Pearce Cycles Bucknell – Report

The Pearce Cycles Magic;

It seems that every year when the final round of the Pearce series is held at Bucknell we are treated with a blazing hot September weekend, would the magic persist for 2014?

Arriving early on Saturday morning we soon found out that our luck was in as we were greeted with a bone dry track that was ready to rip! Because the track doesn’t get much use throughout the rest of the year it was in perfect condition during track walk, but how long would that last?

Like clockwork the undisputed best uplift service in the UK started bang on time which meant riders were lapping out the short track – with some getting up to 15 runs no stress! It may have been short, but boy was it intense. Straight out the gate you are pumping and jumping your way to the massive ski drop where riders were launching themselves 20+ ft down an open landing. Without warning you are drifting your way into the wooded section where the track winds all the way to final fire road with corner after corner weaving between trees, over roots and even jumping in and out of them. Despite constant negativity towards the one line nature of British tracks recently Bucknell holds its own by having multiple lines in nearly every corner, especially through the middle woods.

During Saturday practice most riders opted to miss the bottom field section to go straight into the uplift queue, which would prove to be a mistake as during Sunday morning practice nearly every rider that attempted the slippy grassy corners came a bit too close to the sheep sh*t for their liking.

This being the final round the talk of the weekend was the fight for the overall. In certain categories, such as Junior, it would come down to the final runs to decide the overall title, with the top three riders only being separated by 8 points! However in the Juvenile and Youth categories there were emphatic performances all season long from Harry Barrett and Charlie Hatton scoring a full 800 points!

Sunday morning practice was the same story as Saturday, with riders easily being able to get 4+ runs in. However, this practice session was where the track started to deteriorate rapidly. The dry conditions and continuous battering by wheels the previous day had turned the track into a wild beast of loose dusty corners and deep holes hidden under the dust, which wasn’t made any easier due to the low autumnal sun. This made for some interesting racing as it was harder to keep her in a straight line than in the sogging wet.

You know you are at a Pearce race when you get to the top and they say that they are ahead of schedule, reassuring the fact they are the best organised race series in the country! Before we knew it, riders were breaking the 2 minute 30 second barrier which was then obliterated by Matt Walker and Charlie Hatton being the first riders to go sub 2:10, with Hatton putting down a time of 2 minute 07 seconds, which was amazing as it took until the last man down the hill to beat it. This left Adam Brayton in the lead after first runs in the elite category with a 2:05.

Second runs rolled round and the fight for the overall was heating up even more and more under the blazing afternoon sun. However due to the ever deteriorating track, riders were struggling to beat their first run times, with riders either crashing out or having paying the price of too many loose moments in the dust. This meant that most of the race leaders would stay the same other than in Senior and Expert where Iwan Griffiths and Mitch Ingley would improve on their first run times to take the lead.
With Adam Brayton improving his time by 1.3 seconds he would keep the Elite lead and take the overall on the day. This meant racing was over for 2014! I think that all the riders were blessing global warming for this amazing dry weekend and ever so grateful to Dave and Lyndsey Pearce for, yet again, putting on another stellar event.

Results:

Juvenile:
1st – Jake Gaskell
2nd – Harry Barrett
3rd – Joseph Derrick

Youth:
1st – Charlie Hatton
2nd – Matt Walker
3rd – Andrew Barrett

Grand Vet:
1st – Michale Giles
2nd – Kevin Salisbury

Veteran:
1st – Jason Hicken
2nd – Trevor Harvey
3rd – John Cobb

Master:
1st – Jon Brain
2nd – Stu Hughes
3rd – Neil White

Youth Women:
1st – Summayyah Green

Vet Women:
1st – Janine Wolstenholme
2nd – Lindset Hanley

Senior Women:
1st – Nik Burscough-Brown
2nd –  Ami Grindley

Elite Women:
1st – Rebecca Baraona
2nd – Suzanne Lacey

Junior:
1st – Shaun richards
2nd – Alistair Warrell
3rd – Will Weston

Senior:
1st – Iwan Griffiths
2nd – Jonathan Coulier
3rd – Toby Down

Expert:
1st – Mitch Ingley
2nd – Thomas Owens
3rd – Ben Lovell

Elite:
1st – Adam Brayton
2nd – Rob Smith
3rd – Glenroy Martin

Visit the Pearce site HERE for full results.

 

www.pearcecycles.co.uk

Words – Ben Nott (Team Ride.io)
Images – David Nott

Ben Nott bucknell dh downhill pearce pearce cycles racing report results