Madison Saracen Development Team At Shimano BDS Round Two, Fort William

After a great start to the season for the Development team at round one of the Shimano British Downhill Series, the lads were chomping at the bit to race their Saracen Myst’s on the world-class track at Fort William. Youth riders Matt and Jack are always buzzing to ride and that feeling spreads across both our teams and gets everybody excited for a weekends racing. Of course they are young and enthusiastic so most of the time it’s trying to control that and the pressure they put on themselves to perform. It’s an important learning curve and comes in stages as a rider matures from sprog to World Cup winner! First comes keeping a lid on the nerves, followed closely by trying to control them. Then it’s learning to accept them and even use them to your advantage…but one step at a time, the focus right now is to have fun doing what you love, prepare well and do your best. That said, it looks like we have a couple of fast learners on our hands!






It seems so predictable to mention the weather in a report about a race at Fort William, so not wanting to let you down - it rained, downwards, sideways and what looked at some points like from the ground up! For the most part at this track that means more grip as the loose stony ground is bound together by the wet and you get a more positive feel from the track and better corner speed; the trump side to this being poor vision from the rain and mist. Luckily the lads have become roll-off ninja’s and had no issues with their sweet Dragon roll-off goggle set up, keeping vision clear for the 5-plus minute assault of the Anoch Moor hill. To be fair the sun did come out once or twice but you got the feeling it was involved in the mother of all bar fights with some big old Scottish clouds that managed to overhaul it and chuck it back out the pub doors.







So with team mechanic ‘Ginger Rick’ wielding spanners and spinning round the pits like the Tasmanian Devil as usual keeping all the bikes and bodies in check, everything was ready to go come race time. Matt and Jack headed up for their runs and we played the waiting game at the bottom of the hill. The Development Team is very much a family affair and heading up the hill with warm-up bikes and turbo trainers each race weekend, are Matt and Jack’s dads. Getting back to pressure, some days it’s hard to spot who’s most nervous, rider or dad?! One thing’s for sure though, the team is growing in strength and confidence as we all get to know each other. Talking of which, it looks like we might have a great British bake off on our hands with the mum’s… No complaints from anyone on that front!







Down to business then and time for the finals; Jack up first and looking smooth along the top section of the track. Navigating his way through the muddy tree section that caught him out in seeding and on towards the motorway, his time held up well as he passed the hip jump and split time leading onto the infamous motorway section. Lunging for the line he posted a great time of 5:36. Now it was time to look back up the hill, with only five more riders to go he was keen to get on the podium.




Matt was second-to-last off from the breezy start hut, having finished 2nd in seeding earlier in the day and set off out the start intending to chase his teammate to that podium position. Equally at home on fast loose corners as he was in the granite boulders, crossing under the gondola and on to the mid-point of the track Matt was getting into his rhythm and just needed to carry that momentum through the trees to the pedaling and fitness section of the track. Fort William is a mix of technical and physical efforts; hold tight and ride smooth at the top and carrying speed into the flatter sections at the bottom seems to be the key and both young riders learned this lesson well. Matt crossed the line and held the fastest time, only being pipped to the top step by second-year youth rider Charlie Hatton who took 1st with Matt 2nd and Jack on the podium as well in 4th. Solid improvements from round one and a strong showing of fitness on the demanding track.




Next up for the Development Team is the slightly shorter Scottish track at Ae Forest for round three of the Shimano British Downhill series. We head there with Matt sitting 2nd in the Series and Jack in 4th. Pretty impressive for two first-year Youth riders… Keep the pressure in the tyres boys!