The 2nd round of the 2009 NPS series at Llangollen was set to be the most controversial British race of the year, with mixed views and opinions on the idea of holding a race on such a steep track.  There were some who decided not to race, others who came and left and a few who went in an ambulance.

With the world cup at Fort William next weekend there was a better line up of elite riders than usual including current UCI female elite leader Sabrina Jonnier, Cameron  Cole,  Luke Strobel and Mio Sumasa along with some top brits. This along with the constant sunshine all weekend and a wild crowd getting behind the riders gave a great atmosphere to the race weekend.

With Tom Braithwaite and others commenting on the track being steeper than the world cup track at Champery it met all expectations. One comment from a lot of riders was that because the track was so steep it was hard to judge a race pace, and that it would be awesome as a practice track but maybe not a true race track. The track looked amazing, three pedals off the start and then straight into an multi line rock drop, into a steep right hander followed by shoots and switch backs for  over a minute of steep track before hitting a fire road were the riders could stop for the first time. Then the track was still steep after the road but mellowed out a bit as far Llangollen goes, then after a few corners more mega steep tight switchbacks where the track started to become rocky. Towards the bottom the track opened up into flat out shale covered corners with more line choices and speed available finishing with a fast field section and jump.

Practice on Saturday wore out the radios and marshals with non-stop big crashes all day long causing red flags. It didn’t take long until extra catch netting was put up with hope of saving people, although a few did manage to break through the netting.  The hot dry weather made for a dusty track causing corners to blow out and big ruts formed after a few runs. With the track being so steep and technical it made a great spectator track with riders getting loose and out of control.

Despite the controversy before the race the majority of the field loved the challenging track, it was good to see a different style of race track, it mixed it up a bit and also gave a more level playing field as the new track couldn’t be marked as a local’s race .

Sunday morning was a short practice with riders getting 1-2 runs in, the course being maintained all weekend had held up pretty well at this point with some sections becoming better for the ruts adding extra support.  Seeding runs saw Brendan Fairclough take the fastest time of 1:58 with Joe Smith in second just a few hundredths of a second off the pace.

After seeding Si Paton announced that there would be a big whip contest taking place over the final jump during race runs with £200 cash up for grabs along with the rest of the prize money up for grabs.

By the time racing started the bottom shale corners were blown out causing a lot of people problems in the race runs. The crowd on race runs was the best I have ever seen at an NPS, the track was lined from half way down with mega phones, cow bells, horns and plenty of friendly heckling thrown in. The first fast time of the day came from Lewis Buchanan from the youth category on a 2:05 taking home £100 for the biggest winning margin of nearly 5 seconds! He held the fastest time until junior world cup rider Rhys Willemse all the way from Oz stepped up with a 2:03 taking the win. The most exciting racing came from the experts and elites with the biggest crowd of the day gathered on the lower sections of the track. The atmosphere was incredible as the crowd went mad watching some amazing riding. The wild style of Adam Brayton was probably the crowd favourite with huge drifts with even bigger roosts.  Brendan Fairclough took the elite win and the fastest time of the day bagging £200 with an amazing time of 1:54 with slowing down for the last jump so he could have a go at the big whip contest that he also took home, adding another  £100 to his weekends winnings.

The best NPS I’ve ever been to,  great track, sun all weekend and amazing crowd. 

Results (Top 5 from each category)

Juvenile
1st  Ross Wilcox
2nd  George Gannicott   
3rd  Stuart Wilcox  
4th  James Gibson 
5th  Phillip Atwill 

Youth
1st  Lewis Buchannan 
2nd  Mark Scott
3rd  Fraser Mcglone  
4th  Moss Macriner 
5th ` George Belk  

Junior
1st  Rhys Willemse 
2nd  Gareth Brewin  
3rd  Brad Mathers
4th  Tamryn Murrell
5th  Harry Malloy  

Masters
1st  Chris Akrigg 
2nd  Joe Bishop 
3rd  Dave List 
4th  Chris Coates
5th   Sandy Plenty  

Veterans
1st  Jason Carpenter  
2nd  Darren Howarth 
3rd  Gary Burns  
4th  Stevie Boyd
5th   Jerry Twigg  

Women
1st  Mannon Carpenter
2nd  Monet Adams
3rd  Bex Riley
4th  Emma Atkinson
5th   N/A   

Women elite
1st  Helen Gaskell
2nd Katy Curd
3rd  Sabrina Jonnier
4th  Mio Sumasa
5th  Aimme Dix

Senior
1st  Kurt Brain
2nd  Oliver Burton
3rd  Olly Hooper
4th  Tom Gleave
5th  James McKnight

Expert
1st  Scott Mears  
2nd  Alex Stock 
3rd  Alex Bond 
4th  Lee Huskinson
5th   Sion Whitecross  

Elite
1st  Brendan Fairclough
2nd  Joe Smith
3rd  Rich Thomas 
4th  Adam Brayton
5th  Tom Deacon 

Full results can be found here http://www.mikrotime.com/mtb/nps2009/llang209.html 

Photos by :

www.eggraphy.co.uk

Check out the eggraphy website for more photos and to purchase images from the event.

Words - Tom Whant