2013 British Downhill Series Preview

Nov 23, 2012
by Si Paton  
The British Downhill Series (BDS) is widely seen as the world's leading national downhill mountain bike series and will attract 350 of the world's fastest racers to Great Britain throughout 2013. The series is affiliated with both British Cycling and the UCI

Dates and Venues:
1. 13/14th April Combe Sydenham, Somerset UCI cat 2
2. 11/12th May Fort William, North West Scotland UCI cat 1
3. 1/2st June Innerleithen, Scottish Borders UCI cat 1
4. 29/30th June Llangollen, Mid Wales UCI cat 2
5. 24/25th August Bringewood, Ludlow BC National Ranked Event (Not UCI)

Photo by Duncan Philpott

Steve Peat has confirmed his entry for every round.



Entry Procedure:
The race is pre entry, via the British Cycling website from December 1st 2012. Please make sure you have a valid British Cycling Membership (Silver or Gold) and a race license. Race entry is £70.00 plus a £0.60 booking fee per round.

Entries for riders with 100 B.C points or more will receive priority entry from December 1st. If by February 1st there are spaces available we will open entries to those with a B.C membership, race license and 1 B.C point or more.

Free Training

Josh Bryceland will be on track.


2013 Race Schedule:
Friday
15:00 Venue open for team pits, parking and camping.
15:00 Course open for on foot inspection only.
15:00 Commissaire course walk.
18:00 - 20:00 Race registration, please bring your valid 2013 BC/UCI race license.

Saturday
08:00 - 11:00 Race registration.
09:30 Open practice for all riders.
18:00 Course Closed.
18:05 Riders' meeting.
19.30 Evening video.

Sunday
08:30 Open practice for all.
11:00 Timed seeding run followed by one timed race run.
17:30 Last Elite racer down.
17:45 Podium.

The BDS aims to be the most technically advanced downhill mountain bike race series in the world. Video will be streamed live and viewable on Pinkbike.com, British Cycling, Dirt, Wideopenmag, Ride.i.o, BDS website and the BDS Facebook pages. The live feed will run from 13:00 until completion of the awards ceremony. An hour's programme beginning at 13:00 will include a wide range of interviews, pit chat, bike checks and helmet cams of the track.

An e-mail/SMS system will e-mail riders at 15:00 on Saturday with Sunday's seeding times and on Sunday afternoon with their race time. Results and the overall results and a short message will be included in this email.

Facebook/Twitter uploads will take place throughout the race weekend with a dedicated person located trackside to upload all the latest news and gossip. All results will posted online by Sunday at 18:00.

photo by phunkt.com

Aaron Gwin will be at BDS round 3 at Innerleithen.


Media:
Media Manager: Ian Cross will manage the media and provide all our sponsors and media with photographs from the weekend.
Current media outlets who have agreed to post up race reports:
Pinkbike.com, British Cycling, Wideopen, Ride.io, Cycling News, Factory Jackson, Trail Guru, Singletrack, Moredirt, IMBA and more to follow..

Race Categories and running order for both seeding and race runs:
Juvenile
Youth
Veteran
Master
Women
Elite Women
Junior
Senior
Expert
Elite

10,000GBP allocated for the series for the fastest 8 riders overall from the males and 4 overall females.

Race Regulations:
The event will run under BC and UCI Regulations and Penalties. The BDS has the best safety record in the history of mountain bike racing in the U.K.

Friday 15:00 we will hold a course inspection with the Chief UCI and BC Commissaires, Head Marshal and the Head of Course Maintenance.

Race timing will by Tag Heuer. Radio or wireless communications will be used. Live split timing will be provided and provisional results from each category will be printed and displayed within five minutes of each category finishing. Full medical cover will be provided, both on course and from an identifiable base station in the event arena.

Camping will be available onsite in a separate camping area except for Fort William where no camping is allowed. A full public announcement facility will be on site with announcements throughout the day. Toby Parodi, the voice of the BDS, will be on hand all weekend.

There will be onsite catering providing fresh hot and cold food and refreshments from 18:00 on Friday through the close of play on Sunday.

Multiple male and female toilets will be onsite all weekend along with disabled and urinal facilities. All will be serviced on Saturday evening and restocked throughout the weekend.

