Hello from Ae Forest, Scotland!
The team arrived last night and got stuck straight in to a track walk – it’s the first time any of us have raced here since National Champs way back in 2010 so there was a lot to check out. Last time we were at Ae it was a Mike Marsden race – we cosponsored the event with Juice Lubes, Steve Peat won, Mike put on free beer all weekend and I slept in the front seat of a hire car with video-legend Paul Roberts. Rock and roll.
Here’s the word on the track for Team Wideopenmag’s Jay Williamson!
There’s a good little start straight down a slope and into some moto turns. There’s big ruts up here and loads of lines on each corner and then some flat, steep, off camber turns that are probably going to get wrecked before the end of the day!
Then we’re down on to an old school bit of the track which is flat out then into some techy woods. Which is pretty slippy! You’ve got a few berms and jumps after that out in the open which is looking pretty gnarly. They’ve got some steep faces to them.
Then you’ve got the Cathro leap that everyone’s talking about – you can jump off the top of these steps and miss out turn.
You’ve got the gnarly rock garden off the fire road after that, that’s got some big old rocks in it that’s going to claim a few people. Motre fire road and then you’re entering in to the final woods section. There’s some real tight turns in there as you head down the big berms, down the steep bit and into the finish.
It’s got a bit of everything. It’s a bit bike parky. It’s a bit tech in the woods. There’s a few jumps thrown in and a relly unusual finish with the steep section. There aren’t loads of big features but it’s pretty damn rough and fast so it’s going to be hard on the bikes and the bodies!
All photos by Ian “look at my new bike” Lean. Edited in the field!
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