Euan Hird - SDA Rnd 2 - Fort William

Round two of the Scottish Downhill Association 2011 series took place at the world famous world cup course at Nevis Range near Fort William. Probably the most eagerly awaited race of the year, this year more so as extensive work had been done to large parts of the course. The SDA didn’t use the new road gap that will appear at this year’s world cup round but followed the rest of the course which has been made even quicker.

After weeks of almost unbroken sunshine we arrived at Nevis Range on Friday evening just in time to catch the last gondola to the top and walk the course back down in heavy rain. A little dampness on this course is a good thing as the loose gravel at the top gives far better grip. Fully wet however and it’s probably no advantage and as we got toward the bottom it was clearly going to be a very wet weekend.

Saturday started badly and went downhill quickly if you pardon the pun. My first run was OK but I fell a number of times on the now very muddy tree line sections and began to wonder if there was a clean line through at all. My second run only lasted to the deer fence about a 3rd of the way down when eight spokes broke on my back wheel pretty much jamming the wheel in the frame. With no spare wheel in the van and none available locally in the right axle width we only had one option. Try and fix it. This was made more difficult when the rear maxle also snapped getting the wheel off the bike. We made a run in to town for parts and spent the rest of the day and early evening making the best job we could for Sunday. This was not a weekend where I could afford to miss practice so went in to Sunday really unsure and on the back foot.

On Sunday morning I had time for only one practice run which wasn’t great and again put the rear wheel out of true. We got it straightened again in time for the my first race run though. Seeded 13th from the first round results, I crossed the line in 7th but again finished with the wheel rubbing heavily on the frame and requiring another few spokes. I knew that holding on to 13rd was going to be difficult and by the end of the first runs I was 15th. I could tell by the times of my usual competition and some mates that I had a lot of time still in me so was hoping for a solid top 10 come the end of the day. Unfortunately that was the end of the day. We managed to get the bike going again but a number of long red flag periods in some of the other classes had delayed the event too much and with the wind getting up it was decided to halt racing and call it on the single first runs.

I’m still riding the loaned 2010 bike but it had seen a lot of riding even before I got my hands on it and its starting to tell. A complete wheel rebuild and some other TLC is really overdue. With the BDS race at the very tough Glencoe ski resort in under two weeks time I hope my new bike is going to arrive on time.

Photos by Paul Cram http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/photos/paul-cram/

Katy Curd - South Africa WC1

Katy Curd sent over a couple of posts from her last few races, kicking off with the World Cup in SA.

Last weekend saw the first round of the World cup kick off in Pietermaritzburg, south Africa.

I always find the first world cup the worst, as you’ve been training your tits off for six months solid, all working towards this very race. You never know where you or anyone one else is at in terms of fitness or skills all you can do is get your head in to the game and hope all the hard work has paid off.

Unfortunately as Pietermaritzburg isn’t the closest of races for most people it meant the entry list was minimal with only 9 girls entered. The track is one of the longest tracks on the circuit but not massively technical favouring some of the fitter, stronger riders.

For qualification I thought the times would be fairly spread out as just one little dab of the brake or a slight mistake and you lost so much momentum. The times as expected were pretty spread out, with Anneke Beerten coming in first, closely follow by Anita Molcik and I slotted in third with a time that was a second off Anneke’s.

Racing was made interesting with one off camber corner catching everyone out. In the first Heat it was Anneke up against Melissa Buhl and Celine Gros. Anneke had an comfortable lead from start to finish and left Melissa and Celine to battle it out. Melissa was sat in second for the majority of the race but Celine didn’t give up and just managed to take it on the finish line.

The second heat was Anita Molcik, Fionn Griffiths, Lucia Oetjen and myself. Anita shot out the gate into the lead, and I was sat close behind in second but unfortunately Anita got unluckly on the off camber corner and slipped out hitting the deck fairly hard. As she hit the deck I knew that was it, as I tried to squeeze through on the inside Molcik rolled into me taking me out with her leaving Fionn and Lucia to roll past for an easy ride in to the A Final against Anneke and Celine.

Again to no surprise Anneke had a easy lead for final, leading from the start gate and keeping 1st all the way to the finish. Fionn made a impressive move in the first corner, taking the inside line moved from 3rd up to 2nd. Leaving Celine and Lucia battling it out for 3rd and 4th. Lucia put up a good race but Celine managed to put her downhill skills to good use carrying good speed to the line to take 3rd place leaving Lucia to take 4th.

I was pretty disappointed with my result, six months training and travelled half way around the world just to get taken out. Emotions got the better of me at the end of that race but its now on to Fort William where i will prove i can get the results i have been training all winter for.