Rankings:
We also work with the Roots and Rain website which regularly can see 10,000 images from a BDS downloaded. The owner of the site, Seb Frost, is part of our registration team and we utilize his stats for seeding the riders in the correct running order.

The BDS team is tried and tested ensuring a seamless race and event.

Race Director:
Simon Paton:si@descent-gear.com
Mobile 07968 229 359
Click on the British Downhill Series Facebook Page for all the latest news and gossip.

Stay Unclipped!

-Si Paton

Halo BDS Round 4 Llangollen

by biker0chris
Views: 23,305    Faves: 256    Comments: 18


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57 Comments
  • 20 4
 Stay unclipped??? Whatever Si Patton, I do what I wawnt!
  • 2 3
 Unclipped is the way forward for Rampage... you not hear Smile
  • 6 1
 You roll with gangs? I roll FIVE gangs! And we only commit hate crimes! Whatever, I do what I wawnt!
  • 8 1
 What... entries to be paid for before 2012 has ended? and just before Christmas too!! My 2 boys were going to race all the rounds this year but this has put a stop to that for sure!
  • 20 0
 Stick to Pearce! far better organised with a better uplift so you can do more then one practice run. Shame theres only 4 rounds next year but i'd still rather only do one then do the hole BDS!
  • 6 0
 If last year was anything to go by I'm sure there will be space after Christmas mate Smile
  • 3 0
 aghhh! Swift kick to the nuts! haha oh and you dont have to pay for the 'Car Park' at the Pearce! £3.00 to get stuck in a boggy field. i wouldnt mind getting stuck in it if it was free! but to pay and then no one is there to tow you out other then other riders is stupid!
  • 3 0
 I agree with dave here, but, the entries open 1st December, I imagine spaces will be left come January...
  • 6 4
 you can hardly say 'stick to pearce'. How are you gonna progress your racing career without stepping up to the national stage?
  • 2 2
 Is that 70 quid for all rounds or 70 quid each?
  • 9 0
 although the bds is a great event, how do you expect children without "minted" parents or just spoilt little brats expected to pay for an event like this? surely it should be atleast 5-10 less for youth/juvenile riders ? i have to work my but off now just to pay for atleast one round for next year and its not like the uplfits are top notch? id rather pay 60 pound for a pearce race and be able to get 16 runs on a weekend including both race runs? just my opinion ..
  • 3 0
 Whitetux - funny you should say that becuase you'd think you would need points to get into the Nationals? this year they were that stuck because people didnt enter they were basically just allowing anyone to enter if they had the cash and a race license! most of them being novice, fair enough the tracks are slightly higher step up but they did use Bringewood.. Pearce track - from what I heard they made some slight changes.. which no one liked.
  • 6 0
 9/10 people would say Pearce races are better! I could see them getting alot bigger then BDS! only thing Pearce miss out on is the sponsers, they could change that with making a phone call and comparing the turn up numbers. companies that go to advetise would rather go the bigger turn out! its business.
  • 4 1
 not to great at maths but 5 rounds at 70 pound each = 350 quid? include petrol, food,equipment etc youre lookign at a 16 year old paying atleast 500 pound to race a series where you may only get 6 runs on a weekend? this is silly! pearce only have four rounds this year 4+60= 240 and includng all equipemnt blahh.. thats aorud 150 pounds cheaper than the bds and its guarantted youll get atleast 8-10 runs on a saturday? i know what im doign with my coins..
  • 2 1
 At a national there is waaaaaaay less 'traffic' compared to a regional and it's just generally a much bigger event. So some of the venues to allow for great uplift and you might get stuck in a field. The BDS is a platform for riders to prove themselves at a national level and progress to world cups. Are you saying that if you wanted to get somewhere in your racing career you'd not make the sacrifices to race nationals? Because I have and it's worth it.
For racers at a national, it's not about how many runs you get, it's about striving to be the fastest.
  • 2 0
 i know what you mean but i dotn have rich parents , ive had too save up for 3 years now to get my first new downhill bike, i aint fortunate enough to get everything i want im just statign the point that for a child shouldt the price be a little bit less ? im still in school i try do my hardest to get money by cutting grass on weekends and however else i can find money but 70 pound for a weekend dont you think thats a bit steep for a child?
  • 1 0
 im not saying dont race nationals am I? no clearly, what im trying to say is there are better events to spend money on, traffic? did you not race Llangollen then? it takes nearly 30mins-1hour to get on the uplift? its ok for the likes of Fort William and Glencoe becuase they have chair lifts! i've not managed to get to them events but im sure they run faster then the ones ive been too.
  • 1 1
 @Norcove - we've all been there. Unfortunately, this is sport, and those with the opportunities (money) have it easier to begin with. Did you know that it was something like 80% of team GB at the olympics were privately educated. It's not just downhill.

