Its been a long winter, but now the season starts for 2013! Yesterday was the first round of the ATBA-UK 2013 series, and its going to be another cracker- 4 downhills this year... There's still a lot up in the air though. We've still to finalise the venue for the scottish round- but that will hopefully be sorted out in the near future.

Anyway, Round 1 was at the Screaming Goat, about as far from Scotland as its possible to get before getting wet feet, in the QECP in Hampshire. 450 miles each way. I reckon that's about 120 miles in the car for each minute on the board. Was it worth it? Oh yes...

You might have seen the ATBA promo video for this round, and maybe you thought the track looked easy. Maybe a little quick in places, maybe slower in others. They say the camera doesn't lie, but this time, well lets say its not often that riders like Bieran, Brindy, Mark Sewell and James Wanklyn look a little pale before dropping in...

The top was a nice gentle windy trail through scrubby bushes, with the odd shortcut or two. The gradient picked up a bit into a choice of off camber right handers and a sharpish left over a couple of small dirt kickers.

So far so good- but now the hill dropped sharply, as the track widened.There was two main line choices here- left and right round a large fallen tree, or straight on and over the drop. As the hill got to its steepest, there was a magnetic tree right on the line. If you managed to miss that one, the track got bumpier setting up nicely for the next tree- a lovely example, clad in Ironsides finest foam mattress. The best line was to aim right here, rather than straight on (Shane!) to avoid hospital time. Final corner was a thing of beauty, a left over a rise, which was almost perfect for keeping wheels off the ground when grip was needed most. Straight on the the road and finish.
Sub 1 minute 10 was respectable, sub 1 minute fast, 55 secs very fast- anything below 50 secs ridiculous..

Results:http://www.atbauk.org/results/uk-series-round-1-head-down-results/

Headcam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VxwEfoy7yw&feature=youtu.be

Photos

End of the year, the weather's getting rough, and there's not enough snow yet. Big mountain boarding ain't much fun when you're walking for hours in the rain...

 So until this arrives-

It's time to dig this out,

 and get some miles in the legs....

In the meantime, here's some random photies from this year:

The best way to get yer kit up the hill

Pole dancing MJ style

Bus stop, but nae bus

Some spots for the future...

including the infamous bothy run:

The problem with mountainboarding in Scotland...

is choice, there's just not enough time to ride everything. Allan and myself regularly drive up through some incredible scenery with a frankly obscene number of trails visible from the road, yet never stop and ride them. Until today.

For years, one track snaking up the side of Meall Breac has caught our eye in particular and today it was finally ridden. One problem with many of these trails is that while they tease from a distance, it can be bloody tricky to actually get to them. Take our planned bothy trail- its a four mile walk from the car to the start, with a choice of routes involving either cold mountain stream crossings and bogs, or full on river crossings.

Today's obstacles were the main railway line to Inverness and the River Garry lying between the road and the trail. Not only that, but the parking at the side of the A9 dual carriageway is more than a bad idea...

As it happens google maps suggested that there was a potential parking spot hidden off the road, near a bridge over the river, the only potential issue being that if we missed the turn its a 10 mile round trip to try again.

We got lucky.

Then there is the question of whether the track is actually rideable or not, once you get there. That snaking switchback could in fact be nothing more than a boulderfield once you get there- or worse. The walkers path up Schiehallion is great on paper; smooth surface, winding, nice gradient. But the reality is the worst part about these paths- stone water bars, essential to prevent erosion. Its fine to ollie the odd one or two, but on Schiehallion they were so close together it was impossible to generate enough speed to clear them, and if you did, the next one was waiting.

Again, today we got lucky.

I'll let the video speak for itself...

Cairngorm again

Normal service has been resumed...

Now that the race is done and dusted, we decided to revisit the trail we rode on World Mountainboard Day this year, this time with BFC hero MJ in tow. We hoped for better weather this time, so were pleasantly surprised to see blue skies and sunshine as we charged up the A9 on the way to Aviemore.

At the carpark I instantly realised my walking boots were still in the boot of my car, a good 80 miles south, so was forced to ride in my battered skate shoes which meant dodgy grip levels for walking and minimal levels of control for the way back down.

 After 30 minutes sitting by the road waiting for the ski bus we checked the timetable to find there was no bus, so jumped into MJ's car and headed uphill to the ski area, kitted up and began the long walk to the Ptarmigan Cafe...

THE way to tow a noSno

The weather at the top was still sunny, but well windy, which would make the descent slow in places, blowing straight at us on the one small flat section of the track.

 On the way back down, Allan showed us a new line he'd found, using the old road with a few hairpins and some rollers which were built for a Red Bull event last year- great bit of track, but it did mean 50yds of walking on the main road before we could ride back to the car- at least there were no water bars or gates on this one though!

 VIDEO ON YOUTUBE


Don't forget about the Perth riding day on the 21st October, meet at the track at 11am for some brake free japery...

So Round 3 seemed to go well, from what I could tell everyone had fun, I won Masters and Allan came second, and we were graced by the presence of some scottish boarding legends...

Results here: ATBA website

and some great video of the day

That's it for racing until next year...

Round 3 is nearly here!

With a little over a week to go, here's a bit more detail:

Camping- We're recommending riders use the Wigwams at Newmill Farm, and although they've said that its possible for a few vans and tents, clearly they'd prefer people use their wigwams. Please call them and book your place though.
Linky here

There's only two wigwams left, it would be nice to see these booked!

There is a campsite very close to the track at Inver, but the owners aren't willing to have anyone other than family groups so don't even bother!


Track 1 is 99% finished and looking good- those who were at the last event in 2005 or have seen the video on Facebook will remember the singletrack section- 7 years has passed since then and the track is now very grassy, but the original surface has bedded down really well underneath. This means that it should ride well even if it rains...

The big changes we've made are that the big northshore drop is now a bridge, and we've rebuilt the double banking back onto the forest road so we can get rid of the northshore we had there last time round.

This wasn't so easy, as the flat section is an old ditch and holds more water than we could ever drain (thats why there was a raised northshore last time), so we had to build up with layers of stones and gravel...



There's another ditch at the bottom, which was bridged by northshore last time- again this time we went for a culvert with drainage pipes covered in stone and gravel giving a much easier run out onto the road

The grass was pretty long too, so Allan's been busy with the strimmer, cutting a wide track from top to bottom...

And a new line was cleared just before the banking, allowing a longer run out from the bridge and a shallower run onto the banking...

And finally thanks to Tunnocks for donating some top Scottish rider fuel for race day...