What a week we had in the run up to the SDA Championships at Innerleithen. Torrential rain for 3 days, that almost washed away the cabin at the finish line. The car park was a foot and a half under water on Friday morning but somehow when Saturday came it was gone...

Even with the amount of rain the hill had during the week, the course was perfect. The 39 steps however is now more like the 139 steps as the race took it’s toll on the already well worn line down through the steep twist’s. A change from last years round was the start high up on Plora Rig, under the new starting shed. Outta the shed it was hammer down for the first tunnel section in the top woods, stick to the middle to left line as you caught the right hand berm into the section of roots and stumps before crossing the wall and onto the top of the quarry.

Over the quarry jump and land in the tunnel, with a tree in the middle of the line the best option here was to go right of the tree jump over some roots and then hard left into the top section of the 39 steps. The 39’s haven’t changed much except for the aforementioned wear and tear. Dropping out of the twist onto the bridle way the bus stops came fast as usual. 2 to the right and one to the left, then it onto that nearly new pedally section to avoid the Lycra boys on the xc course.Cross the second fire road and the speed is really picking up now as you un-weight and drop into “another brick in the wall” a couple of step downs later and you hit Hargreaves corner at speed through the fallen dyke (trans: stone wall) and back into the tight woods.

A few decision makers were up next…do you follow the well worn line around the trees or do you take the straight line risking a tangle with some unruly roots…the roots way was the faster as it made a complete straight line of it all. This section as always spat you out above the old mine field and onto the motorway with the hip jump. From here it was the same old Innerleithen bomb hole and all with the finish across the road and in the car park. A long course by Innerleithen standards, about 4:20 for the average rider.