JOEY GOUGH - BMX Girl

I've been wanting to head up to Crewe track for a while. I'd been a couple of years ago but it was before track builders Clark & Kent worked their magic and the lips were all over the place. It still astounds me how many tracks in this country have such terrible lips.. I don't know what it is, because to many, you can just look at a lip, or failing that ride it and see that it is wrong. A smooth transition can change the way a track rides and I am not talking about building steep lips either, at speed that isn't what you need... just a smooth transition with no aggressive kick at the bottom and one that doesn't roll over half way up!

Anyway, C&K know how to do it, Crewe is rad. So fun to session, I rode as much as possible friday night even though I was tired from driving there, then on saturday it was like the old days, the track was open to ride whenever nothing official was going on. At the end of the day and just as the rain kicked in, the high jump comp was held over the pro set. There was a moment where I thought fellow French trippers little Dylan Foster and Tuffs were gonna win, but last years winner and local shredder Ash Davey snatched the money with a massive 12ft 8" !!

Sunday was race day so I left the bike alone and got the video camera out (my footage is in storage for a long term project!). There was some old faces back racing, my faves being Shaun Fry who's been off the bike for 7yrs but looked right back at home, and Alex Dick who was still pulling out the classic moves... 5th to 2nd and someone got a pimping over the 2nd turn in the process! I miss watching Alex race! He really reminds me of how the Murray boys used to race, it was never over til the finish line.

Which leads me on to the special part of this weekend, the return of Stephen Murray to the UK for the first time in 3 years. For anyone reading who doesn't know Stephen's story click here. It was awesome to see Stephen and his family all back at a uk race. He's been an inspiration from when he was a kid on a Titan pulling 360's, to winning x games gold medals, and now staying so amazingly strong since his injury. Great to see you Stephen. www.staystrong.co.uk

Check out this great edit of the weekend by Corinne Walder:

More BMX Racing Videos >>

..................................................................................................................................

Headed back to wisley last weekend for their annual fund raising jam. It was pretty cool, a chilled affair, didn't have to queue to ride and a good mix of big wheels and little wheels. Did a little bit of riding, and a little bit of filming, collecting footage for the dvd I'll be making next year.

Stuck some new pedals on my bike last week too....odyssey finally made hot pink pedals!! My chameleon pink pedals faded so I had to have them! :o)

Finally had a lot of rain this week, the trails have been bone dry and dusty since the beginning of April, I'm so excited we can go and build something! Not to mention they'll ride a damn sight better aftr some rain.

Next week is the Bob Fields Grands at Crewe, the raddest track in the country. Can't wait, heading up friday to session the track til 10pm under floodlights!






...........................................................................................................................

Last minute decision last weekend. We'd been planning on heading up to sheffield sometime for a while, but it just hadn't happened. Heard a bit of a Bolehills jam was happening on the sunday... so why not eh! Headed up for the day and it was well worth it. All the local crew were there, even DC back from NYC. It was almost a french trip reunion.

The newly changed 2nd straight was getting sessioned, it's really floaty, good fun. RB was pulling some big x-ups, Moonbay & AT were on the money flowing with style, and Paddy did the whole straight for the first time - and twice more to make it count! There's just something about the place... and I am pretty sure it's the vibe of the locals.



This weekend, kept it local. Ace day at the trails saturday, was nice to get over there a bit earlier in the day this time. Recently, it's been too hot or too windy in the afternoons, so evenings at the trails have been more sensible. The rain that we have had has made absolutely zero impact though! Today was a road bike day, rode out to Hunstanton from Wells in a nasty headwind, but it was still alright I suppose! Stopped for a much needed coffee and cake and hammered back along the coast road with the tail wind... now that was good! Felt like half the journey on the way back!

Gonna set aside next saturday avo for a BBQ and the BMX Worlds on freecaster, then Norwich regional on sunday.


...................................................................................................................................

Jay and Jonny headed over to Norwich friday night for a track session in this summer heat. 7 o'clock, still 29 degrees, clear skies and very little wind.

An extra treat in store when we arrived at the track, the Mangler had heard our plans and wanted a slice of the action too!

The third straight was sessioned hard by all, the sun beaming down behind us. I took the opportunity to take a few snaps as the colours were so vibrant.

