BDS Round 3, Llangollen

If you like dust, heat and very steep tracks Llangollen was the place to be last weekend! (26/27^th of June). The team made the short journey into Wales for round 3 of the British Downhill Series. The race was held on the newer of the two tracks at this venue, which, although a lot more open, is every bit as steep as the infamous “NPS track”. Any rider posting a time around the 2 minute / 2:20 mark had every reason to be pleased with them selves. The course really is a test for any rider.

Saturday was spent getting the track dialled – not easy! It seemed the secret to a good time was momentum – if you could stay of the brakes and keep everything smooth you had every chance of a good time. A total disregard for personal safety helped as well!

Race day dawned much the same as practice, very dry and very hot. The format of BDS races is basically one run for seeding (points for the top ten) and one actual race run, there are absolutely no second chances!

Mitch was first away in the Junior Category, posting a very rapid 2:00.163. Had this time been his race run it would have been good enough for a top ten placing! Sadly it wasn’t to be. Following a crash in his second run Mitch recorded a 2:08.977 – not exactly slow by any standard! Incredibly this dropped him down to 22^nd position – an indication of how competitive the Junior Category is.

In the Seniors Lee and Andy both ran out of luck. Andy took a tumble but still managed an impressive 2:12 in seeding. In his race run he went 5 seconds faster for a 2:07.049. Pretty soon Andy’s luck will change and he’s going to be right up there in the points – no problem. Lee’s bad luck hit in his race run. His 2:21.494 in no way reflected how he’d been riding all weekend, but as we all know, “that’s racing”. Lee was riding his new bike (a Lapierre) so he was always going to find things a bit difficult.

In the Experts Elliot had mechanical problems most of Saturday – a broken chain guide and a seized front brake hampering his progress. All this was forgotten come his seeding run where he posted a 1:55.067. As this was 5^th fastest it bagged him 6 series points. In his race run all thoughts of dodgy brakes were forgotten. He pulled out all the stops for a solid 1:53.426, good enough for 7^th place (less than 3 seconds off the winner) – his best BDS result so far.

There’s no doubt that the standard of racing in the BDS is the highest of any series by quite a margin. The next round is at Moelfre – a track very different to Llangollen but just a challenging in its own way. 

-Paul Machin