With true mountainboard competition luck, after 3 weeks or near perfect weather, it decided to turn bad just days before the competition. But the show must go on, and we were not to be put off by a spot of rain (Well, a few days worth of spots, but hey).
Due to the late arrival of my brother (Owen), we made the decision to get an early(ish) night and get up at some un-godly hour and make it up to The Edge in time for practice and ready for the scheduled start of the competition.
So as 5:00 am struck our alarms sounded, up for a quick bite to eat, do a final bit of packing and then off on a nice drive to Shropshire by 6:00.
As we arrived, the sun was shining, there were a few merry Mountainboarding faces around and it looked set to be a good days riding, despite the horrific forecast! The track was wet, but ridable... And could only get better the more it was ridden.
With the good weather still with us, a prompt start was made to the proceedings and the qualifying races began! The new format seemed to be well received by all concerned and made for some great racing! It ran through all categories in order, finishing with the Pro's each time, where the hottest racing was taking place! Scrub Team Riders Laurie Barnes, James Chapman and yours truly all placed well in the qualification races, seeding us well for the forthcoming races!
After a nice long lunch break (and a BBQ cooked by Nath), courtesy of the lovely British weather, the racing was set to begin! The track was very wet at this point, and despite the additions of several bags of concrete it was more like sliding than riding! But we had all come here for one reason, to race, and we weren't about to let the weather stop us!
So the racing kicked off, starting with the under 16's were there was some tight racing! But Leo Gorman all the way from Ireland seemed be pulling away from the competition, and eventually came through on top with the rest of the field close on his heels!
There were only 4 ladies competing, but they put on as good a show as everyone else and had some close races. But it was another member of the irish crew, Lisa Mclernon, that came out on top, closely followed by Sam Frith, Becky Frost and Jess Gatley.
Next up were the masters, showing that they can still ride us hard us us young whipper snappers! The ATBAUK's very own Woodie Wright finish with top honours after some close racing, with Rich Sykes and Lee cambell coming through in 2nd and 3rd, good job old chaps!
The Open Am class were next, pulling out the stops and pushing each other with some racing the Pros could be envious of! Jake Goggin showed everyone how it was done, sliding through into first, with Zak Cambell topping his Dad Lees position by one and Nial Po-Fo coming through in 3rd.
Finally, the class everyone had been waiting for, the PRO'S!! The competition was hot with top riders of the likes of Pete Tatham, Matt Brind, Simon Lefebvre from France, Joel Treliving and the list goes on, so even racing on this soaked track was hot! After 4 rounds of heats it was done to the final, unfortunately no Scrub riders were present though, but it was a close race! Matt Brind took the glory with as storming a run as could be had in the conditions, with Tom Reese and Simon Lefebvre brining up 2nd and 3rd.
With that done, everyone evacuated the muddy hillside. Making for the relative comfort of the tents, with all fingers crossed for good weather at Round 2!
Have a look at the pics
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