Round 1 of the BDS was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. I don’t know about but this year winter has felt like it’s dragged its heels and I’m ready for some warmer weather. So on Friday morning I packed the Burgtec van, which was being bathed in some glorious spring sunshine, and DC and I headed off to North Wales, chuffed we were back on the road.

Nant G was a new venue for the BDS and it’s always nice to see different scenery when you’re on the road. It always perks me up when you see the coast as you do when you pass through Conwy. We arrived to a sunset lazily falling out of the sky illuminating the Irish sea like a warm fire in an open hearth you couldn’t ask for more than that.

DC parked up the Burgtec van and we headed up to the track for a quick look before the light disappeared. The top of the track was a mixture of tight trees and roots with fast rocky shoots. We were amazed at how wet the track was with small puddles filling ruts. The ground was visible damp and muddy under foot. We were suffering sunshine amnesia, common to British folk who when they see the sun for a day forget about all the bad weather that went before it, from our afternoon drive through Wales in the blue skies. One day of sun doesn’t dry out a track that’s has had some heavy winter abuse.

The Bottom of the track was characterised by a good old pedal section, which didn’t do justice to the top of the track. This part of the track would show up any rider who had not been training over the winter. Already without a tyre hitting the track thoughts were drifting to a Steve Peat victory. You just felt that Peaty would be a contender for the top spot of the podium. His ability to pedal and carry speed would make him in my honest opinion the man to beat.

But would this be the year for the Brit brat pack? Brendan Fairclough Josh Bryceland, Sam Dale, Joe Smith, Matt Simmonds to challenge the old guard. With the likes of Gee Atherton away in New Zealand, it was even more of a chance for the young elite to shine in the Welsh springtime.

That evening the pit area slowly filled and the excitement grew in equal amounts. The great thing about British race scene is the social side. Catching up with all the people who share the same enthusiasm and passion for riding as you. As soon as you hear the unmistakable tap on the side of the bodywork of the van and the sound of the cargo door sliding open, that’s the sign for the banter to start exactly where it left off from last season, good times!

Practice Saturday

A cold night gave way to a cold morning but again the spring sunshine lifted spirits and soon the peaceful costal morning was broken by the sound of the Monster Energy PA system.

The major concern of this event was the uplift, set on a freshly laid single-track road as steep as the Furker Pass in Switzerland. The good thing was the road was shut and was only open to the uplift coaches and tractors.

Rough time for a round trip was 1 hour in the morning but the transport sped up to about a 45 min round trip. Not the fastest but a good pace and enough to get a few run in.

It was great to see the elite riders back on track eating up rough, steep terrain as gracefully as a mountain goat running down a mountain after he’d forgotten to turn his iron off. As you can see from the picks the weather was holding steady.

There was a real field of stars out there with the CRC team lighting up the track. Matti Lehikoinen (pictured below) made an appearance and is always exciting to watch his flat out style.

There was a massive field of elites with 40 in total at last count. It’s a real testament to the talent that resides on the British shores. The top 10 riders at this event would be sure to pepper the top 20 of any World Cup race standings.

Joe Smith now with the backing of Chain Reaction Cycles and team manager Nige Page can only go faster this season. (pictured below)

Matt Simmonds a solid rider but can he break into the top 10 in the world this year? I hope so. (pictured below)

Slugger Beaumont full of confidence at the moment and it’s showing in his riding. (pictured below)

Peaty, showing no signs of relinquishing the crown of being the one to beat. (pictured below)

What a difference a day makes

On the Sunday the rain and wind took the place of sunshine it crept in under the cover of darkness. I know this because the awning was making all sorts of noises at daft o’clock in the morning keeping everybody in the van awake.

As you can see from the pics the weather was very cold and very wet. ‘It was that fine rain the one that gets you soaking wet’ to quote Peter Kay

In the morning most people managed a run, 2 if you were on it. This gave way to qualification, which ended abruptly with a junior smashing himself up pretty bad on the track. Qualification had to be cancelled and racing started at 2pm. Just want to wish the lad a speedy recover, hope you get better soon!

Now racing always throws up something to talk about and Nant G was no exception. Al Bond came out of nowhere it seemed and posted a time that nobody could beat. Rider after elite rider came down but still nobody could turf him out of the mud-lined hot seat.