Jonny joined mangler in a fitness session at the end of the evening, 3 full laps was the intention. I think Jonny managed 1 & 1/2 before he opened up is cooler bag and cracked open the strongbow! Now that's preparation...

Jonny and Jay dropped by on the way home for some food. With Jonny's new found MTB status ("I am the 4th Atherton sibling") I educated him into the MTB World with a viewing of the old Sprung 5 DVD. Will have to find a vid with some Ross MBUK Tricker footage (avec affro) for next time, he'll enjoy that.










.................................................................................................................................

With the weather being so beautiful we took another trip to the coast. Starting at Cromer again, we decided to ride out the other way towards Walcott. We got a bit lost from the planned route but it was really quite pleasant, riding through the "quiet lanes" as they are called. Stopped at Walcott for a drink but it really isn't a patch on Byfords at Holt or any of the North Norfolk coast... a bit tacky really! We rode back to cromer along the coast road a bit faster, the coast road really wasn't anything like as nice as Cromer to Blakeney, but oh well!

We hit the beach again cause it was still pretty warm. Just as were leaving, we did a double take as what we thought was a dog walking in front of us, was actually a muntjac deer. It pegged it straight up the cliff, it was unbelievable, it got up so high so fast... but the very top of the cliff was vertical and there was no way it was getting up there. The poor thing slipped and fell down the cliff hitting rocks on the way down and resulting in a hell of a thud at the bottom. Amazingly, it got up and climbed half way back up and just stayed there... someone made a phone call so I guess it got rescued. Pretty mental.

Finished the day off with some more Mary Jane's fish and chips (I'm not a massive fan of fish and chips but these are something special!), then a bit of tacky prize winning on the 2p machines! good fun!

...............................................................................................................................

On monday we had a day recovering from the trails-heavy weekend, chillaxing at a local private gym and pool thanks to a guest pass from Scoob's Bro. Actually felt like I was doing the normal holiday thing for a while there... sunning meself by to the outdoor pool and hanging out in the outdoor hot tub. We tried to spill energy drink on the hot tub electrics and be transported back to the 80's but to no avail...

Tuesday we planned a different type of cycling. We headed up to the North Norfolk coast equipped with a tent and road bikes. The day had started with a rain shower, but by the time we got out on our bikes it was clear blue skies and glorious sunshine.

First off we headed towards Holt for my first ever "earned" visit to Byford's cake shop! Mmmm, coffee cake and iced latte.

Refreshed and ready to ride, we headed to Blakeney through some small country roads, some lovely scenery and spotted a few nice looking beer gardens on the way through. At Blakeney we joined up with the coast road and followed this all the way back to cromer. It really was an enjoyable ride, we had a view of the sea for some parts, the sand dunes for others, but even when you couldn't see it you could always tell you were next to the sea, just from the smell and the feeling in the air. So glad I have invested in a road bike, on my MTB to go at a reasonable speed I'd always have to be trying hard. Now I can cruise at a good speed and enjoy the ride!

We had planned to stop for fish and chips at Cromer but we were still full with cake. So we headed back to camp, picked up the van and went down to Cromer beach. By this time it was around 7 pm, so there was only a couple of chumps with metal detectors left on the beach. It was still 20 odd degrees with the sun beaming down on the sea, it was beautiful, and we had it pretty much to ourselves!

The sea was a bit nippy, but you got used to it pretty quick. We went for a swim, in the calm deserted sea, at 7pmin the UK....it was so lovely. I haven't been swimming in the sea for years. The water is even pretty clear in Cromer! We threw a rugby ball about on the beach to dry out a bit, then went on the hunt for fish and chips... Scoob got slightly distracted by the 2p coin machines though and managed to win himself a set of World Cup erasers...yes!! Then we spotted the air hockey - I forgot how brilliant air hockey is! Especially cause I won... haha. I lost on the Basketball hoop game though I must admit. Ok, even stevens it is then.

We finished the day off with some really good Fish and Chips on the pier as the sun went down. What a fantastic day :o)


....................................................................................................................................

Sunday was supposed to get up to 30 degrees... pretty sure it did in wisley, it was HOT. If it wasn't in the trees I don't think I would have managed to ride.

