Hello.

Hi, I've never written one of these 'blogs' before but here goes, enjoy.
Last weekend my local DH track held its first race in over 10 years, The Rogate Resurgence. Rogate may not be know for its DH trails, but nor was Whistler once. The race was set to take place in February, only 14 months after the site had been faced with closer, I couldn't wait and and anticipated it to be a great day. But with snow forecast it was going to be touch and go.On the morning of the race I jumped out of bed and for the first time in my life was annoyed that it had snowed. My lift arrived in the shape of my best mate will and his Dad, we loaded up my bike and set of for Rogate. To our disappointment one foot of snow had fallen in Rogate and the race was postponed, we still rode and had a great day! (I now realize I love the wet conditions).[PI=https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/7804309/ size=l align=c][/PI]
So, attempt two, with the race, rescheduled for a month later what could possibly go wrong? Again my lift arrived in the morning and me and Will got out the other end into a soaking but not snowing Rogate. After a chilly start, and the realization my front brake did nothing it wasn't a good start. Pretty quickly the top section turned into a mud slide and even Captain Scott would have had a hard time getting up the push up without falling on his backside. I was freezing, wet and the timing system had broken. This was not good so me and Will went and sat in the very kind peoples curry van. Warmth at last! Stupidly we decided to brave the cold again and froze almost instantly, outside in the snow!
I could ramble on about this and that for a lot longer but I guess what I'm trying to say is even after a second problem with the timing system and then having a rubbish race run after my gears got screwed up, I still came away with a smile on my face and that's because, although the organisation was a little poor at times, I came away with a smile on my face because of the spirit and attitude of the guys and gals who helped organize the race. Yes they were tired and freezing and soaked through in some cases after that gazebo tipped up a load of water, and were dealing with grumpy racers and crappy, wet timing systems.[PI=https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/7804311/ size=l align=c][/PI]
But Rogate has a lot to offer in terms of DH with many great tracks and insane riders, it even attracted a couple of famous riders last weekend with Josh Lowe turning up with the quickest time of 1:04:19 and Christian Fairclough, riding on his brothers old Specialized, any of you like to take a guess at who his brother is? Anyway back to Rogate its atmosphere is great and I can only see it getting better. I for one am proud to be part of the DH scene at Rogate.