Aston Hill - Eastern and Central Championships

Aston Hill - Eastern and Central Championships

Noshy and I went up to Aston hill this weekend just gone for the Eastern and Central Championships. It was a wicked weekend in all. We got there for a bit of practise on Saturday to replenish last year’s memories of the course. Noshy was no different to his normal self, 9,999 runs down the hill and displaying his big grin all the way. It was really dusty and a newly built corner was holding up well but catching a few racers out. The dust was well up to the spokes when hitting it with some pace.
Here’s the GoPro, helmet cam video of a full run down at the end of the day;

Aston Hill 423 track GoPro head cam with Harry Molloy from Harry Molloy on Vimeo.

After practise rumours started to spread about the weather expected for Sunday. What had been a hugely dry and dusty track all day was already being dampened by everyone’s spirits as it was expected to rain at 7am race day morning.
Josh got very excited at the B&B lady later that evening as she explained that next to us was a highly recommended Indian restaurant. The only thing was I got bullied into getting a different curry from my normal, not hot and apparently not manly enough, Chicken Korma.

When we got back to the B&B we watched the video I had taken of the track to revise our plans for the morning.

When the morning came around, to our delight, the weather wasn’t looking too bad at all. That soon changed though by race runs. It was about 10mins before it was time for Josh to take his run and it began spitting and you could smell the rain in the air. The ground was damp as josh came through but he was looking strongest and smoothest of the juniors. He smashed everyone in his category by 7 seconds... not a bad margin on a minute 10second track! Phil had smashed it in the youth category too so it was looking good for team Madison/Saracen.

It had gone from damp to river like conditions when I went for my run. A storm had been going for a good 20 minutes and was still going as I set off. No one was even getting close to Phil and Noshy’s times, which of all people to be leading the way I was happy for it to be my two teammates. However as I began my mission I couldn’t see anything but a blur and my handlebars. I drifted wide on a corner and managed to fly off a drop still very sideways. I hurt my hand and later found out I had popped my knuckle out. I was on an even harder mission now; the conditions were only going to get worse. After a brief chat with Dad I rode the rest of the way down to see what the track was like in the wet.

Everyone was in debate whether to do a second run after the storm, what would be the point? Josh made the sensible decision not to do a second run on the now chalky, greasy, very muddy and sharp flint ridden ground. Not many did, I went up though, cut spikes on, Neoguard on and tear off’s layered, prepared for what was to come.

I was currently sitting in last place, the only pressure I had was in my tyres. I managed to stick what I thought was a fairly good run down and somehow jumped into the lead, despite everyone else in elite going slower. I was pretty chuffed with that... not to mention I would join Phil and Josh winning my category also. And just after this, I hear that Manon has just won Junior World Champs in Champery. What a way to out-do us!

Fort William is this weekend coming for the final BDS and as usual, I can’t wait!
Harry