BUCS – the event where beer, banana costumes, skid competitions, wheelies, bodge jobs, flannel shirts as race kit, bonfire parties and questionable ‘smokes’ are all collated and strewn over the side of a hill to create the antidote to the new school UK race scene. I was determined to make this one happen – my lift buddy was fully bogged down with last minute dissertation panic so couldn’t go, my student loan, I mean van fund doesn’t arrive for another week and unfortunately I am the only member of my cycling club at uni who needs tread on their tyres! I was at my dad’s working for ‘help me buy a van credit’ we had a brain wave – I passed my test 3 years ago, and have spent all my money on travelling and bikes since so the idea of driving was getting scarier and scarier, but I did have the piece of paper. I jumped into a car for an hour or two or refresher driving, insured my dad’s van and BOOM! I was off… On a 200 mile journey to Caersws for the Champs!
Admittedly I tried to pull off in 3rd gear but half hour into the journey my heart rate slowed and I was revering in my new found ability to be free! I whacked up Metric and sung my heart out for the rest of the journey. It was all going so well till my brakes stopped working – I had managed to leave my handbrake slightly on for a good hour… I sat there freaking out in a car park somewhere in mid Wales till they cooled and started working again!
Allan Findlay
I eventually made it and it was sunny! Shorts and t-shirt on, and straight up the hill for some flat out blind dusty runs, just one crash and lots of fun. The track was the old far left track that goes alongside the road, plenty of time for the students to heckle their buddies on the uplift, and thanks to the trees not being there any more you can see the riders progress pretty much all the way down the hill. The BUCS has a reputation for being a pile of fun and a bit of carnage too, the track is often a balance of a bit of technical track and some tamer stuff for the poor non racers that get brought along to bulk out teams. I think maybe Chris Roberts who was running the event had this in mind when his evil humour came into play and he taped the track straight from the table into a sharp right hander/ off camber/ uphill section into a half an hour sprint through the bottom field, my lungs certainly didn’t like it! Allan Findlay did a Raw go pro run of the whole track that you can see here.
Friday night drew in, Bath Uni initiated the usual speed/distance skid slalom contest that attracted most of the field for most of the evening and Bangor partied hard into the night with Bangors (sorry) from Anastacia and Ricky Martin, Sheffield Hallam kept it chilled with a campfire and chit chat and Sheffield Uni went straight to bed…so serious!
Callum Biggin
Race day rolled round after spending a very cold night in my van, the track had blown out loads by the end of practise so race runs were gonna be a gamble as to whether each corner was even there! The sun found it a little harder to come out on Saturday but made an appearance in time for first runs. It was a small field this year for the girls category with only five riders, I think the timing of the event this year was within ‘dissertation panic period’ for a lot of people so some expected faces were nowhere to be seen. I opened the race runs for everyone with an aim to post a time that would qualify in the mens. I posted a 2.28 with a neat but maybe safe run, all the girls made it safely down and Nin Brown was chasing me with a 2.41.
Joel Chidley was one of the ‘racers’ to make an appearance aboard his new Morewood, one of the first riders in mens to come down, he smashed straight through and into the hot seat with a 2.07. Rider after rider came down, but no one could beat the boy on the trail bike, I wanted to have a nap before race runs but couldn’t go to sleep because I was too excited to see if I made the cut in the mens. Unfortunately I would have qualified 102nd, 0.5 secs off the pace… But thankfully I’m a girl, so I still got to race :)
As it was race day, the fancy dress was out, Aberdeen were dressed as bananas and the non qualifiers were on the hill in time for race runs to relentlessly heckle the fast boys. Second runs rolled around and by now the sun was fully out again, the girls were off first again and this time I was down last with the boys right behind me, I came into the heckle section and unclipped but managed to keep it together. This time I tried to put more into the sprint at the end and felt a lot faster. My run was 0.3 secs slower, final time 2.28.5 but consistency is good right! Nin Brown chased me down and Samantha Dugon rounded the Podium off in 3rd.
The heat was on for the guys in finals, Several boys including Allan Findlay, George Belk and Thomas Owens were gunning for Chidley on his enduro bike. Some of these boys obviously aren’t spending enough time in the library because a lot of rapid times were being put down and there was only 10 secs between 1st and 25th, The finals saw Allan Findlay knock Joel off the top spot and George Belk (who pulled the BEST line over the dusty drop) brought his bright red Diamondback home to 3rd place.
Joel Chidley
So that’s another year done, Allan Findlay and I are the fastest students, the cream of the crop! Now I had better go back to doing the epic pile of work I have been ignoring for the last two weeks and have to hand in three days early so I can go to Fort William. If anyone needs me I’ll be behind the pile of tea cups with my head in my hands.
Chris Roberts – “Plans are already afoot for 2015 with 2 venues in Scotland on the short list and we hope to have it approved by BUCS and announce the date in September with the race taking place in March 2015.”
Over and out! Thanks to Turnip Towers and Scott Kendall for the snaps.
