Pearce Cycles brought the organisation and Wales brought the weather to see who would go home with the GB sleeves for the year.
A week after the British National Downhill Series kicked off at Danny Hart’s Descend Bike Park, riders headed to North Wales to the classic downhill venue of Rhyd-Y-Felin (Bala to many), to stake their claim on the national title.
Photos by Ian Lean.
The one and done, leave it all on the track, roll of the dice UK National race of the year, British National Champs. This year it was down to Pearce Cycles to take the reigns of the event and its safe to say that they put on an absolute belter of an event.
The 2020 pandemic put a stop to the national champs being on for obvious reasons, which meant that Danny Hart and Stacey Fisher had been holding onto the coveted sleeves for two years now and there was a big contingent that wanted to take on the challenge to get the sleeves for themselves for 2021.
This was the 27th time that the now legendary venue of Rhyd y Felin was to be used as a race venue. First used all the way back in 2003, it has become a main stay of British national racing due to its fast track, excellent opportunity for quick uplift and a great area at the bottom of the track for pits and spectators. This year was no different and with the amazing weather, everyone was having arguably the best time at a national race in a long time.
Pearce provided the uplifts, with measures to ensure some COVID safety with masks provided for the riders at the bottom and them being mandatory to wear on the uplifts. A speedy trip to the top and the riders were met with a bone dry, dusty, super-fast track that had everyone grinning from ear to ear all weekend.
There was no shortage of runs during practice on Saturday and it became a balance between track time and keeping cool in the 30-degree heat.
A good contingent of World Cup racers was present which is always great to see. Younger racers who aspire and look up to these guys were buzzing off seeing them on track, chat to them in the uplift queue and getting the chance to follow them down track. It would be great to see these numbers more frequently.
Race day, the time to put it all on the line vs the clock. There were no weather factors – the track was prime, it was clear that we were going to be in for a hell of a race. It was great to see so many fresh faces at the race as well, with riders making the trip from all over the UK and pitting out the backs of their cars in the sun. There is just about a category for everyone, even one for people that don’t have a license, but want to put themselves against the clock and see how they would stack up. Team Wideopenmag alumni Joe Parfitt pitched up aboard his new V10 and dusted off his racing brain to take the win in this category by over 3 seconds, safe to say that he has still got it.
The senior champs are the categories that drew the crowds, with lots of racers finishing their runs to head up to the finish arena to see what was to unfold. In the senior champs womens category, defending champion Stacey Fisher would take the top spot in qualifying by nearly 4 seconds making a statement that she wasn’t ready to give up her sleeve without a big fight.
However, backing up her result from last weekend at Hamsterley, KJ Sharp came out swinging in finals taking a massive 6 seconds off her qualifying time to take the top step and national champ title for 2021, pushing Fisher into second spot.
Senior champs men. It was clear from the strong contingent that were racing that a lot of riders were there for the title. It was not a given who would win with a seriously competitive field of 76 racers. The chat around the pits on Saturday was that Danny Hart was looking seriously quick doing sketchy stump gaps, he was clearly up for the challenge.
Qualifying, the silent assassin, the man that gets his head down and goes about his business, Matt Walker would top the clock by over 3 seconds ahead of Joe Breeden who, unfortunately, would go ahead to break his collarbone in finals.
The grassy turns at the bottom of the track leading into the finish would allow the gathered crowd to see Matt back up his qualifying result with a top step finish to take his second senior champs title and the honour to run the sleeve. Shout out to Wideopenmag alumni Charlie Hatton taking the silver medal after being on the physio table earlier in the week following his massive crash at Les Gets World Cup.
Overall, it was great to see so many smiling faces at the races, I was starting to wonder if there was still the same appetite for British racing as there was in the past and the 289 entries showed that there was. It would be great to see lots of these at the national DH races as well, with the next one up at Innerleithen on 7/8 August. Shoutout to Pearce Cycles putting on a flawless event, long live British racing.