2015 Scottish Downhill Championships

It seemed a bit early in the year when the team headed to Ae Forest for the Scottish Downhill Championships.
Usually held in June and scheduled to be run at Fort William, there was a date and venue change due to clashing with an event down South.
The weather gods reminded us that maybe winter was not quite over and threw in a few hail and snow showers, but in general it stayed dry over the weekend and the track got faster and drier with every run.

Our 2015 Team race kit was looking bright in the sun and we could not be missed as we practised together all weekend.

Thanks to Nicola Johnson for this pic of Neil

 It was great to have Neil back after his leave of absence due to injury and a happy Neil said

" I just took it steady all weekend which was a little frustrating but was also good fun to be just cruising down the hill. "

Neil was looking as smooth and focussed as usual and will be up to speed in no time,

Ewan, the teams young ripper continues to improve with every race and is just about ready to be let off the lead ! He had a cracking weekend and was ripping hard down the fast fun track.

Another pic from Nicola Johnson:  Ewan with Al trying to keep up.

Alastair had a fun weekend riding with team mates and was feeling good come race day putting in what he reckons was a "proper fast race run, but not fast enough to win"

And another Nicola Johnson pic

So, a fairly vague report with no results. Unfortunately there was timing issues and as I write the full checked and verified results are not available as the mighty SDA crew have been burning the midnight oil squeezing the results one by one out of the system. A hard and frustrating job for the dedicated guys and girls at SDA HQ , hopefully they will be rewarded for their dedication soon.

And finally, a random pic of Billy who we adopted for the weekend.......

British Downhill Series Rnd 1

Ae Forest was the venue for the Round 1 of the British Downhill Series last weekend .
With Neil still out from injury it was up to Alastair and Ewan to represent.
Ae has been a well used venue over the years and although fairly short, the tracks are normally fast and fun.
The BDS track this weekend did not disappoint, and with a combination of fast natural sections, jumps and berms it really was a track worthy of the the premier British Series Event.

Ewan, fresh from a great result the previous weekend was determined to put in a great performance, and along with Alastair had a good day in practice dialling in lines and looking for speed, and by the end of Saturday both were confident of puting in good runs on race day.

The Nukeproof Pulses have been running great this year, and with a few adjustments to the Rockshox shock during practice the bikes were running sweet for the qualifying run.
Ewan was off first, literally, and ploughed off the track early on costing him valuable time and putting him well down the seeding list for his race run in Youth Category.
Alastair put in a good steady run concentrating on getting lines right and qualified 1st in Grand Vets well ahead of the others in the category.

Final race run saw Ewan setting off first and laying down the power out of the start line and onwards down the track only to have another crash and finish off his race run chances in this super fast category.
Ewan has found new speed this season and has been exploring the outer reaches of his skills which is great to watch and he will come out of this learning curve not only with ultimate speed but with miles of style to match.

After heading up to look at a section of track that had caused slight problems in qualifying, Alastair sorted lines out in his head and was happy with the track.
Setting off last in Grand Vets he managed to hit all the lines with good speed and sliced quite a few seconds off his qualifying time to take a convincing win and take home maximum points from the event.

As with all events we attend, the team worked well together and took lots of positives from the practice and racing. It was great to see Neil once again who had come over to support the team even although he still is not very mobile, great work guys.

Full results can be found on Roots and Rain

We are now working towards our next event which is the Scottish Championships run by the SDA back at Ae Forest in 3 weeks time, can't wait!

Neil, Down & Out in Tweed Valley Hill

After our last blog where we reported Neil's training accident a lot of folks have been kindly asking after him.
Being a true team member, Neil managed to sneak away from the nurses and get himself along to Inners SDA to support his team mates.
Heres a wee report from the man himself.........

After a lot of time spent training on the bike and in the gym and with my new Nukeproof Pulse set up and ready to go , the first round of the 2015 race season – an SDA Race at Innerleithen couldn't come soon enough. Unfortunately , while putting in some last minute training last week, I had a trip over the handlebars, landing on my back and requiring a trip to the hospital. Nothing was broken but it will take a few weeks to recover enough to ride .

I was very lucky that it wasn't anything serious and I am very aware that it could have been much worse - a trip to A&E and a stay in hospital where some folk are in a much worst state is a great reminder of how lucky we are to be fit and healthy enough to ride our bikes.

Anyway, I didn't want to miss out on all the fun at the race so I managed to hobble along and watch on both days. Although it was frustrating not to be able to join in , it was great to see lots of friends from racing that I hadn't seen over the winter. I can't say much about the track as I only saw the finish line but from the states of the bikes and everyone's faces it looked muddy but fun! I know Ewan has been riding well as I've struggled to keep up with him in all the training rides we've done and as always Alastair was going well. I was glad to be able to make it to the race to watch but I am looking forward to when I can ride again much more…

SDA Round 1

The team have just returned from Innerleithen after a successful weekend of racing. 

Unfortunately Neil Wilson had to miss out due to a training accident where he punctured a lung and took a pretty bad hit. Neil will be back soon fitter, faster and stronger as that is what he does best.

Here's Ewans report:

The 2015 Nukeproof Pulse bikes looking great.

The first race of the season is always a great one, meeting up with people again , looking at who’s fast and at lots of fresh bikes and kit! Team Mtb Ride Guide were feeling fit after an intense winter training regime on their NUKEPROOF PULSES. Unfortunately Neil was pushing just a little too hard and was unable to take part in the first round due to a crash.

