Last weekend saw the third and final round of the Alpine Bikes Winter series take place at Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders. The tracks at Inners were dry and dusty the weekend before the race and I was looking forward to finaly getting out of my waterproofs. It wasn’t to be though. Wind and rain drenched the hillside on Friday and after a coulpe of runs on Saturday morning I was once again covered head to toe in mud.

The weather improved though and so did the track, which on the whole, was mostly well used and much loved sections of trail with the additional bit of cheeky taping to keep things interesting. By Sunday morning the track had dried out, and riders were getting happily dialling in their lines for the afternoons race runs.

Everyone managed at least one run in the dry but a brief rain shower made things a little slick in places for the second timed runs. Anyway, enough from me. I’ll leave you in the capable lens of John Duncan who was trackside all weekend to bring you this edit. Enjoy….

For full results from the weekend head over to rootsandrain.co.uk, overall series results should appear on the Alpine Bikes  site soon.

Finally thanks to Borderline Events for putting on a great series. If you enjoyed these races and want more, or maybe you didn’t get a chance to enter the winter series, then you should head over to their website and get yourself entered into the Northwest Champs race at the end of next month.

UPDATE:
Another banging edit from Stuart ‘Stuz’ Leel

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What a filthy weekend. I’ve finally sat down with a cup of tea after hours cleaning the car, all my riding kit and myself. The bike’s gonna have to wait ’til tomorrow!

The first round of the winter series is always a good chance to find out who over endulged over the festive period and see what everyone got for Christmas. Alot of people were sporting bright new kit this weekend, be it helmet and goggles or full new pyjama suit. While others were breaking in new bikes on the first race of the year. New Glorys, Demos and even a couple of fresh out the box Nukeproof Scalps. Even I’ve been getting to grips with a new bike (well new to me), the hardtail is gone and I’ve caught up in inches of travel with the rest of the field.

All this shiney new gear and every rider on the hill were soon covered, head to toe in mud. By the time racing started this morning the track was a like a river in places. It held up well though as Mike and the team behind Borderline Events had done an excelent job in taping out a course that was pretty weather proof. It was also a track that would punish those who hadn’t been riding much in the past few months. The top section was fairly hard work on the legs and by the half way point I’d been pedalling so hard I felt like I was going to cough up a lung!

Anyway racing ran smoothly barr a few riders being late for their uplifts, and despite the weather (it was snowing at the top of the hill!!) everyone had a good time. After race chat wasn’t so much about what lines you took or where you made mistakes, but more “how far did you get before your googles steamed up/got covered in mud/you used all your tear offs?”

Ben Cathro took top honours for the day aboard his MTBcut Orange 225. After a bit of a lie down on his first run he managed to make run 2 stick and take fastest time of the day at 3:22. Just behind Ben were Jack Reading in second and Scott Laughland in third riding his XC bike!

The Junior category was won by Lewis Buchanan, now riding for CRC/Nukeproof, and with a time of 3:24 he looked set to take fastest time of the day before Cathro came down the hill.

Full results are already up on RootsAndRain.co.uk, and as I type this Mr Keith ‘Phunkt’ Valentine appears to be uploading his whole weekends set of photo’s to the site too. The few snaps above come from the lens of Michael ‘Orange’ Bonney who, along with the other photographers out today, looked pretty cold and wet by the time he got back to the car park. So big thanks to them, and also the marshalls, medics and guys from Borderline for braving the weather and putting on a great race to kick the year off.

So three days after the event and my knee is killing me, my back still painful and I can’t lift my left arm higher than my chest without it hurting. Would I do this race again? DEFINITELY!

No Fuss have taken mountain biking back to the mountains with this event. You’re out in the sticks, no easy escape route, no shelter and no hardpack smooth trails to roll along. Every mile of this race was hard work but everyone I spoke to was enjoying themselves and had a grin on their face.

My legs blew up about half way round so I was suprised to be told I’d finished 20th with a time of 5 hours dead. Ruari Watt was the fastest man of the day finishing in 4 hours 3mins just ahead of James Shirley and Neil Scott, while Hannah Barnes was the first lady home after just 5 hours 4mins.

Pete ‘Weeman’ ‘Christ on a bike’ Scullion was there with me for the race. Here’s his take on his longest ever off road effort on a mountain bike…

I am burst.

