this one and it felt good generally, a lot better than the heavier one, I felt in a lot more control once again.

Dinner time and we went up to the café but we turned round and came back because it looked closed so we had to settle for rock hard bread and ham. That was a big mistake because it turned out the café was open, Ben Cathro and Chris Hutchens went and got food from there!L

The clock was ticking and before long it was time to get back out on the stallions, me Ben and Chris, went and did a different track on the other side of the hill, more of a free-ride track with lots of flat turns and good fun corners. After this I got back to riding the normal main course, I did some runs with David and Dan Atherton, and I realised that my rear spring was still a little hard for my weight, so, I am going to go even lighter tomorrow. I hope this will be better!!!

Later that night the chef Cyril Lagneau cooked tea, then we all just chilled and listened to Arctic Monkeys, and stuck Kinder Egg toys to Vasquez Lopez’s bike.

Friday 7th March

So the past few days have not really been brilliant with suspension, but I think this situation will change a hell of a lot today with our proper test today with fox. We were up around the same time as every other day really, just what ever time we woke up which was usually around eight o’clock time, today though it was a surprise, because I woke and Cyril said it was raining and it was not very nice outside. He was right in saying the weather was shocking worst than home, yesterday we had a little bit of snow at the track, and today the snow had laid up at the top. So it was not the best day for testing!

We just had to get on with it though, last run I did yesterday was when I really noticed that my bike was not set up brilliantly, so today was very important to me. For my first run I had a small spring on, and, a new cartridge in my forks and this was a hell of a lot better, I felt like I was riding the bike, whereas, before the bike was riding me to a certain extent. Me and Ben had some good runs on a very good demanding track, I also felt that my hands were not bothering me at all now, and, before I could not do half a run without this bothering me. I finished early today due to the bad weather and I wanted to get clean for my journey home. This always tends to be the hardest part of the day, or even week, getting changed and getting all jour mucky gear into you bags. It is a lot easier not having to bring my bike home though, and I also left body armour with Jack.

So I said my good byes to everyone, and Cyril and me made a mad dash for Nice airport to see if I could get the flight home today instead if tomorrow, Cyril is a really good driver I have to say. If we had been 20minutes earlier I would have made it, but they were just boarding as I got there L… so we went to find a hotel and chilled out, had a shower and got some tea (dinner in David’s eyes). Then we went to bed and I tried to watch a film in French, it was quite funny, I was just asking what did he say, what did he say… the film was ‘Snake On A Plane’ where lots of snakes attack a plane mid-flight, and they have to smash the window open to suck all the snakes out, two heroes have to land the plane and they do so it was a good ending.

So I fly home tomorrow back to sunny Newcastle…

Taraaaaaaaaaaaa

 

Saturday 8th March

Today was a really early start I was up for 6.30 to catch my plane for 8.00. I left Cyril and went though, and they were just starting boarding so it was really good timing for me. I got in, sat down and got the old music system blaring on shuffle, to ironically, the first song, ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’, the Ramones so that was funny, I landed in Paris at 9.30 with another plane to get at 9.45, and this was in a different terminal, so I had to run for quite a while, then disaster, hundreds of people, and at the front police! A bag had been left unattended so no one could go any further, I could see my gate from here but I couldn’t get to it… eventually they let everyone though, but it was way too late, by this time it was 10.15. I went to the Air France desk and at first they said that I was not old enough to get the next Newcastle flight via Amsterdam, so I would have to wait till tomorrow! But with a few calls to the boss, I was allowed, so I flew to Amsterdam.

 

WIN AT THE WINTER RACE

 

Last weekend was the final round of the Hamsterly Down ‘n’ Out winter series. If you ask me it was the best course of them all, it had a good mixture of everything. The start was in a completely different place- on the 4x track whereas usually it is the main start and it’s never ever different! So it went from the 4x start and did the first two jumps, followed by a hip to the left, it went inside the first berm and onto the 4x track and did the second straight, round the right and off the side of the table top where it got a little rougher and rockier here. It then went over the triples at the end of the 4x on a diagonal and onto the fire road, a 180 corner on the fire road, which took a few people (haha me!) from here it went into the original NPS track from years ago, over the rocky bus stop, down the three little drops and hanger right on a new section till you joined back up to the normal track. Then came the new bit which Jamie and Gav had been building all week, props to them it was really good, the first corner was catching everyone out. Ben Moorhouse came a cropper on here quite badly, but he was fine in the end. The lines were endless here, and the next corner was the same, you could go right up high and round or you could go low and tight, I chose the high line all weekend until second run, when it was just knackered. Then there was another tight switch back and then the third was also another hard one with lots of lines, but it was all about carrying speed out. Then it was the final corner, which was, propbably the easiest corner on the track, which Scotty fell off on. So to be fair to the lads they did put on a really good course.

