Wales: Bala-A Race Weekend

On the 3rd and 4th of May I went to Bala in Wales for the Pearce Downhill Series, for my readers who don’t know what it is -The Pearce Downhill series is a series of events for Downhill Racing. A substantial hill is chosen, the race track marked out by yellow tape and poles, then dudes and ladies on downhill bikes ride down aiming to get the lowest time possible. Yes, they are fast, yes there are jumps, and yes there are crashes.

My brother and sister happen to partake in this sport and they were racing that weekend. I went to support them and enjoy the change of scenery (although it pretty much looks like where I live, it was a bit more epic). The hill that the riders would be racing racing down is situated on the beginning of a closed valley with only a scattering of houses and a waterfall at the end.

 

Some of the campers, nope, that isn’t the race hill.

Saturday is a practice day where the riders analyse the race track and race down it in preparation for the actual Race on Sunday. The weather was as expected, no rain on Saturday but it was cloudy and there was some humidity to the atmosphere. We set up a Gazebo tent where we could chill and sleep since we got up quite early to leave the house.