Team NEFR Scottish champs 2007 AE Downhill

RESPECT THE DIRT AND THE DIRT WILL RESPECT YOU....

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Ben was up at Ae for the Scottish Champs and there is only one way to describe it, WET!!! It rained ALL of Saturday and by the looks of it, the previous weeks too. The track was mud from top do bottom and it offered some great drifts (but never when you want them).

Well, after a 6am start and a van full of stuff we finally headed off to Ae for the Scottish Champs. After taking too many stops we arrived at the track, it was wet, muddy and raining.

As soon I was ready I was in the queue for the uplift. When I arrived at the top of the hill the view was amazing, but I wasn't there for the view I was there to eat dirt. The track was a wash with mud, top to bottom it was mud all the way, which made things a bit interesting. From the start gate you went forward a couple of metres until you met a rocky descent, keeping left you could get a few pedals in and then it was a short burst into a right hander, keeping your speed up as much as possible you tackled the next rocky descent, again keeping to the left and making sure you didn't end up on the off camber part of the track. From now until the next right hander you just pinned it and went as fast as you dared down the rough track. Then it was a sprint through the woods, not technical but it took a lot of skill to hang on (probably why I didn't).

The track followed through the woods, incorporating a small double and a table top. From here it was through some small switchbacks and onto the fire road, by this time I was exhausted and I had a little sit down. If you had the energy you could sprint the fire road straight into a small rock garden, then into the woods again, it was all about getting the pedals in from now as the track was easy with small rock gardens and few roots.

As you came into the last part of the track you where greeted by a nice long root section terminating in a tight right hander. This caught many riders, including myself and was good viewing for the fans. After the tight right hander there was some really small switchbacks and then a couple of drops into a long sprint where you where flat out on the pedals, over some small roots and into a fast left hander into the nice step-down. After that it was into the left hander then the right, again it was on the pedals and a fast as you could go, over a double then into a left hander then a few more pedals over a small rise and into the VERY steep elevator drop at the end, as your arsehole twitches you roll off the end, catapulted into the final jump, which takes you over the line, Home and dry or should I say soaked through.

I was really surprised by the track as it was fairly easy but the mud made it difficult. The step down thingy was quite interesting, I missed it out on my first 2 runs but on my 3rd I nailed it, however I did land short and flat landed it a bit. I only had the 3 runs on Saturday and on the Sunday I only managed to get 1 practice run in, having left out the step down. On my first race run I had 1 crash and another stumble costing me a good few seconds. On my second run I had a couple of crashes, lost my handlebar grip in one crash and had to find it. Then on another crash I got over took by the rider behind me but I got straight back on the track and was on his tail all the way until the step-down where I decided to nail it and I overtook him while he went round in but on the right hand berm after the step-down I got a bit loose and wiped out the tape so he caught me back up and then I let him past cause I was already on a bad run.

As for the results I had a disappointing time of 3:26.687 in my first run and a couple of falls in my second, as well as a search for my handlebar grip. my second run time was 3:56.225, which placed me 50th out of 53.

Cheers,

Ben King