Race Report

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#999933" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="44b006e0ddwnfv.gif"> <div> <B>UK Riding </B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B>     |    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="UK Riding "><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" background="44cbec00esnpes.gif"> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Races"><U><B>Back to Race page</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Words"><U><B>Back to 'My Words'</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> Race Report</div> <div> >20th July - Downhill National Champs - Hopton Castle                  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Report by Ashley Loram</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Friday morning we headed off to Hopton Castle in Ludlow for the 2002 British Downhill National Championships.</div> <bR> <div> A big field at the bottom of the track was home to the big team trucks including; Animal, Orange and Kona.</div> <bR> <div> The track was made up of 3 main parts. The top part consisted of bumpy single track with only a few lines. This was quite flat, so you had to keep smooth to maintain speed through the various corners and jumps. The middle and main part of the track was made up of pure roots, not really any corners, but it was made more technical by all the tree stumps. The key to this part was to use all the roots as jumps and by keeping light on the bike to avoid having to pedal. The next part followed after a fast less rooty section and across a road. There were now fast sweeping switchbacks, over a step down then over a road jump into two large berms, a few more steep corners, a drop, round a berm, over a double, some pedalling, launch off a step down and into the last long tabletop to the finish. </div> <bR> <div> On the practice on Friday, the course was riding really well and fast. This was until the evening when it decided to pour down, making the track a lot harder, especially the middle, with all those roots. Lots of riders were crashing when it came to racing, including Steve Peat and Rob Warner. It was near impossible to make a perfect run.</div> <bR> <div> No surprise that Steve Peat won Senior men, even though he crashed, 2nd and 3rd went to Stu Hughes and Stu Tomson. Tracy Mosely won female. Gee Atherton won junior with a time that would have put him 3rd in senior. Lee Pincher won youth, as Sammy Cotton was out injured. Brendan Fairclough seemed in a league of his own in the Juvenile category, winning by 25 seconds! His time would have also made him Youth National Champion, beating riders up to 16 years old, 2 years older than him. He also did all this on a bike he'd never ridden before. Repack Racing didn't do too well with Ashley getting 15th and Matt getting 19th in Youth. Dave got 15th in Open.</div> <bR> <div> Full results available at www.pearcecycles.com </div> <bR> <div> > Dragon Downhill Rounds 6 and 7 - Garway</div> <bR> <div> It all starts by climbing into the trailer, that the tractors were pulling straight up the steep hill. Good job it was dusty dry, as they wouldn't of managed it in mud. Once the tractors stopped, it was a 15-minute walk up to the top of the hill.</div> <bR> <div> At the start of the track there were a few fast corners through the slippy bracken, off a drop, more corners, then a jump into a grassy field, weaving in and out a line of trees. Then a flat out left-hander into a drop, to a bank, over roots. Then came some undulations, which were really fast - no braking, no pedalling, just flowing. Off a bank and a dusty corner, over a go-cart track, onto a nice step down, hip jump. Land this and the brave jumped a 20ft double over a road, whilst others just rolled it. Then down a bank and into woods. This consisted of lots of rocks and a few fast corners. Then over a rock slab and off a drop, into the field again. Hop a few drainage ditches and round two grassy corners and over another road jump. This one needed a lot of upward pulling to clear nicely. Once landed, let the rear wheel drift round a long right-hander into the finish, or bush if you couldn't stop in time.</div> <bR> <div> Too many results to mention them all with 2 days of racing. I got a 9th in Youth on Saturday and 7th on Sunday. Other Winchester locals Jon kinge and Dan Russell were just in front both days. It was a great weekends racing with a good steep fast track and the weather was perfect.</div> <bR> <div> Full results on <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.dragondownhill.co.uk" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.dragondownhill.co.uk"><U><U>www.dragondownhill.co.uk</U></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>