Seven Helensburgh riders at Scottish Downhill Championships

Set in the Ae Forest in Dumfries and Galloway, seven local riders took part in round four of the SDA's five-event series - which also featured the Scottish Downhill Championships.

Extremely wet conditions, with heavy showers overnight, reduced much of the upper course to knee-deep mud, making the course even more challenging for riders trying to navigate down the steep, slippy corners.

Although the track started to dry out on Sunday, the mud became sticky and slow, requiring even more work from riders.

Each rider had two timed runs, with the fastest counting - but there were many crashes thanks to the conditions.

Oliver Hood (Image: Contributed)

In the juvenile boys category, 13-year-old Fraser Cummings achieved seventh place out of 35 riders with a time of 2m 43s in his first run, with an unfortunate crash in his second run.

In the large youth boys category, Fin Holling secured ninth place in a field of 53 with a time of 2m 27s, improving his first run time by eight seconds, while Josh Van Impe came 48th in 3m 11s.

The competitive junior men's category had two local entrants: Oliver Hood, who achieved 10th place out of 30 with a time of 2m 26s, also improving on his first run time by six seconds, and Luke Van Impe, who finished 16th in 2m 32s after a crash on his first run.

Benjamin Hood competed in the open men's category (19 to 29 years) and secured sixth place in a field of 23 riders, coming down the hill in 2m 24s.

Oliver Hood (Image: Contributed)

Nicholas Holling continued his dominating presence in the veteran mens category with another third place in a time of 2m 43s.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the separate Scottish Championships results had yet to be published.

Going in to this event, Fin Holling was lying in second place overall on the SDA series leaderboard in his youth section, Oliver Hood was in third place in junior men, and Nicholas Holling lay in second place in the veterans class.

Benjamin Hood (Image: Contributed)

All are now hoping to hold on to those positions, and perhaps to even improve on them, at the fifth and final event of the SDA series at Glencoe on August 19 and 20.

The Glencoe event will double up as the fourth round of the British Cycling National Downhill series and will see racers from all over Britain taking part.

The race is fully booked and promises to be an exciting and challenging end to the season.

Oliver Hood (Image: Contributed)

The fastest time down the hill on the day was set by Scottish rider William Brodie, who won the elite men's event and the overall Scottish Championships in a blistering 2m 06s. The elite women's class was won by Mikayla Parton in 2m 30s.