15th Annual Onabike Cup
Britain longest established downhill race is the Onabike Cup. First
contested in 1994 when it was won by Steve Kitchen now of Animal fame!
Back in 1994 the course started with a flat 300m pedalling section out through open moorland before joining into the part of the Ashcombe
Estate that we now use. The race finished indoors in the barn with a
hay-bale chicane as you entered which caught
out
many very tired riders.
The bikes have changed over the years . Back in 1994 only 4 riders
turned up on full suspension bikes; as they were a real novelty back
then; winner Steve Kitchen was one of those, onboard a Mongoose
Amplifier.
From 1994 to 2007 the race was held at Ashcombe and was originally
a one off downhill race. Many people were sceptical that we could
get anyone to enter a downhill only race when for a similar entry fee
you could race all around the estate and cycle uphill aswell! The
doubters were wrong and a field of around 140 riders were hand timed by
rally stop watches and the times then manually worked out!
The race was a success and more downhill races followed and in 1996
the Onabike Cup was the final round of the South West downhill series;
our last race of the year. It is still our last race of the year and has
been the Christmas race at Ashcombe for the last six years; but as
Ashcombe is now too busy to accommodate us at Christmas the event has a
new home Avill Ball near Dunster.
The 2008 race will again be our last race of the year; when it will be
contested on December 21st.
In 2007 Ashley Mullane, the only man to win the event 4 times retained
the Cup by only 9/100th of a second; Ash will be back to try and make it 5
in a row!
The Full list of winners is
1994 Steve Kitchen
1995 Stefan Gleed
1996 Ollie Thomas
1997 Andy Barron
1998 Rich Warner
1999 Symon Folland
2000 Symon Folland
2001 Dan Atherton
2002 Gee Atherton
2003 Tom Tuckey
2004 Ashley Mullane
2005 Ashley Mullane
2006 Ashley Mullane
2007 Ashley Mullane
2008 ????
