Written by Simon de Montfor of
  AnnoDomini
  
  This is the first issue of our fortnightly newspaper where we will summarize recent events related to downhilling, talk about downhill riders, races, tactics, history and much more.
  
  Let us begin with the OCM Awards Gala, which took place this Friday, day 13. Top riders and managers from previous season have been awarded for their performance. The Best Downhiller award was won by Eleonor Berka, his 2nd award, who managed to beat Brent Meijerigh (winner of 3 such awards). However the 34yo Czech rider didn’t show up at the ceremony to take his prize, because he was in South Africa racing against Brent Meijerigh in Eissh Downhill. The result of the race was somewhat different to the awards result – Brent wanted to show that he is the dominant downhiller these days, no matter what the Awards Committee think, and he won the race in great style, his 3rd win in a row in this event. Next riders to cross the line were Ismael Olanrewaju with his first downhill result and Dominic Haidegger, who struggled a bit with a mechanical issue in the final meters. Eleonor Berka finished 5th, but he was very happy when he learned at the finish line that

he won the award for previous season.
  “I am very happy, cause I had a nice season and I am aware that it was one of my last seasons where I could perform at the highest level. Next few seasons will belong to Brent, he is now the strongest of us all and he just confirmed it today with a win. Hats off!”
  
  Looking at other races in lower divisions, Abtenau – Salzburg in div 4 was won by Yanik Arda, which didn’t come as a surprise at all. Yanik, the famous downhiller from Team Oasis, is now on a loan at Tashkent Browncoats and div 4 riders are hardly a match to him, so we expect quite a few wins from him this season.
  
  In Italy cyclists were racing from Ceriana to Sanremo and the winner of this race was Drake Garcia from lastplace1414. Drake is a promising rider who helped his team to move up across few divisions during last two seasons. This was a second downhill win in his career and surely not the last one.
  
  We will be ending our column with a list of the most successful downhillers, which towards the end of the season will help to identify the nominees for the best Dh award for S43. So here is the list as of day 15 and thanks for reading!