Dave, Ellis and I pack up and headed south for the weekend to spend a weekend with a bunch of mates having fun and riding around a track for 7 hours. Unfortunately Rich couldn’t make it so Dave took his place  in the pairs with me and resigned from the solo category.  Dave and I were back racing together under a new team name and we both had a great time.  Ellis was an angel and slept for the first two hours and then was very happy entertaining/being entertained by everyone!

Friday night was the usual race prep. Dave and I ditched the curry this time and inhaled crisps and beer with the others while Ellis was zzzz in the wigwam. We didn’t go to bed too late as we were all tired after the drive.

Mucho coffee in the morning was required and a bacon roll from the Peel. Dave and I shared his new bike, Punchy the 29er which he has only had for about a week and I had never ridden.  I now want a new bike and have started hunting.

We all rode round in three sets of three and two sets of pairs. It was technically a pretty easy trail and involved lots of climbing which suited me well.  I think Dave and I clocked up over 3,000 metres of ascent and about 100km distance overall.

Martin, Richie and Donnie came 1st in the senior boys trios.

Russell, John and Ryan got 3rd in the senior boys trios.

Vic, Laura and Karina got 3rd in the senior girls trios.

Adam and Ben just missed out of the placings in the senior boys pairs.

And Dave and I came 3rd in the mixed pairs and 12th overall out of 100 pairs so we all did very well indeed and had a couple of well earned beers on Saturday evening.

As Ellis was such a star, allowing us to play on the Saturday, we took her to Edinburgh zoo on the Sunday. She is a little young to get really excited but she did like the meerkats (also our favourites), the penguins and the Leopard. It is a great zoo with lots of play parks and they do talks on the animals to give you a feel of what goes on in their worlds.  We will probably go again when she’s bigger as the biggest attraction for her was the slide!!!