2008 SDA, Round 4, Ae Forest

17th August 2008


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By Alasdair MacLennan

Is that tan or mud staining you have on you? It may not have been quite as wet as many feared but the local river was high and the track was somewhat sloppy for the first half of Saturday practice. Ae Forest almost seemed to be the poor relation after an action packed SDA season, filled already with some seriously technical and challenging courses.

However, getting down to it, you so click into the groove and start to enjoy yourself despite or more likely, because of the slippery track keeping you on your toes.

The SDA series has for a long time now had a reputation for being no nonsense, using great tracks and having a great atmosphere. So far this year we have had the ultra challenging Glencoe, the fast and brutal Fort William and who can forget the greasy first round at Dunkeld or the dusty but oh so steep Aberfeldy. Ae Forest may return things back to the more traditional scene of a race course; narrow, flowing and jumps. Each race has its own unique character and that is what makes the series so brilliant for so many riders. If you don’t like one track then you are sure to like the others. Ae has hardly changed in recent years and needs little introduction. Starting atop a windswept hill, you ride a mix of virtually every trail style from off camber to tight and rooty to rocky and then on the lower reaches, man made sections of doubles, berms and tabletops and more greasy singletrack. Short it may be but it’s still a track you have to be on it for the duration if you are planning on the podium, especially with the SDA tweaks taking you on and off the main line to keep things lively.

As things dried out over Saturday, the grip came out and riders started to get in tune with the course. That didn’t stop crashes aplenty and many riders suffered the consequences of overcooking things with the resultant trip into the gloop (or A&E). Chris Coates was an early casualty when he broke his Scaphoid clean in half after crashing hard shortly after the two huge berms near the bottom. Dan Millard followed on the Sunday with a huge crash on the Elevator, leaving him nursing a broken collarbone. Game over for them.

On Saturday night it rained. Hard. This meant that what had been a nice, solid and grippy track last thing on Saturday was back to being sloppy and wet but with wind, things soon started to dry out and by the first runs things weren’t too bad at all.

In the Elite category, Joe Barnes was in third place for MTBCut.tv, fresh from his Maiden NPS win the previous week. In second for Alpine Bikes was Fergus Lamb, managing to stay upright this weekend more successfully than at Moelfre (take a look on MTBCut.tv at the Moelfre vid!). However, taking the win for Mojo Orange was Ben Cathro, managing to shave eight seconds from his first run time to produce a 2:13.

In Expert, Simon Cortis of Tricky/777 Racing nabbed third spot on the podium with a 2:26. Liam Little of Solid/Electric/Knox finished just ahead on a 2:24 for second whilst Pete Williams took the win with a margin of 5 seconds having shaved half a second from his first time on the second run.

In Juniors, the first two places were less than two seconds apart. In third was Andrew Philips for Reverse Components with a 2:26. Riding for Ancillotti to second place was Alastair Wilson with a 2:21, leaving Solid’s Ben Ineson to take the win with his 2:20.

Juveniles saw Greg Gilfillan taje third with a 2:44 with Kona Grassroot’s Joe Connell in second on 2.39. However, taking the win with a lead of over 8 seconds was Fraser McGlone with a 2:31.

Masters now and Phil McLaren was the man in third with a 2:36. Andrew Buddin took second with a 2:33 for Descend Hamsterly whilst in the top slot was the on form Mark Wilcox, riding for Thebreakpad.com.

In Seniors, Ross Anderson took the win for MSC Bikes/Descent-Gear with a 2:23 whilst in second was Callum Gault and Billy Campbell in third with 2:27 and 2:23 respectively.

Kem Avis was the third placed man in the Veteran category with a 2:55. Steve Felstead took second with a 2:54 for Ticket2Ridebc.com/Descent Gear whilst taking the win with a clear lead was Alastair MacLennan with a 2:34 for Off Beat Bikes.

With a compact category, we saw Bex Reilly take third place for Castle Douglas Cycle Centre. In second was Naomi Williamson for the Highland Bicycle Company whilst Sarah Newman took the win for Balfa UK.

Youth times this weekend were as impressive as ever. Mark Scott took third with a 2:26, just 0.4s back from MTBCut.tv’s Lewis Buchanan in second. Taking yet another win was Arran Gannicott of Santa Cruz with a 2:23.

So that was it for Round 4 of the 2008 SDA series. Moving into September sees a busy few weekends. Before the next (and final) round of the SDA at Innerleithen on the 14th September there is the No Fuss endurance Downhill event at Fort William on the 7th and for which there are still spaces available if you fancy seeing just how durable your body and bike are on the brutal course. Following on from those is the final round of the NPS on the 21st. Keep an eye on the forum pages as always for updates.