So Saturday, an early start to catch some good runs on the really good track that the boys had put together. The track even rode better that it looked. Simply because of the mixture you could enjoy it a whole lot more, the only problem I had all day was on the fire road. I was trying a spike and it was ok on the rest of the track but you just couldn’t get away with it on the fire road. Other than that it was really good, a bonus was the uplifts ran a treat.

Sunday was another early start, because I went home as it is only an hour away. I got 2-3 runs in on the morning, that was good enough. They were good runs so I was satisfied with that. To my first race run, and the weather was brilliant, I got the top section really good, because I loved the top section. I was getting the bottom section really well, until it got to the very bottom where I went a bit slow, just not carrying my speed well enough. I did a 1:59, was wining with that time, and had the fastest time out of all the riders so that was pretty good.

Second runs and once again I had the top section good, but I came onto the fire road and had a crash, the back just slid out. So I tried my best from there and came out with a time of 2:02, whish I was really pleased with, because I had a crash and was only 3 seconds slower. I then lost the overall, and came second to Scotty Mears with a 1:56, well-done mate.

That’s all for now!!!

Cheers Danny

 

NEW ZEALAND TRIP

 

Over the past 2 weeks I have been travelling round New Zealand. I met up with the team on the 6th January in Geneva Airport; we left Geneva Airport for Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Singapore, then Singapore to Auckland. After a long journey across the world Justin Leov, Kiwi Yeti rider from Christchurch and Jono Church mechanic from the huge Yeti dealers Bike HQ met us. We were lucky in Auckland that all our bags and bikes arrived safely because when there are 14-15 people there are lots of bags.

 

 

 

From Auckland we went to the 2006 Mountain Bike World Championships venue, Rotorua. Here we stayed in Distinction Hotel where we were greeted by a swimming pool, gym and best of all a nice double bed ha-ha. The day after we rode at Red Wood Forrest, big shout to the people for running the shuttles there. The tracks there were really good. We got some awesome footage here thanks to Kiekie and Arnaud for that. They are really good with the cameras. After Rotorua we headed for the capital city, Wellington, to ride the national track. In Wellington we stayed at a really cool campsite, we went from a 5* hotel to a campsite but it was such good fun. The next day we rode at the Wellington national track called Long Cully. A really cool downhill track, wide open and fast, however, a little bit dodgy on the trail bikes, so instead we rode the freeride, jump track, with good floating jumps, me, David, J-Lo (Justin), Cyril and Greg had some real good fun. We did some riding early on, then chilled out down the beach, until around 6pm, mainly so that we could film the sunset! It is going to look really good on camera. The track we were riding had a good mix of everything ranging from switchbacks to 6-10 foot drops.

The day after Wellington we followed J-Lo and Jono to the ferry for South island,

 

 

We headed to Nelson for J-Lo to race the NZ South Island Cup (NZ national series). We could not race, but we were allowed to sweep the course for seeding and race runs, the course was brilliant, scary on the small bikes, still really good though. The track was steep in most places with big jumps. Now to the racing and elite was closely contested between NZ’s best riders and the worlds best, the best racing went on between Justin ‘J-Lo’ Leov, Nathan Rankin, Kieran Bennet, Cam Cole, Mat Scoles, Joel Daniels and Mike Skinner. In the end Justin came out on top from Rankin and Scoles. Justin really did do well considering he only got 4 practise runs, this was because he was doing the tour guide roll for us. After the race we headed back to the hotel to collect all our gear, and to head off to Wanaka, Wanaka was a long drive from Nelson, roughly about 5 hours so we did this in two stages. That night we stayed at a nice hotel, but we arrived late, earlier that night we had stopped at a little town, which was something like you would see on a horror movie not a person in sight and just a big building that had been there for decades.

The next day in Wanaka we did some Heli-biking, this was so good, but David thought different ha-ha! We got to the top of the mountain and it was so windy and cold. The riding at the top was hard especially when we were filming because there was a lot of pushing, but we did another one later that day and did a full run with Justin and David, our bikes were perfect for this, smooth and fast, the bottom was just a really drifty fire road.

 

 

The day after Heli-Biking we rode at Coronet Peak ski resort, this place was amazing only two tracks but they were both unreal, these tracks are ‘the way forward’ hahaha! Later that day we did some riding, they had had a national there a week before so it was really good. We had some really good runs, then disaster struck on the last run, I had a massive crash, and put my Fro Systems Neck brace to the test and it worked! THANK THE GOOD OLD LORD, WITH OUT YOU I WOULD BE NO WHERE HAHAHAHA!!!

 

A big thank you to Justin Leov (www.justinleov.com), Jono Church, Patrice Janet, Gino Decisier and finally the journalists and camera crew, thank you, it would not have happened with out you.

