After a relatively quiet year in 2009, spent ironing out all the issues faced in getting a proper series re-established in Wales, the WDMBA has joined forces with one of the best event organisers in the UK, Borderline Events, to bring you the Official 2010 Welsh Series. The series will some of the best race venues in Wales and will include Rheola, Llangollen, Molfre plus two of the other four regional level tracks in South Wales. The Event at Llangollen will also be the 2010 Welsh Championships, which will make the Welsh series one of the biggest three in the UK.
Both Borderline and WDMBA will continue to run events, such as the uplift days at the tracks and the successful Unclipped Race at Molfre, but with the WDMBA concentrating on the venues and Borderline on the planning of highly successful events, 2010 looks like an exciting year for Downhill racing in Wales.
Here’s the dates for your diary…. 90% sure.. i’m pretty sure it’s just the locations that could alter.
01st & 02nd May (Welsh Champs) Llangollen
29th & 30th May – Mynyndd Du
28th & 29th August - Rheola
18th - 19th September – Mountain Ash/Gethin/Cwmcarn
09th - 10th October - Moelfre
More news on the official launch coming in the next week or so and conformation of sponsors. If you would like to support the series please contact jt@wdmba.co.uk.
Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone that showed their face at last nights screenings of Foot Out Flat Out 2 and MADE.
The Bongo Club was rammed to capacity with over 250 folk managing to elbow there way into the venue to find somewhere to watch the films from.
Everyone seemed to have a good night despite the ‘immigrants in a truck’ conditions. The films went down down slightly better than the beer, which was warm because you drank the bar dry….twice!
Once again big thanks to Jamie for the Wideopen T’s, Hotlines Europe, Straitlines, RockGardn and Continental for the rest of the awsome prize fund, as well as Shaky Keith of phunkt.com for the snaps below.
To the guys we had to turn away, sorry once again, looks like we need a bigger venue next year!
I just had a chat with the BritishDHChamps team and got an interesting update for photographers in 2010.
For next season, all events will feature taped off areas for pre-registered photographers only. Snappers will be able to use these ‘photo zones’ to get up close to the action without risking the wrath of the marshalls and without getting in the way of riders.
The Duck and Francoisy at Rheola NPS
The system of photo zones is one that’s currently used at the UCI World Cups, where photographers have to register to receive a bib to get access. At the British Champs, these zones will be set up for the proffessional/semi pro photographers that are working to commission.
Mono filming Rennie from one of the UCI photo zones at Ft Bill
Photogs will need to pre-register with the BDHC team prior to the event to receive a photo-bib and there will be 10 taped off zones that they can then access. There may also be a limited number of bibs available on the day.
The zones will be taped out on Friday morning with the input of the series’ official photographer David Francoisy.
After a season with a few ‘upsets’ between marshals and photographers it’s interesting to see the BDHC team stepping in and introducing something like this. It’ll also be interesting to see how the zones work and whether or not the best snaps will come from inside or outside the zones!
Big congrats to the big man Steve Peat who just won the South Yorkshire Sports ‘Senior Performer of the Year’ award.
There was a bit of a swanky do at the English Institute of Sport and Peaty received the award alongside 11 other Yorkshire athletes and sports groups that the community had nominated.
The South Yorkshire Sports Awards are apparently ‘to recognise and celebrate the achievements of South Yorkshire`s sportsmen and women, and thank all the coaches, volunteers and unsung heroes who work tirelessly to make sport happen for the local community.’
Nominations were made by the public and 12 prizes were handed out to individuals and groups from South Yorkshire. If you want some more info you can check out the homepage of the awards here.
So – well done to Steve for another trophy in the cabinet! It’s great to see he’s being recognised outside of the small world of mountain bike racing! Here’s a few pics of the man himself that I’ve shamelessly stolen from his Twitter.
Good news from North Wales. The ‘Simply Downhill’ team have scoped out a brand new DH venue that’s promising to be fast, technical, suitable for races and with decent uplift access.
Better still, they’ve just had their first official dig-day and are well on track for a launch early in the new year. With any luck we’ll see another awesome race venue to add to the list sometime soon.
I had a quick chat to Simply Downhill’s Tom Fryer following the dig day about their plans and it sounds like they’re making good progress. First and foremost, it’s going to be a ‘race and uplift only’ venue – meaning you won’t be able to ride it outside of official events. But the good news from that is that they’re aiming to be finishing work around Christmas and will organising the first uplift ASAP after that. On the back of Simply Downhill’s experience of organising the race at Wentwood last year, they’ll also be running a catagory ‘E’ race sometime in the year.
