2008 Scarborough Urban Downhill

Published on October 9, 2008

This week has been one of the maddest weeks of my life! What with the weather and everything else we have had against us Chris Smith, DJ Dave ‘Double Decks’ Roberts, the tarmac drinker that is Tom Watts (thats right T.Watts) and myself managed to get the bridge and ramps all built and in place for the start of the race. We were a bit concerned when we were still on the hill at 2.30 am on the Friday night that we weren’t going to be done in time.

The race was delayed for an hour and a half due to having to felt certain areas of the track where riders were concerned they would slide on in the wet weather, and having to build a run off from the bottom of the scaffolding landing due to riders not wanting to drop the 2ft step even though they had rode off a bigger drop off a lorry back further up the trail, not to mention the 150 odd steps they had just come down! I never realized there was so much politics in racing; don’t get me wrong I’m not having a pop, but I’m used to being out in a forest without any regulations or having to change anything that I’ve built due to it being to slippy or to high. I understand that you have got to do things with health and safety in mind, and you want to make sure that you can hit everything flat out as your racing. But the bikes we ride are made to deal with this kind of terrain and a two foot drop to a 7inch travel bike just gets sucked up especially at speed. And the thing that made me laugh the most was the Bc official saying to me its the 12 year olds we have to cater for, and all the 12yr olds were riding the track better than the older guys. One question I must ask and please mail me if you know why, but why do British Cycling use comissars that don’t race, never have raced and don’t really have any interest in racing to cover the races! There are guys out there like Scott Beaumont and Will longdon that know the book inside out and also have a huge knowledge of downhill racing and can look at the track from a riders point of view rather than a plumbers.

After a few changes here and there the race started and from the looks on the riders faces as they were coming down the track and off the scaffolding drop to the finish line they were loving it.

The scaffolding drop proved to be a bit sketchy at times due to the sea wind that was ripping across the end of it and a few riders learnt why you have to wear a fullface helmet whilst racing Dh.

After the rain started to lash down we had to slow down the track by putting chicane in just after the huge wooden bridge due to the fact that riders were going into the lorry back up ramp at mach ten missing the landing and bouncing all over the shot along the 45ft lorry trailer. There was a section of the track where there was a slight upslope going up a left hand bend and we had placed a big kicker at the bottom of it for riders to fire themselves up it if they wanted to just to add a twist to the race. Me and Smithy walked over to the ramp whilst practice was on to see if anyone was hitting it, just as we got there some guy came flat out down the trail off the kicker and straight in to a hawthore bush which he rolled across then off a 9ft drop to land on his feet then catch his bike, it was so funny. When race time arrived and all riders had been seeded the weather took a real turn for the worst and the and only a few categories managed to get their actual race run due to the track being declared to dangerous to ride in the elements thats were upon us. Podiums were held on riders seeding times which a few were disappointed about due to not giving it their all in the seeding runs but it was totally out of the organizers hands and we all think they made a good call. Congratulations to Dan Prince Charles Stanbridge for taking the overall win with a time of 1min17 seconds.  And also congratulations to Huckmonkeys Chris Seager for taking fifth in his category.
Its great that we can hold this kind of event in the UK its just a shame we cant control the weather.

A big thank you needs to go out firstly to Chris Roberts from www.nakedracing.com, as without Chris’s determination the urban races wouldn’t happen. Also Chris’s family, the Track builders, Dave Wardell and the scaffold team, the Borough of Scarborough and their council, The Fat Face crew, Monster Energy (for keeping us going) and everyone else that was involved in putting on such an awesome event.
Photos from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesr0012/