Peaty came close if it were not for a spill over the rock garden hump (The very one pictured above on practice day). He over jumped it landing in the bottom of the dip which spat him off in the wrong direction.

It was a bad day for Brendan finishing 15th.. He is too good a rider for that position (pictured below)

Good day for Burgtec rider Sam Dale finishing 6th. I’m really excited to him ride this year with the backing of the Sunn team. He’ll do big things this year I’m certain. (pictured below)

A solid start for Burgtce rider Josh Bryceland who is showing signs of becoming as consistent as his Syndicate team mates. Finished in 4th. (pictured below)

One rider left with Bond still in the hot seat. Marc Beaumont’s spilt was only 2 hundreds of a second faster than Al’s. It would make for a nerve racking finish. Unbelievable when Marc crossed the line he had put 4 seconds into Al Bonds time. I guess we found out who’d been training over the winter months and Slugger must have been to the same training camp as Rocky before fighting Ivan Drago.

Pos Name Speed Spilt 1 Spilt 2 Race Diff
1 Marc Beaumont 26.63 1:28.113 48.585s 2:16.698
2 Al Bond 24.68 1:28.359 52.546s 2:20.905 4.207s
3 Steve Peat 24.77 1:28.145 54.258s 2:22.403 5.705s
4 Josh Bryceland 24.34 1:31.642 51.017s 2:22.659 5.961s
5 Joe Smith 23.99 1:30.728 52.071s 2:22.799 6.101s
6 Sam Dale 25.07 1:31.383 51.890s 2:23.273 6.575s
7 Matt Simmonds 25.56 1:33.491 50.653s 2:24.144 7.446s
8 Matti Lehikoinen 25.68 1:33.547 50.752s 2:24.299 7.601s
9 Tom Braithwaite 24.31 1:31.557 52.878s 2:24.435 7.737s
10 Bernard Kerr 25.51 1:31.061 54.949s 2:26.010 9.312s

Overall a good start to the British season with some exciting racing. A great-organised event and it’s exciting to see a load of new sponsors on board including ourselves for biggest winning margin.

The speed trap and spilt timing is definitely a welcome edition. I feel British racing is going in the right direction.

Shame about the weather on Sunday but you have more chance winning the Lottery than having 2 consecutive days of sun in Wales in March.

Can’t wait for the next race, Moelfre BDS round 2, 9th/10th April.

Anyway wish Olly the best of luck and hope to get some 2011 Burgtec stuff on there next year.

Speed Kings is set for release in early December and is available to order from http://scott-marshall.co.uk/homepage.html

The track has a good mix of everything. The top is a loamy loose wood which is then followed by some high speed berms, then into the technical rock section, then pretty much flat out in the tree’s to the final couple of jumps.

Practicing the track was really good fun and everyone was enjoying the track. Rennie was having a bit of a tough time due to popping his shoulder out on the first day. Josh was doing trains with Marc Beaumont and Donny, hopping his way side to side down the track. It was really cool just hanging out and doing some runs with your mates. Peaty was struggling with his now infected foot from all the glue and tape to get him down Fort William the weekend before. Brendan was grinning from ear to ear as usual loving the drifty turns.

Oscar seemed to be out to prove a point and was going well in practice and backed this up with 11th in the final. After a run of hard luck it was good to see Oscar get this result, especially considering he was in the top 5 at the split. Nice one mate! Tracey Hannah was pinned through the rocks and seemed to be going as fast as the guys, lots of big teams are interested in the young Aussie for 08. The future battle’s in the girls looks like its going to be between Tracey and Rachel Atherton. I spoke to Will Longden after the second day of practice and he said that Kovarik was looking ridiculously fast. In the finals he had a good split but had problems down the bottom of the course. Peaty had a steady qualifier and punctured in the finals, he slipped from 2nd to 3rd in the series. When Peaty got up on the podium he got the biggest cheer out of all the riders, he is the people’s favourite for sure. Barel knocked himself out in Qualifying and apparently couldn’t remember anything from the last two weeks, I wonder who had to tell him he missed out on a third World Championship by less than a second? Glad it wasn’t m

Burgtec Products

03rd : Tracey Hannah – Hubs, Fox Stanchion Mansion and Ride Wide bars
08th : Brendan Fairclough – Penthouse Flats
09th : Josh Bryceland – Penthouse Flats
11th : Oscar Saiz – Penthouse Flats, Ride Wide Bars, Boxxer Stem 40mm
25th : Nathan Rennie – Penthouse Flats and 60mm Boxxer Stem
56th : Ruaridh Cunningham – Fox Stanchion Mansion and Ride Wide Bars
78th : Steve Peat – 60mm Boxxer Stem

Things switched about in the overall standings, Josh Cleaned up in the Junior Men’s World Cup and this is the second time we have won this with Brendan winning it last season. We always said consistency wins championships! Ruaridh was a distant second, but after winning the worlds.

