British Downhill Mountain Bike Series – Round 4
Rob Smith reports from Round 4 of the British Downhill Championships
This was my first time back riding in the UK since racing in Europe, but also back racing was my younger brother, Ed who has been travelling the world for five weeks. I walked the track on Friday with world cup winner Marc Beaumont, and the organisers obviously wanted to make the track a full motorway by taping it straight for the whole top section. Luckily by practice this had changed and a few corners were in.
Ready to Ride
Saturday practice : The winds had picked up and the rain set in, which made things interesting every time you left the ground, as there are no trees on this hill to shelter you from the cross winds. Scott ‘Six-pack’ Mears was having trouble with this all weekend and couldn’t stop his backend of his v10 accidentally stepping out every time he took of a jump! Most riders were running cut spikes most of the day as the track was pretty wet, but for the last practice run things dried up and most had then changed back to dry tyres. A good day with most people getting seven or more runs in.
Practice
Race day: The track had now dried up and a few easy-ups had taken off over night. The air ambulance had been called out during Saturday practice and was again called during Sunday morning practice. Heading up for the last practice run before racing, with many elite’s, we all witnessed one of the tractor drivers lose control driving back down the field and tipping on its side pretty hard. Luckily no one was hurt and there wasn’t a queue of 100 or more riders anywhere near, a pretty wild thing to see happen at a race.
The seeding runs finally got started around 40 minutes late but were soon stopped after another nasty crash and the air ambulance was needed for the third time over the weekend. This led to massive delays in the racing and a decision was made to scrap seeding and go straight into race runs. Ed had been sat at the top for over an hour and then had to cruise back down the fire road, this also meant there was a gap of around 7 hours from when I finished practice to when I would do my race run.
Race run
Results:
Ed managed a 19th in the seniors, just 5 seconds back from first so not so bad. On our way up to the top we had around a minute to look at a change in track to make a little section easier, I should of looked a bit harder as I mucked it up in my run ! Older brother Dave finished up 9th, I got 8th, Ashley Maller was 7th, Miami Bryce was 3rd and Peaty took the win with some close racing. Half the top ten all on Santa Cruz v10’s although two have some carbon!!
Check out the action, including the tipped tractor and a little clip of me early on:
All the news on Round 4 of the British Downhill Series
Cheers
Berty Smith