First tarmac climb was shite, and I was one of the folk going backwards through the ranks.

Managed to do a crap wheelie to over-the-bars for the MTBCut lens on the first fire track, then spent the next several hours not paying attention to where I was and just keeping the legs moving. The fast, open descents on the double track were amazing and got many a swap on hitting loose rocks at 30mph+.

The descent into KLL was GNAR and was gutted to flat 30 seconds in having overtaken a heap of mincers, got the red mist and almost died trying to pinball my way down the remainder. Got to the first AIDS station to find all the water and food had been consumed, so tucked into my copious supplies.

Went through about six or seven puddles up by the top loch which were so deep, I almost came to a halt and had to select a climbing gear to winch myself out.

River crossing was GNAR. Some 6′ 4″ guy on the far bank was telling me to keep my bike above my head. “IT IS ABOVE MY F**KING HEAD” I replied. It’s not easy being a runt!

The timed push was lame, but had some sketch descending afterwards which was sweet and was the point at which I decided to set up my fork and shock properly.

Got mad cramp and did the cramp shuffle, where you try and wiggle your leg in between the points on cramp in your thigh/calf.

Stoked to get in under 7 hours as it was the target I set from the off. 6 hours 56 made me happy.

Also managed to set my fastest ever run time down the World Cup track yesterday and capped off an epic weekend.

You can watch his over the bars antics in this sweet edit courtesy of MTBCut.tv. I know Stu, and the photographers, struggled to cover the whole course but this is a cracking video.

Big big thank you goes to the guys at Orange Bikes, firstly for getting a gear hanger sent out to me the day before the race, and secondly to Michael Bonney and John Chennells in particular for the photos you see here. The pair of them were dashing round all day trying to cover as much of the course as possible. Check out the rest of their sets on the Orange Bikes Facebook page.

 Words. Steve Larking
Photo’s.Michael Bonney@ Orange Bikes.  

James Shirley. Pinning in, on his way to winning it.

Preparation, or at least lack of, defined the Wideopen experience at this years Endurance Downhill race. No Fuss Events put months of work into setting up an event like this. The sponsors and serious racers are thinking about the race weeks in advance. (Preparation fail #1) Pete and I picked up a van on Saturday morning, hurriedly threw bikes and kit in the back and drove to Fort William with about an hour to spare before the race. This is not very professional, neither would I recommend it to anyone wishing to be competitive at any sporting event.  

3-2-1 RUN!

An hour of bike fettling, feeding and setting up our wee pit area flew past and before we knew it everyone was heading to the far side of the car park to line up for the Le Mans style start. A 100m sprint to your bike was the first challenge of the day, followed by remembering where you actually left your bike and then you began the up hill slog to just below the wall ride on the track. This gives the field a chance to thin out a bit so there’s not a massive queue for the first gondola to the top. Some shady looking zip tie/ wooden stick lock out arrangements helped a couple of riders get up top a little quicker than others but for most it was ten uncomfortable minutes of hauling a heavy bike up a hill in a full face helmet and body armour.  

Upon reaching the top of the hill inside the top 10 I felt pretty pleased with myself, only to go over the first drop and… oh sh** ! (Preparation fail #2.) My forks blew and just sat at the bottom of their travel. This is what you get for trying to swap springs around in the car park 30 mins before the race start. It took me the best part of an hour to realise what I’d done to the forks but eventually I got them working again and hit the hill already three runs down on the race leaders.  

Iain 'Ace' Woodley - Hardtail Nation

 So sat on the gondola for my first run it suddenly dawns on me that I hadn’t yet ridden any of the new sections on track this year (fail #3). However a quick chat to the nice chap sharing my gondola and I have some idea of where I need to be on course. Turns out the nice chap is Guy Martin, who normally cheats by having an engine mounted on his bike, but I’ll forgive him for that as he very kindly let me tail him through all the new bits of track so I could work out where I was going.  

Guy Martin - Quick with or without engine

Right, one run down and who should I find in the pits having bike issues but Pete. After accusing him of just not wanting to race I promptly offered no help and headed back up the hill for another run. Big thanks has to go to Iain ‘Ace’ Woodley (Hardtail Nation) who, despite telling me he had almost no spares, managed to find Pete a working QR skewer and got him rolling again.  

