Practice Report & Track Preview from Round 5 of the British Downhill Series: Antur Stiniog
After a year away, the British Downhill series returns to Antur Stiniog once again for the final round of this year's national series. The rugged Welsh track is pretty brutal on both riders and bikes, as it makes its way down a former slate quarry. There are plenty of rocks along the way, as well as some pretty big jumps, and this year a formidable rock roll to gap jump for the riders to get their heads around. Saturday saw seeding taking place as well as practice, due to some pretty severe weather coming in on Sunday meaning race day is at risk of cancellation.
The British Cycling commissaires and the race organiser made the decision to move seeding back to Saturday afternoon. This at least meant if we do get a cancellation on Sunday due to weather, we would still have the results of the race, as seeding results would then be taken as race results. This is not something that anybody takes lightly. The weather forecast is pretty set on some extreme wind and heavy rain for the Sunday, these are not conditions that people are able to trackside in for prolonged periods of time, so this is what may cause a cancellation if we see one. As a precaution, the practice on Sunday is due to start later to try and avoid the worst of the weather. It's really good to see both the organisers and the British Cycling commissaires be upfront with the riders and everyone at the event to make sure everything happens safely.
A little change-up in Brazilian riders sees Douglas Vieira take on the reigns of doing our track preview, fresh off the back of winning the Brazilian National Championships. The audio is a little bit of a struggle due to heavy wind but enjoy a lap with Douglas down the Antur Stiniog track.
Practice morning always means big queues for the first uplift of the day
Antur Stiniog is never short on the views
Joe Smith gapping his way into the Welsh countryside
Andy Lund taking a break from working for Trek Factory Enduro as a mechanic and enjoying riding his bike. Andy's no slouch on a bike taking his new Trek Slash to second place in seeding
Plenty of RAF and Army lads out racing. It's always great to see the forces boys out riding
Felix Griffiths on the gas through the upper turns
Rob Francis sending it over one of the jumps in the first section of the track. A good days work in seeding for Rob finishing up in 6th in the veteran men
Plenty of rocks to keep the riders on their toes this weekend
George Madley, not just content with taking the fastest time in his category, but the youth rider also claimed himself the second fastest time of the day overall
Toby Driscoll always keen to send it. Top work today from Toby finishing up in 5th in elite men
Fastest man of the day, Luke Williamson showing why last year he was the series overall champion, looking solid throughout his runs with plenty of people trying to copy his lines
Jane Page taking the outside line over the rocks. The field was pretty split between taking the inside like Luke Williamson, and gapping over the rock like Jane
Vaskor Prostova really seemed to enjoy gapping as far as she could off of the rocks in the outside line
Jacob Gonzalez making short work of the rocks through the mid-section of the track
Great to see some classic bikes still out racing, 26 ain't dead yet!
Bethany McCully on the gas
The berms at Antur aren't the biggest, but there's plenty of grip for the riders to lean it in
Amy White-Benstead keeping it low through the big rollers as you head to the lower section of the track
Harry Schofield carving his way round the berm
Marshall points came with some good views
Monika Mixova had a great seeding run finishing up second in the elite women
Not the greatest weekend for George Thompson. It seemed like there was a rock with George's name all over it, with 3 flat tyres and 2 dead rims throughout the morning, George rolled down in seeding to last place in veteran men
Wales never fails
There are plenty of long straights at Antur for riders to go death grip and flat out
But there are plenty of drops and jumps for you to get sendy on with all that speed
Speed tucks seemed to be the riders weapon of choice through these sections
Ruben Byrne having fun in the rocks
Nathan de Vaux, one of our 63 youth riders out racing this weekend. It's great to see the youth category being the biggest field of all. The future of British downhill looks pretty safe
Freddie Davies sending it for the marshalls
Joe Smith put in a top seeding result with a third place in the elite men's field
Some riders can't help themselves - as soon as they see a camera they always try and send it
The new rock roll/drop wasn't for the faint-hearted when you first looked at it, but by the time it came to seeding, most of the race field were happily taking it on
It looked so much less steep from the front, but it still doesn't look that easy
The last section of the track is filled with plenty of jumps for the riders to have some fun on
It's a bit early for turn bar Tuesdays
I think I might have got a bit pan-shot carried away
But let's just squeeze one more in
Mark Croxal trying to keep it low into the last sprint before the final turn
Muc-Off Young Gun's team manager Nick Lester had a good afternoon with their youth female rider Heather Wilson once again taking the number one seeding spot in the youth and juvenile female field and the fastest female overall time of the day
Heather really is proving to be quite a talent, it's going to be interesting to see what she can do in the junior field next year
Chief Commissaries aren't all doom and gloom, Al always finds time to have a laugh with the riders
For 2023 Man Down Media have partnered with Bluetti to help support us in producing our National Series content. Bluetti produce clean, portable power stations allowing us to ditch our generator on race weekends an rely solely on their AC200MAX portable power station for all our power needs (e-bike charging included!). Why not head over to their website and check them out for yourself. Bluetti
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2 Comments
- 1 0
beicmynydd
(Sep 27, 2023 at 11:53)
Nice photos and excellent video, makes is look so easy !!
- 1 1
Beicpinc
(Sep 26, 2023 at 3:48)
Great photos and report! Thank you
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