DH Riders in action in Slovenia - 1st round World Cup

As the build up to the World Championships in Val di Sole continues, a number of Irish DH riders made their way to Maribor in Slovenia for the 1st round of the Nissan World Cup. Most of the boys from Dublin and Cork chose to drive over as did Irish Elite Champion Ben Reid from Newtownards. Irish Junior Champion Ewan Doherty (Wheelbase/Wiki Wheels), Stevo Beattie (Real Cycles) and Dan Wolfe from Dublin chose what seemed to be the more sensible option- to fly.

Whilst the overland trip was not without incident the fly boys didn�t get off to their best start when they were hit for excess baggage charges at Belfast International. Your normal baggage allowance is 20kg. You pay an additional fee for sports luggage which only actually gives you an additional 12kgs before you are faced with very expensive excess baggage charges. The bikes and bike bags weigh close to 32kgs on their own � so beware! These guys are not factory riders and in the end most of their spares and tools were left behind to reduce the excess charges. It�s a bit disappointing particularly when Belfast was the only airport to implement the charge. Rant over.

The track in Maribor was fast and extremely dry and unforgiving. The fly boys it has to be said, with no spares, were a little more reserved than normal on their practice runs, as the race run was the obvious highlight of the weekend and with no spares to play with�..you get the picture. Over 320 riders from all over the world took part in the semi finals which is in effect the qualifying race for the final run when only the fastest 80 riders are allowed to race with the worlds 20 top ranked riders making up part of the 80.

Ben Reid was the only Irish rider to make the final 80 and he suffered from a few mishaps over the weekend to finish 66th. It was however not all doom and gloom as the quality of the field is virtually as good as a World Champs. Belfast rider Ewan Doherty was the second fastest Irish rider and missed out on qualifying by a mere 3 seconds, finishing 14th in Juniors and 112th overall in a field of 320+. Ulster based rider Stevo Beattie had a mixed weekend as he was going well in practice only to crash out in his race run. Of the other Irish contingent Dan Wolfe was the closest to qualifying and was only a second behind Ewan. The next World Cup race is at the end of May in Andorra and a number of Irish riders including Ben, Ewan, Stevo and Andrew Godfrey will be in action again�the latter three flying with the same airline!