Joe Barnes

The Eurotrip part 1

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:45:00 -0400

Hi. the time has come. the blog has been rebooted. the first half of the season was well good but for some reason I didnt take one photo or write one word. brain freeze. There were some sweet races with 10 under the ben xc race being so fun and our DH team stealing the win. Fort William WC and also the canada trip. we squeezed 5 into the pimpest motor home this side of montreal. All being good it was time to pack up the van and finish the end of the summer off on the continent. The racing out here is pretty competative and so much good biking to be done mid week.

I packed up the white randomly stickered speedy van machine with enough rice pud to last 2 months got the boys belted in and hit the road. Liam and Ferg joined me for the first part of the trip and we arrived buy the lake in Les Gets late in the evening for a nice swim. continued……

La Bresse Busy Busy. I forgot to take any more photos after...

Wed, 27 May 2009 16:37:46 -0400

La Bresse

Busy Busy. I forgot to take any more photos after this. Ah well, next time

ferg is just pleased to be here

Wed, 27 May 2009 16:30:37 -0400

ferg is just pleased to be here

The busyest 3 weeks on record

Tue, 26 May 2009 12:26:00 -0400

It has been mental the last three weeks. I have been to two world cups and the IXS dirt masters festival. The trip started with Me, Ferg Lamb and Ben Cathro setting off in my Fun Bus for La Bresse in France. I don’t know how it happened but we managed to take far to much kit and the van was carrying a fair burden. One essential piece of kit was the wee bike, my 14” Peugeot, It got ridden more than any other bike and kept us sane on the long drives. Its a bit worst for wear now though so its getting a full service before the Fort Will world cup. After sleeping in Calais ferry terminal we hit the road and got into the usual sweaty boring french driving routine. not much happened, may be some hoolahoop a minute game to pass the time. The track in La Bresse was the dogs, it was fresh, loose and rocky. After setting up pits(easy-up) and meeting Harriet, a friend from the NZ trip, all was good for tapping some turns. Ferg got a bit carried away and nosed it into a back slope and broke his collar bone. silly sausage. it was a big shame and Ferg flew home early for some laser treatment to be ready for the world cup here. This left me and Ben and we were both riding well in practice. I got a bit bucked about in one section and pulled off the best save in a while (see mtbcut.tv). yess. For my seeding I hit a streak of bad luck and got a rear puncture. I continued on but missed the cut by a couple of seconds. About 30th at the split so very annoying. Cathro was on the pipe and qualified in 18th but for the final couldn’t continue the form and got about 50th. It was a great weekend and good to hang out with Harriet and the Boys. With Ferg gone me and Ben trucked down to Andora. It took flaming ages to get there but it was a cool place. We walked the course and rode some wee bike and then got in about Marshals(MTBcut film maker) swimming pool at his hotel. Harriet and Steffi arrived and had some room in their apartment so me and Ben stayed there for the weekend. Another good course here as well, may be a bit flat and short but also really fun to ride. I finally raced the final but ben crashed in his seeding and pulled his cv joint off( or is it ac Ben) either way his collar bone was skyway. 2 down and one to go, could i survive the trip. Yes, I did it. I also got 37th in the final so was pretty pleased with this. A good start before the world cup at Home. I had to go it alone for the 30 hour drive home but I’m getting used to trucking now. After a quick half day turn around I packed up again and flew out to the IXS Dirt Masters with Cathro, Cathro Daddy and Pete@hotlines. It was a really cool trip and the festival was huge with 30 thousand people there. I just took my Orange Blood short travel bike and road around on other tracks as well as the race. The DH was a pretty good track, a bit flat but okay for my blood. I got 4th and beet some really good riders who were on DH bikes. I am back in The Fort now for a few weeks and am enjoying not traveling and being at home. Its the world cup next week and I am helping build a really boom gnarley new section I hope they use. Its nuts, really steep with rocks, mud and general boom. Well good

The new red run at nevis range. Andy McCandlish photo for a MBR...

Mon, 04 May 2009 09:37:28 -0400

The new red run at nevis range. Andy McCandlish photo for a MBR article I did with Hannah, Liam and Donald.

Just about to take my helicopter for a spin.

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:05:27 -0400

Just about to take my helicopter for a spin.

