Danny Bradford @ Caersws round 1

Caersws Cup round 1 race report: Danny Bradford
 
On March 6th and 7th the official start to the 2010 downhill racing season kicked off at the 1st round of the Caersws Cup in shropshire. This would be Dannys first race in senior category and his first proper ride on his new 2010 race bike (Giant Glory). The track that was chosen to race on was freshly built over the winter and barely ridden, which meant for some interesting racing as every rider would have to learn a completely new track over the weekend.
  

Practice started early on a fairly dull but dry saturday morning. The track rode very fast straight away but changed a lot throughout the day, as ruts and roots were exposed, and fresh corners were blown out. A light sprinkle of rain at midday made things interesting as roots became slippery but helped the track to keep traction in the corners.
  

With only 3 weeks practice prior to the race on his new 2010 bike, Danny soon felt up to speed and was begining to feel comfortable with the track.
  

After a good days practice on saturday, the riders were to wake up to a rock hard and frosted over track as the temperature fell to -6 degrees celcius over night! This made hell for practice on sunday morning as it was near to impossible to find traction on any of the corners or obstacles on the track. Practice was stopped for a couple of hours and a few of minor changes were made to the track so riders could resume practice on a safer track. Practice was extended and racing was cut down to just one race run.
  

Race runs came along and Danny managed to put a good run together, clinching 7th place in a huge category of 72 riders and only 3 seconds off of the podium. "I was pretty pleased with my first race in senior and first race on the new bike, as i was initially hoping for a top 15 result. But im loving the new bike and I'm very excited about the rest of the season!".....Race run time: 2mins 27secs