Isaac Batty and Callum Christian contested round one of British Cycling’s Downhill National Series in Rheola near Neath, Port Talbot last weekend.

Batty leapt into a high-ranking second position in the youth category and Christian took 11th place in the juvenile category.

Rock gardens and root sections slathered in mud caught many out on a technical but fast course. The wet weather elevated the instances of red cards on the track with many spills on course.

Saturday practice provided seeding for racing and Sunday morning gave further opportunity for practice.

It was two years since Batty had last raced downhill in the UK and he put down only three practice runs on the morning of the race as he was not feeling 100% and reserved the pace for the timed descents.

Christian smashed out five practice laps in what was his first national series event.

The rough, unforgiving track made it hard to simply stay on the bike, so many of the UK riders had the upper hand with a recent Welsh downhill series race at Rheola on the same track a fortnight earlier.

In wet conditions, Batty kept his resolve despite a large rock jamming in his bike’s drivetrain on the second corner. His natural skill made the run through the ‘Star Wars’ section in the lower woods look easy and a maze of mud and roots through the trees caught a lot out. The only way to get through was to attack it.

He placed a fine second from the field of 40 junior riders, racing for the first time on his Orange 279 downhill rig.

His race time was faster than all but two of the expert men and almost half the elite field.

Backed by Limitless Cycles, Christian is a year younger so he raced within the juvenile 13-14 category.

He had a semi-clean race run and placed a respectable 11th of 25 riders his age. Good going for his first downhill at national level.

The boys were unable to get entries for round two at Fort William in early May, but hope to be back for further racing later this season.

Batty has a decent chance of being selected for the GB team at the 2024 junior world champs despite focusing on enduro rather than downhill this year. He is supported by Orange bikes, Manx MTB Enduro, Cycle 360, McCanney Construction, Isle of Man Cycling and IoM Steam Packet Company.