I love going to Wisley, Gareth and Digs always make us very welcome and we have a great days riding. The big line wasn't running this year because it's just been too dry for the guys to make the changes they want to, but the jam line was running good with the addition of a new transfer landing of the left of the 3rd lip, a new set following that, then a lip back into the old 5th set. This transfer wasn't enough for Jimmy Pratt though. He had been transferring from the lip of the old 4th set to the lip of the new 4th set -I would have loved to have seen that (check the pic above from a few weeks back by a guy called "cookiemonster"). Unfortunately, Jimmy had crashed the week before trying to transfer the opposite way and broken his wrist. He was still at the trails though, diggin one handed... impressive!!

We met our French trip buddy Scott Waterhouse there too, he is always so fun to ride with, like a duracell bunny, he just can't stop riding. He was manualing from the start, up to and through the 4 rollers before the first set. Silky smooth.

A bit later on a few more locals showed up, it was good to see them session the transfer line, boosting it in true Wisley style. Local rider Seb had been racing at andover in the morning, I think he's been bitten by the race bug recently. He showed up still in high speed mode, absolutely bombing round the s-bends, and then turning all his speed into height on the jam line.

We headed off home absolutely knackered after 2 days of sun and trails, but with a big smile on our faces! What a treat to find a starbucks at South Mimms services...mmmm mocha frappachino to finish the day.

Here are a few photos of the day from my trusty nikon D40. Top to Bottom: Scooby, Scooby, Joey, Scott WH





..................................................................................................................................

I'm on holiday this week and the weather is ace!

First off, Matt had arranged a little jam and BBQ at city trails for saturday. Loads of out of towners showed up, mainly the melbourn crew, and ripped the place up! I got to see Wildhair twisting the red carpet set on my beloved old blue Standard bike nearly every run - I know I didn't teach it that! Matt Priest was a treat to watch as usual, twisting the last two sets and landing in a manual after the hip, all the way till the next set.

Matt was struggling with a back injury, but still pulling some of the most clicked turndowns I've ever seen. Tucker was back at the trails for the first time in ages after being chained to his desk for months. We'll let him off though, cause he did get a 1st in his degree - well done Tuckerpea! Was good to see him flowing the trails again.

Spanky of ilikebikes.co.uk headed over later on after work and went nuts, trying barrell rolls over the trick line, I got lots of footage of that!

All in all a great days riding in the sun. Enjoy some of the photos taken by Tim Wood. Top to Bottom: Spanky going big, Matt Knights clicked, Wildhair 360.



...........................................................................................................................

Got my new road bike last week, never thought it'd happen but there ya go.. added a couple of vans stickers to make myself feel better ...ha. Had a good ride out on it last sunday, Scoob and I rode out to lyng to watch the British MX race. It was a great sunny day, and a nice chilled ride out there. The MX was awesome, so good watching it for real. Good standing at the start .... the noise of the engines revving and then when the gates drops...brraaap...love it!

Rode a bit faster on the way home as it looked like rain. Got rained on for about 5 mins, kept heading south for as long as possible as we could see a big black cloud hanging over to the east. Worked out pretty good, cause it was so wet on the roads when we got back... avoided that nicely!

The beasting of rain we got after that was desparately needed at the trails, it has been dry for so long. It was a little bit too heavy though and washed the silt out of the jumps a bit. Nothing a few hours shovel work didn't fix . Haven't managed to get to ride them since though as the winds have been strong and northerly. This is bad news for us.... it means the wind blows right accross the field for a nasty cross wind at the trails, and also pretty nasty accross the track.

Today we had the pleasurable company of Jonny, Paul and Evan from Bury. Jonny and I managed to train the 3rd straight in the cross wind a couple of times, but it really did suck. So we headed to the city trails, tidied them up a bit and had a little ride safely surrounded by trees. Jonny hadn't ridden trails for a long long time, what with busting his leg up in france and not being able to ride for months. Good to have ya shredding again Jonny! I think he will be back very soon! :o) Photos are from the trails today, of Scoob and Jonny.

On the subject of trails, check out this video, which feature some of my favourite things... PA Woods and Brian Foster! Yes!