BUCS Downhill 2016

After a 7 hour journey to Antur Stiniog in the heart of Snowdonia we pitched our tents and settled in for a mostly sleepless night of cold, rain and snow. Fortunately by the time we emerged from our tents the sun was shining and everyone was looking forward to a weekend of downhill.

The track walk revealed a tough looking course that had many steep, rocky sections with lots of line choices which were even difficult to walk up. However, after the first practice run it was apparent that the track was a lot more fun than it looked with plenty of fast sections and some nice jumps. Throughout Saturday the live timing showed that everyone was getting faster as they became more comfortable with the track and got their lines dialled. Unfortunately, the day wasn't without fault as Will crashed and injured his thumb after “casing a jump like a B***h”, putting an end to his weekend’s riding. We finished the day with a barbecue and a few beers before heading to bed to recover for the race on Sunday.

After a couple more practice runs on Sunday morning, it was time for the qualifiers. First to represent Bristol was Naomi, who made it down into 8th position therefore qualifying for the championships. Next up was Dan on his hardtail who completed his aim of having a clean run and even managed to be faster than several riders aboard full suspension bikes. On his run, Sam made full advantage of his new full suspension bike and got so rowdy here bent his seat back but still managed to come down in 205th. Ben and Matt both had solid runs and made it into 152nd and 199th out of the 241 that entered. Our final hope of qualifying by getting into the top 100 was Oli who had been setting consistent times in the top 50 during practice. However after crashing in his final run, Oli missed out on qualifying by a mere 3 seconds leaving him in 116th.
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With none of the guys qualifying, Naomi would have the club’s full support for her race run. A clean and smooth run meant she finished in an admirable 8th, only 40 seconds of the podium and beating one of the sponsored riders. For the men’s championships, we all gathered on “heckler’s corner” and, with the aid of old rims and Sam’s magnificent handle bar trumpet, made as much noise as we could for the fastest men.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend with excellent riding and great weather (for Wales at least). A huge thank you to Ben for organising everything, Sam for driving and Mike for marshalling.

Photos can be found on roots and rain and on our facebook page.