Marc Beaumont Wins Halo BDS Round One!

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 dh bike with Matt Simmonds in fourth and Rich Thomas rounding up the podium in fifth spot.

Marc Beaumont, fastest in qualifying, fastest in his race run.

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…

Josh Bryceland storming down the 'motorway' section

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.

The road gap halfway down had most riders hucking and hoping. Not this guy!

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