After arriving into nice weather in Denver, Colorado on Monday. We have a few days of bad weather and been unable to ride James’ flatland slab riding spot at his house, pretty teasing when you can see it as you chill in the house, to say the least. Yesterday, we woke up to sunshine and after updating the site filmed a quick how to with the help of Mates Tucek. The how to is now up for you to view.
Day 3 of my annual Battle in the Rockies trip, and if there was any day for a chill day this was it. We woke up to snow and freezing temperatures in Monument, Colorado. After a little discussion at breakfast it seemed like the best day to get contest stuff organised ready for the weekend, trophies done, Halloween, etc.
We started the day with a visit to Touch of Shade, James’ business. James was organising the trophies, getting banners ready and even offered to make an FM banner and stickers, so if you are at the event this weekend. Come and see me for some free stickers, stoked! Thank you James!
James has been in the game a long time, so it’s always amazing to check the memorabilia he has displayed around his work place and office. For example, check his previous signature frames above with London Bikes.
After a few hours and lunch at the Tintadome it was time to head back to James’ house and get ready for Halloween and Trick or Treat with his kids. Halloween doesn’t seem so big in the UK, but here it was a huge deal. The snow had stopped so we took the opportunity to dry the flatland slab ready for some outdoor sessions Thursday and Friday when it is supposed to be back into double figures once again. Mates Tucek took the chance to have a ride for an hour or so, whilst myself and James moaned it was too cold to ride for old guys.
Trick or Treat as an experience walking James’ neighbourhood as the kids collected enough Candy to keep them going for a month or so. Never seen anything like it, it was a nice end to a much needed relaxing day. The sun is coming out now as I type this and the Slab is looking good for a session today, can’t wait! Short and sweet today, hope you are all enjoying the updates at home!
Yesterday was the first full day in Monument, Colorado for the Battle in the Rockies contest this coming weekend. And the first day is always a hard one for me, after 18.5 hours of travelling and a 6 hour time difference the body clock and the altitude takes some adjustment for me. It didn’t seem to bother Mates Tucek at all (watch the Tintadome session edit that I just posted as a reference).
As forecast, the weather turned from the 79 degrees and sunshine, to freezing and snowing over one day. Welcome to Colorado, various people said to me throughout the day. We started the day with an hour trip back to Denver to the Rackhouse, the venue for the Battle in the Rockies contest that will host the AFA finals once again this year. This year the lighting is much better with some new big opening windows bringing in natural daylight and the area was cleared from what I remember last year so it’s already going to be much bigger than last year.
Yesterday was a long day travelling to the annual Battle in the Rockies contest in Denver, Colorado. This is my fifth year at BITR! I was asking myself I wonder how long it is, door to door to get from Southsea to Denver? 6am start for me and doing two cuppas before getting a taxi to London Heathrow Terminal 3, turned out on this day there was more traffic than I have ever had before on this journey. We left at 7am and arrived just past 9pm.
The clocks just went back one hour for winter this past weekend and it’s already freezing. I started checking the weather in Colorado, as its always a running joke amongst the riders. It’s 79 degrees as I land, and snow the next day forecast, the weather in Colorado is so crazy but needless to say it’s warmer than at home currently.
Going back to the travel log theme, so three hours check in time as with all international flights. So I am already at five hours and still in London, the flight was scheduled for 9 hours 55, so basically ten hours. 15 hours later in total I am in Denver and waiting for Mates Tucek who was landing 50 minutes after me. Back in the mile high city for the fifth time, and straight away I notice the light. Being a mile high the light is so much more prominent and I see every scratch on my glasses when I am in the sunshine (this might not interest people at home but for me it’s a useful note to have). Customs seemed to take an age, with massive lines but in reality was probably only an half hour or so, but it did mean no waiting around for the bike bag. Which for many of you that have travelled, it’s a big part of the trip waiting on the bags, is it going to arrive?
Two hours later myself and James met Mates and headed to Five guys for the annual traditional Five guys burger and chips before heading to James’ home in Monument, Colorado. Catching up with James and Mates is always fun, hearing all the stories about riders coming to the event and the background to the event is always really cool. Tomorrow morning we are heading back to Denver to the Rackhouse where the BITR will be hosted and sorting out the lighting for the event. So door to door the trip took 18 and half hours, when we arrived at James’ after the usual socialising myself and Mates’ were both struggling to stay awake and got some sleep. Stay tuned for more updates day to day from my trip, hope you enjoyed this. Something a little different than my norm, its Tuesday morning here now. Let’s get a cuppa and get the day started!
Davis Dudelis took the third place spot at the UK Flatland Championships at Cycle Expo in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Did you watch his interview I posted earlier in the week? Well you can check out his run, and how he reacted to Matti Hemming’s announcing skills.
After we got wrapped up with a session on the Friday at the UK Flatland Championships at the Cycle Expo, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Matti Hemmings wanted me to interview Davis Dudelis as a bit of pre hype for the event, as it turns out the Wifi wasn’t the best and when I got home my laptop died once again so I am little late uploading this.
Considering I had no preparation going into this, I am pretty happy about how this turned out, we discuss Davis’ hilarious party antics, the nose manual world record, his flat street style, struggling with motivation, what he thinks about the UK, why he always comes back to the UK Flatland Champs, his favourite Matti Hemmings quote on the mic and much more. This was good fun, so thought I would post it.
In typical style, Sam Foakes took us all by surprise showing up at the UK Flatland Championships this past weekend at the Cycle Expo, Harrogate, Yorkshire.
After a few years break, Sam has made his comeback to the contest scene and he came back in style to take the second place spot. His style is still the same and there are no compromises in his riding style at all, preferring to fall off rather than pump the tyre. I had a problem with copyright on the music Sam rode to (a Hospital Records track), so my apologises for the lack of soundtrack in his run. The sound returns for a short interview with the man himself after his run (I think James and Sam thought I was taking a photo hahaha), I hope you enjoy this one. Welcome back Sam!
Dominik Nekolny is a true machine, snapping his bars the day before the UK Flatland Championships at home in Prague. Flying in, with a new set of bars that he wasn’t used to. Dom got the job done like it was nothing, his first run was flawless: watch it right here!
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!
Text: Effraim.
Photography: Jim Cossey.
Round 1 of the 2018 UK Flatland Championships took place last weekend in Margate, Kent. Margate is a seaside town about an hour and half from central London for all of you reading this outside of the UK. Matti Hemmings once again is the man behind making the event happen, this year a different location and a better set up. Dreamlands, an amusement park smack on Margate seafront which somewhat bizarrely to me, goes in land rather than out towards the sea, two years ago we sat on the seafront having fish n chips after the Wheels and Finns festival and wondered what Dreamlands was. A great use of space and in terms of planning, this place is epic. You wouldn’t know this amusement park was even there, if you drive along the seafront road.
