BDS Nant G- Race Report & Photo Epic

For the first round of the National Series we headed up to North Wales. For those who were fairly new to the National Series it was a new track to the circuit, whereas for the more established racers some may have remembered the last national there in 2011.

The track was looking tight and technical up top with a long sprint thrown in at the end. Heavy rain in the days building up had waterlogged and being in the middle of a damp wood there was no chance the track was drying up in a hurry! It was going to be tough for everyone.

After a long off-season everyone seemed excited to get back between the tapes. Saturday morning came around followed by a night of heavy rain and after seeing some of the first riders come down you could tell it was going to be wet. However the hard bedrock and long sprint at the end meant that most riders decided against spikes and went for dry’s or an intermediate.

Adam Brayton’s tyre had some extra strips in the knobbles. This gave a better feel on the slippery rocks, while still clearing mud. This didn’t help him in finals though as he went over the bars pumping a berm too hard. Better do some more bench pressing Gas to Flat?

Half way through the Saturday a change was made to the track to cut out a slow running new section before the sprint and replace it with an old fire road track. Throughout the day the track got more beaten up and you could tell come Sunday it was going to be very physical.

Come seeding and the track was running slow with a layer of ‘gloopy-butter’ mud over the top of the rock. And that sprint in the bottom turned into a sloppy bog fest, making pedaling a lung busting slog.

Racing
Race runs and the sun was shining. As nice as this was I’m sure a lot of riders would have preferred it to hammer with rain to clear the track of the stodgy mess. But everyone was in the same mud-bogged boat for racing, so riders had to battle through it.

Juniors and Joe Breeden abroad his new Intense smashed the win. The kid has been has only been back riding after a winter of injury. So he will undoubtadly be a force in the 2017 season.

Women– It was tense at the finish line. Manon Carpenter on a new team and now studying towards a degree. Would the extra gym training in her off season pay off?

Sadly for Manon, no but Rachel Atherton seems to be continuing her unstoppable run of the past couple of years. She took victory 10seconds up on Manon, asserting her dominance. Can anyone stop Rachel this year?

Men- The BDS have always had a strong field of Elite’s, The top 5 at these races could at any point be in the top 5 on the world stage, in fact a lot have been! The first round was no different, with a stacked field of big teams.

Marc Beaumont and Adam Brayton looked strong all weekend, but both were taken down to the ground by this brutal track.

Matt Simmonds looked in fully in control of his machine all weekend, paying off with a 3rd

Gee is always a man on form, never rule him out. 2nd on the day.

But Danny Hart looked as confident and as strong as he did last year. No one could come close to him taking the win by over a second. Will this be the dominant form we will see all year on the National and International circuits?

Results