BUSA 07 aftermath

First day back in the real world today after the Student Mountain Bike Champs in Dunkeld. I'll give you a quick run down now rather than waiting a month for it to come out in issue#2.

Was yet again an amazing weekend of partying, riding, heckling and pissing about. Stanny and Sue M won the individual downhill and Adam Ross and Meggie Bichard won XC champs.... I'm not sure the 'sport' results are up yet due to "plonkers who raced with DH and other assorted numbers on"...i know Stanny won the mens (again) though. Uni wins went to Leeds(xc) and Cardiff(DH).

The track was bonkers and absolutely filled with rocks top to bottom...100% all the way down, even beginning with a steep little rock roll. If you've not ridden the Big D it's definately worth a trip, you'll come home feeling a damn site better on your bike!

Friday was DH practice and my first run on the new coaches and trucks uplift system. Things ran a little slowly but were generally ok. First walk down the track had a lot of people scratching their heads at how they were even going to ride down the rock sections. Was a bit of a relief to actually get on the bikes and get riding...loads of crashes and loads of unpretty riding followed but I think most people coped pretty well in the end.

Saturday was DH race day and a lot of people(me) still weren't sure what was going to happen when they started their run. Again, Stanny took the win with a storming fast 2.12.033 beating last years winner Phil Shucksmith by a good 7 seconds...some of his lines were reeediculous. Race pace runs claimed a few victims with one kid taking a brake lever to the thigh and another with a busted pelvis... I was 'lucky' enough to see the brake kid having his trousers cut off... did nothing for my confidence. Both are apparently still alive thanks to the Extreme Medics.

After the usual fire, Butane, beer, mud party of Saturday night it was XC time. I didn't get an entry but apparently the track was a bit of slog. Lots of fire road up, a dodgy traverse and then a savage rock section down the DH track to the finish... As usual, lots of 'encouragement' from the crowd and more crashes than you would ever imagine. Stanny won the piss about 'sport' cat riding a 66 in his camp orange Mojo xc kit... again by (literaly) a mile. Everyone else battered there way down the track, doing there best to negotiate and SDA downhill track section on completely innapropriate bikes. I don't care what people say, XC is f-cking gnarly. When you see a guy writhing on the floor after taking a stump to his lycra clad butt hole you KNOW your watching something pretty savage!

Anyway, you get the picture... Was another amazing weekend and a complete reminder of why I love riding my bike. Was a hell of a long drive but worth every minute (made all the more bareable by some hilarious/soul destroying 20 questions rounds). Cheers to Chris and Team Bath for getting me there. Your all beautiful.

A million and one thanks also to Paddy at BUSA who makes the event possible every year near single handed. We left him on Sunday jumping inside the skip to try and pack everyone's shit inside it...the guys a legend. Rally round him for '08 and help him out! Thanks also to everyone who made the event happen - check out Paddy's post here for the list.

My gallery of pics here.

Some quality images courtesy of Oke at KCHUK photography will be in Wideopen issue2.