The track is set to be classic North Wales stuff – 100% in the woods with a steep start and loads of switch backs, there’s going to be a flat out middle section and a monster of a rock garden. It’ll finish with another fast, open section and a jump into the car park to finish. The whole thing is around the 2 minute mark. To make things super easy for uplift access, there’s a private tarmac road top to bottom.
And where is it exactly? Well… bearing in mind you can’t ride it yet… it’s deep in North Wales, on the Northern Coast of the Llyn Peninsula, near Pwllheli. The actual site of the track is shared with a local education centre which has a cafe, conference facilities, toilets, showers and parking – meaning lots of great facilities for races.
That’s all for now – we’ll keep you posted. For more info keep ‘em locked to www.simplydownhill.co.uk
Thanks to Harry Williams for all the photos and Tom Fryer and Si Ward for the info. Keep in touch fellas!
We’ve had a couple of sets of Outland flat pedals on test for about a year and aside from some grumbles with the pins being a bit short we’ve been really happy with ‘em.
Outland have obviously been listening to rider feedback because 2010 sees updated pedals with improved pins and new jazzy graphics, including ltd edition wood effect and an all new ‘Kustom Slim’ design .
These 2010 samples just dropped through the letter box and as with all our products, we’ll have an update in the next issue of Wideopen and we’ll be putting them through our long-term test regime to see how they perform.
First up are the all new ‘Slimline CNC Pedal’
Vital statistics include:
*CNC Machined Aluminium Body *CNC Machined Cro-Mo Axle *Fully Sealed Bearings *110×106mm Platform *Removable Pins *365gms, per pair *RRP £54.99
And… here’s Outland’s classic ‘Kustom Slim’ flat pedal. We’ve had the old version on test for about a year and aside from the pins being too short we’ve been really impressed with their performance and value for money. The updated 2010 versions bring new paint jobs and longer pins for added grip. The wood effect versions are a bit special as they’re one pair of only 200 in the UK, so if you want a pair get your local bike shop to call Raleigh without delay! There’s also a ‘paint splatter’ style design if you can’t get your mitts on these ones and sealed and unsealed options to suit your budget.
Wood Effect Kustom Slim - *Limited Edition (only 200pcs coming into the UK) *CNC Machined Cro-Mo Axle *Curved Alloy Body *Fully Sealed bearings *Removable Pins *Realistic Wood Effect *RRP £39.99
So the big premier of Foot out Flat out 2 and Rowan’s Welshside ‘end of season’ bash went down on Saturday night at Ten Feet Tall in Cardiff.
Reports from Mono are a bit vague but apparently he’s never been that drunk, his side-kick Paul ended up in A&E (but came back to the party later!), the vid went down a storm and everyone drank a LOT of booze.
Well done to everyone that showed up and well done to Mono, Paul and Tim for an awesome DVD - we’re proud to have the Wideopen name against it! Tidy boys!
We’ll be selling copies of Foot out Flat out 2 via the Wideopen website as soon as we get some stock. If you’d like to reserve a copy from our first run drop me an email on Jamie AT wideopenmag.co.uk.
Here’s some amazingly drunken photos from Vikki Hill….
2009 saw another tight season of racing on all 4 corners of the globe and both Callum Swift and Aaron ‘Mono’ Bartlett were trackside to capture the speed, the power, the skill and the emotion of a full season of gravity fed mountain biking.
Wideopen Magazine presents:-
These two films follow the world’s best riders from the first races in March all the way to Dr. Peat’s emphatic victory in an upside down country to the World Cup finals in Austria and onwards.
Foot Out Flat Out 2 : Fast and Loose and MADE Scottish Premier
The event is taking place in the Bongo Club in Edinburgh on Thursday 19th November. Doors are at 7pm with the first film starting at 7.30pm. Entry is £5 on the door. U18s are welcome and ID will be required at the bar.
All attendees are automatically entered into a prize draw to win prizes from Wideopen Magazine, Hotlines Europe, Straitline Components, Rockgardn Premium Armour and Continental Tyres. The draw will take place in the interlude between the two films.
Details of the venue:-
The Bongo Club
37 Holyrood Road
Edinburgh
EH8 8BA
(0) 131 558 7604
Any queries can be directed to ste@wideopenmag.co.uk
Lee Huskinson, Chris Akrigg & Oscar Golding interviews, Orange Five DIVA test, Ride bikes in Poland, Winter race reports and much more! Click the cover above!
