Marc Beaumont has won the opening round of the 2012 BDS in Combe
Sydenham with nearly a three second lead over Josh Bryceland! Crowd
favourite Brendan Fairclough crossed the line in third on board his new
Scott downhill bike with Matt Simmonds in fourth and Rich Thomas rounding up
the podium in fifth spot.
Combe Sydenham was last used as a venue by the NPS (National Point
Series) back in 2004. The new track was purpose built by local riders on
private land kindly lent to the BDS for the race, proved a huge hit
with both racers and spectators. Granted it looks a bit dead in the
picture below, but Bryceland was the penultimate man down, and everyone
had moved down to the finish area…
Matti Lehikoinen added a touch of international flavour to the day
finishing 19th in his first race back since his injury at the end of the
season last year. In fact all the CRC/Nukeproof boys had top 20
finishes, including team manager Nigel Page who won the veterans
category, ahead of Jason Carpenter.
Elite Men Top Five
1 Marc Beaumont 2:25.976
2 Josh Bryceland 2:28.902
3 Brendan Fairclough 2:30.035
4 Matt Simmonds 2:30.426
5 Rich Thomas 2:30.458
In the women’s race all eyes were firmly on Rachel Atherton and Manon
Carpenter. With Rachel having missed out on the opening round of the
World Cup in Pietermaritzburg this was their first race together in
2012. Rachel’s brother Gee may have missed out on racing due to his
broken tibia, but he was on his crutches by the side of the track to
give Rachel his support. But it was Manon Carpenter who took her first
BDS victory, beating Rachel by just over half a second.
Elite Women Top Five
1 Manon Carpenter 2:51.960
2 Rachel Atherton 2:52.594
3 Jess Stone 3:03.585
4 Angela Coates 3:17.421
5 Emma Wareham 3:17.759
Full results can be found on
here on roots and rain.
