Win at Endurance DH for Alastair

Nukeproof Scalp rider Alastair MacLennan took part in the No Fuss Endurance Downhill where he managed to bring Orange Mountain Bikes dominance in this event to an end. Here's his round-up of the event:

This weekend saw around 160 racers line up for the Le Mans start at the 4th annual Endurance Downhill Race at Fort Williams World Cup Track .

After running 200m to the bikes racers then had to cycle uphill on the fire road for around 1.5 miles before joining the downhill track. Once the first racer reaches the gondola at the bottom station the 6 hour clock starts counting down and racers have to pile in as many downhill runs as possible in the 6 hour time limit. Each descent is against the clock, so in the event of riders doing the same amount of descents, the rider who does them in the quickest total time wins, simple!

I decided to take it fairly easy on the grueling uphill pedal on the DH bike and conserve some energy for later on as in previous years I have felt ill for the first few runs after pushing it too hard on this stage.

By the time I got onto the downhill track there was around 15 bikes ahead of me and I knew I was going to have to move through the traffic quickly so as not to get held up over the next few runs.
Pic - Paul Davey of the 'Outlaw Riders' thanks for them for all the heckling and encouragement at the race.

On the first full run I managed to get past most of the field in front of me with the leading pack not far in front.

The main competitors were always going to be Chris Hutchens and Stu Thomson, Chris being a regular World Cup Rider and Stu a former World Cup Rider of note.

With 160 riders on course the field was well spread out and we started lapping people on lap 2 while trying to put in good times, so there were a few dodgy passes, near misses etc.

By around lap 8 I was in the lead by around 1min and feeling good having put in very consistent lap times when disaster struck as I got a rear flat. Riding on regardless as fast as possible I trashed my rim over the loose boulders and bedrock to the finish to lose some time overall.

Fixing the problem quickly I soon got going again and put in another 3 good laps making more time up again before a red flag closed the track for an injured rider.

With the track closed for around 1 hour most of the riders were stuck at the start at the top of the track with light fading and the clock ticking away.

Once the track cleared we only had time for one last run and were set of at 20sec intervals to space the backlog of riders out. This was a flat out run with everyone trying to gain as much time over their rivals as possible.

After the computer sorting out all the combined laps and times I was very happy to have held onto my lead and take the overall win with Chris Hutchens coming 2nd overall and Stu Thomson 3rd

Another good test for the Nukeproof Scalp in one of the toughest races out there.

Next Race: SDA Glencoe