Race Report: DH National Series Round 3 at Llangollen
Words: Nick Bentley
The British National Downhill series resumed after a brief hiatus this weekend with round 3 taking place at Llangollen's One Giant Leap Bike Park. Llangollen has been a regular event in the national series for some time now. But this year, a slightly different track was used. The new track focused more on flow and speed than the steep, technical descents characteristic of previous Llangollen tracks.
However, it wasn't the track that was the main topic of conversation throughout the day. The weekend was challenging for the National Downhill Series due to bad weather. On Saturday, a significant portion of the racing had to be cancelled due to lightning storms in the area. As a result, the seeding runs had to be rescheduled for Sunday.
Unfortunately, the lightning returned on Sunday afternoon, just before the junior men's field was about to take to the track for their race runs. British Cycling officials had no choice but to halt the racing once again, as the risk of a potential lightning strike to the riders during the race was too great.
Consequently, the race times for the Junior, Expert, and Elite men's categories were determined based on their seeding runs in the morning. These seeding times were used as their official race times, given the circumstances caused by the weather.
Now, the weather might have been the talking point on the day for the most part, but there has been plenty of criticism going around about this event. Whether it's the long wait time on Saturday for practice or the standard of the track that was chosen in a venue that has many tracks to choose from, there are plenty of questions about the quality of national series races. It's not just this round, to be honest, but I think it's important to remember the following when we are complaining. Firstly, it's easy to pick holes in things other people have done compared to doing things yourself. Secondly, organizing races is complex; it's not as easy as people think. And lastly, we have to work together to fix these issues. Sitting and pointing fingers won't fix things, only working together will do that.
Now, my opinion is that this new schedule sucks. We don't finish any earlier on race day, and people don't get enough practice on Saturday. This weekend, even with the weather, we did seeding on Sunday without any big issues so what's the point of the change? Secondly, for me, this track was on the timid side for a national race. This has some positives, though, as it offers an opportunity to be accessible to more riders. But in my opinion, national series tracks need more line choices and more technicality to challenge the UK's best riders and move the racing forward. Lastly, safety. Although we didn't have any big crashes this weekend, the amount of Bracken around the track made working trackside more dangerous than it needed to be. I know that's very much a problem for me and people who do my job when you first look at it, but the same issues were faced by the marshals and medics. If they had to get around all of these, combined with the weather, it made this a very tough weekend at the national series! I will say the BC team of commissaires handled the weather issue perfectly! As you can tell from my ramble, I don't have the answers just yet, but I know for sure we need to make some changes to keep this fantastic race series the best it can be and keep producing world-class riders. What do you guys think? But please try to be constructive. Just saying, "This is rubbish" or "British Cycling sucks" isn't going to help.
Anyway, there was a race so lets enjoy that before we all moan in the comments!
4th this weekend for Becci Skelton
Josh Wood had a tough weekend with a DNF in his race run
Some riders were still sliding their way around some of the corners despite the extra grip given by the rain
Carving through the upper corners, they have one hell of a view
There was plenty of opportunity for pan shots on the straights at Llangolen this weekend
Ridgehill Race Syndicate's Aiden Trott sending it on the upper straight. A good top 10 result in the 19-29 field this weekend for Aiden
Jake Wareing is one of the many youth and juvenile riders out racing. There were 91 out of the 253 riders who raced who were under 16 racing this weekend. It's great to see so many young riders racing in the national series
Just outside of the top ten this weekend for Luke Humphries finishing up in 11th
Charlie Woodland popping his way though the corners
British Downhill Series bingo complete in one picture: an orange on a old landy's trailer. It doesn't get more British than that!
The rain had changed the track grip level quite alot, so getting laps in on Sunday was important
Do not be lured into a false sense of security, this was not going to stay this way
Muddy bikes today after the rain overnight
The timing clocks were out ready to go for some timed laps today
Queues at the top were a bit less on Sunday
Deep in thought in the front of a Pearce up lift Landy - what a place to be
Seeding times were important today, and everyone was keen to keep an eye on them
There was plenty of talk in the pits about the weather in the morning
The Pearce uplift team were on it this weekend, even if the uplift track wasn't the most ideal. Although, I think they all enjoyed that rough track to be honest
Good to see Joe Breeden racing at the National series. Without a doubt Joe is one of the politest and nicest riders on the race circuit and it's good to see him picking up 2nd in amongst the chaos this weekend
Rueben Taylor on the gas past the heckling Ridgehill riders. It seemed to work with Rueben taking 3rd in the expert race
Sam Turtle giving it a bit of style though the jumps
Riding in a full face looks so odd but seems to work for Jake Anderson finishing in a solid mid-pack result in the 19-29 field
Jael Maw keeping it low though the drops
Jenna Fellows took home 4th this weekend in the elite women's field. An amazing result for Jenna in her first year in the elite class
Carrie Copson had a good weekend racing with a solid mid-pack result
Heading into the shade around the berm into the jumps goes Jane Page
This girl is a huge talent - Heather Willison finished in a time that would have seen her 4th overall in the women's field, not bad for a rider in the 13-16 field
It was 3rd this weekend for Olivia Taylor
This was the view of large parts of the track but it did lead to some interesting shots
Adam Stout finished up 37th this weekend in the 15-16 field
The overgrown Bracken might make it a pain to see round the track and for us media guys to work, but it does look pretty. Dan Nadin gapping his way off one of the many small drops on the track
Eyes on the exit of the corner for Creag Muir
Fraser Paterson working his way though this tight section midway down the track
Alan Cameron taking the opportunity to send it in his seeding run
Matt Pugh appearing from the thick Bracken that lined the side of the track
Taylor Vernon on the gas through the tightest section of the track. This is a part of the track that benefitted the most from the overnight rain. A good seeding run saw Taylor finish 3rd in the elite field
Hugo de Boissard gapping his way though the Welsh country side
Matt Walker taking his first National Downhill series win of the year
The poor senior men had the worst of the weather, coming down in the rain and dealing with the start of a thunderstorm. It's not too bad if you get to sit under the shelter in the hot seat, though.
