Steve Peat added another national medal to his collection
On Sunday 20 July the 2008 British National Downhill Championships took place in the North Wales Village of Llangynog near Bala. Over 300 riders and several thousand spectators packed into the picturesque valley expecting a day of high drama on the mountainside and the main finals did not disappoint.
The Junior category was dominated by Josh Bryceland, fresh from his victory at the World Championships in Italy just a few weeks previous he beat his closest rivals Sam Dale and Joe Smith by a huge six seconds, despite finishing second in seeding to welsh rider Emyr Davies.
For Rachel Atherton the race track is literally on her doorstep, as she lives just outside the village of Llangynog. This was not to be her day though as she hit a tree at high speed in practice and was airlifted to hospital with a suspected broken Femur. In her absence, one of her main rivals and former World Cup Champion Tracy Moseley set the fastest time in the Elite Women some eight seconds quicker than Helen Gaskell and Katy Curd.
As mid afternoon approached the sun was shining as the Elite men took a tractor ride to the top of the 360-metre descent. Gee Atherton has set a blistering time of 2 minutes and 52 seconds on a wet track in his seeding run on the previous day. His time was 5.8 seconds quicker than Steve Peat and their first and second positions reflects their results in the 2008 World Championships.
Rider after rider set ever-faster times, and when Gee left the start gate it was Steve Peat from Sheffield who was leading from teammates Marc Beaumont and Neil Donoghue. But in a further derailment of the 'Atherton Show' and despite being 2 seconds up at the split timing point, Gee crashed in the final wood section just out of sight of the finish line. So it was Steve Peat that the massed crowd applauded as he claimed his seventh National title.
A fitting end to a great days racing saw Rachel Atherton return to the event when it was confirmed she had only suffered bruising. Both she and her brother Gee were joined on the podium by Josh Bryceland as the crowd showed their appreciation for their efforts for winning Gold medals at the World Championships.
