Fat Face Urban Downhill Night Race

Edinburgh - 6th October 2007

Ben took part in the Fat Face Urban Downhill Night Race on the streets and alleyways of Edinburgh. With the race taking part all on a single day, 3 practice runs and 1 seeding run during daylight hours followed by 1 race run once darkness had fallen it was going to be a long day.

The course started up in the castle forecourt before turning right and onto the first flight of steps, no time for nerves now as you concentrate on control while heading towards a steel barrier at which point you must take a 90 degree right turn and head up a ramp onto a bridge to cross the road. Once over he bridge it is down the other side and a right turn onto the second and steepest flight of steps, no steel barrier at the next turn, just an 8 foot high stone wall. Round the corner and a short alleyway of stone flags with a small ramp to jump half way down before turning sharply left and onto the last flight of steps, made up of sets of steps varying in number, interspersed with short flat sections a metre or so long. Ben manualled down this section, a technique involving lifting the front wheel and riding down the steps on the back wheel only, this sets the bike up for the flat sections. It also sends the crowds wild! Now at the bottom of the hill it’s round the last corner and onto the dirt, pedalling as hard as you can onto the ramp of the car jump, over and down over the finish line.

All this is hard enough in daylight, but the racing didn’t start until after dark and with the crowd now counting several thousand the atmosphere was fantastic.

With a good field of 47 riders in the youth category Ben came home in 4th place in a time of 54.3 seconds.