Squadron bags another podium at final BDS!

Mitch, Andy and Elliot went over to Caersws for the final round of the British Downhill Series at the weekend. The track used was a modified version of the old NPS course. Incredibly the riders enjoyed two consecutive days of glorious sunshine (the last time this happened in Caersws was in 1842) which made for a fast and challenging race with most riders bringing it home in less than two minutes.

Saturday practice was fairly uneventful and left the team in a reasonably confident frame of mind. However.....come sunday the wheels came of, almost literally in Mitches case! His qualifying run ended in a massive stack that put an horrendous bend in one of his crank arms and mashed his left hand. A replacement set of cranks was found but being barely able to hang onto the bike Mitch was always going to struggle - which makes his 17th place in Juniors all the more commendable. A case of what might have been.

In Seniors Andy managed to damage his right hand in qualifying and was at a disadvantage straight away. Theres plenty of riders out there who would have called it a day but not being one to dwell on injuries he gave it his best shot and was rewarded with 30th spot. Not what he wanted, and certainly not what he deserved either.

In the Experts Elliot didn't injure either of his hands and in fact went on to record his second podium of the series by breaking the beam in 5th spot. An excellent end for what on the whole has been a great series for Elliot (dont mention Rheola!).



The BDS has come on a lot in the last couple of years and is now far and away Britains most prestigious race series. If you can enter a round or two next season i'd strongly reccomend it. Dont be intimidated by the name, theres quite a wide range of abilitys enter and any of the Squadron boys would be more than happy to help out with anything youre unsure about.