@davehayz93 - By traffic I mean, slower riders on track, which I have found to be minimal at a national compared to regionals where it's excessive, but it's expected of course because that's what regionals are for. Also, being from Scotland, waiting in queues has never been that big a deal and it's expected because of our uplift system at races, which yes, is poor, but runs smoothly and no one has complaints. At least you're not cycling 2.5 miles along a road to the uplift (innerleithen)
  • 3 0
 thats mad, just think theyre should be a smaller cost maybe just 5 or 10 pound of the original price for juvenile/youth riders to give them more of a chance to race? im probably going to do one or two nationals next year but i was just stating my opinion
  • 3 0
 agh fair point! one opinion against another though, but if BDS doesnt fill up again and more people have the cash to buy their way in, Nationals will soon have slow traffic!
  • 5 0
 I think I should get money off, I pay more taxes than the school kids, have my own school kids to pay for, a wife, mortgage, council tax, gas, electricity, 2 cars, a van.....

Wowzers, they should let me in for free.

Seriously, everyone should pay the same, get the same opportunity for runs and all have fun.
Racing is not cheap, it is just a fact of life, sometimes growing up is not all fun. Wait until you start work and racing is your weekends and holidays.

(Gotta go climbing with my son now, another thing to pay for)
(now he wants to go away and stay in a Hotel!)
  • 2 0
 i will go to inners and meet gwinny!
  • 1 2
 I can't believe it's 70 quid each! Forget about expensive for a child, that is expensive for me and I'm 32 years old. Come to think of it, there was a race two weeks ago here that I didn't enter because it was too expensive, and that was about 15 quid to enter. Most of the races we have here in Taiwan are either free to enter or 2-3 quid to cover the driver's petrol. Everyone is working for the love of the game - organisers, marshals etc. I'm sure the level of organisation is a lot lower then there, but even so, they are doing it for free.

When I was a teenager racing DH in the UK you could just about compete on a hartdtail. I worked two years at weekends to spend 1200 quid on a bike. I couldn't imagine having to fork out at least double that nowadays. How much are they paying for a saturday boy at a bike shop now? I bet it's not much more than I was getting back in 96. 20 quid a day.

If I were you lads, I'd take up football. At least that's cheap to get into. There's a lot more competition too if you really want to see how good you are.
  • 2 0
 Betsie - I feel you! These schoolboys don't know how lucky they are to have so much free time to practice. As soon as you start full time owrk it gets a lot worse, then when you get married and have kids you're struggling to find three hours a week to ride. It's the paradox of life in a capitalist consumerist society - when you have time to ride, you don't have any money to buy a good bike. When you have money, you have no time. Hence the term AGNI. I used to be a poor young shredder, now I'm an AGNI.
  • 2 0
 Well bloody said my man. Moan moan, bloody moan. So you can't pay £70 for a race, and your demo 8 was how much?
  • 1 0
 Footballs for no balls!
  • 1 0
 Who are you referring too?
  • 2 1
 jaame- why must you comment twice? comment once, or not at all! your rants take up too much space!
  • 1 0
 jaame-take up football instead of mtbing, what are you on?
  • 1 0
 I agree it's expensive but that's why people have to work I worked on a farm for most of my teen years to pay for it. My parents only payed for the travel costs.
  • 2 0
 Angryham - I'm trying to contribute to the discussion, unlike you. If you don't like what I type, don't read it. As far as I can tell, I have contributed a lot more towards rational discussion than your last two posts telling me not to post. Do you own pinkbike? Don't you think attacking someone in a completely off topic way is waste of space? I don't care what you think of my posts and I won't stop posting because of what you post about my posts. Message boards are designed for people to post about the topic. Not for you to post about not posting. Start your own message board and I'll happily not post on it.

