2013 World Cup Season Review
Wearing the GB jersey as a first year Junior for most of the 2013 World Cups has been a steep learning curve for Kona Grassroots and Wheelbase.co.uk rider Dan Farley. This is the story of Dan's 2013 World Cup season.
In the UK Junior riders are selected by British Cycling based on results in the lead up to each of the World Cup races. Dan had a strong 2012 season in Youth with good results in the BDS and the UK round of the IXS European cup and just missing out on a national champs win after seeding first. Dan was hopeful of being selected but had to keep training and delivering results. There are some top riders in Junior like Mike Jones (FMD), Phil Atwill (Madison Saracen), Ines Graham (MS Mondraker), Taylor Vernon (Atherton GT Factory Racing) and George Gannicott (Dirt Norco) who always make the BDS and other UK races competitive.
Over the winter Dan secured a continuation of his bike sponsorship deal on the Kona Grassroots scheme through local bike shop Wheelbase.co.uk. along with some additional sponsorship from Descend Hamsterley. The 2013 Kona Supreme Operator had been improved over the already proven 2012 model. Dan trains around Cumbria where he lives in NW England and at Hamsterley, County Durham where there is a great downhill scene and Craig has helped top riders like Danny Hart and Scott Mears. The 2012/13 winter was a hard one for UK riders with lots of snow disruption but they still got the work done.
Receiving the call up from British Cycling for rounds 1 and 2 at Fort William and Val Di Sole was amazing for Dan and made the local paper. Dan won the English championships at the back end of the 2012 season and placed 6th at round 1 of the 2013 BDS at Combe Sydenham.
In the lead up to the Fort William World Cup Dan's best 2013 result was second at the English Championship behind Phil Atwill (Madison Saracen). The atmosphere at Fort William was unreal with thousands of supporters screaming at all the riders. A 25th place finish was not a bad start. It was straight on to Val Di Sole in Italy for round 2. Val Di Sole lived up to its hard reputation and Dan was pleased to leave their in one piece but disappointed with 51st place. Dan had learnt a lot from those first two World Cups and knew better results would come.
After a five week gap during which Dan placed 4th at the Llangollen BDS and 6th at the National Champs we headed to Vallnord for Round 3. The track in Andorra was long, steep, and quite technical. The race went well and Dan ended up 22nd from 54 starters.
Dan placed 3rd at the final BDS round at Bringewood which gave him a fourth place overall for the series which he was pleased with as a first year Junior.
In early September Dan got the call-up for the final two World Cup rounds at Hafjell (Norway) and Leogang (Austria). Flying out to Hafjell involved the usual bike packing nightmare, and making sure that we had enough spare wheels, parts and Nutella. Dan's brother Andy has always given brilliant mechanicing support but he was unable to travel so we were very fortunate to have tech support from Dave at Perth City Cycles who also looks after GB Junior rider Sam Herd.
The track walk at Hafjell showed that it was a long track that had everything, bike-park style jump sections, technical wooded sections and high speed open sections. Practice was dry and dusty but then the rain came on race day. Dan managed to put together most of the lines heI had been practising and finished 18th with a 6th place through the speed trap. Photographer Paul Cram stayed with us and took some amazing photos as well as helping to fix a mechanical at one point!
We flew back to London and then drove out to Leogang with the Welsh GB rider and Pearce Cycles series winner, Shaun Richards. Arriving in Leogang it had actually been snowing; not what we were expecting. The track gradually dried up over the practice days. A big crowd had turned up to see the World Cup finale and 4x World Championships which was incredible.
Dan managed a 17th place finish with second through the speed trap, his best World Cup result to date and a great way to end the season.
Dan will be training hard over the winter at his local trails in Cumbria and at Descend Hamsterley ready for a massive 2014 season and hopes to be selected for some of next year’s World Cup rounds. Dan would like to thank his mum and dad for giving him the opportunity, his brother Andy for mechanic support, British Cycling for selecting him and Wheelbase.co.uk, Kona Grassroots, and Descend Hamsterley for sponsorship.
