SDA DH Rd3, Innerleithen

Innerleithen played host to the 3rd round of the SDA series this weekend, which to some, is the home of downhill racing. The track used for this race was straightforward one line see how fast you can go Cresta track. It was obviously going to suite some but as early as Friday night some were moaning about it being to easy.  Well come Saturday morning the very top section was catching a few out, as it was still quite moist and slippy through off camber rooty section. The middle was running flat out dry and dusty with the bottom steep switch backs the same. The last steep section before the gully caused a few problems with the new berm blowing out every now and again. The roots were beginning to show and most people were just sliding down and using the berm to stop, from there it was a fast entry into the gully which didn’t suit if your suspension wasn’t set up for it as you’d be bucked off into the weeds as many riders found out.

Stevie Boyd

Sunday dawned and the sun had been replaced with overcast skies and a threat of rain, just a typical Scottish weekend then. Practice went smoothly only being interrupted once for a bit of track maintenance. Just before the race started the rain managed to make an appearance but this didn’t cause that much of a problem as it wasn’t too heavy.
After last weeks fair to middling result at Fort William’s World Cup Ruaridh Cunningham bounced back this weekend with a good solid 2nd place in the Elite class just a second back on MTB-Cut rider Joe Barnes with Fergus Lamb in 3rd.

Ruaridh Cunningham

Gary Forrest continued his come back to riding with a good 3rd place in the Expert class, which saw the top three only separated by less than a second. Dave Duggan took the win to continue his good form aboard the Devinci, Ben Hall had a few slips and slides to take second place.
Arran Gannicott also had a poor weekend at Fort William still suffering a shoulder injury, feeling a bit better this weekend he managed a third place behind Mark Turnbull with Mark Scott again pulling out another great run to take the win.

Daniel Carrigan

Crawford Carrick Anderson sent out a warning to the rest of the veteran class with a victory by a tad under 15 seconds over Neil Wilson in second place, Off Beat Bikes man Alastair MacLennan put in two race times almost identical to finish 16 seconds behind Crawfy.
Angela Coates had the biggest winning margin of the day beating Rosie Smith into second place by 25 seconds with Uplift Scotland’s Wendy Chambers taking 3rd place a further 13 seconds back on Rosie.

Joe barnes

Masters was a bit of an All Terrain Cycles show again with the same result as the previous round with the Whitfield bros taking 1st and 3rd place; Chris was the winner with Jethro in third. It was David Tallontire who split them up again by taking 2nd place for his Uplift Scotland team.
Shaun Conway took the senior win this weekend over Banbridge CC rider David Graham; All Terrain Cycles Joe Flanagan slipped his way into 3rd spot.

Joe Connell

Fraser McGlone again put in another great display taking the Youth win by almost 10 seconds over Alpine Bikes rider Joe Connell who this weekend was riding the new prototype Saracen DH bike which drew a lot of attention in the pit area. Rumour has it that this bike will be available at a RRP of £2k with boxxer teams. Brodie Hood took the 3rd spot on the podium.

New Saracen DH bike

Juvenile’s winner this weekend was Ae7 Bikes team rider Fraser McCubbing with a margin of 10 seconds over Drew Carters with Innes Graham in 3rd.

For a full run down on the results head over here FullResults