Race Report: Steve Peat's Steel City Downhill by Mandownmedia

Words: Nick Bentley

Once again, all eyes turned to Greno Woods in Sheffield for the biggest little race of the year. A few people have pointed out that with over 300 riders the race isn't so little, and that's fair to say, but it's important to remember this isn't a National race. It's possible the best attended, best run regional race (in fact it's better than many national downhill races) in the UK. The team at Steel City really know how to put a race on, and come the time that racing starts the track is lined with spectators, people are enjoying the beer, food and expo arena. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this just were at some big race rather than a little hill on the outskirts of Sheffield. This years weather wasn't quite the crazy heat and dust of last year, but it was more iconically northern Englandesque with mist and a slightly damp track which ironically was probably faster than in the dust last year.

Sit back and enjoy these riders having a whole lot of fun.

The finish, as always, ends up in the bomb hole at the bottom of the track, where the riders can choose a step down or a chute into the finish area. There's always plenty of crowd at the top of the bomb hole egging the riders on

Plenty of people out enjoying the race, having some beers with the boys

Just the last few corners to make before the finishing drop

The pressure was on through the crowd on the way to the bomb hole

The crowd were baying for whips

Benjamin Thompson just missed out on a top 10 in the lads veteran class

Adam Dayson on the gas out of the main jump section

The crowds started to fill out throughout the afternoon

By the time final runs came through the track was lined with 2-3 people most of the way down the track

Becci Skelton took the win in a race that she has been trying to conquer for a while

Ant Sugden carving his way through the open section of the track

Bethany McCully making short work of the whoop section

Will Keogh making his way through the mid-section of the track

Ben Deakin as always all about having fun on his bike

Fresh back from his injury, Dan Slack finished up third. But after such a nasty injury it was just great to see Dan back on the bike and getting ready for the next block of World Cup racing

The man himself Steve Peat put in plenty of laps and finished up 5th in the lads Pro/Am

Aaron Dalleywater took the win in a very tight lad's Pro/Am race. The top 3 were separated by 0.68 seconds but Aaron came out on top

Will Turner having a bit of fun during practice

In contrast to last year, most of the day was spent in the good old fashioned Northern mist

With a little trip back to the cars from the track, there were plenty of riders doing practice with their bags on

An impressive days racing for Connan Jones coming away with a top 5 finish in the senior lads race

Sam Hockenhull never needs an excuse to whip his bike around

One thing is for sure, the Steel City track has plenty of opportunities to send it

Clocks out means it must be time to go racing

Sian Dillon had a great race finishing up second in the elite lasses

Pizza anybody?

Becci Skelton was having a good laugh all day

AirDrop even had a prototype Filter not just on their stand but out racing too. Great to see new things from the Sheffield brand - this is going to be a classic British bike made of aluminium, mullet set-up and tons of fun

And there were even some fun games to win some prizes. I mean who can resist a spin-the-wheel game?

Along with the racing there was a little expo arena with brands like Kingdom showing off their bikes

The BC Commissaries were on hand to make sure the racing was fair, although fun was the main priority

Klaudia Bzdyk sending it over the drop into third place in the lasses senior class

The drop wasn't as hard as it looked, in fact it was easy to go a little bit too hot into it

But with the bar right next to it, it was always going to be the part of the track where most people came to watch

Chay Granby manualling his way through the whoops

Only to find the tree that claimed so many victims which unfortunately put an end to Chay's day

The tape wasn't going to keep Becci Skelton back

Great work all day from the volunteer marshals doing an amazing job

It's a bit early for pan-shot Friday but it's always great to see just how fast these riders go

It's all about speed through the tight trees here at SteelCity

Even the kids were out racing with riders as young as 10 able to race. Martha Bentley took home third place in the lasses 10-14 race

Second place for Craig Evans in the elite lads

No uplifts here, just a push up

Blake White keeping it low to try and get every second out of the track

The Mountain Rescue Team were on hand to keep everybody safe. It was great to see so many riders donating money to the Mountain Rescue throughout the day