Following my puncture and subsequent disappointment at the Ae Forest Enduro, I was keen to smash out some good results in my next couple races. The first of which was the 2nd round of the Scottish Downhill Series in Fort William. I arrived to find my good friend Pete Scullion who had some sweet IXS goodies for me. My favourite of the lot was an all in one waterproof rain suit which was ideal for the wet and windy conditions.
I just did 3 practice runs on Saturday so that I could go home (just 6 miles away from the event) and crack on with some revision for my coming exams on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I thought I was unlucky but poor Chris had an exam on the Saturday and Monday which was why he was unable to make it to the race.
After a good night’s sleep I was arrived back at Nevis Range for one last practice run in the morning. I decided that it would be best to do just one of my two race runs so that I could leave early and get prepared for my next quiz in Glasgow the next day.
On the way up the Gondola I saw three broken bodies by the side of the course. The medics were stretched so thin that the officials decided to red flag the race until the casualties had been dealt with. This postponed racing for about an hour so all the riders sheltered in the top Gondola station away from the howling winds. After such a delay, the organisers cancelled 2nd race runs since it was already getting late in the day.
It eventually came to my run and I was ready to rumble. I pedalled hard out of the start and then got into the super tuck for the long straights on the top section. I was very cautious because of the wind and cruised down the hill slow and steady trying not to make any mistakes.
I came to the motorway section at the bottom, which rolled really slowly, and pedalled as hard as I could. I crossed the line to find I had won the senior category by about 5 seconds! Job done!
After a week of intense quizzing I was looking forward to an event with a nice relaxed atmosphere: the 10 Under the Ben organised by No Fuss. The weather again was absolutely awful. My brother and I experienced 3hours of full on hail storms as we did a children’s charity mountain bike guiding session the night before. After this grim experience I was slightly less enthused for the forthcoming race… At least I had taken the easy option and decided to race as a team of four along with Geoff Martin, Liam Moynihan and my brother Gavin.
There was very brief break in the weather for the start of the race. Liam was obviously pretty chuffed about this fact and gave me a big ‘thumbs up’ as he lined up to do the first lap:
The rest of the race, in between laps, was spent hiding under the easy down beside my van with its super cool new stickers made by the guys at TCJ.
Liam got the fastest lap in our team and the second fastest lap time of the day. The rest of us were not far behind. As a team we ran away with the overall victory and just missed out on getting a 14th lap by a matter of minutes.
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