Things got a bit mucky

After a dry week in the Tweed Valley the race weekend brought a typically Scottish weekend of weather. The track was a technical mix of ruts, jumps, off camber corners and lots of sniper roots. After leaving the hut the track swung right until the first corner then into a new tight fresh rooty section to then go over the wall and road gap then left onto a flowy, fast off camber section with lots of bus stops them drops on to the middle fire road. After that it went into lower gold and some steep rocky schaly corners . The nukeproof pulses were eating up the track and were super fast and sturdy in the corners. Ewan and Alastair were easily spotted and looked good in their brand new race kit.

Colour co ordination was the key to Ewans success!

Alastair had a solid weekend and a solid time of 3:20.48 to take 4th . Ewan had some help from Alastair on Saturday and had a time of 3:16.69 to take 3rd. Overall it was a great weekend on some sweet NUKEPROOF bikes.

As always the committee of the SDA put on a cracking event and the medics and marshals did a superb job standing out on the hill in the wet and cold, thanks to all.

Team Mtb Ride Guide at Sda Rd 6 fort william

Fort William is always one of the best races of the year with everyone feeling scared and stoked at the same time with the tracks,length ,rock gardens and the motorway section.

Friday- The course was in great condition with dry dusty corners , filled in holes and a fast dry wood section and with sunny weather forecast it was set to be a great weekend.

Saturday - The riding was super fun and was super fast smashing laps out all day . I think the laps were a little too fast for local legend and current Masters World Champion
Alastair as he kept getting punctures! It was however good that his nukeproof pulse saved him from something that could have been worse. The team was in good spirits all weekend by helping each other choose lines and giving encouragement. All looked great for race day on Sunday.

Sunday Sunday morning practice laps were a last chance to get down any new lines before finals. The weather was just as good as it had been all weekend. On the First race Ewan came down on a clean run and a new pb with a 5:39.59, Al jr with a 5:42.77, Keir with a 5:35.27 and
the Chief with a 5:22.44. Everybody had a faster second run in the team . Ewan with a 5:34.03(11th) , Al jr 5:39.84( 16th), Keir 5:34.50(9th) and Alastair taking the win with a 5:20.18.

A fantastic weekend and a great end to the season.

Thanks to Hotlines and Nukeproof for their fantastic support over the season.

Thanks also to Marked Mediahouse for all the images they have supplied us with.

UCI Masters World Championship 2014

Neil and Alastair boxed up their Nukeproof Pulses and headed to Hafjell in Norway for this years World Masters Downhill Championship. 

The small resort 180 Km North of Oslo boasts an impressive range of downhill trails as well as one of the best World Cup Downhill tracks on the circuit making it the perfect venue for this years World champs.

We walked the track in the dry but the forecast was for rain so we knew things were about to get messy. 

Right from the steep start ramp we were straight into the big jump section which just got faster with every jump you hit. The picture above doesn't do justice to how big these jumps were, the spec in the distance is Alastair hanging about in the air waiting to land.

Things did indeed get a bit messy with constant rain showers but the track didn't deteriorate too much and was fun to ride. There was a great mixture of jumps and super fast drops and berms with various rock gardens and nice techy rooty sections followed by a flat out slimy mud traverse before dropping down to the finish.

There was plenty time for practise and we both got in 7 runs on the first day and were feeling good on most bits of track before seeding took place.

Both our seeding runs went well with Neil finishing 5th and Alastair 1st. It was going to be a hard final as there was a few people doing tactical runs in seeding and everyone was going to have to go quite a bit faster in the finals.

Neil was off first and had quite a solid run but was not too happy in a couple of sections which lost him time but still powered across the finish line to take 5th place in a quality field.

Having seeded 1st Alastair was set off last and managed to get a good run holding speed in the crucial areas and made up time in a couple of the rock gardens to cross the line in 1st place taking his 3rd World Masters Title.

We both had a great time in Norway and it was yet again a privilege to be competing in such an international field full of such great riders and friends. The people of Hafjell and the track maintenance guys did a fantastic job and it was such a great track we will surely return one day.

Time for a well earned beer.

SDA 2014 Innerleithen Round 6

Ewan reports from Innerleithen.

Friday- On the course walk we were two men short as Al and Alastair were going off to Hafjell in Norway for the Masters World Champs. The course had been taped on mainly the Gold Run with a new loamy pedally section with loads of new bus stops then into Matador, over the jumps and into the gully at the bottom and across the road to the finish.

Saturday- the track on Saturday was mainly dry with a few wet patches and it rutted in a lot better than I expected and my Nukeproof Scalp was feeling great - holding and railing every rut brilliantly.
Sunday- The track had not changed since Saturday apart from a few holes that had been filled in which made the track even better. After the two practice runs it was time for racing. I did not have the best first run with a crash on the first corner and it was a similar story for Keir. Neil was the only one to make it down with a decent run. After watching some gopro footage of the course, I put in a good run to take 10th in Youth with a 3:51. Keir put in a solid performance with a 3:49 to take 11th in Junior and Neil with 3:41 to take 3rd step on the podium in Vets. Good Luck to Neil and Alastair for the Master World Champs in Hafjell.

Thanks to Marked Mediahouse for the images.