It was a weekend of high dramas for the National Downhill first round hosted at the State Mine Heritage Park and Railway Lithgow.

The 325 riders made it the biggest non-chair lifted round to be hosted in Australia outside the National Championships.

"Each race we try to plan for more numbers than the last but the massive jump in numbers keeps catching us by surprise," Central Tablelands' Craig Flynn said.

"We honestly thought we'd struggle to get the 250 we had at the state race. No one predicted anywhere near 325.”

"I think we coped OK with the numbers and proved that with a bit of tweaking to the schedule the venue is capable of handling more."

It was a great day of racing and a massive crowd of spectators made their way up the hill to catch all the spills and thrills.

Unfortunately a series of rider accidents lead to delays on the track. Most of the injuries were relatively minor but because of the nature of three of the crashes, precautions were taken for treating them as more serious injuries.

The most serious crash happened late in the day at the beginning of the under 19 final race run when Dave Habicht pushed a little too hard into the infamous rock garden, got out of control and unfortunately collected a tree. Habicht is now in a stable condition.

As always the CTMBC thanks everyone who helped bring the massive weekend together: The volunteers who did a great job; St Pats P & C for catering; the State Mine for allowing the club use of their excellent venue; St John, Lithgow VRA and attending Ambulance officers;

Dave Mitchell and Chris Schumacher from Council for arranging the last minute road works and Cr Michael Wilson for his great support and to all the sponsors.

Special mention to local sponsors Aireal Australia, Lithgow Workmens Club, Clarence Colliery, Zig Zag Motel, McDonalds family restaurant, Good Earth Mud Brick and Land Scaping, Bowen Inn, Colonial Motor Inn and Insane Cycles and Bellies Bikes.