Team Wideopenmag’s young gun downhill pinner Dan Cope smashed the Welsh Downhill Series at Berwyn, taking the win by almost four seconds.
Dan Cope headed to the Welsh Downhill Series, kicking off at Berwyn, North Wales which is a brand-new venue close to Llangollen in a small, steep valley. The event and series are brought to you by Gravity Events UK.
Team Wideopemag’s Dan Cope would come in 11th overall, and one of three youth riders in the top 20 overall.
Photos by Dave Price.
Not knowing what to expect at a new track and venue, we took the opportunity on Friday night for track walk with the lads and we were pleased to find a good length track. A mix of open, fast flowing Welsh hillside off the start, running into steeper woodland and techy turns and roots then back out into fast flowing berms, loam and dropping into the finish straight off a sick hip jump and short sprint to the finish over a small table.
After walking the track Friday night, uplifts started promptly at 0930 Saturday morning opting for the traditional back of tractors and trailers taking 20 riders at a time which with the weather being dry made for a nice cruise up the hill and having a good craic with the lads, including CRC-Mavic’s EWS weapon Elliott Heap.
The venue was itself great with flat parking and pits with plenty of room for a good fire on the Saturday night.
Practice when well on the Saturday with at least 9 runs done and two quick runs behind Elliot. The only disappointment was that the “GAP Jump” was not allowed for the Juveniles and youth riders as British Cycling made the call due to a being a regional event and some riders would potentially get into trouble on it, so we were made to do the safe option around the jump which was a solid 5 seconds longer to join the track after the big gap jump.
Sunday morning kicked off with practice starting at 0830 and after a solid warm up and 10 mins on the turbo, I headed up the hill to get 2 warm up runs and 1 quick run done before my race run at 1215.
My 1st race run went well competing against a few boys from the British National DH series as well as some new riders and I was stoked to take the top spot with my first race with a time of 1.47 with a little time left on the hill for second run.
With a great result in the first run, second run meant that it was time to send it and leave nothing on the hill and it paid off. I came in three seconds faster on a 1.44 which give me the win and a near 4 second lead over Logan Wilcox in second place.
Stoked to take to the win on the new Nukeproof Dissent and the first Welsh DH round and with my race run time, even Elliott Heap said if they took the extra 5 seconds off my time because of the safety route round the jump, my run would have been close to his time, which would have been sick.
Great to get the win and to get back up to speed ready for the next British DH round at Rhyd-y-Felin in a few weeks.
Definitely would recommend this new Welsh series. It’s chilled, fun and a great way of getting into good standard of racing with 2 race runs, what more could you want? Thanks to all the sponsors in getting me here and the Wideopenmag team.
Full results can be found over on Roots & Rain here.
Check out our interview with Dan when he joined the team last year here.
