Scottish Downhill Series - Glencoe 23rd - 24th May 2015

The Scottish Downhill juggernaut rolled into Glencoe, a course I've done well on in the past and I was hungry for it.  Set off from home on Friday afternoon and arrived at dinner time, got everything sorted out and heading up for a track walk.  The course had hardly changed from previous events with the exception of resurfacing at the bottom while up top was boggy in places and I was hoping it would dry out before practice got underway.

Saturday morning and I woke up in an oven with the sun's rays beating down on my tent, sorted my kit, signed on, fitted my number board and with a cooked breakfast in my stomach I headed up to the gondola for the first runs.

The first few were good, got all my lines dialled in and my FTW was on rails feeling perfectly at home on the rough terrain, it caused me no problems all day.  Towards the end of practice I came to the most challenging part of the track and although pushing myself I was keeping the bike at a controlled pace when all of a sudden my front wheel washed out underneath me and I flipped off the bike smashing my knee up off a sharp rock.  Although I was wearing knee pads I couldn’t stand and had to sit trackside for a while.

The pain didn't subside so I cruised down to the car park to get it checked out, my knee had swollen up like a tennis ball and I had minimal movement in my leg. Absolutely gutted that this had happened, not only was I unable to race the next day but having gone to the A&E that evening I was advised that it would need time to heal and therefore I am not allowed to race the World Cup at Fort William, I am feeling absolutely devastated.

Jamie.

Ae up - Scottish Downhill Championships Ahoy, 25th & 26th April 2015

The Development had three of their lads racing but just two reports again; Monsieurs Nelly and Newrick taking over......

Nelly: After a good weekend with the British Downhill Series at Ae we were back up there for the Scottish Downhill Championships.  The track walk left a lot of riders surprised with the course designers' omission of the coffin jump, step-down and elevator sections.  I was concluding that the track would be pretty bad, come Saturday morning the rain had done its work and left us all with a wet and slippy course laced with polished roots and tacky mud.  It was gonna be a fun one!

Newrick: I travelled up with my aunt in the camper van on Friday evening which was awesome, a nice chilled drive up through the Borders, parked up had some food and then turned in early to keep me feeling fresh.

The first run down on Saturday was great up top however I hit the stump gap all squirrelly and binned it hard!  That took the wind out of me, got back up, back on it and back down to the bottom, a quick once over of the bike and then straight back up to the top again. The rest of the day was a steady progression as I got used the track, it was fluid and fast and my bike was handling amazingly well.

Nelly: I was doing a few runs with Luke Birkett from the We Love Mountains Downhill Team and we were both starting to nail our lines, despite a funny tumble earlier on in the day my confidence grew significantly and I was feeling hyped up for Sunday's race runs.

Tom Nelson

Newrick: Sunday morning hit and I managed to get two practise runs under my belt as the uplifts were running great as was the track and indeed my good self on both runs!  Back up and soon out of the gate on my first race run, not too bad but way too slow and I was cursing myself for it.

Nelly: Thankfully the rain had kept clear over night and the course was running sweet, my first race run was a tad too chilled out and I cross the line in tenth place which I knew I could improve on.

Newrick: My second race run was bang on the buck bar taking the previous BDS event's race line instead of the current SDA one, I lost some time with this but crossed the line in 19th place in the youths and with a faster time to my first run.  Overall it was a good weekend.

Tom Newrick

Nelly:  My second run was fuelled by coffee and a flapjack, as I headed to the top on the uplift I was thinking of where I could improve my time and noted that the rain clouds were starting to roll in again.  After a tiny patter of rain drops it was thankfully gone as soon as it arrived and I was on the course.  The top section was totally nailed in and my bike was taking the pummelling with ease, I stayed fluid and crossed the line shaving three seconds off my previous time putting me in eighth place in the youths, I was fairly happy with that.

Jamie had some good runs throughout the weekend but was hindered by a puncture on his second race run, despite that he placed seventh in the Juniors.

Jamie Stewart

Next up is the English Champs with all the lads, see you all there.

