Rich Abbott

At the end of April the CTC, Britain's national cyclist organisation held their annual awards and Aston Hill Chairman Rich Abbott received an award for his contributions to Aston Hill Mountain Bike Club.

I went for a ride at Aston and hoped to have a chat with Rich but was told he was busy with a new shovel building a new corner on DH4.

Luckily I was able to catch up with him at the end of the day and found out a bit about what he does for the club and what the future holds for Aston Hill.

"I was always mad about riding as a kid and never really stopped. I used to race endurance XC and started riding Aston Hill during the foot and mouth outbreak as it was the only XC venue still open."

In 2007 it looked like Aston Hill would be shut down but Rich decided to put up a fight: " I approached the FC about forming a club to run Aston and Ian Warby who ran Aston Hill for years put my name forward.

"Now I spend about nine hours a week working to keep the place open. There's loads planned for the future of Aston Hill.

"I want to rebuild the 4x track and give it a start ramp. Some dirt jumps would be nice and I want to re surface the XC track.

"There's plans for a new DH track and extensions on the XC loop. We may even hold a race series in 2010."

It's pretty cool to get an award from the CTC. It's nice to get a pat on the back every now and then."