Richard Cunynghame - Charge team blog

Season Done- 2nd Overall

Well that's it, the race season's all wrapped up now. Over the weekend I was at Innerleithen, Scotland for the last round of the Downhill Nationals. I was 20 points back in the series after crashing in the last two rounds so knew I'd pretty much have to win here to take the series.

I really wasn't keen on the track and felt knackered from a hectic week of travelling having only got home from a week round Europe the night before travelling to this race, my bike was still in it's travel bag when I put it in the van. I felt good in practice but the track was so frustratingly tight. You could ride fast but then if you pushed it any more you couldn't lean enough into turns and stuff like that just because of how tight it was. My race run was just way too cautious because of this. I didn't enjoy it one bit. I finished 6th which was enough to take 2nd in the series. Dissapointed that I didn't win the thing. Only two of my race runs out of the five in the year felt any good so to get second off that isn't too bad I suppose.

Nat Champs Photo

Just found this pic of me from the National Champs a few weeks back. It's hard to squash this drop enough, you come off it so quick and there's a corner as soon as you land, looks like I'm trying my best to keep it low here. It's made me want to get out and ride a bit of Downhill again, but in the dry!!

Moelfre on MTBCut.tv

Just been sent the link to the film from last weekends racing. I got a shot halfway through it on one of my favourite sections of the track, the entry into the corner is cool, trying to hit the rut just perfect and the whoops coming out the corner are well fun.

NPS Rd4 - Moelfre

It was two days ago and I'm still pissed off about it. I struggling at the last round in Fort William after crashing in practice and lost the series lead. Coming into Moelfre I was second by two points. The weather was horrendous for practice but it got better for race runs. Mine was going good, felt powerful up top and totally in control just a really together ride, not loose at all. Coming into the new switchback section halfway down, the track was loads dryer and quicker, I was carrying loads more speed and where I had been pumping into a compression in a corner I was going too quick to keep the front end down. It slid out and that was it. The rest of the run I just kept thinking about the series. Finished only 6 seconds off the pace, easy lost that in the crash, would have pissed it. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, no excuses, I fucked it myself.
Anyway here's a picture of giant Ben Cathro on a tiny bike and the Youth podium, check the report I'm writing for Dirt for the relevance of these guys.

Mt St Anne World Cup

I'm at the 4th round of the World Cup in Canada. Currently sat in a posh hotel Lobby, just been playing some piano and there's a little kid riding his bike round in here too !! This is the first round I'm not riding but instead I'm writing the report from here and the next round for Dirt and commentating live for MTBCut.tv , you can check the winning runs (Greg's run below) and some other action from the race on the site at the moment and then we'll be live next Saturday with the DH (7pm UK time) and 4X at Midnight (UK time). It was all a bit hectic at this round, we were cramped in a right tiny little box, looking forward to next week, it's all to play for in all the categories so it's gonna be an important race. Get yaself tuned into MTBCut.tv for all the action.

DH National Championships

Last weekend we had the National Champs come to a track that myself and some good friends built about 5 or 6 years back. We build it wanting to show what sort of track was achievable in this country. It has been used for local races before but never for a national event, mainly because at the time we built it we didn't trust the current organisers to do a good job of it. Well, Pearce Cycles took on the task of running the Champs and what a job they did of it. The course rode in well and the atmosphere and organisation was spot on. One of the best weekends of British racing ever!! Chris Akrigg came down to stay with me over the weekend as the track is only an hour from my home. Practice was mega fun and so was my race run till I stacked it into a tree. My run was loads faster than any of my practice and I ended up jumping further over some roots than I had before and landing about a foot from a tree that wasn't gonna move. Pretty gutted as it wasn't so much an error of that run as one of not having practiced fast enough. My time was still not miles off the pace despite cruising the rest of the track though, what could have been hey....
I was all worn out after the weekend and so was Chris by the looks of this picture. He managed to do betterthan me, his second DH race ever and he got second in masters!! A true hero and he was only riding a shortish travel bike with single crown forks.

Fort William National

I feel tired and hungover but I didn't have a drop to drink. Got back at midnight last night from my second trip to Fort William in a month. I haven't ridden any Downhill in between so it felt like I hadn't even left the place. First practice just felt like a continuation of the World Cup. I wasn't feeling great on track because of not riding enough lately, too much film editing!! In my last practice run I slipped jumping onto one of the wall rides and slammed straight into the thing, tweaking my knee, bruising my hand and putting a hole in my shin down to the bone. A quick trip to A&E and I was back in time to mend my bike and race. I didn't do great though, my worst result for years, 17th. Might as well stayed at home. That will have lost me the series lead too so pissed about that. Oh well, it's only a bloody bike race!! Drive home was scenic as ever though and our B&B had deers head's, stuffed stoats and all sorts of taxidermy going on!!

All Day And All Of The Night

Last weekend I was called in at last minute to help out the Charge team at the Mountain Mayhem 24hr XC race. After a right hectic week I felt exhausted so only capable of a couple of laps. I went out in the twilight hours so had one lap in the light and pretty much exactly as I left the arena for my second, the dark and drizzle descended. The rain wasn't too heavy for that lap thankfully. I did actually quite enjoy it, just wish I'd had a bit more energy and time to prepare for it. Felt a bit wet lurking off after only two laps. You get to overtake so many people it's cool, especially on the downhills. There's a cool camaraderie between the riders, if you ride a section real good you get a few cheers off people as you pass them. This photo shows how tired I was, I normally only fall asleep in a chair like this when I'm pissed but here no drinks were involved just the good old tiredness!!

Oh, What have I done???

Yesterday I got a call saying that team rider Sam is ill and they needed someone to step in to ride at the Mountain Mayhem 24 Hr relay XC event this weekend. I have so many reasons not to do it but the team needs me so I'm off to the Malverns Hills tomorrow to hurt myself.

The thing here is that Sam trains for this stuff, I've been so busy racing Downhill (the last 8 weeks) that I have only ridden XC about 4 times in those two months. What have I done, I'm gonna die!!!

Fort William World Cup

Got home at 1.30am Sunday Night/Monday morning after an Expresso fueled Cruise Controlled blast south from Scotland. It's nice to be home after racing away for the last 7 weekends. The crowd wasn't as big as last years World Champs but it was a cool event, the best weather I've known up there, Saturday with very little practice felt like I was on Holiday and it's always cool to be on home soil for a World Cup. I remember years back hoping so much that we'd get one and now we do and I got to ride it. Mega stoked to be there, had a crash in practice which crushed my little finger making riding harder as it was so swelled I couldn't grip the bars properly and it nearly blew off loads as well as getting arm pump in that one arm so did a bit pap. Shame as I loved being back on a fast brutal track after my last two races being fairly slow tracks. Going flat out is what it's all about. I did Live commentarty for MTBCut.tv on both the 4X and DH finals, I'm well enjoying this presenting/commentary work now. Presented the Dirt TV show too which should be up on the Dirt Site soon.
Here's a shot of the 4X from when I was checking it out before commentating on it and one of me, Pager and Ruaridh in the MTBCut booth.