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This year's Keswick Mountain Festival will have more for mountain bikers than ever before, including the chance to quiz Ian Weatherill of Hope Technology, Adrian Carter from Pace Cycles and Orange Mountain Bikes' Michael Bonney. 

There'll also be talks by endurance racer Paul Errington and sports writer/photographer Steve Razzetti, plus a 'bike village' with a demo area, guided rides, skills courses and stands from manufacturers including Merida, Cotic, Nicolai, Pace, Hope and Kona.

Three cycling films will be shown: Take A Seat, which follows Dominic Gill's attempt to cycle from Alaska to the southern tip of South America on a tandem, picking up strangers as stokers; Look To The Ground, the story of blind mountain biker Bobby McMullen; and One Hell Of A Day, which covers Peter Lofthouse's unicycle descent of Helvellyn, the third highest mountain in England.

For the competitive types there'll be a mountain bike orienteering event, the Epic Trailquest, and a sportive that takes in three of the most spectacular Lakeland passes. Bike Night, which includes the industry Q&A session and films, takes place on Thursday 20 May from 7pm. For more information about the festival, visit www.keswickmountainfestival.co.uk.

Director Lucy Benett said: “The Lake District is a stunning area to explore by bike so we've put together an extensive programme to reflect the range of riding there is in the area. We hope the whole family will get involved as it's a great way to get kids active and interested in the outdoors. We're also delighted to be able to include local speakers in the Bike Night and expect that it will be a fascinating evening for all biking enthusiasts.”

As well as all this there are a whole load of guided rides being run by the very excellent Keswick Mountain Bikes over the festival weekend. Thes include rides like the classic 'Skiddaw Loop' and the challenging 'Borrowdale Bash'.

for more info on the guided rides contact Amos at www.keswickbikes.co.uk

Welsh Champs - Caersws - July 09

We were told that this was to be run on a new track, specially for the event. And what a track it was, walking it Friday afternoon I was really impressed. Steep dusty section in the remaining few trees towards the bottom but the top 3/4 all in the open thanks to the logging. The track was real fresh and unridden, a real change from the beat up motor-ways we get to race all too often. The weather stayed pretty good all weekend with a few small showers here and there and the biggest only arriving as we were packing the vans up on Sunday. Practice Saturday went real well as I got used to the big (for me) jumps, specially the big road gap near the top were the landing was a 90 degree right-hand berm. The course was laced with line choice nearly all the way down, a few lines got blown out but most remained ridable. Come race time I started off well but got a red flag part way down as one of the women in the category before had had a major stack on one of the final jumps in the field. I used the end of that run as a final practice then  back to the top for a re-run. Finished my re-run with a reasonable time of 2 minutes 3 seconds which put me 15th with one run left. Gave it everything in run 2, blew a couple of turns but it still felt a bit faster, 1 second slower. Ended up 18th at the end of the day, wanted to be in the top 20 so quite happy. Another good race at Caersws, last one of the year. Roll on Kidland Forest for the last round of the Northerns on the 12/13th September.

Chris Lazenby.

Llangollen NPS

This race must be one of the most talked about races I’ve ever done.

Internet forums and word of mouth were spreading rumours of the steepest race in the UK.

“It’ll never happen if it rains,” “there’s nowhere to pass,” “no access for medics.” With all this hype some people were bound to be disappointed.

When driving towards Llangollen I couldn’t see any particularly steep hillsides and thought it wasn’t going to live up to expectations. Then following the signs for the race down narrow back roads we arrive at a hillside that must have been the venue. Steep.

Walking the track from the bottom there was a nice hip jump in the field at the bottom, and then it got steep straight away. Everyone coming down said that it just got steeper and steeper towards the top. Could it really get much steeper? Yes it could. Walking the top section  I said, “Wow, there’s the sky” pointing through the trees. “No,” a friend shouts, “that’s heaven.” This track does not just have a few steep shoots into corners; it’s just steep all the way down. There are no arrows to warn of drops half way down the track, just 6 big ones at the top to tell you it’s all steep.    
Practice started off cautious but ran better than I expected without huge queues half way downthe course. The gaps left between riders in practice helped with this, although the queue at the top was usually pretty long. I had a reasonable qualifier, steady but smooth and knew I could go faster in the race.

The race came and I was ready for it, loving the track, super weather and a brilliant atmosphere with big cheers from the crowds down the track. My run felt pretty ragged and it showed with three big stalls but I stayed on the bike and came in with a 26th at the end of the day. Quite pleased with that result at my first national in a long time, could have done better but the perfect run doesn’t come very often.

I really hope they use this venue again next year as it opened a few eyes I think and showed some people what can be done. Speaking with the commissaire on the Sunday morning he knew of quite few people that had left and gone home, giving up before their race run. This type of track should be used, it is a good variation from the long pedally courses around the country.