SDA round 1

SDA round 1 – Pitfichie
Saturday started off with a long 4 hour drive up to the east of Scotland. Just short of Aberdeen comes a place of Pitfichie. A very open hill at the top gradually making its way into very dry rocky woods. The track was a pedalling one, starting with a very long sprint out of the start gate. Super fast with some really fun gaps to boost and some amazing corners to get loose on. It was really fun to ride and was super flat which wasn’t really that fun. It was on a run of slabs with some dry dirt in the gaps. The entrance into the woods was amazing to ride, there were 2 fast lines, a big huck off of a rock slab, that looked super rad but most people were casing it and losing all of their speed, I opted for the line just right of that which was a really rough but fast straight line through the section. Then there were some super dry turns after that which were fun to ride and got some good roost. Further down the course there were some good rough sections, which were difficult to carry speed but fun to ride. Towards the end there was an amazing transfer into the finish which was quite gnarly. I didn’t take many practice runs, just enough to learnt the course and to have some fun. After i had finished practice I went up the hill to watch all the other riders who were still out and about. I was seeing a lot of crash’s due to people being so tired. One of the best I saw was Matthew Scott ( Marin Matt) raging into a tree, and still managing to carry some good speed.

Sunday Race day

It was super hot, track was really dusty on Sunday morning practice. It was difficult to see, due to the shadows in the trees. So my practice run wasn’t very good but i was happy enough with it. On my first race run I was pedalling really hard up top, I carried loads of speed through the entrance to the woods. I was trying to push it a bit more. I pinned it through a one of the roughest rock gardens, it was super fun and wild. But about 25metres down the track from that I just couldn’t carry any speed. I was like a horse with no legs. Couldn’t get across them good or even smoothly. It’s my weakness, but i know there aren’t many tracks coming up that are as flat and rocky, so it should be good. My second race run was 1sec quicker. Same mistakes as my first run. I think i finished around the 13th mark, which isn’t what I’m hoping for. But I will see what round of the NPS will bring for me.

Michael Turnbull