Matt Simmonds : Pro MTB Rider & Training
national champs
Wednesday, 21 July 2010 17:27
This year’s national champs where held at AE forest, with the track getting a revamp it had a mixture of all sorts varying from fast rocky sections, tight woods, steep switch backs and when all linked together made a hard course.
This was now my fifth year racing national champs as an elite and with previous podiums I was more hyped up than ever to get another. Over the weekend a lot of rain had fallen which left most people opting for spike tyres, mud guards and a shed load of tear offs.
In seeding race favourite Steve Peat had a big crash which left him coming down early in the finals. Onto myself and I was sitting in third with Josh Bryceland in second and Gee Atherton winning seeding.
Come the afternoon and the rain showed no sign of letting up, as I came across the line into second place Steve Peat had put in a storming run, some four seconds up on my time with only two riders left my chance of a podium was still alive. Josh was next and came in on a similar time to mine but a fraction quicker quickly followed by gee who didn’t quite have enough to beat the time of Steve but still good enough for second.
So that was me in fourth place, I’m now getting ready to fly to France for the fourth round of the world cup series next weekend.
Till then
uci world cup leogang
Wednesday, 23 June 2010 08:42
last weekend for me was probably the highlight of my career so far, after qualifying 6Th then going on to finish 10Th was a strong finish. The track had some great technical sections, but then also some pedalling thrown in.
Ive just arrived in morzine now for a few weeks staying at winterandsummer.com its the perfect place for training and great food.Then were of to the mega race so cant wait, in the mean time check out the team vid from leogang.
willingen wheels of speed
Tuesday, 15 June 2010 18:58
The Downhill race is held on the track that used to hold a World Cup DH and 4X race on and it is always very competetive with a lot of the top world cup pro racers showing up because of the track with its big jumps and also the great prize money which is a ton more than a World Cup! I wonder why UCI can't provide as good prize money at the biggest races in the world?
The racing is always super tight and a great spectical for the people watching with times only differeing between hundredths of seconds.
All the team did exceptionally well Matt, Chris and Matti where all in the top 10 and so close to the podium in times.
Thanks to the organisers at Willingen for having the team at there great event once again. See you next year.
Final Results
Aaron Gwin 1:50.06
Greg Minnaar 1:50.26
Andrew Neethling: 1:50.99
Dan Atherton 1:51.69
Filip Polc 1:52.03
Matt Simmonds 1:52.03
Chris Kovarik 1:52.19
Steve Smith 1:52.55
Matti Lehikoinen 1:52.96
Florent Payet 1:52.9
The team now heads over to Leogang in Austria for the 3rd round of the UCI World Cup this coming weekend.
TM reports from fort william
Friday, 11 June 2010 14:38
Well on the whole we had a fantastic weekend at Fort William. The race, weather and whole event was amazing. As you can see we took top honours for the weekend winning the best team award. It was great having the while team up on the podium in front of the cheering race fans.
The great UK crowd was there in full effect which made for a sensational atmosphere. Lesley, Mike and the crew put on another fantastic World Cup event and the course builders had done an amazing job on the DH track making a great race.
We had some great results over the weekend with everyone making it through to the Sunday finals and Matti Lehikoinen placing 5th in the semi final was great.Claire Buchar had another great run equaling her 7th place from Maribor at round 1 and is 7th overall in the Womens standings.
Julien Camellini got back up to speed placing 7th in the mens category which was really a good result for him and the team so early on in the season after 1 year out with injury. Matti Lehikoinen also had a brilliant run and placed 10th for the day which should boost his confidence for the rest of the season. Matt Simmonds had another great ride finishing 20th so 2 top 20s for Matt in the first 2 world cups is great. Ruaridh Cunningham had a good run in the final but not quite able to equal his semi final placing of 19th. He ended the day in 37th but only 3 seconds off his goal of a top 20. On a 4.30 minute plus track this shows Ruaridh is riding really good and hopefully his results will come with a little more time.
The only real disappointment we had for the weekend was Chris Kovarik. He was riding great all weekend placing 9th in the semi final even after a jammed chain from landing on a big rock halfway down the course we were sure he was on for a podium spot at least. But it didn't go Chris way after clocking the 4th fastest 1st split time only 0.3 of a second behind eventual winner Gee Atherton Chris got a front puncture ending his and the teams high hopes. It was a real shame as Chris put in so much effort this weekend wowing the crowd with his exceptional riding skills doing probably the most runs of anyone all weekend.
But 3 riders in the top 10 and 4 in the top 20 was fantastic for the team and this will give us a good confidence boost heading into the 3rd round of the World Cup in 2 weeks time.
Podium for Simmonds at IXS Cup
Tuesday, 01 June 2010 10:15
Arriving in Innerleithen late on the Thursday evening I was expecting to walk the same old courses that have been used for a few years now, but instead was greeted with pretty much a whole new track which looked amazing. The guys that put all the hard work in have done a great job.
It was the first time that Ruaridh and myself have raced an IXS Cup and we both really enjoyed it. Something new to us was the format they use. We had Friday practice from 2pm-6pm, Saturday practice and seeding then Sunday finals which made practice a lot more relaxed with loads of time to check out lines and the big wooden hucks.
Come Sunday and the great weather that we’ve been having couldn’t quite hold off, with drizzly showers throughout the day it made the finish field interesting but the rest of the track stayed the same with dust and loose rocks everywhere.
Ben Cathro and Ruaridh missed seeding due to MTB Cut’s Stu Thomson’s wedding, so the pair were down early on. Ben clocked a cracking time of 2.57, which would later give him the win, and Ruaridh would eventually go into sixth with a 2.59. It was then a long wait waiting for the faster guys to come down later on with myself not managing to better Bens time but slotting into third with a 2.58 and Lewis Buchanan in second.
All in all a great weekend’s riding. A big shout out to Dale McMullan who won masters for ChainReactionCycles.com.
Until Fort William all the best.
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