I’m sure he wasn’t too stressed by this. Tracey ended up 3rd overall andshows her consistency at the top after a bronze medal at the worlds. Tracey is back to Oz for the winter and she said her Dad has already got her atraining plan done. Jeez let the girl have a rest! Brendan was 12th which is cool considering his injury at round 1. Rennie had an injury prone seasonand he ended up 13th, he will be out for blood in 08. Expect big things…

All that’s left now is the last national and that’s it for another year.Flat Pedals did the World Champs and the Overall, that’s a first time ever. And its the first time since 99 that the same person did the double. Thatwas Nico… Josh will be the next person to do this.

Riders like Peat, the Athertons, Nico, Needles, Minaar, Matti, Gracia all Un-clipped for this track, Peaty switched back to SPD’s for the final but was loving the flats in Practice. Brendog was truly looking at home on this track and was sure to be getting a place on the podium. Josh (The Gypsy) Bryceland was flowing with his loose calculated style that made most of the field look like beginners.

Rennie was still struggling with the injury he picked up at Ae but was still truckin. “It’s a tough track and you need to relax in practice but that is tough because it’s steep and you don’t know the track for the first few runs. It’s a good track and it challenges everybody. It’s good the guys clipped in can see the advantages of flat pedals.Yesterday a bunch of guys ran out and bought 5 Ten shoes and trained on flats,” said Nathan.

Qualifying was a tough one, you could have 2 stacks and still qualify, Sam took it home some 14 seconds in front of Pascal in 2nd spot. Damien Mermound was the only rider to have a faster time at the split than Sam and some 4 seconds quicker. Unreal.

The Final was a repeat of Vigo, dry as a nuns crutch for the first 40 then Thor the god of thunder put a twist in the mix. Rain from the gods is the only way I could describe it. Brayton had just scraped qualifying so was the 1st man down and put in a solid time that had him in the hot seat for quite some time until Steve, then Matti came into town. Then came the rain. The big screen at the finish showed all the riders coming off and sliding down the track. The only rider to get anywhere near the fastest time was Bren some 30 secs down. The rain got heavier and heavier, there was no way that Hill could even get near the podium on a track this nuts in the wet…? We were wrong, Sam is sick, plain sick he destroyed the track and the field with a ride that was only 1.6 seconds slower than Matti’s run in the dry… Oh and Sam had a crash too… This was the finest piece of riding ever witnessed on a bike.

Josh took 7th and the leaders jersey from Ruaridh who qualified well and got the rain along with Thibaut Ruffin. Bull stayed consistent with a 14th, and Rennie took 30th spot.

Brendan Fairclough 40th “I’m pretty gutted actually. I really felt great on this course and felt I had a shot at the podium; this is my kind of track. Then the rain just messed all that up. It’s good to be back though, I really feel good to beracing again after my small break, and I’ve got a new bike which feels incredible, it has made so much difference to my confidence. I know I have the form to do well in the next two races and can’t wait for a race without rain falling half way through.”What could have been if the weather stayed fair?”

Top Ten

01 : Matti Lehikoinen (Team G-Cross Honda) – 4:10.21
02 : Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate) – 4:11.81
03 : Sam Hill – 4:11 84
04 : Fabien Barel – 4:4.91
05 : Mick Hannah – 4:21.52
06 : Adam Brayton – 4:22.15
07 : Josh Bryceland – 4:22.95
08 : Marcus Klausmann – 4:23.09
09 : Adam Vagner – 4:23.95
10 : Remi Thirion – 4:25.61

Everybody is going to Fort Bill this weekend for the Scottish SDA. No doubt getting in some much needed prctice for the World Champs that will be stage there in September. The Burgtec race truck will be up there with a load of FivTens and Flat pedals for you who have been converted after Switzerland!