Innerliethen Report!

05 December, 2007 by

TrialsBen

The plan was a simple one, dash home from work, wait for Dave and Marc to pick me up in our rented fun-bus just after 7pm, collect Rob then hotfoot it up to Tim’s (About an 1 ½ hour drive away) and try to make a dent in the vast beer supply that was currently sliding about in the back of the van.

Unfortunately the tone for the trip was set early on, we finally left my house at about quarter to eight after it took me about 20 minutes to load the van up with all my stuff, which probably would have been considered overkill for 2 weeks in the alps. Everyone else had brought a similar amount of stuff and we had a pile of stuff about 3feet deep layered all over the back of the van, luckily Rob is a hardened racer and had brought only his bike and carrier bag full of his gear so after managing to get lost on the way to Ilkley (Doh!), we finally hit the road in search of food.
After the greasiest most horrible McDonalds that I can still taste now and where we were served by a girl who looked like she was getting wet while taking our orders!, we finally hit the road again and after a short delay for roadworks, arrived at Tim’s just after 11pm, 2 hours behind schedule!
A couple of beers later we hit the sack, Rob got the spare room, I called the living room floor and Dave and Marc bravely decided to share a bit of love and go top-to-toe in the double bed, which was a decision they would both regret. After a sleepless night on the floor I awoke to find the day dawning cold and wet (Not unlike my sleeping bag!).
Apart from Tim in his plush double bed, Rob seemed to have had the best night of all of us but even he looked a bit wrecked until he got on his bike, Dave and Marc were complaining of snoring, sleep talking and being touched up in the night so I can only imagine the hell of spending the night in that room.
After waiting for Marc to get ready we finally hit the road half an hour later than planned which didn’t help our optimistic plan to do the 130 miles upto Innerliethen in 2 hours in a van limited to 62mph. After slip streaming the wagons down the motorway and a bit of country road rally driving including getting a drift going on some mud on the lethal Scottish country roads we finally stumbled in to the car park almost an hour after the first up-lift had gone up.
Despite the 5am start, long drive and freezing weather we were all eager to ride and soon got sorted and on the next up-lift, all except me who decided that now was a good time to fit my new bars. Unlike Hamsterley where you can jump on the up-lift, grab a drink and still be at the bottom again in 10 minutes, it was a good 35 minutes before they all re-appeared again at the bottom with tales of big jumps, rock gardens, braking bumps and ultra steep trails, the smell of burning brakes did nothing to ease my apprehension.
Five minutes later and we all jumped on the next up-lift bus and a comfortable air-conditioned 10 minute ride later we arrived at the top to be greeted by arctic conditions and a hill that seemed to go on forever.

We sent Rob down first to clear all the loose rocks and give us a warning of what was coming up. It was steep and rocky with lots of switchbacks and I was loving it but also a little worried by the time we got to the bottom. It was a really fun track but I’d been on the brakes most of the way down and I just couldn’t see myself getting down at any sort of speed, on speaking to the others at the bottom of the hill I found I wasn’t the only person with this problem. The next few runs just got better and better, we were still no-where near Rob who just seemed to be able to launch himself down the hill at warp speed without hitting anything but we were getting faster and starting to hit all the jumps and drops.

There are about 8-10 official tracks at Innerliethen and lots of secret tracks known only to the locals but everything interlinks so you could combine your favourite top section with your favourite bottom section or even ride 5 or 6 different tracks in one run, from the flat out jumps and drops of the Red Bull run to the tight, slippery and technical Matador. Every track we rode was brilliant but there were a few that deserve a special mention.