Photo

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:01:30 -0400

Photo-Dougie Pryce

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:59:33 -0400

Photo-Dougie Pryce

set of chumps Photo-Dougie Pryce

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:52:00 -0400

set of chumps

Photo-Dougie Pryce

NPS Ae Forrest

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:29:43 -0400

The first NPS this weekend was at Ae Forrest in the Borders of Scotland. I went down with a friend from Fort William, James Shirley. We made a mini break out of the weekend and went down a day early to the No Fuss press release for their summer’s events. On Thursday night there was a whisky tasting session in the hotel at Kirochtree just south of Ae, however we didn’t make it in time. We turned off the motorway planning to cross-country it over to Kirochtree and were going fine until the road started getting smaller and smaller and the fuel warning light was on. We called in to a farm for directions and it turned out we weren’t taking the most direct route. We made it to the nearest town but everything was closed apart from the pub. With a bit of banter from the locals a guy offered us some fuel he had sitting at home in a jerry can. He gave us a good price (providing it wasn’t red). We finally arrived at the hotel at 9.30 and caught up with the guys from No Fuss. I shared a room with High Tower and then the next day we went out on a xc ride round the “10 at Kirochtree” xc race course. Stu, Brian, Hutch and Cathro were there from the team and also the Hope boys. James and me did a bit of bike swap testing, rode some good single track and did some photos. Thanks to No Fuss for a great day and a good lunch. We then drove over to Ae to walk the course. The course looked really good, Ae forest usual, fast, a bit blown out and with some good new turns. Practice was really fun and I felt pretty good on my bike all day. James was hitting a sweet “huck the stump” line but cased the stump and belted a tree. He has a big swollen knee now and couldn’t overcome the pain to race. It peed it down on Saturday night so I changed my tyres to cut spikes but the course rode pretty similarly on Sunday anyway. I put in a good seeding run and was in 3rd. Dougie did a sterling job on my bike and also James making pizza bread. My final race run was pretty fast most of the way but a bit too loose on the middle rock garden still securing me 2nd. Gee was the only person to beat me. Considering the competition its one of my best results and a good start to the season.

It was the firt round of the SDA series this weekend. My first...

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:14:43 -0400

It was the firt round of the SDA series this weekend. My first time on the DH bike since New Zealand so good to get back riding quickly. it was a push up race on the resonably small hill in Pitfichie near Aberdeen. The track was bone dry and riding pretty quickly although the main chalenge at this race was keeping speed alond the flatter bottom section through the rock gardens. I was loving practace and then on saturday evening there was a 4x race down the field. It was a flat corner slalom track on the slippy grass. Good cheering as always and a few cow pats sent in the riders direction. Ill get hutchins to eat the shite off my forks when i see him next. Jamesy boy took the win and the cash home, with some inspired elbows out riding and legs of thunder. The DH on sunday didnt go so good for me with a puncture in my first run and then 3rd in my second run. I didnt mind so mutch though because I felt fast on most of the course. The Lamb brothers were the big hit of the weekend coming down safely and Ferg taking the win and Toms 3rd in Expert. It was good traveling over with Jamesy, Jenny and Ferg and thanks to Tom for letting us stay. Its abit of work now and then the first National at Ae Forrest next weekend. untill next time

Photo- Dougie Price

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:56:00 -0400

Photo- Dougie Price

I finaly made the trip down to ride the Dirt Jumps with Stu and...

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:49:00 -0400

I finaly made the trip down to ride the Dirt Jumps with Stu and the Bayz after years of threatening to do so. I headed down with Dougie and rode some of stus xc trails aswell. It was my first time riding dirt jumps and I am still not sold on the idea. It was great fun but you cant beat a rooty xc trail for when your off the dh bike. I spent all afternoon getting the wee set half desent and trying to remember to pump downslopes and not huck off rowlers

Photo- Dougie

The “top secret trails” in fort william. My...

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:41:19 -0400

The “top secret trails” in fort william. My favourite woods

Photo

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:44:52 -0400

Photo

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:40:35 -0400

I am home now from what has been an awesome trip to NZ for the winter. I have seen some really cool...

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:27:04 -0400

I am home now from what has been an awesome trip to NZ for the winter. I have seen some really cool things, ridden a huge variety of tracks and escaped the depths of our winter.

Some of the highlights have been driving our Ford Econovan about and constantly leaving the doors open. It started when we were driving down the high street in christchurch and liam looked across in a reflection in a shop window and said shit the back doors open. this seemed to happen to us a lot combined with driving off with cloths on the roof and people tooting at us a lot. In Nelson we left the side door open for about half an our in the center of town while we went shopping. I don’t know how nothing got stolen the hole trip. we did loose alot of stuff, Im sure there is no conection

We met some really friendly people who kindly invited us to stay around and get our washing done. Some of the random acts of kindness were unbelievable. When we were just parked up in Levin walking the course and a walker out of the blue offered for us to stay and have dinner and use the shower for the race weekend was very kind. thanks to every one who helped us out on the trip.

Some of the great unique riding we did was cool all over the country, on some hidden pump tracks, epic walkers tracks and DH race tracks. Riding in rotourua was the best because the Dh shuttle let us do as much DH in the day as we wanted and then the XC tracks in the evening were some of the best trails I have ridden.

It was good to be out with a lot of people this year and to travel about with Liam, Ferg, Gary, Ben and Sam was great craic. We are all home now and it is good to be back in Fort William. I can get into a more disciplined training programme now although riding my bike everyday has been a good start. Its time to have a rest from DH and get sorted for the race season and feel fresh for the first race. I just got back from a xc ride with my sister Hannah up my favourite trails and it feels good to be home.

Photo

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:00:20 -0400

Christchurch NZ open

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:59:26 -0400

Christchurch NZ open

Photo

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:03:42 -0500