James Clarke

Black Press

One hundred and forty riders, one former World Cup pro, two broken hands and one spine board removal.

The 18th annual Hammerfest Downhill mountain bike race is in the books, and this year鈥檚 installment certainly lived up to the tradition that is the Hammer, as riders blasted down the big hill in deep Errington on May 22 in search of that perfect line.

鈥淚 think it was an awesome event. Ignore the casualties 鈥� that鈥檚 part of downhill racing,鈥� said Hammerfest co-founder Kebble Sheaff. 鈥淵ou just know someone鈥檚 going to break a bone or something. I mean Hammerfest is actually pretty tame, but you鈥檙e pushing as hard as you can and your bound to make a mistake.鈥�

The course was shut down for an hour while an injured rider, from Victoria, was taken off the hill.

鈥淭otally fine. He got X-rays and released that night.鈥�

The fastest rider on the day was Jeff Beeston, 33, from Courtenay.

The first local in was Errington鈥檚 Liam Churchill, 28, for 10th overall in the field of 50 Expert Men. The fastest female was Emily Thy at 3:31.

Fifteen-year-old Takoda Crawford from Coombs was the top local rider in the Intermediate class. Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club鈥檚 Tyler Loewen finished the race with a broken hand 鈥渁nd still managed to do a 3:06 for 16th place.鈥�

Quinten Donaldson had the top local time in the Beginner Men, bagging fourth.

Former national team member, Parksville鈥檚 鈥榃ild鈥� Bill Mandryk was back for his 17th straight Hammerfest DH.

鈥淗e鈥檚 raced every single Hammerfest downhill and at 48 years old he was like double the age of most of the riders and he came in 23rd out of 50 in the Expert Men class with a run of 2:56," Sheaff said.

The former World Cup rider in the mix was Jeremy Brown who raced DH professionally from 鈥�92-鈥�97.

The long-running two-race series wrapped up on Sunday, May 29 with the Cross Country (XC) event. For a full list of race results go to www.arrowsmithmtbclub.com.