Repo: Effraim.
Photos: Matti Hemmings.
On Thursday morning I made the trip to Bristol to meet UK Flatland Championship organiser, Matti Hemmings to travel up to Harrogate, Yorkshire in the north of the UK.
Yesterday, myself and Matti set up the arena which is located in a different hall than last year.
Text: Effraim.
Photos: Matti Hemmings.
Today I made the 6 hour trek from Southsea on the south coast of England to Harrogate, in Yorkshire. Harrogate is in the North of England for all of you across the world that might not know. Harrogate is the home of “Yorkshire Tea”, my favourite brand of tea in the world and what by and large fuels Flatmattersonline updates on the daily. It was pretty awesome to drive past the home of YT today on the way to the Yorkshire events centre for the UK Flatland Championships.
The trek to Harrogate was eventful, with Matti planning my route via the underground (bikes aren’t allowed on the underground) so I missed my train and after a stressful hour or so trying to figure out how I would get to Yorkshire. The guard was nice enough to let me on the train and all was well with the world once again.
When I arrived I was greeted by the man with the largest seatpost in BMX, Matti Hemmings and Davis Dudelis. Matti is out injured so is hobbling about with a swollen ankle. I got in a nice three hour session with Davis getting used to the floor. We have a decent sized floor, fast stone floor, super smooth! After brushing off the initial travel stiffness, I really enjoyed the session, nailing a couple of new lines I am working on whilst Davis was slaying big hop bars to manual bar out with ease, once my session started winding down Davis started playing with rollback grip rides again. Davis is one of the most chilled pros on the scene, Matti wanted to get some more content for the UK Flatland Championships so we fired out a pretty funny short interview that I will get posted as soon as I can. I’m feeling pretty tired now from the travel mostly, a 4am start will do it to you. But I wanted to update you across the globe and let you know what’s going here in the UK, the venue is dialled and we are set for tomorrow’s contest. It’s time for a Yorkshire tea in Yorkshire!
Day 1 here at the UK Flatland Championships at the Birmingham NEC! Today was set up day with Matti Hemmings, myself, Kieran from Oner Sign! We have the floor mopped, branded with the UK Flatland Championships sticker (with a clear grip sticker over the top so it’s not slippery), sponsors banners around the whole arena. Mark Noble at CSG also stepped in with four complete bikes from Hoffman Bikes and We the People for some flatland workshops. There was also chance of a cheeky session to try the floor out, turns out the Cycle Show organiser used to work for the Backyard jams, small world! We are just going through prizes at the hotel at the moment! Novice and AM Qualifiers and Finals tomorrow, it’s going to be a good weekend for UK Flatland!
Stay tuned for results and updates, tomorrow! Via the site and also the instagram @flatmatters
