strange gaels
of mist
forests
gravel
and mountains

Galloway Hillbilly Bike Club member Katy Kaos celebrated her 14th birthday by winning the Scottish Downhill Championship at Ae. Riding a downhill bike for the first time Katy won the Juvenile Category of the Scottish Downhill Association race.

A week later, and after a hard weekend racing in Wales, we are very proud that she retained the title of British Juvenile Downhill National Champion.

Sofia, the current British 24 female champion, and Galloway Hillbilly, went out to Portugal and rode their dusty rural trails. She flew out a few days before and got acclimatised (by the pool) and scoped out the natural, hand built trails that the locals had sculpted. It was made up of a 10km lap with 130mtrs of climbing per lap, Sof said it was fun but you had to concentrate all the time, the sorest bits of my body were the palms of my hands from the constant vibration from the trails.

Sofia puts a lot of hours training in per week, commits to a training program laid out by her coach, as well as holding down a full time job in the catering industry.

Many of us followed the race online at home, and in the wee wee hours of the morning, 2am, Sofia made a marked lead on second place. This gap continued to grow and by 10am (1hr to go) Sofia became the European female 24hr champion; amazing.

Sofia is aiming to head out for the World 24hr champs in Armadale, Australia in November, and if you would like to support her in this, please drop by the breakpad