The NPS track that merged into the bottom section of the Red Bull run seemed to be most peoples favourite on the day and was a blast to ride. The top was tight, very steep and slippery with lots of exposed rocks and roots but was a lot of fun to ride as it felt very fast between the narrow gaps in the trees, even if in reality we were no-where near race pace. This then brought you out on to a long fire road with a couple of big tabletops that you could hit as fast as you could pedal , followed by two bus stops, the second of these was a lot of fun as it had a kicker that shot you up and across the hill at speed before a sharp turn through the trees and drop back out onto the fire road again. From there it was a 100 yard sprint towards a 6ft high take-off which Me and Tim assumed to be a tabletop like all the others as Rob didn’t stop for it, it was only when I looked down in mid-air and realised we could have parked the van in the gap that I realised that it was a huge double. After a quick blast through another woods section and a 10ft tabletop it was off a rock drop into a quarry section. The drop was a good 5 ½ ft. vertical and 8ft across to the landing and looked quite intimidating with the steep fast run out. Rob and Tim sailed off it easily first time but the rest of us gave it a miss on that run as we didn’t want to crash and have to sit out the rest of the days riding, We all hit it later on in the afternoon with Marc bending and snapping his chain due to the compression on landing and, after eyeing it up all day, Dave sailed off it on his last run in the dark and then wondered what all the fuss had been about. The drop landed into a long and steep chute that launched you down the hill and over a fire road at warp speed, there was a small kicker to hit just after this about 1 ½ ft high but with the amount of speed you carried from the hill it launched you a good 25ft. I followed Tim off it at speed on our second run and we both got launched about 25ft. into the banking on the side of the track, we both sh*t it but managed not die and were feeling quite pleased with ourselves until Rob pointed out that Danny Hart had gone twice as high and far at the last race! From there it was over a set of three tabletops and then another steep and fast woods section that was littered with braking bumps, down to the finish line. This was our favourite run and we probably hit it 4/5 times during the day.

We also rode what felt like a massive 4 minute long 4x track, some of you will recognise it from the section at the start of Earthed 4. It had a rocky surface which was made really slippery due to the drizzle but was so fast, there were tabletops and drops all the way down and you could just go mad and sprint at everything, it was so much fun to ride.

The day ended all too soon and by the time we got around to taking some pictures it was too dark, it was with great reluctance that we finally packed up and hit the road back to Tim’s. Innerliethen is an awesome place to ride and I would still be there now if I could be, this report is only a short taster of what Innerliethen is really like and there is way too much more describe than what I can fit into this piece, I’m also not sure I can really do it justice other than to say it by far the best place I’ve ever ridden and I belive possibly the best track in the UK.

Everybody had a lot of fun and can’t wait to go back, Rob was killing it in his usual annoyingly fast way and it was good to watch him flying on such a course, sorry we slowed you down and you had to wait for us Rob! Tim rode really well considering he hasn’t touched his downhill bike for ages and I had all on trying to keep up with him so I could follow him down, Dave and Marc also rode really well all day, sending themselves over all the jumps and drops and riding fast all day which is no mean feat on argueably the best DH track in the UK, they also both conqored a few demons which was good to see. I was just happy to be riding considering my broken thumb a week earlier and glad to be not too far off the pace.

After a 5 hour drive back with the bus bouncing off the limiter we all finally arrived home shattered, but with huge grins that still haven’t faded almost a week later. If anybody gets a chance to ride Innerliethen then take it as it is an amazing place (AM I GETTING THROUGH TO YOU YET!), and the closest that you will get to the alps on these shores, I guarantee you will love it and there is a lot of other riding on the hill surrounding Innerliethen no more than 30 mins drive away.

Ok, I’ll stop waffling now and move onto the thankyou’s. Thanks to Tim for his hospitality and putting up with us arriving late and wrecking his house, Rob for showing us all the tracks and being patient enough to wait for us everytime we lost him, Dave for sorting out the fun-bus and doing most of the driving and Marc for turning up on time and providing the entertainment! Thanks to Tally at Up-lift Scotland for putting up with my annoying phone calls,changing our booking so many times and generally making the day run seamlessly. Finally, Thanks to the weather for staying fairly dry all day when heavy storms were predicted all weekend.



WWW.UP-LIFTSCOTLAND.COM

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