The weekend of 18th/19th of November saw Ben travel to Hamsterley forest to compete in round 1 of the Descend Downhill Winter Race Series.

Practice day on Saturday was run in far from ideal conditions, with high winds, rain and at one point sleet to contend with, making what was already a technical track a lot harder to master, with everyone at some point coming off their bikes.

After an evenings frantic work cleaning both bike and kit it was back up north with a surprise waiting for all who ventured, ice and lots of it, this was going to be fun, luckily for the riders the track did not seem too affected, so after a change of tyres, off with the trusty High Rollers and on with the never tried before Swamp Things, then after a couple of practice runs racing got underway.

From the start its round the first bend and into the bombhole, then left and into the tight root filled section moving the bike deftly between the trees and back out onto the open track, down a couple of drops into the switchbacks and over the 30 foot long tabletop then down to the road gap at the halfway point.

Now the real hard work starts with the new sections of track cutting up in the sticky, muddy conditions tight through the trees and getting progressively steeper all the time. Concentration needs to be high here as you zig zag your way to the bottom with your vision getting worse as the mud flicks up onto the goggles. Round the last few corners then its down the last drop and over the jump and on to the finish line.

With a first race run time of 2min.28.602secs, betred by a second run time of 2.20.230 Ben finished in 6th place in youth category out of 32 riders and 18th place overall out of 150 riders.