Alpine Bikes Winter Series Round 3

Innerleithen, Scotland

As you'll know by now,a few of us went away last weekend to do round 1 of the Alpine Bikes Winter Series held at Innerleithen. We arrived friday evening ,headed straight to the track to have a look,walk it & see what awaited us. But to be honest it was fairly dark by that time so we didn't really get much of a look to check out lines etc... so we headed to the B&B for tea & a few beers!

Saturday was practice all day. We got to track earlyish,signed up,padded up & then made the epic 2 mile ride to the uplifts!! For those of you who have been to Inners,the track we were racing started just above the small quarry (if you can call it that) where the road gap is,unfortunately,that wasn't in the track. It was only a short push to the start which was a blessing after a 2 mile cycle!!
So off we went,most of us only rolled down for the first couple of runs as it was a brand new track,well to us anyway,just to check it out & make sure there were no nasty suprises waiting for you! What we found was a mint track. Really tight & twisty with rocks,big roots,big holes,loadsa off camber sections with a few flat out bursts down single track with a couple of jumps & some seriously steep parts to keep you alert. As usual it ended coming out of the bomb hole,round the big berms with a couple of gap jumps & a sprint to the line! It was still very wet on saturday,so this just added to the fun. The guys might correct me on this,but if you could imagine the bottom half of monster T,really tight in the trees,but if you were riding the single track at Tholty,rocks,roots & holes etc... but that lot plonked on the side of the fields at BallaSpit farm,thats kinda something like it was....FUN!

Sunday race day. The track was drying up slightly,but it was still muddy & the roots & rocks were becoming more exposed as the 240 odd riders were getting their last few practice runs in.
First away,Sarah,defending her title she won last year. Sarah put in a good run,no mistakes,but she admitted she was a bit gutted as there were a few places she could have gone a bit quicker. Nevertheless,3rd place behind a certain Katy Curd (probably one of the UK's best up & coming riders,almost a pro) & behind the winner,Tracey Moseley who is a pro & world cup winner. So a fantastic result for Sarah.

Next away,me in the masters. Apart from a stupid mistake near the start which resulted in me having a pretty good crash,i was happy with my run. Obviously i could have gone quicker in certain places,but then so could most other riders. I finished in 8th,not bad.

Scott was away next in the seniors. Disaster struck when on his run his chain device failed again. He'd only had it repaired by an on site mechanic in the morning,so this resulted in him not being able to pedal. Which wasn't to bad for most of the track,its only near the end where you really needed to pedal,out of the bomb hole & round the berms. He was obviously annoyed,as he'd had a good weekends practice & a quick time was on the cards. 47th for Scott.

Next up was Sharpy,who was feeling confident as he'd put a lot of practice runs in over the weekend,but disaster struck when he also had a crash near the start. He quickly managed to get back into his run & still put in a good time. Had the pair not had problems,they'd easily have been knocking on the door of a top 30 finish or better!

Last Manxie down,Skilly. We all had high hopes for him & he didn't dissapoint. He put in a blistering run,which afterwards he said he thinks he could still have improved on to finish in a stunning 2nd place.

Two podiums,not a bad weekends racing considering we only got to see the track properly on saturday morning! I think all the guys & gal did extremely well. Roll on round 2!!!

Big thankyou to Dawn & the staff at the George Hotel in Peebleshire for their hospitality. If you ever go to Inners or Glentress,stay their is such a top place!
Cheers Skilly & Sarah for driving & a big shout out to that Greek bird on the tom tom who got us lost?!

Russ Sansom