BDS Round 3 Innerleithen – Report
The BDS came to Innerleithen for the third round of the 2013 series.
My self and Alex Mill’s road tripped up to Scotland on Thursday to set up camp and get the driving out of the way. The weather was brilliant and the scenery was breath taking through the Lakes and into Scotland. We also got to taste some local Innerleithen delicacies including deep-fried black pudding, deep-fried burgers and deep-fried pizza!
On Friday the weather was stunning again and after a trip to Galashiels for essential supplies (pillow, protein shakes and torches) we went for a freeriding session on some of the tracks Innerliethen had to offer besides the taped race course. We rode the Cresta Run, Make or Brake and some random jumps which nearly felled Alex. It became clear that due to the coming World Cup at nearby Fort William the weekend after, Inners was going to be an all-star extravaganza with a massive 67 entrants in Elite coming from New Zealand, France, Australia and even Canada.
In the evening I had a very interesting track walk with top Junior ride Mike Jones, a South-Walean, and he proved to have a good eye for crazy lines!
After a lie-in on Saturday (practice began at 9:30) competitors rode 2 miles along the road to the uplift pick-up. Thankfully this had a tailwind all weekend! This also cooled riders down from the baking heat.
The track began on a flatish section of hill with a long straight before dropping left over a very boggy and slippery dry-stone wall. Riders then plunged out of the trees and down a small cliff before flying over a road gap and back into the dark woods- many riders were complaining that their eyes were struggling to adjust! After a few flowing (but tight) turns, the track became seriously tech, similar to the middle section of Rheola, South-Wales. These flowing turns were fun but flanked by unforgiving trees that snagged many handlebars over the course of the weekend. A huge wall gap into a very steep slope threw riders across the fire-road and into the steeper bottom section where some natural loamy turns kept people happy. After some tight switchbacks which took serious patience, the track dropped onto the fast lower section, with big drops, the obligatory ski-jump and Inners berms before dropping over a tricky road gap into the finish field.
The track was amazing; scary but good with many riders expressing disappointment that the uplift was very slow with most riders only getting 4-5 runs on Saturday. Spectators were kept happy with Sam Hill’s crazy line choices, Josh Brycelands flowing style and trying to work out why Ben Reid’s wheels were so big.
Unfortunately, it was no secret that the uplift was not doing the job riders wanted at the weekend with a massive riders spending more time in the uplift queue than anywhere else. It’s a shame uplifts still cause such a problem in our sport. If you have some views on this, please visit for Forum on this subject. But besides that little niggle, the track was class and the speed of all the riders was off the Richter, unlike any I’ve seen at nationals gone by.
Results:
Elite Men
1st – Adam Brayton
2nd – Gee Atherton
3rd – Lewis Buchannan
4th – Brook Mcdonald
5th – Steve Peat
Elite Women
1st – Rachel Atherton
2nd – Manon Carpenter
3rd – Floriane Pugin
4th – Casey Brown
5th – Fionn Griffiths
Expert
1st – Jack Geoghegan
2nd – James Ramsay
3rd – James Flinders
4th – Perry Gardener
5th – Sean Davies
Senior men
1st – Mitchell Ingley
2nd – Jack Read
3rd – Darren Evans
4th – Matthew Hakes
5th – Willem Herd
Senior Women
1st – Rebecca Kennedy
2nd – Lottie Mallin-Martin
3rd – Beverly Barnes
4th – Alice Taylor
5th – Annie Matthews
Junior
1st – Philip Atwill
2nd – Michael Jones
3rd – Inners Graham
4th – Mark Walace
5th – Bill Farrington
Youth
1st – Laurie Greenland
2nd – Frazer Mccubbing
3rd – Brad Swinbank
4th – Kyle Havard
5th – Charlie Hatton
Juvenile
1st – Jack Tennyson
2nd – Matthew Walker
3rd – Kade Edwards
4th – Conor Bate
5th – Ewan Macka
Masters
1st – Dave Wardell
2nd – Rowan Sorrell
3rd – Will Longden
4th – Daniel Haines
5th – Andrew Titley
Veteran
1st – Darren Howarth
2nd – Mark Weightman
3rd – Alistair Maclennan
4th – Peter Little
5th – Neil Wilson
Grand Veteran
1st – Steven Felstead
2nd – Howard Stuttard
3rd – Tom Sheridan
Words – Will Soffe/Adam Price (Ride.io)
Images – Jaeson Blythe (ii10photo.com)