Video: UK Northwest Round One - Farmer John's

Wet Lettuce smash the first round of the Northwest MTB Championships

Farmer John's ey', what a big one. For those that don't know, Farmer John's MTB Park is a bike park on the side of a hill in Marple, Greater Manchester. It hosts five races a year; the four rounds of the British NorthWest Champs, and the infamous Race Weekend. Being only twenty minutes ride from the Wet Lettuce HQ, you'll always find at least three of us in attendance at one of John's organised carnag- sorry, races. Round 1 of the Northwest MTB Championships took place on the 28th and 29th of March, a time you'd usually associate with the coming of spring. Not at Farmer John's. After a week of wall to wall Peak District sunshine, the heavens opened on Friday night specially for the race, leaving the track a literal sh!tstorm.


Jim taking a hard slam on the infamous rockgarden, chasing SPS teammate Vini Crighton-Poli Photo: Nick Moor

The Track

The tracks at John's are always split into two distinct sections. imagine a world-cup track but reversed, a flat-out, jump filled motorway section, followed by mad tech woods to the finish. However this time there were a few surprises even for seasoned locals. Straight out of the start hut, the trail took a big left round a new awkward berm, missing out the usual timber path drop. The track took riders down three log steps on a wooded banking before popping out onto a redesigned A-Line section, where riders had two choices of jump lines. These changes to the track seemed to be the first of many made to control rider's speed in the mad, unpredictable weather. The track was then sent onto the old school John's line, missing the classic sketchy double. Strangely, no-one seemed to be complaining about this after the heavens opened.

The track hit up a few north shore bridges and gap jumps before the newest feature at the farm, a re-arrange of 'Fort Bill', a manmade rock-garden John was inspired to build after his trip to the world cup last year. The awkward right hand corners caught a good few good riders out over the weekend, as shown above in picture and video! After tackling the awkward switchback, the personal highlight of the track opened out; a fast few berms into a rocky straight, big drop and a banging step-up. It was then flat out down drops and roots into what seemed to be the tracks tribute to Cairns last year, an off camber root fest, into a steep, switchbacked, rooty finish. Not bad for a sub-two minute track!

Practice Day

Saturday’s practice was a day of mixed emotions. When we arrived we left our kit with the friendly sign on crew and trucked (walked) up to the start hut. Quick video intro in the bag, we stepped onto the dirt, and hit the deck like a sack of spuds. It seemed Friday night’s downpour had deposited a fine layer of slime over the whole track. After dusting off we scoped out the track, nodded at the straight lines, talked a bit of trash in the woods and headed back up to grab the bikes. The ground got wetter as the day went on, ruts got larger, roots got shinier, riders got muddier. All the lettuces were loving the roost, but it was Sambi (Cofano) who was the talk of the track. He was looking comfy as an otter at a swimming bath, hitting the bottom turns harder than most of the seniors. Every run we pushed up someone would be saying; “Who is that kid!” and “how old is he?!”. Jim and Jake were enjoying smashing some laps, until Callum (Russell) rocked up at 2:30 and sh!t literally got serious.

Race Day

Super Noodles eaten, kit washed, crêpes freshed, race day kicked off with a bang. The bang of Jim’s shoulder hitting the deck… Overnight, there must have been a decision at Peak District weather HQ to drop a big bag of juice over Marple, making the track even more ridiculous than conditions were on Saturday. The notorious off camber straight in the woods was catching more riders than Captain Birdseye catches fish. It was clear after the first practice run there would be no half hearted cruising down. Coming in too hot or too chilled would result in some serious mishaps, as Jim found out in his last run of practice. As you can see from Nick Moor's banger up top, he's loving life. We rode up to the farm, washed the bikes, then huddled into John's cabin/cafe to ward off the hypothermia before seeding. The banter was fantastic; it's not often free-ride Freds, downhill Dereks, marshals, and world cup racers get to have a laugh around an open fire. A collective phone alarm went off, and the riders cracked on up the hill. By the time we reached the top, Jim looked so much like a drowned rat, a local kindly asked if he'd like to stick his hands under the bonnet of his car to warm up. Cheers for that mate! Feet were brushed off and the riders dropped in. First off for wet Lettuce was juvenile. Sam Cofano put down a storming run, racking up near half a minute on the nearest in his category. Next was junior, Jake Gilfillan smashed his run, coming in just ahead of Elliot Heap (who also put down a brilliant run despite crashing out for a good 7 seconds). Jim Topliss was looking good until a mishap on an off camber landing sent him over again, costing him precious seconds. Last for the lettuces was senior, with Callum Russell seeding in 3rd, after being held up during his run.

After some swift changes of clothes it was time for final runs. Sam hit it out of the park again with a final time gap of 24 seconds on the rest of his category. Jake battled hard, but despite another crash, he still couldn't quite put it up on CRC's, Elliot Heap, coming in second with a smashing time. Jim had another sketchy and broken run, pulling up 5 seconds on his first but not quite reaching his enduro limits. Jim's SPS teamate, Vini Crighton Poli, however, kept crazy smooth in the woods and won the expert cat, well in mate! Finally it was time for senior. Everyone was expecting a hard fought battle between two local boys, Limitless' Sam Faux and the Lettuce Man himself, Cal Russell. Sam and teammate Nyle Cresswell both came down close, looking ridiculously pinned through the off camber sections. A few minutes later, followed by a storm of heckling, Cal flew into the woods looking infinitely faster than in practice. He came in with a solid 01:32:07, taking the senior win and fastest time of the day.

"The trick was to rail the slop... Big thanks to Farmer John, Mike Marsden and everyone else who helped to get events like these running BIG UP" - Callum Russell

Congratulations to all who took part and helped out, and the organisers and marshals for such a smooth weekend of racing!

Words by Jim Topliss
Video by Wet Lettuce
Photos by Nick Moor and Ian Fearnley

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MENTIONS: @WetLettuce @MeanMike @MBRcrussell

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