After a long old winter it was time for the riders to dust off their trick bags and get ready for Round 1 of this year’s Rose Bikes Dirt Wars UK FMB Bronze National Series. Chicksands was first on the list and as always the jumps didnt fail to impress us. Chicksands Bike Park is set in woodland in bedfordshire and has been around since square wheels, Ran and maintained by the Chicksands bike park crew the park has a whole range of riding from 4x, Dirt Jumps and DH to Dual racing.
The Dirt Jumps are by no means the biggest in our series but they are however the perfect jumps to get the series going every year and let the riders get back in to the swing of things before moving on to some of our bigger courses later in the series.
As always we held an Open class and a Pro class to separate the big trickers from the up and coming riders and with the 3 top riders from last years open moving up into Pro Class this year it has opened the field for a whole bunch of new riders who are getting ready to move up through the ranks.
As signing in came around for this round we came across a bit of a problem as our insurance stated that all riders must be over the age of 13 to ride the series but we had a 9 year old ripper who was desperate to ride the comp in Open class and we really didn't want to upset the little fella as he held a valid FMB Bronze licence and after watching him ride we could clearly see he was totally competent in riding the course and throwing out his little trick bag. A phone call was made and we awaited a response, the call came back and we managed to up our insurance cover to allow the tiny Finlay Davis to ride.
With all riders on course for practice you could see the determination in the new riders as they familiarised themselves with the course getting ready for Open quallys. All the riders we ripping through the course when one of our top boy’s Cameron Crozier showed the top guy’s still get it wrong as he slipped a pedal on the set up jump and ended up face first at the bottom of the second jump taking a huge SFG (Scorpion Face Grind) and cutting up his face ending his days riding.
After a bit of course maintenance by the Bike Park Crew we got on with the Open riders quallys and all the riders were set to shut each other down even the close brotherhood of Sam and Tomas Wood was devided as they lined up at the start against each other.
With tuck no handers, Superman's over the set up jump (Robert Beard), No-footed Cans, Whips, Tables and the occasional 360 from welsh rider Rhys Pryce Griffiths and many 360 attempts from Sam Wood (kept landing 450 and getting bounced down the landing) the Open class riders were cut down to the top 7 ready for the final.
Just back from Canada Chromags Joe Aldridge was just getting back familiar with UK soil with 360 Cans and Barspins being sent from all angles.
The Two pioneer riders Zac Rainbow and Callum Sherwood again showed they had the talent to be riding with the Pro’s as Zac sent Underflips, Fliptucks and Frontys whilst Callum struggled to trick the set up jump he still threw out the Tailwhips, Oppo Tailwhips and fully stretched suicides.
GT Bikes Tom Isted was not on form due to a huge 6hr drive to the venue followed by him being sick all morning. Tom still decided to ride and although finishing 5th in quallys he couldnt quite put a run together in the final.
The first and second place battle was between Ex/Smuggling Duds rider Freddy Pulman and Banshee Bikes/Gusset rider Alex Cahill with both unleashing their trick bags heavily.
Unfortunately for Freddy he couldn't quite top Alex this time and went away with second place.
1st Alex Cahill Barspin, Backflip Barspin, Tailwhip to Barspin, 3 Downwhip
2nd Freddy Pulman Barspin, Truck Driver, Backflip Tuck No Hander, 360 Tailwhip
3rd Sam Hodgson Tuck No Hander, Backflip Cancan, Superman Seat Grab, Double Tailwhip
Well done to all the riders who competed and thanks for such an amazing day.
Big thanks to the Chicksands Bike Park Crew, Photographers Terry Stag and Hugh Wycherly, Filmers Henry Agar and Ryan Nangle and The Dirt Wars Crew
Round 2 is on the 10th of June at Radical Bike Park in Essex UK.
See You There.
All riders wanting to ride Round 3 NASS then you need to mail Cliff@dirtwarsuk.com before the 15th of June 2018.