There were a few riders missing notably Ian White (2nd in series) who had broken his ribs, and nemesis Si Paton who had broken his toe…..could this be my day…..doubt it because Colin Williams is still alive and racing together with John Finney & Scott Tankard who both decided to turn up after time off from injuries…..BUGGER!

Practice went very well and the confidence was high and the conditions were very dry, the top section is perfect for me, open rough and baaarp baaaarp! I managed 4 practice runs and just as I crossed the line the rain came down. Typical, every rider has got it clear in his head the speeds and risks to take then it rains and no-one knows how that has effected the track until they hit it in their race run…..still it’s the same for everyone.

There was a short delay due to a very young rider being airlifted to hospital, unfortunately this was his first ever DH race….get well soon fella. The rain abated and it was time for the Masters category to go off, the track had dried considerably only leaving the grassy field an area for a little caution, I was off 3rd from last given that I was 3rd in the Series so far. I nailed the top section but showed some respect to the woods as previous races have shown that the woods in Bala can be pretty unrideable, TOO SLOW YOU PUFF…..this is what I kept shouting in my head as all of the woods were completely dry.

The only mistake on the run was exiting the woods taking the wide slow slippy line due to an unexpected unclip the corner before, this probably only lost me 2 seconds, I crossed the line in 3rd with a time of 3:17 which I was pretty pleased about to be perfectly honest. First place was only 3 seconds off and 2nd was 1 second……things were looking good!

As the afternoon went on the weather got better and the track was fully dry for the 2nd runs, I decided on a gun ho approach to this run and set about scaring myself to death with some do or die moves in the open section, I was going great guns until I came to my first and only minor error…..I got very very sideways (Carmichael style) off the big drop and shot off to the left on landing as I tried to steady the ship, I thumped into the embankment which kept me on the course and rode over some rough stuff to get back on line.

The rest of the course was properly nailed and clean, I crossed the line in 3rd with only 2 riders to go with a time of 3:08 taking 9 seconds off my first run time, I was very happy with myself as bar a small error costing around a second or so, I had a pretty clean and fast run. Then I was given a taste for how close racing DH is nowadays, I ended up 5th only half a second behind 4th and point 2 of a second behind 3rd……..to rub salt into the wounds the eventual winner series leader Colin Williams, only beat me by 2.8 seconds with 3:05.

Master
1st Colin Williams Yeti/Electric Visual 3:05.909
2nd Scott Tankard Hotlines 3:07.951
3rd John Finney John Finney Racing 3:08.212
4th Keith Clarke Rave Racing 3:08.571
5th Craig Bromley RapidRacers.com 3:08.717

DH racing is full of what if’s so won’t indulge myself as every other rider could also draw up a list, all I can say is that I felt I’d done my best and was pleased with my performance against riders that had all Saturday at it as well. How does this effect my 3rd place in the Series, not sure but I think some of the riders that beat me are not yet in the running so I may move to 2nd.

Next round is Caersws on the newly revamped NPS course, most of the silly jumps have been removed and some sensible tabletops have been made. Until then…..goodbye and take care.