This weekend see's the most prestigous race of the year for every British Downhill Mountain Bike Racer, the Descent-Gear/MSC Bikes National DH Championships at Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders.
A tough, challenging and varied track awaits the U.Ks finest and what a line up we have, Steve Peat is the reigning National Champion and will be under huge pressure from the current UCI World Champion Gee Atherton and brother Dan Atherton and a whole list of hungry new comers that want the prestigous National Champs jersey and Gold medal so badly.
Previous winner Marc Beaumont is also on the charge as is Josh Bryceland along with newly crowned Scottish Champion Ben Cathro who will be leading the Clan army along with Joe Barnes and Chris Hutchens.
New age categories for the old boys as we have split the Veterans and Masters age range in half meaning more champions to applaud come podium time on Sunday afternoon.
We have a packed pits booked with Descent-Gear.com, MSC Bikes, British Cycling, Monster Energy, SIS - Science in Sport, Hope Technology, Atherton Commencal, SantaCruz Syndicate, Lapierre, Rave Racing, K9 Industries, Ticket2Ride BC, MX1.co.uk, 2Stage Bikes, CRC Intense, Swiss and Swallow, Nicolai, Continental and Pureriders.co.
We have a large Marquee, hot and cold food, refreshments and DVD showing Saturday night. Live timing on a big screen, live commentating and all parking and spectating is free!
Getting there. There will be some road closures on Saturday in the town due to the St Ronan’s Games. The minor road between Walkerburn (where the camping is) and Innerleithen (where the race is) on the South side of the Tweed will be closed to cars (but not bikes) on Saturday and Sunday. The uplift trucks for the downhillers park here to head off up the hill so be very careful if you are pedalling up to the race.
There are communal showers room at the XC camp site.
No noise after 23.00 please, and turn off generators. Tidy up after yourself and take your rubbish away with you.
There is one supermarket in Innerleithen, this will be closed for the St Ronan's Games weekend as will all the shops. The nearest supermarkets are in Peebles; Sainsburys (38 Northgate, EH45 8RS) as well as Tesco (Dovecot Road, EH45 8EQ). Peebles will be open as usual.
There is no water on site at the race, but you can fill bottles from the kitchen at the cross country campsite. SEPA have asked us to ask you not to wash your bikes in the Tweed please, it's no good for the trout.
St Ronan's games. The local people of Innerleithen welcome you to come along and enjoy the games, festivities and the fair whilst you are not practising or racing. The games run from the Thursday to the Saturday night, please check out http://www.stronansgames.org/ for more details, we would recommend the 'Burnin' the De'il on the Saturday for the non-racers.
Timetable for the XC and DH weekend:
Friday:
12.00 - 16.30 XC and DH course inspection walk only, and DH Comms Inspection
18.00 - 20.00 DH registration
Saturday:
08:00 - 11.00 DH Registration and XC Comms Inspection
11:00 - 18.00 XC Registration
09.30 - 17:00 DH Open practice
13.30 - 16.30 XC Marshalled practice
16:45 - 17.00 XC Riders and Teams meeting
17.00 - 18.30 XC Open/Fun race
17:45 - 17:50 DH Riders meeting
18:00 - 19:00 Trials display (Innerleithen)
Sunday:
09:00 - 10:45 DH Open Practise
09.00 - 11.00 XC Race 1 - Youth/Juv/Jun
11.30 - 12.00 XC Race 1 Podiums
11.00 - 13.00 XC Race 2 - Masters/Vets
13.30 - 14.00 XC Race 2 Podiums
11.00 - 14.00 DH Seeding runs
13.00 - 15.30 XC Race 3 - Seniors/Espoirs/Sport
14.30 - 17.30 DH Race runs
16.30 - 17.00 XC Race 3 Podiums
18.00 - All DH Podiums
Steve, Si and Hensley look forward to seeing you all trackside.
Photos by fattyre.co.uk