Being chief commissaire is never easy but Andrea did an amazing job and made the right call when it came to stopping due to lighting in the area. Rider safety is always the number one priority, although she is a little camera shy
Not quite the result Stacey Fisher wanted but still 3rd at the National series is not a bad effort especially whilst carrying an injury
This is the look of a very tired man. George Thompson had a 4am start on race day but as always he put all he could into his run on the track
Heather Willson powering to the line to take the win in the women's 13-16 field
Gt Viris' Nick Etherton chilling in the hot seat
Jordan Williams chose not to ride today. With the issues around not having his bike and the weather chaos I don't blame him!
Matt Walker keeping it tight to the tap over the jumps
Joe Smith keeping it low over the jumps on his new Vitus, something I'm sure he won't be doing at Hardline next weekend
Stacey Fisher coming back up the track for a look after her seeding run
Second National Downhill series win this weekend for Harriet Harnden. Will she get a slot in the GB World Champs team?
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However, it also sounds like poor planning.
It was BC that ruined the practice Saturday all done by 1 man Ian Jones, that's why we only got 3 to 4 runs if you was lucky Saturday once they moved him on Sunday some of us got 4 runs in 2 hours it was 100% BC, but Gravity events did not get him removed to Sunday and they still picked a bang average track, please don't waste your time at these event and support the hero's that are Pearce Cycles.
A similar thing happened at Caersws last year, although that was due to big dust clouds forcing riders to space out. You then get a huge queue waiting to go.
That was all it was, and it was fixed.
You have children 13-14 years of age on track. If they go missing (and yes, that does happen) they can check if they left the start and then crossed the finish line, confirming that they aren't upside down in a bush somewhere.
Since the demise of the BDS which I ran, BC now invest heavily in the series and pay the following so the new organisers don’t have to.
When asked why didn’t they do that for the BDS, their reply was we didn’t have to. But let’s not cry over spilled milk and look at moving forward..
I wonder how many paying customers know this is what they pay for..
-Timing
-UCI Registration fees
-Elite and Junior prize money
-Number boards
-Work out seeding of riders prior to the event
-Finish gantry, signage, 75x crowd barriers and P/A System
That’s anywhere between £5-£7k saving per round for each new organiser.
So in my eyes, BC do care and do a brilliant job in supporting the series.
Where are all these endless possibilities for Uk tracks with good uplift routes,parking and camping?
Back to the point though, BC needs to invest more ............. (il leave this blank) into Downhill racing and they have the ability to make the changes, we (UK) need to collaborate and work with them to achieve this and not against them although a healthy dose of constructive criticism can be seen as a positive.
Got a Youtube link to the track ?
The black is an awesome track at Glencoe but has been raced a good few times now for nationals. I heard it's the red that's being raced, but could be wrong. It's good fun to cruise down and scary to race as it's so fast. Last race there was carnage as it was dry and dusty and the speeds coupled with looseness made for some bad crashes.
August at Glencoe .. be prepared for anything from sub zero temperatures, driving sleet and snow to 20C and sunshine with no wind.
I would have also got rid of the uphill before the motorway too. It's always honking to race.
My pit bitch dad 2p worth: BC need to take responsibility. We all want good tracks, good uplift, good timing. We have to have a governing body to administrate, insure and underwrite. The unique UK problem is that these are all separate elements for non Scottish events, leaving very little room to make it worthwhile to an independent race organiser. Pearce uplifts and AST timing are a must. Can BC spend a bit of the hundreds I and others give them every year to contract a suitably able individual to co-ordinate the pre-eminent timing, uplift and track owners?
I feel like as much as the sport has moved forward in so may aspects, so much of it has stood still or got worse but BC or SC have never really had DH in it sights and it shows massively.
Sunday practice as normal then race run around midday.
So racing would be done by 3.30pm so everyone could leave at a reasonable time to get home ready for work on Monday.
But it seems seeding is starting too early on Saturday.
For everyone who put on their transponder the practice run counts are here.
Llangollen Practice run count
my.raceresult.com/252348/#0_04DBFF
Fort William practice run count my.raceresult.com/243163/#0_04DBFF
my.raceresult.com/199483/#0_04DBFF
... exactly the same numbers.
Saturday seeding is always a bad idea and everything should happen after 1 or 2 runs on the Sunday, getting a full days practice is always going to be better than 2 half days riding where the drop in the queues at 1500 on the Saturday doesnt happen. The fitter/keener riders should be able to practice all day if they want rather than the long queues that happen in the first half of the day.
Hopefully the nationals returns to full Saturday practice soon, maybe this is why so many UK riders have done well at the WC's with 2 runs on race day...
This year they did really well to fix that and the queue ended up being entirely down to checking the riders at the start. An easily fixable issue, which was fixed for Sunday.
The schedule had 6 hours of practice before seeding. That's plenty, if it runs well.