Now I could try to tell you how my race went run by run but I honestly can’t remember. After 5 hours you sit on the gondola with someone and they start asking you how many runs you’ve done then quickly realise they’ve no idea what they’ve managed themselves. That’s not to say this race is not insanely enjoyable. As the day went on I started to enjoy the bike, the track and the banter on the lifts and actually starting to race people more.  

Naomi Williamson - Winner for the ladies

At the end of the day I managed to jump on the gondola with two minutes to go before the 6 hours was up, meaning I managed to sneak in one more run finishing on 11 in total, which ain’t bad for having lost an hour at the start. Pete joined me at the top for the final run, bagging himself his 10^th run and hitting his goal of double figures.  

The real hero of the day was local man Jesse Wigman. Now Jesse is no stranger to the track at the Nevis Range, however 13 runs and 4^th overall on a hardtail(!!!) is just ridiculous!  

Your title sponsors!

Your top three though were James Scott in third on 13 runs, Huw Oliver on 14 runs in second and James Shirley in first, also with 14 runs overall but just that little bit quicker than Huw.  

The real racing at this race though won’t be obvious on the results sheets. Loads of people I spoke to over the day were desperately trying to put a few runs into their mates or in the case of the Orange Bikes or Hope guys it was a battle for work place bragging rights.  

Steve Larking - In unfamiliar full-bounce teritory

Massive thanks must go to No Fuss Events for organising the show for the third year running now, and to Hope for backing the race once again and to Orange Bikes for their support in the pits. I’m sure the guys from Orange were very happy to see a huge turn out of Orange bikes at the race, if you were one of those riders (or if you just want to lust after the bikes) check out the Orange facebook page for all their photos from the weekend. All photo’s here and on the Orange page come to you thanks to Michael Bonney of Orange Bikes. 

Next up on the No Fuss calender is 10 More at Moray, followed by the Tour De Ben Nevis which will be the final installment of the Allround Mountianbiker series. As for me I’m off to the Selkirk MTB Marathon this weekend for 100km of trail riding round the Scottish Borders, fantastic!

Last weekend saw the 2010 SDA series kick off once again at Pifichie not too far from Aberdeen. Like last year there was no uplift which meant I for one was happy to have come slighlty cooler weather over the course of the weekend.

The track was kept fresh with some new sections taped in and was a pretty pedally affair for the most part. Practice was pretty chilled with loads of people trackside pushing their way back up.

Ben Cathro of MTBCut took the fastest time of the day and the Elite win ahead of Fergus Lamb (2nd) and Joe Barnes (3rd).

I managed to bin it on my first run but stayed rubber side down on the second attempt and managed to finish 27th, same as last year! For the full results head to the SDA website or Roots and Rain. Expect a full repo and some snaps in the next issue of the mag.

There are few photo sets and a couple of videos floating around the net already but I’ll leave you with this from Stuz Leel of Fresh Lab Media.

UPDATE: Another quick vid’ of the weekend from the boys at MtbCut.

Alpine Bikes SDA Round 1 Pitfichie 2010 from Stuz Leel on Vimeo.

The Wideopen 2010 team are supported by the following awesome companies:

It was Rd3 of the Alpine Winter Series last weekend and I’ve finally got round to writing my race report. Better late that never right?

So who and what went down last weekend?

Well for once it wasn’t me! Okay maybe once or twice during practice but I had a great day Sunday and managed to piece a pretty decent run together to take 1st of the Hardtails and 1st in the overall. The overall being the last two rounds only after the first was snowed off.

Thankfully the weather was on our side this time and the whole weekend was warm and dry. When I say warm though I just mean that I didn’t have to scrape any ice off the car in the morning it was still pretty baltic in the Scottish borders and there is still a good dusting of snow and ice at the top of the hill.

It was good to see the Elite guys race this round with Ruaridh Cunningham taking the Elite win ahead of Jack Reading and Fergus Lamb.

Crawford Carrick Anderson was showing the Vets (and nearly everyone else) how it should be done but it was Lew Buchanan who stamped his mark on the series taking the fastest time of the day again.

Expect to see a full repo in the next issue of the mag along with more of the eye candy that is Mr Lintons race photography. Click! – ianlinton.com

Once again massive thanks to the following guys who are a big help when it comes to the races!

The Wideopen 2010 team are supported by the following awesome companies: