The 2018 HSBCUK National Downhill Championships
Glencoe, Scotland
photos by Ian Lean, words by Jamie Edwards
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The 2018 National Downhill Championships went down at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.
With a love/hate venue, a few riders failing to turn up and the threat of weather spoiling play it was a tough one to predict… but racing went ahead and a small handful of riders earned themselves the national title on a brutally tough track.
Here’s our story of this year’s National Championships, the biggest event in British downhill mountain biking.
Glencoe’s race track is a beast. Wild and windy, rocky, exposed and a long way from civilisation.
It’s one of the hardest tracks you’ll race in the UK and is bang-on the right standard for crowning national champions.
But, it is a love hate venue. It’s easily shut down by poor weather, it’s scary to ride and it’s not particularly near anywhere. Whilst 240 racers entered 2017 National Champs, Glencoe had just 155 – with 40 fewer riders in the senior men’s category.
Are the numbers down to location or are they a general sign of the health of British racing? We’d argue it’s the former, with some great numbers across the other events and a strong turn out for the National British Downhill Series events.
Ben Cathro took a weekend off from presenting Cathro Vision to see if he could add a third Glencoe win in a row. He was one of 42 racers in the Senior Champs field battling for the National Champs title.
It wasn’t to be for Ben though who complained of struggling with Cathrovision on track and had to settle for 14th place.
Is Ben Deakin the busiest man in mountain biking? I mean seriously, he’s done 22 racers already this year and still has plenty left on the calendar!
Deaks was hoping to finally take the overall Masters Champs spot but had to settle for 2nd place, with Nick Platt pipping him across the line. Oi oi!
Glencoe can feel a bit back-to-basics at times… it can feel a bit in the middle of nowhere without a supermarket, a wee town or even a pub within easy distance.
But, it’s one of just two venues with a chair lift in the UK and isn’t all that far from the motorway. There’s also big plans from the Glencoe Mountain Resort team to grow the venue so it can cut it as a proper, big-time venue. And, if you’re interested, the Clachaig Inn is just down the road!
Watch this space…
The one flip-side of racing on a hillside without any trees is those stunning views! George Kerr probably didn’t have much time to take them in on his way to 6th place in Junior men though!
Have you ever heard of the wildlife disrupting racing? Yep, at some point on Sunday the timing system broke and was blamed on the wild deer on the hill fighting and trampling the cable – causing the system to break.
What sounded like a ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse actually turned out to be 100% legitimate, proving that you can plan to the nth degree… and still the universe will throw the unexpected at you!
Rosy Monaghan – just one of the 12 female racers that raced Glencoe.
Rosy took the win in the U19 category and continued her dogfight with rival Maya Atkinson. Maya took the champs in 2017 and Rosy took second, this year it was the other way round. We love a tit-for-tat battle!
Jamie Edmondson is having a great year with a heap of World Cup top 5 results and a win at Crankworx. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t quite come together and he had to settle for 2nd place. Not bad for a first year junior though!
And taking the 3rd place spot in the Junior field behind Jamie Edmondson was Henry Kerry. With a win at the Rheola British National and two 2nd places at World Cup, Henry has definitely got what it takes.
What’s a race report without a pan shot? Here’s Intense UK’s player manager Oliver Morris on his way through the heather.
Jay Williamson leads Laurie Greenland down the rocks in that fast, rough and wild top section.
Jay is one of a small army of British journeymen that are working their asses off to follow in Laurie’s footsteps and graduate to the big league. By his own admission, the sport is only getting more competitive and cutting it as a privateer isn’t getting any easier. Keep at it Jay!
If you want to see the future of mountain bike racing, here’s your man, Luke Williamson.
Luke is your Youth national champion by over 4 seconds and with a time that would have won Junior, beating a World Cup rider that’s two years his elder. He’d have been 8th in Senior men. Amazing.
Joe Breeden’s 7th place in senior might not look like much at first glance … till you remember he just recovered from a savage knee and ankle break and look at the results.
Every rider ahead of him was a full factory, World Cup big gun. Awesome result, Joe!
Whilst Tahnee Seagrave and Rachel Atherton were chilling between World Cups, Meg Whyte was out bagging podiums in the Senior Women’s field. Second place for and a great weekend of racing in the tank.
Taylor Vernon, loving life on his Unno. 5th place.
Greg Williamson came into Glencoe a two times National Champion and was gunning for a hat-trick.
Unlucky for him, it wasn’t to be and a tough weekend saw him take 6th place in seeding and 3rd in finals. Not the weekend Greg wanted.
Many of the World Cup riders chose to get some R&R instead of race. Katy Curd did the long drive in the Sprung Suspension van, put the effort in and is your 2018 National Downhill Champion, winning the women’s field by over 8 seconds.
It’s the first time Katy has won a senior downhill champs title and must be a huge boost as she moves in to the second half of her World Cup season.
We love watching Kade Edwards race. He’s flat out on track and he’s guaranteed to be good sport in the pits. We need more guys on the track that aren’t afraid to have some fun please!
Kade took the Junior National Champion title, putting 4.4 seconds in to second place.
You’d have been mad not to bet on Danny Hart as a favourite for the National Champs title.
A crash in seeding saw Danny come down early in final runs. He crossed the line in first place in his final run but, by his own admission, didn’t put in a strong run. It was good enough to hold off the entire field but one… Second place for Danny.
And your 2018 National Downhill Champion. Mr Matt Walker.
We asked Matt how important he felt National Champs is. In his opinion “it’s the biggest race in Britain and everyone should get behind it. Everyone should come here and really have a good go and get stuck in”. Agreed. Congratulations Matt!
Your complete list of 2018 National Downhill Champions:
Matt Walker
Katy Curd
Kade Edwards
Jordan Williams
Luke Williamson
Rosy Monaghan
Nick Platt
Mark Weightman
Micayla Parton
Rebecca Smith
Pete Little
Open Men went to Liam Higgins and Senior non-champs was won by Jason Gillespie.
Last but not least, we’re going to give a big high five to the Scottish Downhill Association who organised the weekend’s racing.
The race wasn’t perfect and by their own admission needs to improve to meet National level. They’re working with British Cycling now that the race is over to learn from the weekend and step it up.
Regardless of that, they made the race happen and are keeping downhill alive in the UK. Cheers guys!
Thanks to the SDA for a solid weekend of racing and to everyone that raced for making the effort to keep UK downhill strong.
You can watch our video from Saturday’s practice session here.
You can read about the 7 bikes that could have won National Champs (and 3 that did) here.
