First Season. Age 40. Racing 4X. Let’s Go!
This year I decided to dive into my first ever race season—at 40 years old—and what a journey it’s been. Rounds 5 & 6 of the Schwalbe British 4X Series at Shredhill Bike Park delivered everything I hoped for: fast racing, awesome people, and the most welcoming vibes in mountain biking.
In this video, I take you along for the ride—practice laps, race runs, and some behind-the-scenes chaos from one of the best weekends of the season. 4X might just be the friendliest discipline in MTB… and I’m all in.
📍 Event: British 4X Series Rounds 5 & 6
🏁 Location: Shredhill Bike Park
📸 Photo by: @abitaylorphoto — (butchered by AI for the thumbnail, sorry!)
🎥 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and drop a comment if you’ve ever thought about trying racing—whatever age you are.
#4XMTB #British4XSeries #ShredhillBikePark #FirstRaceSeason #MountainBiking #BikeFilt
Hello and welcome to Bike Filth. Um, I am in my truck. I’m in a layby so I can look at the camera. This weekend just gone. It was the It was rounds five and six of the Schwabber British forcross series. I’ve done all the rounds so far, which is quite which is quite good because if you do the rounds, even if you come last, you get points and you it looks like you’ve done really well. But then you start looking at the results and realize that you could improve quite a lot. Anyway, I just wanted to start this video off with just a bit of a explanation as to why I was a bit anxious to doc cross. Um, I’ve never raced before in my life. I’ve watched and read and studied forcross many years ago. I really wanted to do it then and then I don’t know, life got in the way. So this year I decided that I would give it a go. So this year is my first year racing, my first time doing any type of racing and I had the option to go for the big fun category or the mast’s 40 to 49. I didn’t know how I’d fare. I didn’t really think I’d be turning up any trees or anything, but I felt I needed to give it a go. I didn’t know anybody in forcross at the time. Matt Hillyard reached out to me and has been a fantastic guide and has given me a lot of advice, which has been extremely helpful. It made me feel a lot less self-conscious and just just to kind of give it a go and see what I liked and if I if I liked it. The biggest takeaway I’ve got so far from forcross, apart from the fact it’s so much fun is the social aspect of it. So many people there. Everybody just talks to pretty much everybody. It’s always nice, you know. There’s there’s people to chat to up at the gate. For somebody like me, I’m quite I wouldn’t say I’ve got social anxiety, but I don’t really put myself out in social situations. I’d rather just keep myself to myself. It has been a bit of a head turner. It’s such a great atmosphere. Shred Hill, the track itself was well, it’s been my favorite so far. Um, not saying that any aren’t good. This this one was just closer to home, which is a massive bonus for me. It was nice nice soil, sort of more of a clay soil, so you knew what within reason what your tires were going to do. Yeah. So, have a watch the video. If you enjoy it, please give it a like. Subscribe if you want to see more bike related stuff. Most of the videos aren’t about me riding a bike. It’s just I wanted to document forcross. I don’t think it gets the recognition it deserves as a sport. Well, as a as a discipline within within mountain biking. I had a few issues with my GoPro during the day, so there’s no footage from my GoPro on me. I did manage to get some footage of other people going down, which looks a lot be better than me anyway because they’re damn smooth riders. It’s a competitive spot, but it is not to the extent that when you do come last, you feel awful. But the guys who are at the top of the game, the elite guys, they are very fast. So yeah, have a watch the video. I can only recommend forcross to anybody who’s thinking, “Oh, I’d like to try mountain bike racing, but I’ve never never really um found my my calling.” Fourcross is is loads of fun. Um there’s a lot of BMXs doing it as well, so it kind of creates a crossover between the two. The atmosphere is very relaxed. It is challenging for me anyway. It is challenging. Um, some of the things certainly after I came off at Afan, um, some of the things were a little bit more difficult than I sort of expected them to be. Some of the things are some of the tracks are a little bit more difficult than you think. You get to do a track walk. You get to have some time practicing. A lot of the tracks are open the day before, so you can actually go down there early, do a few practice laps, um, get used to the gates. That’s been the biggest thing for me is gates. Um I cannot um like track stand at the gates. Then part of that is in my head I can’t do it because I’m going to fall off. I’ve done it once or twice and it’s been fine. There’s been no issues. But yeah, I’ve just got to get it into my head um and improve my starts. But anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. I’m on my way at the moment down to Shred Hill, which is technically a local track for me. It’s only just over an hour away. So, I’m on the way down there now. I’m going to go meet again by quite excited as per usual. Excite excited and nervous all at the same time. Obviously, I came up last time that was nearly two months ago. Yeah, it wasn’t two months ago. So, still got the scars for that, which