A PROMISING teenage mountain biker from Helensburgh shrugged off tough winter weather conditions to finish on the podium at a prestigious event in County Durham.
Oliver Hood, 17, travelled to Hamsterley Forest near Bishop Auckand for round two of Danny Hart's Descend Park Winter Series.
Oliver competed in the junior men's category, for male riders aged 17 and 18, and completed his first run in 1m 34.472s to put him in second place.
He went on to make sure of his podium place by going almost a second quicker on his second run with a time of 1m 33.584 seconds - the 12th fastest time of the 73 competitors, in all age categories, who completed a full race run.
Oliver said: "Danny Hart's Winter Series is a good way to keep my race skills sharp during the off-season and to prepare for next year's racing and it was a lot of fun.
"Despite the really challenging conditions, the organisers ran an efficient and enjoyable race with hardly any delays, and I am happy with how I rode."
With heavy snow affecting travel in parts of the country, and temperatures not rising above freezing all weekend, many competitors pulled out due to the snowy and icy conditions or as a result of injuries sustained while trying to navigate the course.
Only three out of five of the event's 120 riders managed to complete their full race run.
The riders were split into age categories: 10-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18, 19+ male and open female.
Practice took place on the Sunday morning, with two race runs in the afternoon, where the fastest of the two runs would count.
The fastest time on the day was set by Tom Ross in the Male 19+ category who completed the course in 1m 23s.
Multiple Downhill World Cup winner Danny Hart presented the prizes to the winners at the end of the event.
Oliver was one of several Helensburgh mountain bikers who competed in the Scottish Downhill Association's 2023 series earlier this year, with event venues including Glenshee, Fort William, and the Ae Forest in Dumfries and Galloway.
Oliver came 12th in the junior men category at the British National Downhill Series event in Fort William in May, following that up with a 10th place finish in Glenshee in June and an eighth place in Glencoe in October - in his first full year of racing.
His age means he's eligible to compete in the junior category again in 2024.
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