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Round 4 of the Lloyds National Downhill Series headed to One Giant Leap Llangollen for sunshine, dust and the infamous steeps.
Words & Photos by Jez Prout & Dave Price
Llangollen is undoubtedly one of the steepest hills in the series and, with its demanding tracks criss-crossing the hill, it’s a daunting venue when first looking up from the Tan-y-Graig Farm camping field. The views from the top are equally impressive, the start hut looking out across the town and towards the Clwydian peaks that make the Dee Valley National Landscape so special.
Gravity Events and The One Giant Leap team made an early decision to run ‘Ride Portugal’ for the visiting National Series and set about sculpting a series of updates to the legendary track, renowned since its opening in 2019 for honing the skills of a generation of world class downhill racers.
The first sector, perhaps most notable for its huge gap jumps along the top ridge, measured exactly one kilometer and would later be designated a “holeshot” sector, the fastest to cross the first timing mat in race runs would take the holeshot honours, regardless of age, gender or category. That gusting wind, constantly changing in strength and direction, would likely help some but hinder others along that ridgeline.
After the sun-bleached top section, sector 2 brings a rapid change with the track twisting its way through tight switchbacks into the trees and then a steep boarded shoot drops into a deep and very dark gulley; it’s a steep section, techy, just as loose as anywhere and now, with the dust hanging in the canopy of trees, almost impossible to see.
The final sector is all about carrying speed, there’s a flow to it with jumps, gaps, step downs and only a handful of meaningful corners in which to gain time so it comes down to bravery as you try to clear the triple, hang on around the famous oak tree, send the last drop before a tuck for the flat-out run to the line.
It should come as no surprise that the scorched landscape and bone dry soil made the track fast, dusty, loose and ever-more blown-out before practice had even finished. The wind, gusting hard at times, was a Godsend to those closely following others, clearing the dust clouds before their arrival in the turn, but it was also an unexpected nightmare for some on the bigger jumps as plenty of riders took crashes on otherwise unchallenging features.
Saturday morning practice was a challenging session with plenty of red flags, some unfortunate casualties, lots of broken tape and a track change making it tough for the riders to get a clean lap. With the queue at the top regularly in excess of 120 riders, track conditions would change dramatically between runs, holes appearing seemingly out of nowhere, some of the newer berms blowing-out and all meaning careful line choice and maximum attention was essential for a quick run.
Come the afternoon seeding session all the racers had become more familiar with the conditions and, with 30second gaps between riders, there was less traffic, less dust and thankfully far less red flag interruptions than in earlier sessions. Elite and expert riders would need to wait for Sunday morning for their seeding however the 200+ riders from the youth, junior and veteran categories laid it on the line trying to seed as high as possible for the following days race runs.
The action got going early-doors on Sunday, the Pearce Cycles uplift “Landies” relentlessly grinding their way up the access track carrying waves of riders to the start of what would quickly become a hectic 3 hour practice session, with Elite seeding following shortly before lunch.
Seeding can be a lottery at the best of times, a mistake from the rider ahead could easily force a yellow flag caution or even a red flag re-run. Eventual winners of their individual categories, Jess Stone and Megan Horne would both be held on track by the same red flag in seeding and, having crossed the beam on the first two sectors of the track, would not get to post a full “official” seeding time. Fortunately this hiccup appeared to hamper neither of them on their way to victory in race runs, whilst Adam Brayton suffered the opposite fate, overall fastest in seeding only for a mechanical to rob him of a result in the men’s Elite race runs, perhaps you need to have lady luck on your side.
Elite Men’s winner Dom Platt managed to improve on his second placed seeding to take overall victory and the fastest time on the hill with a 2:32.519s some 2.00s ahead of Forbidden Bikes Joseph Smith in second and a further half second ahead of Josh Turner in 3rd.
A fantastic return to form from Jess Stone saw her take the Elite Female category by just 0.241s ahead of Becci Skelton in second place and Emily Carrick-Andersson 1.400s back in third.
Lucas Pilling would take a stunningly close victory in the male Expert category by just 0.078s Finn Clark, indeed his winning time of 2:40.074 would have been quick enough to place him 6th in Elites. Perhaps disappointed to miss the win by such a small margin, Flynn Drelincourt did manage to bag himself a fresh set of rubber courtesy of Maxxis tyres after setting the quickest Holeshot time of the weekend with an impressive 14.174s through the top 1km section of track, beating current WorldCup and former World Champion riders to take his prize.
The Simpson brothers (Ty & Reid) have been on an absolute blinder all year and have taken nothing but gold across the 2026 series taking the top step at every race. One more round to go at Fort William to make it the perfect season for the Simpsons.
Annie Dennis dominated the female 15-16yr category, winning by a massive 11.4 seconds and, as if that wasn’t enough, she capped off an incredible weekend with the announcement she’d signed for SteamPunk Downhill Army. Congratulations Annie. The future looks bright.
Elite Men
- 1st – Dom Platt 2:32.519
- 2nd – Joe Smith 2:34.569
- 3rd – Josh Turner 2:35.034
- 4th – Sam Conroy 2:35.448
- 5th – Taylor Vernon 2:36.696
Elite Women
- 1st – Jess Stone 3:00.796
- 2nd – Becci Skelton 3:01.037
- 3rd – Emily Carrick-Anderson 3:02.514
Junior Men
- 1st – Elliot Smith 2:38.054
- 2nd – James Trowbridge 2:39.367
- 3rd – Osian Morris 2:40.462
- 4th – Zac Lomax 2:41.278
- 5th – Law Robertson 2:43.02
Junior Women
- 1st – Megan Horne 3:06.356
- 2nd – Willow Baker 3:13.410
- 3rd – Katie Allsop 3:24.674