SDA 2015 Series Opener - Innerleithen, 28th - 29th March

Jamie and Tom headed up to Innerleithen last weekend for the opening round of the Scottish Downhill Series, both riders are on a new team and riding new bikes, did it all play to their favour though?  Here's how they got on....

Jamie:

It was time for the first round of the Scottish Downhill Series at Innerleithen in the Tweed Valley.  Although it was exciting to get back into racing again I was feeling nervous having only received my new Development team-issue Frank The Welder bike a week before and indeed having only ridden it once prior.

Tom:

Saturday, 7:30am and the rain was coming down so heavily that I was reluctant to even get out of bed, a cosy duvet is my best friend!   There’s a race weekend to be had though so I clambered out and got straight into my riding kit, had breakfast, grabbed the bike and then rode along the track to meet up with my mates.  The plan was to get the early uplift and be the first lot down the track. That first run down the course was immense and I was blown away by how well my FTW bike was eating up the rugged terrain, I was progressively gaining more confidence as the day went on and was in love with the track, it was running totally fluidly.

Jamie:

I was raring to go and start practising regardless to the rain.  I took my first run cautiously and cruised down hitting all my lines. The track was challenging and I had to stay 100% focused as it was easy to be caught out.  My second and third runs were much better where it felt like I was riding at a good pace and hitting my lines square on, perfect.  After my last run I was feeling happy and confident with my riding.

Race day

Jamie:

I got up and stuck on my kit for a practise run before the racing got under way, the track had changed a lot with more exposed roots to take into account.  It was just after the first greasy section where I was kicked off my line and hit a tree with the side of my hand, the pain went straight though my palm.  I cruised back down to the pits and got some ice on it to make sure I could try and get a race run in.

Back up and on the start line waiting for the beep.  Off I went on my first run, it was feeling fast and I was nailing my lines.  This was until about half way down when my hand suddenly became very painful, it was hard to hold onto the bars and made me slow down a little.  By the time I was hitting the bottom section of the track I was two-finger braking which was really sketchy however I managed to get a full run in.  Crossed the line with a decent time of 3m 18s, which put me into 8th position in the Juniors.  Due to the pain in my hand I reluctantly pulled out of the second run in case of further injury.

Tom:

Like Jamie I decided to only do one practice run, saving myself for the races later in the day. I stayed fluid on the bike, the track was nice and sticky giving some good grip in the corners and the exposed roots were not as bad as I was expecting them to be.

My first race run went well; straight out of the gate and sprinting to the first right hander as fast as I could. It all went quickly without any mishap and I crossed the line in fourth place only to be knocked back into fifth by the next rider down and it was there that I remained.

My second run started almost as well, I pinned the technical section that everyone was struggling with and carried on down the track however mis-judged a corner and lost a load of time.  Got back on the bike and up to speed, the adrenaline had kicked in and I was trying too hard resulting in a second mishap on the lower steep corners resulting in a much slower time to my first run and I dropped down to the 13th place in the Youths.

Despite the outcome of this weekend it was a great experience of getting the new FTW bike up to race pace, all in it was good weekend and has set me in good stead for the BDS at Ae Forest.

Jamie:

Overall it was a 50/50 weekend for me, I was happy about coming 8th in a strong field of juniors but the ‘what could have been’ nagged somewhat.  There are however many positives to take away from this race and I am determined to get to the next race and push harder.

We would both like to thank Lee Walker at The Development Racing and Stewart Wood at We Love Mountains Ltd, and not forgetting the legend that is Frank The Welder, for all of their help in the off-season with getting our FTW bikes put together.

Onto the next race!

You can follow The Development's shenanigans on their Facebook here; The Development Racing Team

The Introduction.....

Downhill
Nick Turner - Master category
Zak Holmes - Senior category
Jamie Stewart - Junior category
Tom Nelson - Youth category
Tom Newrick - Youth category

Enduro
Robyn Walton - Senior women category

Cyclocross & Criterium
Megan Hopper - Junior category

Individual rider introductions will follow in the New Year.