Sheffield University Cycling Club
We Ride Bikes

Plonked right in the middle of the varsity fixtures, BUCS Downhill Championships were all the way down in Rheola, South Wales last weekend, so UOSCC gathered a team together and made the 4 hour journey down there to show some Sheffield steel!

We set off Thursday night, armed with enough spare tyres to build a go-kart track, in a hire van and a car. Setting up tents was interesting enough in the dark, then an early night for all in time for practice the next day.

After a short drive to the course on Friday morning we got an opportunity to walk the course. We soon realized this was no tame track- rocks, roots, flat out sections, steep sections and huge ruts, as well as being massively long.

Uplift on Friday was slow going, with huge uplift queues. However the hilarity of first run down seemed all worth it- people crashing everywhere whilst Shef Uni held their lines and looked composed first run down. Training at local steep and rooty tracks had paid off and this track was not hugely technically challenging for the team- the main thing was the length of the track and the speed of the top section.

Saturday morning practice ran a lot smoother and the uplift queues seemed to magically vanish, although the realization you had to qualify top 100 out of 400 in the country to do a race run was dawning on a lot of people. Team Sheffield looked majorly dapper in their new team kit supplied by Optic and Leisure Lakes, even had a comment from the organizers how good it looked!

Came down to qualifying, and Duncan Philpott was up first, and went out with a bang- crashing on the first corner, not a great start.

Downhill Captain Danny Whitehead was up next and put in a flying run of 4.07, and set the benchmark for the rest of the Uni team and looked good to qualify for the top 100.

Freshers Jonny Chorley and Lloyd Woolacott were seeded 3^rd and 4^th for uni team- expecting big things from Jonny Chorley after his loose run at Varsity downhill the previous weekend, but he just couldn’t hold it together and crashed, missing out on the top 100 qualifiers. Lloyd however managed to deliver after looking pinned in practice and laid down a 4.02 to make it into the top 100.

Captain Dave Camus was up, and with the 75 plate should really be qualifying- he pulled out all the stops to smash it and get a 3.52, throwing a cheeky whip in there for good measure.

Finally it was old boy Andrew Fowles turn down the hill- with a top 20 place last year big things were expected of the quiet lad, and he delivered with a 3.53 to put him into 46^th quali place.

So at the end of qualifying, 4 Shef Uni boys out of 6 go through to race runs.

Danny Whitehead was down first for uni, qualifying 78^th, but just didn’t have the strength to hold on and put a super fast race run together, coming down with a 4.11 and into a respectable 82^nd

Lloyd Woolacott was up next but a crash on the top section meant he couldn’t regain that time back and went down with a 4.14 and straight onto the beers for the last two boys coming down the hill.

Andrew Fowles was the penultimate Shef uni hope, putting together a smooth as silk run to take 8 seconds off his qualifying run to come down with a 3.45 and into 40^th

Captain Dave Camus was last down the hill for Sheffield Uni, and put a flying run together (with a cheeky whip for the crowds at the bottom) and smashed 11 seconds off his qualifying run to grab a 3.41- into 33^rd and just pipping Hallam top boys Oli Lynch and Jonny Congreve by 3 seconds.

A highly successful weekend of racing for Shef Uni- Came 11th out of 31 uni’s too, and beat hallam!  A big shout to Mike MacDonald who came along to be our marshal for us, and generally just lend a helping hand- couldn’t have done it without him.

The BUCS weekend fun wasn’t over yet though, as we’d booked a campsite near the Forest of Dean to ride on the Sunday as well. The weather was glorious, and the carpark at the trail centre was rammed full of 40 year old weapons on bikes that were way too clean.

A chilled session was definitely in order after two hard days racing, so Duncan whacked his camera out, and we found a corner to try and get bars down on- some people a little too eagerly..

We also found a couple of corners to play on and try and get a banging photo- came out with this cracker-

I can safely say that BUCS weekend has been the best weekend of riding bikes so far this year- top quality riding, loads of banter, dusty trails and all with the University of Sheffield Cycling Club!

Just as the dust settled from the Downhill on Saturday, the XC was upon us! With Uni going into this 1-0 up, spirits were high, and competition fierce. The track was kindly taped by Robin and Duncan earlier in the day, a combination of flat out fireroad, technical flats and climbs, and some flowing descents.

To start off the event, a mass start ‘Le-Mans’ style start was decided on- a short run to your upside-down bike, grab it and you’re on.  Arthur Kershaw from Hallam managed to get to his bike first, and take an early lead, until he missed the first turning off the main track into the woods and instantly lost it.

