AlpineBikes Winter Race Rd2

The second round of the Innerleithen Winter race series run by Mike Marsden’s Borderline-Events and AlpineBikes was held in what you could call Spring like conditions, gone was the horrible wet muddy hillside of round one. This weekend saw the riders treated to a race on the Gold Run with a few little sections thrown in and bits taped a bit wider for a choice of line. The section that threw a few riders was the bottom part as you came out the gully – did you huck the gap or just take it smooth? Well for some that tried to huck it and failed well it was going to be a big fail, quite a few spills their over the weekend.

After his win in the last round Chainreaction new kid Lewis Buchanan again showed his world class by taking the Junior win again, but this time in style. His first race run set the benchmark for the day by recording a sub 3 minute run which was to stay unbeaten as the fastest time of the day. Second place 11 seconds back went to Sunn Montgenevre WC team rider Joe Connell with MTB-Essentialls.com rider Chris Reynolds continuing to improve his form getting third place

Elite class rider Ruaridh Cunningham borrowed a bike from Steve at I-Cycles and entered this weekend to take the win and the second fastest time of the day just 2.5 seconds back of Lewis’s time. Perth City Cycles man Fergus Lamb was 1.5 seconds back in second place with I-Cycles Pistol Pete Williams in third.  Ruaridh jets of to California next week to meet up with his new Maxxis/Rockymountain team to pick up his new bike and kit where he’ll also meet up with his new French teammate and World Cup champion Sabrina Jonnier.

Expert class was won by All Terrain’s Joe Flanagan, Devinci rider Dave Duggan took second with Rob Young riding for Crosstrax in third.

The juvenile class this weekend was won by Frazer McCubbing by huge 17 seconds over Nial Oxley with Andrew Dorrit just 2 seconds back on Nial.

Youth rider George Gannicott and his brother Arran have just secured a deal with Bikesoup/Gravity to ride Transition 450′s for the season to come. On race day though George was the one who really flying, he won the youth class by almost 7 seconds over second place I-Cycles rider Ross Wilcox. wheelbase.co.uk rider Dan Farley got third spot on the podium.

Lewis McLaughlin got his second win of the series in the senior class this weekend over a charging Gary Neale in second, and after a long break from racing Thomas Pollock returned to the podium with a third place.

Uplift Scotland’s owner and rider David Tallontire took the Masters win over Jed Whitefield in second with third place on the podium going to Bikeactive’s Jamie Smith.

The Veteran men’s win this weekend went to Nukeproofs rider Alastair MacLennan with a recovering Glentress Rider Neil Wilson 8 seconds back in second place, Balf/Foes man Rich Simpson getting third.

With only 2 Elite women riders her today it was Bex Reilly who got the top spot on the podium over Fox rider Angela Coates

There were 6 Senior women racing and it was Emma McRobb who took the win over Sara-Jane Rennie, Jenna Woodruff got the third step on the podium.

The final round of the series will be held on April 2nd and 3rd so come along and enjoy the racing.

Full results and all the good photos from the weekend are here at RootsandRain