Forums are done anyway. Too many hacktards.

A sport the British are actually decent at? It’s only a matter of time.

The racing season begins with the usual suspects and a few new faces. We were all surprised not to see Mark Horacek making an appearance after good pre-season form utilizing his shuttle taxi.

There’s a Chocolatefoot league on Dirt’s Dirt Fantasy League – a URL that sounds much more exciting than it is – http://dirtfantasyleague.com if you’ve not joined already.

Password is “Kraken” for entry.

It’s good to see the footage getting another step up in the quality stakes this season, judging by the various websites covering the events alongside Freecaster. Rob “Murray Walker with Swearing” Warner is still in the booth, with Alex Rankin cutting together a few clips.

Good combo I reckon.

Any predictions? I think there will be some racing and some crashes.

Trek Scratch - first build

It’s taken almost 4 months of fighting with UPS to get my Scratch frame back so I can build it up to ride. Just in time for me to slam into the floor and separate a shoulder just when I was really getting into the groove on my hardtail.

The Session 88 has been a ton of fun to ride this year, and a carpark spin suggested the Scratch would be a solid compliment to fulfil the all mountain full suspension duties where the hardtail is too much of a handful.

I just wish the iPhone camera wasn’t quite so shit.

Trek Session 88 build

Harper Mountain from Jon Hadfield on Vimeo.

Various riders, jolly good times. Especially the sundown slide down the gravel pit just outside town. This is super steep, but totally rideable. You just lean back, and let it roll. We witnessed a Brett Tippie masterclass – he gapped about 30ft down it at warp speed and carved his way to the bottom.

Then we carved our more standard lines. The darker lines are the slow folks. One of those is mine.

Lines at Kamloops Gravel Pit

The following day we were back at Harper after a few laps of Rio, in time to catch some golden laps of the mountain.

What? Where?

XC Squamish Style

XC for me has typically meant riding the same trails I would on any other bike with less armour and a little helmet, but going a little slower down and hopefully with a little less pushing up.

That shot is from a lap today in Squamish which was unfortunately cut short by a twisted ankle for Jon, but still gave up some epic views, turns and laughs.

The trails in that place between Whistler and Vancouver – that so many steam through via Tim Hortons and the rest of the stripmall wasteland in the valley – are varied, and today were riding fast and loose. The trails seem to be pitched at the perfect level – good fast ripping and gnarly sections to keep you on your toes, with climbs to get you worked over without hour long fireroad slogging. The views too… this definitely isn’t the Shore, where the view = trees, lots of them. Squamish has huge snowcapped peaks surrounding it, and epic flowing mountain landscapes, and vast, looming, moss coated granite monoliths.

It’s XC country. Bring your 29er.

Ok, maybe stick with a real bike, this isn’t California.

How very West Coast

Post ride convoy to the pub, after a ride up on Burke, Coquitlam, BC.

A pretty classic site around town.

I wonder why this style of rack isn’t found in the UK, as they’re way handier than those stupid things with all the dangly bits you have to tie on.

Those things are FUCKING SHINY and no mistake – in some ways better than daylight as you never hit the shadows.

Here’s Jon, looking pretty happy with himself with his solar flare hat:

It was a good feeling to open up the winter nights to riding potential, and we weren’t the only folks on the mountain who’d figured this out.

We could see lights of the Grouse ski resort at the end of our 5k or so of climbing, but I doubt many snowclowns were up there – Last year this would’ve been 2m deep in snow at this point but El Nino seems to have put paid to any thoughts of snowy bliss for the Winter Olympics which looms large – it looks pretty brown right now which means: A longer riding season.

I was converted instantly – head mounted lights are a way better option than the bar mounts I used to run, and with the Hopes you’re basically contained in a bubble of daylight. This is one of the trails I know well though, and it’s still disorientating to ride without the usual reference points of giant stumps or big slabs lining the side of the trail and we had a few double takes to find our way down.

I’m considering whether I’d man up for a solo night ride out here. It’s pretty gnarly, even the easier trails can spank you to the ground, not to mention the fact you’re invading the forest’s peaceful time and there’s a whole lot of dark to swallow you up…