BUCS is the student downhill race between universities from across the country. This year it was held at Antur Stiniog on the track called Black Powder, consisting of steep rock gardens, jumps and slidey corners due to all the polished slate. I had barely ridden it before the race since every time I've been the weather has been awful. We drove up on the Friday night and stayed in a local village hall ready for practice on Saturday. Times were recorded all day, and were used to seed riders for the first qualification runs on Sunday. If you qualified in the top 100 you were into the finals. I knew I could qualify based on my practice seeding time, and put down a solid run for 75th place. I didn't think I could take much more time off because I was pretty tired by this point, but I managed to shave three seconds off in my race run to jump into 61st out of 242. Aled Williams.