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BUCS Downhill & Cross-Country Championships
Ae Forest, 20-21 March 2010
Report & Images: Joolze Dymond
Results (pdf downloads, all less than 160kb)
DH Men | DH Women | XC Men | XC Women | XC Men Sport | XC Women Sport
Hundreds of students from all over the UK converged on Ae Forest in the Scottish Borders to contest the 2010 BUCS MTB champs. It was two days of thrills and spills and all-out action from downhill racing through to cross-country, with a few student lifestyle diversions along the way!
Ae Forest, as you would expect of one the popular 7 Stones trail centres, had everything you needed to provide the ultimate challenge: a gruelling 1.6km gnarly track for the downhillers plus a mixture of blue and red graded trails to test the XC fraternity. And, of course, excellent facilities along with some varied weather!
Above, Joolze Dymond's Downhill slide show
Day 1 - Downhill
First of the disciplines to be decided was the Downhill. A new and improved course lay ahead with practise day Friday helping to bed in those all important new lines, especially through a new switchback section, near the end of the run, which proved ultra popular.
As day broke, the first sounds were of heavy rain on canvas. Memories of the BUCS Champs of 2008 came to mind - it was an event where riders virtually paddled their way to the finish! By 9am riders were already on the hill getting in as many practice runs before that all important start of play at 12pm.
As the morning progressed the inclement weather was steadily replaced with beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine, much to the delight of both riders and spectators! Those that made the first race runs probably had the worst of conditions but that didn't hold them back.
Emily Horridge had an action-packed weekend!
Rider after rider streamed down the track keen to show their prowess and hopefully take the title along the way. As per usual the atmosphere was electric with spectators adding a huge roar of approval for riders tumbling down the switchback, while those who cleared the section got routinely booed! As in previous years, there was the usual mix of fancy dress, with superheroes aplenty, along with a banana. However, Southampton Uni once again had to take the prize for the best dressed, with all their riders attired in pink pyjamas and the occasional dressing gown. Or maybe they had all literally just rolled out of bed....
The real competition though is usually decided by a select number of elite downhill riders, who show their class as they make short work of the course. Defending champion Rich Thomas was in the thick of the action along with the usual suspects, Jack Reading, Will Soffe and Chris Hutchins. Meanwhile, the women's race was missing the dominant force of Sue Mahoney and instead saw Emily Horridge up against rivals Jess Stone and Kerry Wrigglesworth.
After the first run it was Reading in the men's race that held the hot seat, with Thomas close behind in second, while the women's race saw Stone firmly in control after Horridge had a bit of rider/ tree interface, which left her bruised and confused.
Rich Thomas storms down the course
The deciding run came right down to the wire with Thomas the penultimate rider to race leaving Reading to make the final descent. A clear run brought Irish rider Gareth McKee scorching into the hot seat for 30 nail biting minutes while rider after rider tried but failed to unseat him. Finally Thomas was on the hill and pinning the moves which saw him take a clear 4 seconds off his first run time and opening up a massive gap of over 8 seconds over McKee. Reading, who failed to improve on his first run, had to settle for 2nd leaving Thomas to successfully defend his title and lead Bath to the team gold along the way.
In the women's second run, Stone failed to improve on her first ride and despite advice from the medics not to ride, Horridge went for gold, giving the tree on the rack garden exit a wide berth to snatch the title away by just 0.899 seconds, which secured her the title in her final year at uni. Stone had to be content with taking the Gold in the team competition along with fellow Worcester Uni Student Becky Hilton.
Day 2 - Cross-Country
On Sunday morning everyone awoke to a blanket of white: for most this was a chilly layer of frost, but for some it was the contents of a fire extinguisher or two. Well over a 150 sport riders lined up first thing in the morning to tackle the 10km XC course utilising some of the area's best singletrack, linked by ribbons of fast flowing fire road.
To ensure plenty of rider support, the course ingeniously sped out past the campsite to a river crossing where a bridge divided those coming and going. A quick turn right took competitors alongside the river before a nasty kick up to join another section of undulating singletrack, before pumping them into a rollercoaster-like section after which they re-crossed the bridge to take them back into the campsite and on their way to do another lap.
Above, Joolze Dymond's XC slide show
Tucked in between the classic zig zag descent was a little section customised by the downhillers to test the XC riders and make the course a tad different: so with plenty of spectators cheering on XC riders had another mini challenge to complete on their way round!
For the Sport men there were 4 laps to look forward to for, with the women tackling two. Chris Reeves, living up to his nickname of Zippy, moved quickly to the head of the race where he played a game of cat and mouse with James Sanford. Kicking hard on the final climb he made a move that saw him ride unchallenged to the finish to claim the win for Loughborough, while team mate Lydia Dant, in her first MTB race, took the win in the women's race.
Next up it was the Championship race, with some mighty big hitters eager to take the win, including Scott Thwaites, espoir National Champion and now enjoying a season as a pro road rider. The race exploded from the start with some ferocious speed cutting the 100 plus field to ribbons. Out in front were Hamish Batchelor, Scott Thwaites, Liam McGreevy and Jon Pybus. First casualty of the race was Sion O'Boyle, who suffered a mechanical early on and then had the mammoth task of chasing to get anywhere near the action.
