From Workshop to World Cup – Finn’s Story So Far

Season Update: From Fort William to Kranjska Gora

This blog is a bit of a season catch-up — a look back at the races so far, from Fort William through to Les Gets, before heading into the last and biggest race of the year. It’s been a journey full of highs, lows, crashes, recoveries, and some strong results that have put me in the fight for a top 5 overall in the IXS series. Plus popping back to the workshop at the Farm every now and again to help out the boys.

Fort Bill

We left for the first of six races at Fort William for the National Championships — and my first race back after bashing my teeth. The aim for this race was just to get back into the swing of things before the European rounds. The track and conditions were perfect, so it was a good place to start. I ended up in 8th, which was nice, especially as I wasn’t even going to race the week before.

Les Orres

We returned from Fort William on the Sunday evening and left for the next European round in Les Orres early Tuesday morning, catching the Channel Tunnel into France the same evening. We stayed the night at an equestrian farm about 25 minutes from Calais, so we could get straight back on the road in the morning for a 10-ish hour drive to the Alps. The resort was 1,500 metres up, with the track starting close to 3,000 metres. The track was really good here — steep gradient and some big features.

It started raining on the Friday evening after a good day of practice, which made the track pretty spicy as the dirt was super slippery.

Qualifying day, Saturday: my run was good, but I had mud spikes and flat pedals on my bike, and the track had dried up a lot since morning practice. That meant really low rolling speed on the flat motorway sections. I qualified 19th, but I knew it didn’t mean much as I’d lost loads of time running the wrong tyres.

Sunday — race day: the weather was good, but my race run lacked a bit, unfortunately, leaving me in 17th. However, this round (and the next) weren’t my main focus, so I wasn’t too bothered about the result.

La Molina

On Monday morning we left Les Orres for the Spanish Pyrenees for the European Championships in La Molina.

This track looked amazing on the track walk — one of the best of the season — so I was keen to get on it. At the same time, I knew this wasn’t the “big one” for me, so I didn’t want to crash and risk the important races. But in the end, I decided I really wanted to do well here.

Friday — practice: so much fun, figuring out the track and building speed.

Saturday — qualifying: a bit odd. I felt fast in the morning, but my run was terrible. I knew it as soon as I crossed the line, and I ended up 25th. It annoyed me, but I decided on Sunday I’d put down a proper run.

Sunday — race: morning practice went really well, so I felt confident. My race run was on fire until the penultimate corner, where I slid out and crashed. I got back on and finished, but I was gutted. Looking at the splits, I was 8 seconds faster than my quali run by halfway down the track. With the bottom section being my strongest, I was on pace for a top 10, which was cool to see.

After La Molina, we packed down and headed off to Les Gets.

Les Gets — one of the best places on Earth. We stayed here for two and a half weeks between races. It was nice to chill out while still riding and training.

After that break, we packed up and headed for Les Menuires on Wednesday morning — only about two hours away.

Les Menuires

This was the big race, the one that mattered. I’d heard people say the track wasn’t great, but after track walk I was pleasantly surprised — I thought it looked pretty good.

Friday practice was brilliant, really well organised with fast uplifts, so we got loads of runs in. Again, my qualifying run wasn’t great, but I wasn’t sure what I’d done wrong. Come race day, I put down a decent run. Definitely not my finest work, but it was enough for 8th, which jumped me up to 4th overall. That was the main goal: top 5 overall.

Finishing inside the top 5 means earning a wildcard entry into the full World Cup Series next year — which has been the goal from the start of this season.

Les Gets World Cup

My first World Cup! This was a pretty cool experience, although it didn’t go to plan at all.

I started to feel ill on the evening after track walk, which wasn’t ideal. The track itself was about 80% fresh — awesome. But then it absolutely poured down on Thursday night, the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen. On Friday the track was amazing in the mud, but as it started to dry it turned to peanut butter, which made it really tough to ride.

A few bike problems made practice even harder — I couldn’t do a full run without something happening. We tried to fix things on Friday evening, but it didn’t help much.

Qualifying: disaster. My valve failed at the top, leaving me with 35+ psi in my tyres instead of the usual 18. I crashed almost immediately at the first root, then again further down, where I smacked my leg hard. That left me with a proper dead leg and I had to roll down the spectator path. DNF.

After Les Gets, we drove home over two days, getting the ferry from Calais to Dover and then the long drive north. The weekend after was a regional race at Ae Forest. It was good to see everyone again and test a few things on the bike. But the illness from Les Gets got worse during the week, so I wasn’t feeling great. I only managed one race run instead of the usual two.

On to Kranjska Gora

This weekend we’re heading to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in something pretty special — the big Crafter. It’s a long-wheelbase VW Crafter that’s been built by The Ply Guys as a mountain bike–specific adventure rig. It was originally built for the Director of The Ply Guys, but he’s kindly lending it to me for the trip as part of my sponsorship.

This thing is a full-on race-weekend hub: kitted-out roof rack, full Ply Guys fit-out inside with all the good birch ply, slide-out bike storage in the back for all our gear, and a comfy, functional, and stylish living space to chill and prep between runs. Basically, the dream setup for a trip like this. The Ply Guys have backed me all the way this season, and this Crafter is just another example of the support they give.

Having a proper base like this makes a huge difference going into what will be the biggest race of my career so far. I’m currently sitting 4th overall in the standings, and with a top 5 finish I can secure that golden-ticket wildcard into a full season of World Cups next year — the goal I’ve been working towards all year.