Brit Bikers Show Up and Blow Up
Courtesy of Nissan Sports Adventure
This past weekend was one to remember for the British mountain bike contingent of 6.0. Josh Bryceland and Sam Dale blew up the spot at the Junior UCI Mountain Bike World Champs in Italy with a phenomenal one-two finish. Check out Dirt Mag’s coverage to get the full scoop.
But for the inside story we now turn to the riders themselves to hear how it went down in their own words. Here’s Sam breaking it down:
“The event as a whole was pretty strange. To me it didn’t feel like the World Champs until I was sat in the start gate for my final run. We had 3-minute gaps in between each rider so they could get plenty of footage on the TV. That 3 minutes felt like forever, so many thoughts running through my head. The 30-second beep went off and I thought to myself all I had to do was ride to the bottom of the hill, the same as any other race, so that’s what I did. I was riding down thinking I could go a lot faster but knew I had to save my energy for the last few rough straights. When I got to the bottom I got into the hot seat and was there until Josh came down, Josh took the hot seat with one rider left to come down the hill. We were both watching him ride and he was going too fast, in every section he was out of control, a few turns later he crashed and it was a Nike 6.0 / British 1st and 2nd. Awesome! Josh and I were so stoked we had been talking about it for ages and for it actually to happen is rad.”
Photo Credit - Victor Lucas
Now let’s get Josh’s take on his monumental victory:
“Saturday was the big day and practice went perfect and my new line was rad, bike felt amazing after a few tweaks and it all just fell into place. Next thing I know I’m on the turbo trainer listening to my psyche up mega mix! I was so confident; I knew I could do it. “There’s a rainbow jersey waiting at the bottom,” I kept telling myself. I gave dad a hug and it was on. Got straight into it pretty good, nailed everything hardly even had a moment. It was so smooth I didn’t feel that quick but I knew I was doing the right thing, before I knew it I was pedaling to the finish; I went 8 seconds up on Sam. Remi was pushing hard, I could see he was taking risks and then near the bottom he went down. I had done it. The rainbows were mine. The next half hour was madness with interviews, photos and urine tests. It even took a while to sink in. When I got back to the pits there was a bottle of champagne waiting for me with everyone and I was so happy I was overwhelmed. I had done it, all the hard work had paid off. That night was pretty funny, what I remember of it anyway! I had some fresh Nike 6.0’s on when I went out but now they are filthy. Thanks so much to all at Nike for your work and support, it means so much and I’m so stoked.”
Photo Credit - Josh Knox