One Vision Global Racing, Ae Forest SDA

Ae Forest is the first venue on the BDS calendar again this year, so with a good weather forecast for Scotland, we decided to head up with the team to race the SDA event there this weekend. Unfortunately Willz, and our mechanic, Alex of Ticky Bikes, couldn’t make the trip, but the rest of the team made it up. The track was a little wet and slippery at the start of practice on Saturday morning, but with the sun out the ground soon dried up and the track was running fast! We all preferred this years line down the hill to last year, and had a really fun day practicing. There were some super fun off-camber sections and the tight bottom corners were a right laugh to try to get little high lines dialled in, so we all had a blast!

Jack off the finish elevator

Ae Forest is a small hill, so the tracks are always short and it's a real sprint race. You have to be on point with your lines and flat out everywhere if you want to be in the running for a top result. This is one of the reasons why we decided to have this extra weekend at the venue before the BDS. More good weather on Sunday morning, and all of the lads were up for it. After a couple of practice runs in the morning, everyone was ready to race! The Nicolai Geometron DH bikes were feeling amazing on the track, and giving the lads so much confidence to ride hard! As well as our world cup team riders Jack, George and Jamie, we also had our development rider, Tom Caffrey representing in the senior category, and our veteran rider and team sponsor, Rick Taylor of Stoneswood Construction with us as well!

Jamie off the step down

SDA events have a two race run format, with your best time of the two counting towards your result at the end of the day. Rick was first up, and with a smooth run he was sitting 3rd in veterans with a time of 2:22. Tom next, and again with a good smooth run he was sat 3rd in senior with a 2:14 – things were looking good for us. Jamie had a smooth run in expert and came home in 5th with a 2:09 knowing he had lots more left in the tank for his second run. Jack had a bit of shambles in his first run, making a few mistakes and not riding smooth, so was 7th in elite with a 2:02 and not happy. George felt like he’d ridden smooth but knew he wasn’t fast, saying he felt like he’d left at least 5 seconds on the hill, and was sat in 8th in elite just behind Jack. So the lads all had time on the hill and needed to pull things together in second race runs!

George off the finish elevator

Rick made a mistake and came to a stop in his second run, but still went three seconds faster. Unfortunately he was pipped for 3rd place by 0.1, so finished 4th, just off the podium. Tom did a very similar time to his first run, but slipped back to 7th, only one second off the podium. His first ever top 10 so he was happy! Jamie turned the heat on, and was fastest expert through the split by over a second and it was looking like it was his day. However a wash out on one of the off-camber ridges halted his success, so he dropped to 11th in expert. Great to know he has the pace, and it’s only a matter of time before his composure improves and he’s standing on top of the expert box with times rivalling the elites. Jack next, and again it was cranked up to 11 for this one! He had a storming run, getting messy in places but fast messy he said. Improving by four seconds and coming in with a 1:58.6, he was 2nd in second runs. However he was 0.2 behind Ruaridh Cunningham’s first time so was 3rd overall. George said he just didn’t commit enough and dragged the brakes in places, so was disappointed with a 2:01 and 10th place.

Podium finish for Jack

So a great weekend in Scotland and even the sun joined us! The lads are now a step ahead of where they were going into the BDS in two weeks time! Again big thanks to all our awesome sponsors:

Nicolai, Mojo Suspension, ONeal, Schwalbe, Pacenti Cycle Design, Clif Bar, Hope Technology, MRP, Works Components, Ticky Bikes, Dirt Factory, Stoneswood Construction, East Coast Air Brush, DNA Sports Performance, Rock Guardz, Mark Davies, Adey Bennett

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MENTIONS: @jackreadingDH / @hopetech / @Dirt-Factory / @schwalbe

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