The first lap was tight and flat out for most people, with Tom Stewart (Uni) taking an early lead, a place where he could gain time for the rest of the race, with Ross Phelps (Uni) taking up 2nd. Lee Hawden (Hallam) was looking good after completing a 4 hour enduro a few weeks ago, this was going to be a walk in the park for him- he was sitting in the front pack most of the race.

Mike Beasant, who runs for GB orienteering, put in a solid time, but it wasn’t quite enough to get into the top 4 riders. Duncan Philpott, who seems to spend more time behind a camera than on a bike, flew round the course to go into 3rd Uni seed, putting in solid laps.

With everyone over the line (for the expection of a few DNF’s) the results were totted up- Uni took the win again, taking them 2-0 in the 5 event cycling varsity!

So what does 2-0 mean? Essentially, we’ve still only secured 0.5 points- BUT we only need to win one more event out of the remaining 3 to take home cycling varsity and 1.5 points for Uni. The big question is, can Uni take the full 5 events and go for the clean sweep, 5-0, and take home 2 full points for Uni? We’ll see at the next event, the Hill Climb- Wednesday the 21st March.

Lastly, just to say a big thanks to everyone that came, showed support for their Uni, and took part. A big turnout and a positive atmosphere makes these events a success. See you at the  Hill Climb!

The 2nd part of this weekend double trip was Lee Quarry XC trails- with warns of snowy tracks we were a bit dubious about going, but figured we’d still have a fun time whatever the weather!

Getting out of the carpark up the hill was interesting, a river of sheet ice awaited us, and epic challenge arose to how far you could get up it without binning it- smooth cadence and minimal turning was the key!

We soon hit proper trails, with them being covered in a layer of ice and snow. Going was slow to start, and then eventually the snow and ice subsided slightly so everyone could pick up a bit of speed and really start to enjoy the trails.

We then found the small freeride area, with a number of small downhill style trails to play on- it seemed that on most of these the snow and ice had gone so a lot of time was spent here playing on them. Properly good fun, berms and jumps galore, pumping for speed.

UOSCC does Lee Quarry on pinkbike.com

Lee quarry is definitely somewhere UOSCC want to go again, albeit without the snow and ice!

Yet another mates race in Wharncliffe! Competing in the last Urban X race was a right good laugh, so I tried to get a few uni LADS on the bandwagon and go to tear it up!

The 8.30 start was a killer, with Myself, Harry ‘HT Sauce’ Tate, Arthur Kershaw, Danny ’4some’ Whitehead and my little hardtail ripper brother Joe Camus all meeting at the Arts Tower. All apart from me in fact were reppin hardtail pride! Lloyd Woolacott was nowhere to be seen, so after waiting until 9, we set off to Wharncliffe.

Urban X was on XC descent this time round, so after trekking through to the far end of Wharncliffe after riding from Sheffield, Team Shef Uni/Team Camus Racing just made it before the deadline of 10am and signed on.

The course looked horrifically muddy after rain overnight, and being so late meant only Dave and Joe got a practice run in, with the rest of the boys hitting it blind. In the case of Harry Tate, who had never been to Wharncliffe before, was definitely blind!

After racing kicked off, guess who turned up but Lloyd Woolacott! The classic story of going out for a quiet drink and not knowing how you got home, Lloyd was a true trooper riding there probably still a little drunk on a full downhill bike.

Danny Whitehead was down first, and went down hard into the mud on his first run, coming with a time of 2.33, and his second run improving on that and getting a 2.03, very respectable for a hardtail.

Lloyd went next, being quite hungover didn’t manage to pedal much which was crucial on this muddy course, so put in a time of 2.03, and improved on that by pedalling a bit on his second run, gaining a 1.57 gaining him a 13th place!

Arthur was up, and probably the only person on a dirt jump bike- these Hallamers have no common sense! He put in a solid time though with those miniscule bars, and did Hallam proud with a 2.12

Harry Tate was looking butter smooth on his hardtail, and really showing a lot of these full sus boys how its done on an XC hardtail, going 2nd in the hardtail category by 0.1 of a second with a 1.57.83

Joe Camus was reppin’ his battered hardtail, and looking incredibly wild as always- we thought that him being singlespeed would be a huge disadvantage on this course, but he managed to put out a 1.57.70, taking the 1st place in the hardtail category by a mere 0.1 seconds, with a fair few crashes in his race run. Watch out for this kid, he’s a complete nutter.

Last down the hill was Dave Camus, big expectations after coming 2nd in the last Urban X, managed a 1.43 on his first run, securing 4th place, and smashing another 3 seconds off that to come away with a 1.40 and 4th place overall, only beaten by Jack Bower, Tom Kelly and Josh Lewis.

Overall, a good day- 2 podium spots for Team Camus, and 3 top 15 finishes for Team Sheffield Uni!

Thanks to Trevor and crew for organising it, and Filip Rhys for the photos.