We have a British XC Elite Mens World Champion. Now that was a good sentence to type!

I hope you saw the coverage of the XC World Champs at Glentress last weekend, what a race. When Darren and I were in the Tweed Valley for our demo weekend back in May, we saw lots of the new race track coming together and got very excited for the race. We also had the 'just-about-to-be-launched' gen 5 FlareMAX in the van, built to Downcountry spec.

After packing away for the day we kitted up and grabbed Darren's camera to bag some shots in the evening sun. While I'm very far away from having Tom Pidcock's bike skills, and even further away from having his fitness, watching the nail-biting action at the weekend reminded me of this evening spent razzing a light and fast bike around Glentress.

The bike is so agile and encourages you to take the hard way up. I really enjoyed taking the techy lines at the side of the climb, it has loads of grip and responds immediately, always egging you on.

It's no scary race bike though. Longshot geometry and the excellent SID Ultimate fork make high lines into rough corners a breeze.

I had a couple of go's at this root gap, it's a section which featured on the race track. I slotted the rear wheel nicely onto the back-side of the roots, landing really smooth and quiet. Surprised myself a bit with that one! The bike pops off trail features effortlessly, such a fun and engaging ride character.

Plenty of body language going on, but it felt so easy throwing the FlareMAX around.

Skids are for kids, Worlds track in the background.

This may be why I'm not an XC racer, but the locally brewed recovery drink hit the spot perfectly.

We have FlareMAX gen 5 available to order now, the perfect bike for trail centre razzing; confident, light and fast.

Get in touch with us to spec up your new, UK made, FlareMAX.

Sam.