Team Aston Hill // Shimano BDS Rnd 2

After a moderately disappointing result at the first round of the shimano British downhill series, Team Aston Hill were hungry for some results come the second round in Fort William, home of the Uk's world cup race track.


As The track at fort William is a much longer track than any other in the series, it means that the more practise you can get, the better. This is why we left Wednesday night, in order to arrive early Thursday morning to get stuck in.
The 14 hour drive ( with 4 hour sleep stop ) seemed to drag on, and on through the night, but as the sun came up, the picturesque sights came into view, and you could defiantly tell that you were in Scotland.



As soon as we arrived in Fort William, we unloaded the van at our accommodation, and then re packed what we needed for the days practise.



Here’s a video of Team photographer Alex Gann, following Team Rider, Rich Abbott down the top 3/4 of the competition course.

Friday came around and the guys and Suzanne didn’t want to wear them selves out, so 3 or 4 runs did the job, just getting used to the forever changing conditions and tweaking line choices to be able to squeeze every last little bit of time out of the track, and the competitors.


Everyone survived Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays practice with no injuries, but sore hands were defiantly a factor. However, a lot of work had to go into the bikes to make them ready for the track, as it is so different to any other track. Punctures were defiantly a common thing all weekend for everyone competing.



Come Sunday the Team were ready for a good days racing, the pits were set up, bikes ready, and all they had to do now was wait for the beeps.

First up was Grand vet Rich Abbott.


After not having the result he would have wanted at Antur stiniog, Rich was hungry for a good position. He had a really good seeding run which placed him third just over a second by second place, which he was over the moon with, as he knew 2nd place was up for grabs. Unfortunately when i came down to race runs, he pushed a little too hard and had his only two crashes of the weekend in his finals run, despite this he still managed a 3rd place, first through the speed trap, and a few kilos of mud over his florescent kit.

"Amazing weekend and as per usual I had super clean practise runs and got the track dialled , seeding was great with me ending up just a few tenths off 2nd, but as per I saved my crashes till my race run but still ended up with 3rd . Scotland is a stunning place just wish it was 300 mile closer." - Rich Abbott.


Up next was our elite woman Suzanne Lacey. Suz had been battling with the wood section all weekend, and really struggled with it along with almost everyone. Despite this she pushed on and managed to seed in 9th place. She knew that there was time to be had in certain sections, where she had made some mistakes and knew what to do in her race run.



Unfortunately Suz had a crash in the woods in her finals run, but still managed to scrape a top 10 result! With this result she has shown everyone what she is made of, and therefore has been accepted to race the UCI world cup round there in just over 3 weeks time!

"Fort William was such an amazing experience for me. It was the first time i had ever ridden the track so it was challenging but defiantly the best track I’ve ever raced on! Overall awesome weekend!" - Suzanne Lacey.


Junior rider Al Warrell came after Suzanne.
As per usual Al was looking ridiculously fast on track with his loose riding style, when watching him; you could just tell that he was on the pace.
It started to rain just as the junior category came down for seeding, which didn’t change the conditions of the track too much, but visibility was very low. This caused al to take a little tumble up top, which he wasn’t too bothered about, but it did snap off his rip and roll system meaning he was riding with muddy goggles. This lead him to taking another crash, by now he knew he just needed to chill out. But this made him tired, so as he pulled up on the first 40 foot table top he nose dived and went straight over the bars landing in a bog, this seeded him 37th, One place from last.


This meant Warrell had nothing to lose, and after a nice safe ride in finals he ended up catching a rider up. Despite this he was sitting in the hot seat for a long while as most of the riders came down placing behind him.
With a top 10 position in 9th, and a 5th in the speed trap. Al was over the moon to have a solid run down. Because of this he also has been selected to represent GB at the fort William and Leogang world cups in a few weeks!


There was then quite a wait until our next rider came down, who was Darren Evans.

Darren had been struggling to keep his bike in one piece all weekend, and spent most of Friday fixing and tuning it to the track. Despite this he got up to speed easily enough and had a smooth seeding run putting him into 3rd place, which is much better than round one at Antur Stiniog. Darren now knew that he was on for the win, or at least a podium position. He had a clean a smooth run which meant he came down in 3rd in finals just 0.6s off second and 3.1s off first. He is defiantly back up to speed now that he has his bike set up for him.


Our last rider, Glenroy Martin (elite) was ready to face the rocks after a good few solid days of practice.



Unfortunately Glenroy crashed one of the low speed flat corners, mid-way down the track which damaged his thumb. Despite this he managed to ride the rest of the track and seed near last. When he got to the bottom he went straight to the on sight nurse and got it checked out, along with some pain killers and tape. This gave him an incentive to get down quicker in his race runs, as the shorter it took him to get down, the shorter he had to endure the pain. Unfortunately the thumb hurt too bad meaning he had a crash; little did he know how bad his injury was.
He had put a big hole in his knee, but he didn’t realise until he got to the car park, and took his knee pad off to a pool of blood stored in it. He went straight to fort William hospital and got it sorted out, and is now resting and recovering ready for the next round, which meant he is missing the first round of the IXS cup in Maribor!
Get well soon Glenroy!


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