Special

FAQ

Tales Trails

It's All Downhill From Here By Downhill Jason

See the piccy here? That's me that is, and it was taken last August whilst I was racing downhill at Carlton Bank. Due to the fact that I'm wearing a full-face helmet, you can't make out my grin that stretches from ear to ear, a grin that only changed momentarily when I was mouthing fear-induced swear-words just before flying over large jumps, drop-offs or round sharp, dust covered off-camber corners.

For me, there is no thrill like riding a bike as fast as you can down big hills off road. I love the fear and anticipation you get from knowing that you could crash at any moment, the feeling of speed as you blast over jumps, drops and through narrow gaps, the competitiveness that seems to take control of all your senses and the buzz of reaching the bottom in one piece. Racing takes this to another level altogether.

Background Whilst returning from Penshurst on the (greatly ignored) club outing the other week, Pete Adams and myself were discussing downhilling in general and I happened to mention that there was a series run in the South known as Pedalhounds, although I knew very little about it. Pete expressed an interest in having a go at racing DH and I was definitely interested in doing it again. I found out some details and the next thing you know, it's Seven in the morning on Sunday 25th February and he's picking me up in his van for a quick drive to Cranleigh near Guildford.

The Pedalhounds series runs on short courses, with each rider having three runs down the course and the times being added together to decide the final result. The average time for each run is approximately 1 minute 50 seconds. Riders are set off at thirty second intervals, passing through an electronic-eye timing device which meant that there was no count-down needed as such; when it started beeping, you floor it. The courses are all over the South of England and include such venues as Cheddar and Aston Hill MTB centre.

The first thing you notice when you get to a downhill race is how relaxed everything is. People are unloading weird and wonderful machines from various vehicles, wandering about chatting to each other and generally messing about on their bikes. The next thing you notice is the clothes people are wearing; baggy tops, motocross clothing, huge shorts and jeans (yes, as hard as it may be for some of the roadies to comprehend, people actually race downhill in jeans and baggy hooded tops). After signing on and attaching numbers to bikes, it's off to the top of the course for practice.

Course description The course itself encompassed the full length of a not-insubstantial wood-covered hill. The start gate was in a field and from here turned sharply over two four foot high mounds, flat out over a jump and onto a very pedally straight section that threw you into the first root-covered corner at a very high velocity. From here it was into the first twisty section, with narrow turns between trees and over roots and ruts that could have you eating dirt if you didn't pay attention. There then followed a very fast straight down a steep slope followed by a huge drop-off into a ninety degree right-hander followed by and equally sharp left-hander. Another straight fast section followed, over a road crossing with steeply banked sides and into a twisty section between more trees. This had a large rut down the centre and naturally bermed corners. It was possible to take this flat out if you stayed smooth, relaxed and let the berms spit you out of each corner into the next.

After the tightest, gnarliest corner of them all, the trail turned to the left, out of the woods and onto a grassy straight which deteriorated into a rutted, muddy straight within no time whatsoever. This let you build enough speed up to have to worry about the nastiest part of the whole course; a drop-off into a very deep, mud-filled rut that had many riders off and into the crowd. The other option here was to jump through a rhodedendron bush, brake hard whilst steering wildly and hope you made the following corner. Another straight led into a dark drop-off under a bush and it was onto the home straight; flat out across an off-cambered bank and through the finish gate.

The racing Jason - To say that I'm stoked with my result would be the understatement of the century; 27th out of 51 in the masters class and a time that would have put me well up the field in the seniors (age group 19-29). I did my first run in 1:47.28, knocked 4 seconds off for my second (1:43.06) and added 0.8 of a second for my last (1:43.86) giving an overall time of 5:14.20. I actually felt that my last run was the slowest of the day and was kicking myself for messing up on more than one occasion, so I reckon that I could have done a fair bit better. Still, it's my best result to date and has given me the encouragement to practice and improve for the next round. On all three of my runs I managed to catch the bloke in front of me and on one occasion managed to overtake him. After the last run, I was chatting him about racing in general and the way that most people, me included, are just out for a laugh and aren't too competitive. Whilst we were chatting, his partner came across. He asked her if she'd managed to get a photo of him and she replied 'Yes, as this bloke here was overtaking you'; we had a good laugh about that one, I can tell you.

Pete - This was Pete's first downhill race in a long, long time, having previously raced in a downhill when it was just done for a laugh at XC races back in the early nineties. A lot has changed since then, especially the technology and the level of the courses (it used to be that the downhill course was the downward part of the XC circuit). To say he came 41st in category is slightly underestimating just how well he actually did. With times of 1:52.98, 1:51.62 and 1:52.49 making a total of 5:37.09, you can see how he improved throughout the day, especially when you take into consideration the fact that he crashed on his last run and it cost him a few seconds to re-mount his bike and get going again. Pete told me that on his last run, the crowd let out an impressive 'Ooooooh' as he flew over the drop-off and into the right hander but he's not sure it's because it looked sketchy or because he was going so fast. As it was his favourite part of the whole course, I'll go with the latter.

Conclusion We both had an excellent day out and were mightily impressed with the level of organisation which had gone into the event. The timing was excellent, with times posted instantly and results displayed as soon as all people in the category had finished, catering was supplied and there were toilet facilities in the shape of portaloos. The course was an absolute pleasure to ride, proven by the fact that we both did three practice runs, three race runs and were still riding it long after everyone else had packed up and gone home.

The Pedalhounds series is coming back to Cranleigh on 1st April and we'll both be there. Why not join us in what may just become the main passion in your life (partners excluded, of course!!)