Last weekend was the first round of the popular Scottish Downhill Association series. As soon as the entries went live at the beginning of March, all 300 spaces were filled in a matter of minutes. Luckily, I am given a guaranteed entry because of my good series finish last year.Chris however, decided not to race this event because he has bigger things planned… This coming weekend is the downhill world cup in South Africa! Fingers crossed all goes well for him.
Ae forest near Dumfries may not be as exotic as SA but the weather was certainly kind to us. Glorious sunshine all weekend made for a pleasant weekend although with the clear sky at night meant it was pretty chilly sleeping in the van. I hadn’t actually ridden my new DH bike before the event so I was slightly anxious. In fact, I hadn’t ridden a downhill bike all winter. I have also been struggling with some minor injuries and illnesses recently so confidence levels were not at an all time high. My first practice run down the course soon sorted things out though. The bike felt good and so did I. The track was flat in gradient but far from level on the surface. Big bumps and rocks littered the course so trying to stay smooth was really important.
My first race run wasn’t very clean but it was good enough to take a provisional lead in the senior category. With one run in the bag, everyone steps it up a gear on their second attempt. I knew I would have to go even faster in my next run to maintain position.
I tried to stay relaxed for my second race run and focus on being smooth. Yet again I made a few small mistakes (just like everyone else because a perfect run doesn’t exist in downhill) but I did manage to go faster. Unfortunately so did the competition. The winning time was half a second quicker than mine and I got bumped down to second place.
Despite having victory snatched away from me, I am pretty pleased with the weekend. I felt fast and I think there is still plenty more to come...
Cheers,
James
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