Season Ends...

So this season has gone a bit quick / wet. Personally I let it get to me too much and kept thinking "nah, BBC Weather says rain, I'll skip it and go to the next one".

Problem was that this happen every round until I was spectating at the 4X Champs and then this bank holiday weekend at the BMX British Champs, and thinking "arse, where did the season go?".

In conclusion then (for me at least, as I'll also be missing the last round of the NPS 4X... I reckon it'll rain...), here's a short breakdown to the end of the 2007 UK 4X and BMX season.

NPS4X

Scott Beaumont (below) gets back his Elite title. Dave Richardson takes Senior. Tom Dowie takes Junior... there after you'd best go to NPS4X and wait until after the final round.

Question for next years NPS is who goes up (Richardson? Dowie? White? Ridgeway?) and who sandbags down (Wilson?... urm...)

4X National Championships

Dale Holmes (Murray Stong trustee) (below) came home to the UK for this one and reaped the reward by regaining the title he lost last year to Will Longden.

While again, Richardson and Dowie took Junior, leaving the DBS allstars pondering another try in 2008(?)

BMX British Championships

What a good weekend. I've not been to a BMX brits since 1995 at Brighton and the atmosphere was just as I remember (coincidentally, if anyone has video of the 16 Experts 20" and 24" finals I would be very interested to hear. Mat).

The three great things for me about the brits are 1. that there's a title on the line on the day and it could go anyway, 2. that it's the one more families go to than any other, and 3. that it's often the first really big race a lot of younger riders go to.

For me it was Slough in 89(?) but for DBS daughters Beth and Toni this weekend was it. 2007. Burnham. Wonder if either of them will be thinking back to it someday, while sitting on the gate for a final? We shall see...

So yeah, a good day, and some bloody good racing. With confidence that points and a very comprehensive review will soon appear on the BC site I'll leave my report to say that Kelvin Batey won the Elite final, in which this also happened...

Antony Tuffs took a lead from Scott Waterhouse to win the 19+ final, which looked like this...

And in one of the younger ages (someone please correct me) neither of the front runners won, which looked like this...

While being lighthearted about these falls may seem harsh - I do so with knowledge that none of the riders involved sustained any serious injury and hope they stick at it for next season and give another go. Get on.

For more of my pics....

...go to the DBS Flickr page.

And for yet more pictorial fun, check out the professional coverage of Richard Robotham which makes mine look like I used a camera phone. Nice.

For now then, that's it. My season is over. But I've got good feelings about 2008 I'm not sure I can resist another year as a spectator... once more, we shall see.

Well done to all that rode and congratulations to the new British Champions.

Mat