Finding Speed Episode 5

IXS Dirt Masters Festival in Winterberg is an iconic event, and our team has never found the time to visit before. So when SR Suntour came to us with the opportunity to go to the event and help them with the operation of their tech booth, we jumped at the chance. We headed across with a 5 man crew consisting of riders Jack, Reuben and Tom, mechanic Josh and Ben from LoamLife Media. As we had a Portugal Camp the week after, it was tight to fit in the trip, so we left the UK in the van on Friday afternoon, and would cross back on Monday evening, before getting a flight to Portugal on Tuesday afternoon. Hectic to say the least.

Rueben was on the hunt for a big result to add to his UCI points count, as he works his way towards the 40 point requirement to be able to race world cups. Tom is one of our first year junior riders and he was also keen to impress at only his second ever race out of the UK. The trip didn’t start well, as when we arrived in Winterberg, our arranged accommodation failed to show up and let us in, so after numerous calls back and forth with booking.com, at 3am we gave up for the night and slept in the van. Four people trying to sleep in a fully loaded T6 van was not a fun experience, and also not the most ideal way to start a very busy two week block!

Despite this set back, running on three hours sleep and lots of caffeine, we got straight into it on Saturday morning with pit setup and track walk. The track was short and looked like it had some really cool sections. When we walked the track it was very dry and looked like it would be really fast and flowy, but at lunchtime just before the lads were set to start practice, a huge deluge of rain came and made the track look more like a river. On went the Schwalbe Dirty Dan mud tyres, and ONeal rip ‘n’ roll goggles, and off the lads went to get started with practice.

Unfortunately, with the conditions being so slippery and the lads struggling to feel fully focused after such a bad night with little sleep, everyone had crashes. Jack came off worst, injuring his chin and wrist, and as a result decided it would be best to sit this one out and spend the rest of the weekend in team manager/coach mode, to help Rueben and Tom with their lines as well as assist Josh in the SR Suntour pits. Rueben and Tom bounced back and by the end of the day were feeling good on track.

Saturday was another wet day, and Jack spent the practice session trackside helping the lads with their line options. Going into the qualifying round, both Tom and Rueben were feeling positive and excited to put down good runs. They did just that and both were fastest in category. Tom was 8 seconds in the green in junior, and set the 4th fastest time of the day, and Rueben was FTD, by almost 4 seconds! We were excited for racing now.

Sunday was another wet and slippery morning practice session, but with a six hour break between final practice runs and Tom and Rueben’s race runs, the track started to dry out. By the time the lads were getting ready to go, the track was so dry that it was time to take off the Schwalbe Dirty Dan mud spikes, and switch to the rider’s preferred dry tyre, the Schwalbe Tacky Chan. Tom was first up and with a solid run, dropped just under the 3 minute mark, taking the win in junior and finishing an impressive 7th overall.

Rueben was only interested in one thing, and that was winning the race. He was last man to drop in after his first place qualifying run, and as Jack nervously watched from the finish line, knowing when Rueben needed to appear to be in contention to challenge the current fastest time of 2:53, there was Rueben. He appeared just when he needed to, and it was going to be a very close fight to the line. Unfortunately, disaster struck as he crashed in the next corner. He got out of shape in a rut, losing the front wheel out of the top of it and behind and a stump, and with it his chances of the race win. He was gutted, but at the same time there were lots of positives for him to take from the weekend, knowing his speed is increasing.

It was a bitter sweet finish for the team, with Tom taking the win in junior, but Rueben crashing out when he had a real chance of being fastest man on the hill and getting the UCI points he needs to go on to race world cups. Big thanks to SR Suntour, Schwalbe Tires, ONeal and RAAW Mountain bikes who we hung out with at Dirt Masters and can’t thank enough for their support of our team!

Follow us through the weekend in Episode 5 of Finding Speed, and get ready for Episode 6 which sees us head straight back to Portugal for our final Portugal Gravity School Camp of 2024 to see if Jack can wrap up the Portugal Cup series overall. Thanks for reading and watching, stay tuned and spread the words, Finding Speed!

