Kenda
Tyres Aston Hill Downhill 2006 |
The Black Run - Rnd 1 |
19th
March |
 |
1st
& 2nd for RapidRacers |
Report: Aidan Bishop Photos: www.phatphoto.com
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| Another fantastic result for the boys, we're gonna need an extension to fit all the silverware. Team Rider and skinny legend Aidan Bishop was killing it on the day, he even found the time to write this race report..... |
| With the DH season approaching pretty RAPIDLY (note use of word!), half of the Rapid team decided we should get off the sofas and actually race our DH bikes before the first national is upon us! Aston Hill near Wendover was the venue as they were holding the first of their own two round mini series on their infamous Black Run. This track is almost a home from home for myself and Stefan as we have raced there off and on for over ten years…..yeah, count them ten!! |
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Aidan's
Back! |
| The course was the same as always, which was good as we all knew it already and could get back into our riding and see what the winter booze up had done to our bike handling skills! We all were dreading how tiring racing the black run as going to be, with it’s flat and pretty rooty start straight, followed by 30-40 (45 if your name is Gummy!) seconds of lungs in the mouth sprinting, before you hit the technical tight turns and start weaving through the trees on the steep second half of the course, then finally opening out over a small ski jump and then the final push with the legs to see you up the bank and back down through the line…hopefully remembering to pedal forwards and not backwards like Stefan nearly did on his first run!! |
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Ride
til you puke...go hard or go home! |
| Practice was hard work, all
of us feeling the burn of the top section of the course. I had to make two
maintenance stops as the tyres I had on were from the nineties and so decided
to literally fall apart (pikey). First runs went off without any casualties or dramas, myself posting a 1min35secs, Gummy following up with a 1min41secs and Stefan riding way beyond his own aerobic capacity (I’ve never seen anyone breathe so hard after finishing a run) to post a 1min36secs, putting us in 1st, 9th and 2nd respectively. |
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Gummy
pedals his way to 7th |
| Cup of tea and a greasy burger break then run two was looming. Determined not to be overtaken by Gleed, I pushed harder on the pedaling section and made no real mistakes in the technical section, I went a second faster posting the eventual winning time of 1min34 secs…Result. Stefan also managed to better his first run time by half a second to secure second place with a 1min36sec run, with Gummy bringing up the rear (as he likes it!) to finish with a faster second run of 1min40secs to place him 7th. |
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1st
place - How do you like them apples? |
| Experts were opened up by a
Mr Chris Sinden winning with his first run time of 1min31secs (I believe
a new course record), leaving second place Ross Searle and third place John
Holbrook four seconds behind him on 1min 35sec runs. With the weather behaving itself all day (apart from being freezing), it turned out to be a good days racing and a satisfying 1-2 for the Rapid Racing team, and we can now hope to improve on that form for the national series ahead. |
| Aidan Bishop signing out! |
Special thanks for the pics in this report supplied courtesy of James at |