Hamish Batchelor leads Scott Thwaites before the latter crashed out
Soon it was just Thwaites and Batchelor who headed the race, leaving the rest of the field for dead. By lap 3 Batchelor was out on his own on the 5 lap race with Thwaites retiring following a nasty crash. With Thwaites out of the picture, Batchelor simply rode away from the rest of the race, increasing his lead as he went. Pybus had moved into second spot by lap 3, moving McGreevy into third where he found himself fending off the advances of John Whittington.
On the penultimate lap McGreevy moved up another gear and joined Pybus, however Pybus responded and went on to take second behind a delighted Batchelor, who'd traded in last year's silver for gold. John Whittington came home in 4th spot to lead his fellow Bath Uni riders to the team prize, with Loughborough in second and Leeds third.
In the women's race, over three laps, it was soon apparent who had set their sights on this title: Jess Roberts flew from the gun and just kept going, leaving the rest of the race in her wake. Defending champion Meggie Bichard could make no impression on Roberts and had to be content with silver, which she added to in the team prize with her Bristol team-mates. Carla Haines took third.
Jess Roberts looks in control in the Ae singletrack
Once again much credit should go to Jamie and the crew at Extreme Know How for organising a cracking event. Thanks too, to Monster Energy, No Limits and Descent Gear who provided prizes across the board for the winners. Finally thanks to the crew who worked the Sports Timing, everyone at Ae shop and café who worked so hard providing a huge array of hot delicious food and of course Paddy for making it all happen. Let's do it all again next year!!!
Rider Comments:
Rich Thomas - DH Men: The course is a lot better now than before, it was pretty terrible before, so heads up to the people who've built the track as it's refreshed everything and it's pretty good now. It got pretty boggy as they only finished it the other day but that's what happens, someone has to ride the new stuff! The steep stuff was good and having all the students lining it and cheering us on makes this a better race than any I've been to. Everyone is here to have a good time and it's so much fun and I'd advise anyone to come along, as it's excellent. I've kinda been hurt for the last 4 weeks and haven't really ridden, so I came into this thinking top 3 would be awesome, so I was perfectly happy to come second. But I took a few risks on the second run and it paid off. That last section nearly had me, I nearly went over the bars, I hit my helmet on my bars, I hit a turn pretty hard and I thought I was going down, that's the end of it, but I didn't so I'm pretty happy with that. Mega day just like last year, I'll definitely be back next year for sure!
Emily Horridge - DH Women: On my first run I basically knocked myself out and lost my memory for a little while. The medics just said if I felt alright then just go for it, I just thought I'll cruise it and see what happens and I got the win! I didn't really mean to. I'm so stoked, it was totally unexpected, as obviously I knocked myself out so it wasn't looking that good, so I'm over the moon. The course is a lot different to the last time I rode here in 2007. The top is pretty much the same, a few new berms a new line through the rock garden and then that really good fun section at the bottom, and I really enjoyed that! I had all my lines pretty much dialled, but I got a little bit too far over on the end of the rock garden and hit that tree and obviously hit the ground pretty hard and the tree. I don't know how I didn't break anything! Second run it was okay step back a bit, relax into it and it paid off. Loads of celebrating tonight now, I'm already on the beer!
Hamish Bachelor - XC Men: I think as it was flat everyone knew it was going to be fast and had resigned themselves to group riding, but then Scott (Thwaites) and myself pushed the pace a bit on the climb and narrowed it down to just me Liam and Scott. Then on the next lap it was just me and Scott. Scott stacked it on the descent and he'd had enough after that I guess and left me on my own at the front and that was it. Pretty pleased with that as it's my last year, so of course my last year to win it!
Jess Roberts - XC Women: That was really good; I just kind of wanted to see how I went as I'm racing next week. I went as fast as I could at the start and just had to see if I could hold it and it paid off. So, yes, a good race with loads of good riders out there. Good too that the girls that got 2nd and 3rd although in different Unis we all ride for the same MTB team. The course actually raced a lot better than it rode, the fire track was good at the start, it helped spread the race out before we hit the fire track. The descent could have been a bit better, the downhillers did their best, they made a few little extra bits to make it more interesting for us! Last year they were all pretty abusive but this year they were really nice! So happy to finally take the win after 2 years of trying!
Jon Pybus - 2nd XC men: Yeah that was pretty tough. It was basically a chaingang for that first flat bit with Scott (Thwaites) and Hamish (Bachelor). I would have rather we hit singletrack a lot quicker, I wish the course had been a bit harder, more of an out and out XC course. Scott crashed out, which is unfortunate for him, it's good to have tough competition but these things happen. Practising round the course I wasn't too pleased with it but obviously when you race it, it's a lot different. The downhillers made it a bit interesting for us, I managed to get through 4 laps but I managed to stack it on the final lap. I got a huge cheer for that. I have to fall off though it seems I do in every trace now so it's expected of me!!
Chris Reeves - Sport Men: I had a good lead out then a rider caught me on the singletrack and then every time we hit the fire road we'd work together, he'd then leave me on the singletrack, it was quite good fun and then I got him on the final climb and managed to get enough of a gap to take into the singletrack and keep him at bay. It was a bit better to race but it still wasn't a classic BUCS course, it was fun though!