ultimately is not that much fun, but it’s what you get used to on a bike, I guess. You get you come off and you get up and you you go again. Um, so yeah, we’ll see how Shreddill goes. I’ve spoken to Matt Hillyard and he said probably goes to the full suspension bike cuz the jump is quite big at Shred Hill. So, I’m bringing that with me. I haven’t practiced any gates as per usual. Um, I have been at Lington Cross track a few times just to kind of get a um get myself into it again, get a feel for it. Um because having 2 months off um if you don’t ride much like I don’t um due to other commitments uh yeah it’s kind of hard to get back into it to get into the swing of it. I’ve seen a few of the other guys have been practicing hard so I know it’s not going to be an easy race by any means. It’s probably not going to be um stress at all. I would expect me to be last, but I’m going to give it give it my all. Um I’m contemplating whether to not wear um my sort of body armor then uh because I feel like it gets in the way quite a lot. Um it slows me down. Oh wow, there’s a guy headed at BP Bar. Wonder if he did the floor across. Um yeah, so I mean essentially I’m on my way to round five, round six tomorrow. Uh it is drizzly. I’m told it’s going to clear, but we don’t know till we get down there really. Uh I’m always on the lookout for a McDonald’s for breakfast, but gone past even um forgot to put in some McDonald’s. So I might be a bit hungry. Although there is food at the track. Um, so we’ll go down there and see what that’s all about. Now, obviously, I’m seeing on this track for the first time. I’m also uh racing for the first time. I’ve never done this before, you know, it’s quite exciting to to be doing lots of new things, but also it is a bit daunting as well. Um, but I’ve always wanted to do it as I turned 40 there’s decided to do it. Let’s give it a go. Let’s see what happens. Right. So, that was round five. It didn’t quite go to plan. I had a broken rear quick release and obviously panic set in. I think I’ve messaged lots of people on Facebook Messenger, lots of people on WhatsApp panicking cuz I didn’t realize that with obviously axles, they are specific to frames. So I tried all the local bike shops to the Forest Dean or to to Shred Hill. Sadly nowhere had any apart from one which was one away in Mondashshire. They call our pedal syndicate. Amazing shop. Loads of really nice stuff in there. Really helpful stuff as they are in all the bike shops around around the Forest D. I think kind of where remember where I went now. Dean Cycles repair shop. They were really helpful in there. told me to try well to ring round really. I didn’t have time because I didn’t want to miss the race. So I then went to Monmouth Casual Syndicate got last in every one of the motos. I only did two practice runs which is not what I wanted to do really much choice due to time. But yeah, we’ll go again tomorrow for around six. See if we do a bit better. I think it’s due to rain tomorrow. Don’t know if that’s going to be better or worse. Anyway, it’s a nice nice track to race. It’s a little bit more technical than it looks. His fully grown up the right way with pride by.com shirt you help you ride supporting our channel.com get stayed smash that sub button Ow. Wow. Wow. I’ had quite a weekend with the GoPro not really working. But that round six is now done. I was last on every moto. I still like that track. Shreddill’s such a nice track. My favorite so far. I’ve got Falmouth for rounds seven and eight. I I think I’m probably going to do round eight, not seven, simply because the whole family are going down to Felma, so it’s going to be a weekend with the kids. Don’t want to spend the whole time racing. Um especially not when I’m probably not going to win. Fifth overall, or I was the last time I checked. It depends on probably the points today. fifth overall in the masters category, which is good. But yeah, last last on all the motors. Matt Hillyard had a great race today in the final. I haven’t got much footage of anything cuz the GoPro’s decided that I can’t switch it on and it won’t charge. Sasquez. Uh, I’m going to have a play with it. Uh, it might be going in the bin. Um, I didn’t win the Ashley 20 MHz that I’d bid for on eBay, which is good and bad. It would have been a nice piece of Pley history. Unfortunately, I’ve got no space for it anyway. I just got a bit carried away. Somebody outbid me at the last minute. Oh, such a shame. Yeah. So, I’m on my way home now. It’s been quite a nice weekend. The weather’s started off wet today, which I felt gave me a little bit more traction on the track and then it dried out. But once again, Four Cross is just it’s something altogether different. It’s so social. It’s so relaxed and it’s so much fun just to just to watch it. To be honest, I don’t mind going out in all the motors because I get to sit there and watch everybody else come down and just the skill of some of the riders is amazing. But there’s also the people suppose like myself or maybe not quite like myself, but people with other skills that attacking differently and just watching them is is amazing. So yeah, it’s been really fun today. Well, today and yesterday. It’s a nice burst of adrenaline, which I always think is uh is a positive. Yeah. So, onwards and upwards, and we’ll see how we get on at Felmouth. Thank you for watching. Stay filthy.
1 Comment
Can anyone enter this 👍🏼 am 40 and would love a blast