And anyway, 70 quid is a lot of money for a race. This is an expensive sport. I'm merely saying if you can't afford it, take up football. That's cheap to get into. All you need is a football, or an old can or screwed up bit of paper.
  • 2 0
 I think he'll find that hard to reply too, I would anyway! Ha
  • 4 1
 The BDS needs to be in place and i think Si Paton does a good job. The entries are expensive but so is everything else so nothing can be done. It is a world class event. The only thing i'd say is the UPLIFTS NEED TO BE ORGANISED. Not just taping the queue out... organising which vehicle is going where and when.. Llangollen always seems to be very disjointed when it could be alot more organised. Martin does well at supplying vehicles but the order in which it comes up and down is cruicial for getting the most for the riders. Ive done race's there when its been good and people have been happy but i've been there when i've sat in the field waiting all day and i've had 4 runs.. not good for rider satisfaction. Another one of my personal gripes is marshals. The amount of times ive been barreling down the track to find a guy in the middle of the road and a marshal not asred sitting in his chair. Crap. Boring job but its an important one for safety. Please can you address this Mr. Paton.
  • 2 1
 People can moan all they want about the 1st December entry but I think it's a good thing. Last year very few (if any?) events actually sold out and this way it staggers the entries so that we aren't faced with a massive 24 hour rush on 1st Feb or whatever. Good work, it's unlikely to sell out on 1st Dec but for the people that can afford it and have the points (not many), it gets that first batch of entries out the way.
  • 1 0
 will entry be opened to people with no points? I want to do some nationals this year but have never bothered with a licence. dh is getting ridiculously expensive!
  • 1 0
 from what ive heard you need a min of 100 points from the previous year ? correct me if im wrong but this is what ive heard as im starting dh next year. If you do then its off to regional events
  • 1 0
 Yeah a minimum if a hundred and then remaining spaces are opened up to people with less
  • 1 0
 If by feb 1st they haven't sold out then they'll open them up to people with a licence (I think). Although not many actually sold out last year so you could enter pretty close to the race
  • 1 0
 best get working and start saving ahah
  • 1 0
 I agree that Pearce is good but I do enjoy the BDS. But I work in a lbs but if I take the weekend off to race and include entry I'm losing £150 that's before I make a 300mile+ round trip. So unfortunately it's just not cost effective for me anymore
  • 3 0
 seeing this makes me pretty sad the local MSC series is canceled. way to rub it in
  • 2 0
 Do I need a BC membership to enter as I`m from abroad? I do have an UCI license...
  • 1 0
 you want to ask Simon Patton about that.
  • 2 0
 flag si-paton Plus (1 hours ago)
Budjuh, International riders please contact me directly on si@descent-gear.com
  • 1 0
 Wait, will the coverage be of the different parts of the track or will it be like at Llangollen where it was just the finish arena?
  • 1 0
 dont get why everyone complains. yeah its expensive but you get what you pay for, not as much weapons on track as your regional races etc.. better video coverage also!!
  • 2 0
 Budjuh, International riders please contact me directly on si@descent-gear.com
  • 3 1
 Chadles, Llangollen with a test event for filming. We will have around 3/4 Go-Pros on track.
  • 1 0
 Does anyone know where i can find the photo used for this story on the home page? (group of riders)
  • 1 0
 www.pinkbike.com/photo/8705619
  • 1 0
 How come none of the 3 pictures featured in this "preview" are of any BDS venues past, present or future?
  • 1 0
 Gwin at innerlithen........... C'MON!!!!!
  • 2 2
 yes! very nice sun is shining and warm outside i´ll want to go for a ride. The track looked fun. I like turning Big Grin
  • 3 0
 ... What are you trying to say buddy?
  • 8 0
 Error - Google translater sucks.
  • 1 0
 wow its getting me exited already
  • 1 0
 Yass! I can see Aaron Gwin on my local tracks!







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