[Music] [Applause] so we are here in winterberg we have made it at last we had a long drive yesterday 12 hours do to door and when we got to our accommodation it turned out that they didn’t want us so 3 in the morning we gave up and the four of us uh slept in the T6 so there’s myself there’s Ruben and there’s Tom Wate here and we’re representing SS on tour this week we’ve got a tech boo that we’re running for them we’ve also got Marcus with us as well um Marcus comes on graic School camps um he’s here racing move this this week so a big couple of weeks for Ruben coming up this one here is a cat 2 UCI race 30 points for the win and next week we’ve got bakus cat One race 60 points for the win we needs 28 points for him to be able to go and race World Cups lenville is the main target for this season it’s in September if he goes well this weekend get some points beat some Riders and if he goes well next week get some more points beat some more Riders might walk away with 28 points and if that happens we’ll go to Vala planning winterberg is full back um and let’s see how fast he can go see if he can get on that Podium we get some good points [Music] [Music] today’s been pretty weird we’ve had two hours sleep in a van cuz the accommodation couldn’t come through so let’s make it even weirder and get this poison in my body I don’t even know what time it is watch’s De got [ __ ] charging in we’re doing a trap walk when people are riding Ruben’s yelling at everyone um yeah should I say more I don’t know cheers so have some rum how many people could have had a loose butt in warning how many people didn’t move me [Music] [Applause] chilling you be cruising down and oh yeah this is sick W it’s a [ __ ] massive route that just wants to seeing you that way oh someone in the wife yeah oh yeah you’re hit the big nice rck sat out the [ __ ] leg out like a je and then you get to the end of it and there’s just some guy upside down scrambling well not even scrambling you thought this there upside down chil just [Music] [Music] [ __ ] all you got to do is go out and ride if you come fourth in body next week that’s 25 points and needs 28 so that means you need to come like seventh year or better so but just is what it isn’t it we’re going to go and get in the lines he’s going to practice he’s going to do his run and if he’s fast enough we get the [Music] points yeah as long as the front wheel goes over it and the back wheel touches it on the way down yeah doesn’t like touch it too hard yeah that just sits into’s got to go over you just made it so practice has been absolutely sick Ruben is flying Tom is flying like I tweak myself in practice and decided not to ride and it’s just been awesome to be track side helping those boys conditions are absolutely insane and uh the track is super sketchy super technical [Music] [Music] how long do I have now 20 minutes don’t make it something it isn’t either just go po like literally have some competitions of R like track just anything just to get loose and relaxed [Music] Ruben is Absolut smash qual uh he’s won by almost 4 seconds um which is just awesome so we’re hoping he’s going to carry that into tomorrow and either win the race or or you know pretty sure looks like a top three is on the cards and then for Tom first in junior by think something ridiculous like 8 seconds and he was fourth overall so yeah we’re buzzing uh first in Elite first and Junior really cool and we’re excited to go into tomorrow and see if the boys can both be on the top [Applause] step one of the reasons we’re here at windberg dirt Masters is to run the srto tech Booth we’ve got Josh our mechanic here working on people’s uh suspension helping them with setup helping them with service if they need it making sure their bikes are running right for the track we’ve also got some cool SS onour products from the 2024 catalog on display so people can come around and have a look at the cool stuff that they can be running in the future we work closely with Sr sunto so this opportunity to run this Tech Booth here at dirt Masters is really cool for the team and for for our program and it’s sick to be working with Sr sunto here at this event so it’s time to wrap things up here at the tech booth and head over to the start of the track cuz it’s time for some racing both R have W seeding so we want to get over there and see if they can both win the race as well see if we can have the perfect weekend for the team both Riders taking the top step let’s go and see how they get on let’s hustle R nice Brey good sleep R’s ready I feel like I’ve been run over by an elephant but just old AR I last night I was dancing in the room messing around in front of the r and I just did some my knees went Crunch and he was like [ __ ] out don’t get old man [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes buddy R wasn’t good though well so many mistakes like big ones but still quick there yeah man taking the win right there mate you just uh won the junior category gone under two minutes how’s that feel [ __ ] Mega yeah is that the only one yeah first only one under two [ __ ] easy time to hand over the Reigns to Mr FTD [ __ ] right that boom up there going [ __ ] about for 20 minutes and wrong way didn’t I typical [Music] [Music] oh he’s crashing [Music] [Music] all right so yeah standing here after uh after the race it’s a mixed feelings really uh absolutely CED that R crashed I could see from the Finish when he needed to come into shot and he came in just on the right second and we knew it was going to be close the who won uh did you know really impressive time and um he was well clear at second place and R popped into to shot where he was going to threaten that time so it was a guaranteed second place and he would have you know potentially won and uh one corner later just washed the front out the rout and just had a really frustrating crash you’d call it he’s absolutely furious with himself um and threw away good result so yeah real shame for him but then on the other hand we’re absolutely buzz in Tom smashed it one Junior um I think he was seventh overall maybe eight right in the mix with the elites with having a good time so yeah absolutely buzzing that Tom took the top stepping Junior he’s only a first year Junior so this is a really good platform for us to be building from and uh yeah proper proper proper weekend for Tom and and really good so so yeah mix feelings um but it’s been Min be here with SS on tour Josh is absolutely boss pits and yeah windberg is a fun time and we’ve enjoyed it I’m trying to wrap up the series so main thing for me is getting a solid running but yesterday morning I didn’t even know if I’d be able to ride after that with stupid crash push cut down for let going to do some bu resin sh [Music]