 

 

 

 

 

FRO SYSTEMS NECK

 

PROTECTOR

 

Dan tested the latest safety equipment on the

 

market, a Fro Systems Neck Protect.

 

 

Dan received his Neck Protect during the week and we decided to go up to Hamsterly to try it out. On first impressions this protector is considerably lighter than others on the market and is simpler to fit, it comes with three different sets of spacers so fits all shapes and sizes! Last season saw several high profile neck injuries which could have been prevented had the riders been wearing a neck protect. A neck protect prevents hyper extension and considerably reduces the risk of serious neck injuries. So we approached Fro Systems who kindly provided Dan with a Neck Protect to try.
Within a couple of runs Dan didn’t even realise that the protector was there, managing to ride the steep and technical descents and even still pulled suicides over the big jumps.

After a successful days riding Dan is happy to wear the Neck Protect and will continue to wear it through the racing season. It will now be part of his safety equipment, along with his body armour and helmet, it even fits in his Giro helmet bag with his helmet!
For further information contact Dan at dannyhart@dannyhart.co.uk or mark@frosystems.com.

 

 

 

 

 

BIG NEWS!

 

2008 Will see Danny and new team mates David Vasquez and Greg Doucende riding for Team Lapierre DH Powered by Saab Salomon.

 

The team partners will be;

Lapierre

Saab

Salomon

Pierce et Elliot

Fox

Shimano

Hutchinson

Mavic

Giro

E-Thirteen

Easton

Selle Italia

 

The team will be racing in the Saab Salomon Avalanche Trophy, UCI World Cups and other major MTB events.

 

The team will use the new DH-200 (FPS2 technology) and the Spicey (OST technology).

 

Danny will be looked after by Competition Manager, Cyril Lagneau (ex-World Cup rider) and Technical Manager, Jack Roure (MTB guru!) and Laurent Delorme of www.pureagency.fr

 

 

 

 

 

Testing 8/12/07

Last night I got back from Nice, France, from the testing with Lapierre, Hutchinson and Fox Shox. I arrived at Nice airport on Tuesday afternoon, Cyril Lagneau, and David Vasquez were they to picked me up and we went to the hotel. That evening Jack Roure arrived with our bikes. We were staying in a Campanile hotel.

The next day we went to a track up in the mountains, called Sosspel, where the likes of Nico Vouilloz, and, Fabien Barel ride, the track at Sosspel was around 5 minutes long. Quite a lot of pedalling in places with steep sections, I was riding with David Vasquez testing the Hutchinson tyres and the geometry of the Lapierre frames.

That evening we met up with a few more people- a guy called Manu Molle, a photographer. That evening we headed off to Monaco for tea, Monaco is such a good place, we ate in a Hard Rock Café style restaurant, on the harbour, where they had Formula 1 cars hanging from the celing, helmets from people like, Valentino Rossi, and David Coulthard, leathers from people like, Loris Cappirossi, and Mick Dohan, also Motocross gear from Stefan Everts.

On Thursday we rode at Nico Vouilloz’s track in Peille. Peille is an extremely rocky track a real test for any tyres, and suspension, here the Hutchinson tyres only punctured once with David. Which was really good because the tracks rocks are very spiky and sharp, in Peille we were also testing suspension. Later that day Nico came and did some runs. Also that day Laurent Delorme, team Director came along to see how we were getting on.

That evening the Hutchinson men left, they were great very, interested in the team and how the team got along with the tyres, and they were great they have a really brilliant tubeless system with barely and punctures, thank you to them. Also Laurent returned to his new home in Paris.

On Friday we went to Peille once more and did just four runs because I was flying home later that day, and we had to go and drop some suspension off at Nico’s house. Where Nico lives there are 3 mountain bike world champions live in that road, Nico, Fabien and a XC world champion.

Later that day I had to leave for London Heathrow, I was flying at 4:20, but they said at the airport. That the flight would be delayed for 2 hours due to bad weather and lots of planes waiting to land at Heathrow, but, it was only an hour and we were on. At London Heathrow, we had to wait at least 30-45 minutes for a place to park and time was ticking away for my connecting flight to Newcastle, the gate was closing at 7:50 and we were still sat on the plane at 7:20, so I had to run from one end of the airport to reach the connecting flight, but I made it in plenty of time because this plane was delayed too. I then landed in Newcastle, to find one bag, and no bike boxes, it ended up that they had not packed them on the plane, so I'm still waiting for them I have been told that they will arrive at my house tomorrow at dinner time.

Thank you to Jack Roure, Cyril Lagneau, Laurent Delorme, Hutchinson, Fox Racing Shox, David Vasquez, and Nico Vouilloz. Without them this test week would not have happened.