Fitness super trainer Alan Milway was on the scene at the BDS rd1. Alongside keeping his young padawan Danny Hart in check, he took a tour of the pits and snapped some shots of the action.
Here’s a few no bullshit words from the master…
Rheola was the first chance we got to see the teams and set ups for this season- and in the warm sun of a spring day in the Welsh valleys the vibe was good. It was a shame that many had to park alongside a fire road and this made the hub of the pits very small. Is the gap between the haves and have nots growing?
Here’s a few snippets from the pits:
Wideopen mag were in attendance and Dave Franciosy was doing lots of interviews for them- here interviewing 4x specialist Scott Beaumont.
Clay Porter was also here, seen following the Athertons just about everywhere they went with camera poised. Almost a bit intrusive to see? There was a FOX suspension guru on site from the looks of it – check out the shock and Dan telling me where to go – zoom at max to pick him out in the HUGE awning.!! (it was all in jest).
The Athertons turned up with a wagon that wouldn’t look out of place in a Motocross GP Paddock whilst just across the walkway at the ‘Factory’ GT pits Marc Beaumont was seen working on his own bike…
Mark’s pits were almost the exact opposite of the Athertons with him and his dad doing it old school.
Matt Simmonds was also looking after his own bike and to be honest I’m suprised it made it down in one piece!! He had some trick additions -adjustable head cups and more drillings at the rear to tinker geometryand suspension etc. Very trick bike made to look like a workhorse by Simmonds!!
At the top of the hill the start was a little further down than it used to be and there was a nice set up with some turbo trainers (well, spinning bikes) available to warm up on. It is always interesting to see the different warm up strategies riders employ- some beneficial and others anything but.
Here Rachel Atherton visualises her run. This was actually before qualification when she crashed into a tree…
Renthal have some of the coolest products and I was a little disappointed to see such a low profile showing- I missed this on first pass. I am looking for a booth with a trick MX bike, loads of stickers and posters and for them to make much more of these sweet components- what a waste to have them ziptied to a wire point of sale stand?
K-9 industries are supporting a few riders including John Holbrook and they have a trick set up- with Dyno and laptop to download data- here Luis goes through some figures. Was anyone apart from the team riders riding them at the race?
BOS also had a pit and their gear is something to behold. What sends a shiver down my spine though is the thought of spunking over a grand on a set of forks and then having a Welsh trucker throw them against another bike to rub the paint and stanchions up a welsh fire road. Call me precious about my stuff but that would PISS me off.
Hope have been supporting British downhill for longer than I have been turning up to race with their gear (starting with the classic C2 brakes!) and it is great to see. Tom Braithwaite is now on a Santa Cruz badged up with Hope stickers and some of their drop dead gorgeous green parts- intergrated stem on show along with some tasty greeeen.
It was a surprise to see a somewhat familiar face wandering the pits with her little dog. Shanaze Reade is an Olympic BMX superstar and regularly races the Elite men for a bit of competition. She is also a dab hand on the boards too (at the Velodrome.) One of her mates was filming the racing for British Cycling so she tagged along to check it out. Here seen discussing lines with Boom Boom (also a former BMX racer) she seemed interested in the racing.
She was also mentioning how mad the Madrid BMX Supercross race was (where she placed 2nd or 3rd I think). Check out the step on-step off for the men-mental!
The season is looking good and with weather like this weekend it bodes well for a series to take downhill forward. The inherant problems of uplifting riders and bikes, and also getting people to know about the sport is still key though- are tiny little plaques to direct cars to site what we want- surely we want spectators to come too?
That’s all from Alan from Round 1 – cheers to him for shooting over his ten cents! We’re working on getting some more awesome fitness and training articles out of him this season. In the mean time, check out his site at mxfitness.co.uk.
Don’t forget to check out our own videos from the race for a chance to win a Diamondback Sabbath DH frame OR a trip to Morzine with Riders Retreat!
Rheola Pit Talk from Homegrown Productions on Vimeo.
