It’s showtime,  round 1 of the Saracen British Downhill Series is on at Combe Sydenham Country Park in Somerset.

Words and photos: Iain Woodley

I finished work at 5 and pootled over for a walkabout and see who has turned up so far.  No track time on Friday but early birds get to spend time scoping out line choice.  The campsite was filling up,  I found a quiet spot, parked up and went walkabout.

Found signing in and Manon Carpenter,  got roped into helping Si do some taping and take the yellow windsock up to the field jumps.

As we head up the hill we bump into Team CRC,  Sam, Nigel and Matt,  i didn’t think Nigel was racing as he wasn’t in Vets cat,  he is racing and is playing in expert cat.

Then we bump into Team GT.

Wind sock planted and we carry on checking taping.

The Face book spoof shot of the super pro line….  the ramp taped in was on top of the kicker,  it’s staying where it is for the racing 🙂

Met a few faces on the way up,  riders from all over the country,   team Rock Gardener from Yorkshire,  with a few more team mates down in the campsite,  all looking forward to uplift kicking off Saturday morning.

With taping checked we came back down,  Si zipped off to check on other things,  the smell from the burger wagon reminded me i was hungry and it was getting dark,  so i wandered off home.

All the pro-bikes where under wraps and being prepped for practice,  as i walked through the pro pit i could hear “snip”  “snip”  “snip”  Team GT are customising tyres,  perhaps the suspect weather forecast has a hand in this.

That’s the scene a few hours ago,  heavy rain on Thursday night,  track is dry today, changeable weather for the weekend.

Hopefully i will be about Saturday afternoon,  try and get some riders and bikes,  maybe an update Saturday night.

Ace.