Team Aston Hill // Shimano BDS Rd 1 Report

With the first round of the Shimano BDS upon us, and an off season filled with training well behind us, Team Aston Hill were just about ready to battle the world's fastest racers at the first round of the British Downhill Series supported by Shimano. After a five and a half hour drive up to north wales to the Antur Stiniog bike park, the team were ready for an early night in order to survive the rocks and wind the following day.



Despite the weather forecast fluctuating throughout the week, with sun, rain and snow, we were pretty lucky to enjoy the sunshine all weekend. Although that being said we did have to endure the famous Antur Stiniog winds, which played a huge factor on saturday's practise leaving only the brave and the crazy prepared to go airborne. The track at Antur Stiniog is a world away from what the team are used to in the south east, which was what prompted them all to travel up the weekend before the race and put their tires back onto the slippery slate after a long off season.


Practice saw the whole the team put through their paces. Here Joe Killner loses it on what looks like a moderately simple rock corner, how ever the mixture of the wet slate and erratic winds made simplest of sections quite treacherous and claimed many riders over the weekend. All riders had to be fully committed when tackling this track. Joe also had a very big crash on the bigger rock drop near to the bottom of the track, which resulted in Joe sitting out of a couple of hours of saturdays practice while his swelling subsided. Joe was back on the bike by the afternoon.


After an eventful Saturday, Joe ended up seeding in 19th place, with the feeling that he still had a lot to give. This feeling was soon proved right when Joe stepped it up in his race run and hitting 22mph on the speed trap and knocked a massive 19 seconds off his seeding run going straight into the Pro Bike hot seat with a time of 3:27.96. 14th was Joe’s final position, placing him mid pack in the veteran category. Solid start to the season!


Alfie Killner is the youngest rider of the team, racing in the youth catagory. Alfie was looking really good on the Banshee Legend even though it was his first time he had ridden it. Alfie went into his race run feeling good after a strong seeding run, seeding in 16th. Unfortunately after a few mistakes in his race run Alfie ended up in 18th by the speed trap clocking a speed of 23mph, but eventually crossed the line in 23rd.


Richard Abbott, the grand vet of the team was shredding hard all weekend. Rich was not hard to spot this weekend, with his matching shoes, trousers, jersey, gloves, helmet and goggle combo which we failed to capture. He has got to be the most stylish grand vet on the hill. Rich seeded 3rd with a smooth 3:32.37, but like Alfie, couldn’t pull a perfect run off in finals and ended up finishing 4th with a time of 3:34.54 and 20mph through the speed trap.



Al Warrell is one of the Uk's fastest up and coming riders and was looking extremely comfortable on the track from the word go. Al has a fast and loose riding style which really suited this track, with the steep rocky switchbacks covering the mountain side. After finishing last season on a high by winning the last round of the BDS at Bringewood, Al had alot of pressure on his shoulders to do well. 2:47.59 was the time of Al’s smooth seeding run which meant he seeded in 7th, in the mix with some big names like Laurie Greenland, Innes Graham, Dan Farley and Taylor Vernon. Al put everything into his finals run which lead to him blowing his feet off the pedals at the first drop and slipping out in one of the final turns and just before entering the uphill sprint. This resulted in Al finishing 21st with a time of 2:57.00, 10 seconds slower than his seeding run. Al is feeling strong and although a little disappointed by his result, he’s definitely still fired up for the season and certainly one to watch.


Suzanne Lacey has had some amazing results over the last few years with a really successful first year of racing downhill last year. Suzanne was making the move from non-elite to elite women this year. This meant she was racing again the likes of Rachel Atherton, Manon Carpenter and Tahnee Seagrave who are all previous or current world champions. Despite knowing this, she managed to remain calm and put down some amazing times. Suzanne layed down a time of 3:31.23 in seeding, which saw her sit in 7th for finals. Suz managed to step it up for the finals with a time of 3:26.37 which meant she had knocked 5 seconds of her time. She managed a flat out 22Mph through the speed trap. 6th meant that she just missed out on the podium, but for her first ever elite downhill race, this is an amazing result.



Like Suzanne, Darren Evans had an amazing first year racing downhill, coming from the bmx scene. Last year Darren won the BDS and Pearce Cylces overall titles, ranking him No.1 senior of the year. Darren has now moved up to expert men, and is one step closer to becoming an elite athlete. This weekend was a chellenge for Darren, as he had never ridden the bike properly before, and spent most of the off season riding a hardtail. Darren's seeding run was going well until a crash in the same corner that Al crashed in during his race run, this seeded him in 33rd with a time of 2:58.67. Darren knew what he had to do in finals to improve on his position and ended up in 18th place with a time of 2:49.76 and speed trap of 24Mph. A great result for his first race in Expert and on a bike he had had little time to get used too.


The last of the Team Aston Hill riders to come down the hill was Glenroy Martin. After having a successful year like the rest of the team last year, Glenroy is now competing as an elite athlete. Glenroy has spent the most time out of the team on the new bike, and with his riding style he was ready for the rocks. Glenroy had a good qualifying run which put him in the top 20 with a time of 2:44.55 in a stacked elite field, which is amazing. When it came to race runs Glenroy had a crash which only put him two seconds slower than his seeding. Frustrating for Glenroy as it was looking good, and would have knocked a couple of seconds of his seeding time and would have placed him in the top half of the field.

All of the team are happy with their results, and know what they need to do to improve. They all need a good few weeks riding the new bikes, working with team manager and mechanic Mark Harris to fine tune to each riders needs. Roll on round two at Fort William in May.


Huge thanks to all the sponsors of Team Aston Hill:
Banshee Bikes, Marzocchi suspension, Lovelo cycle works, Halo wheels, Mrp guides, Renthal, Odi grips, Intrepid Apparel, Ride 100%, Bell helmets, Squirt chain lube, Ison distribution, Windwave, Zyro, Decade, Ethic watches, GripMedia, Friction media, Firecrest Mtb, Dainese protection, Birzman tools and Sram.

Photos and words from GripMedia