Another surprise in Fort William was the return of 4X racing pinner, Yeti's Jared Graves. Graves has been training on his BMX and preparing for the Olympics, but made an appearance on the Scottish 4X track, just long enough to nab the gold medal and remind everyone in the sport of mountain biking that he is still an absolute threat on big wheels. Jared was joined on the podium by e.thirteen riders Joost Wichmann (2nd) and Dan Atherton (3rd).
The women's downhill podium was overtaken by e.thirteen athletes, led by Kona's Tracy Moseley and followed by Sabrina Jonnier, Rachel Atherton, and Mio Suemasa. Sabrina's second place finish was enough for her to regain the leader's jersey for women's DH, but Rachel Atherton is right behind her. Rachel crashed in qualifying, but was able to get back on the bike and put down a third place run in Scotland, enough to keep her in the points race with Sabrina for the overall.
Animal-Commencal's Gee Atherton followed his success from last week's race in Andorra by making another podium appearance at Fort William. The dry version of the Scottish DH track was beating riders to a pulp, and required lots of heavy pedaling in between the rough rock sections. Gee was able to overcome the course's gnarliness and avoid a flat tire (which was the fate of more than a few top riders over the weekend) to snag second place on the podium, which brings him into contention with Sam Hill for the leader's jersey!
Gee was also joined on the podium by fellow e.thirteen athlete Sam Hill, who was able to retain his leader's jersey with a fifth place finish. All eyes are on Sam and his Monster Energy-Iron Horse team after this race, since the next race will be the World Championships in Italy—on a track where Sam decimated the competition by five seconds during the test event earlier this year. Bets are already floating whether or not Sam will be able to increase this margin even more in order to get his third set of Elite Rainbow Stripes.
Congratulations to all of the e.thirteen athletes who raced the rocky, dry course in Fort William this past weekend. After watching the course walk on Freecaster.tv, it was more than obvious that our riders were thankful to have the direct mount bashguard on their LG-1s on such a rough course!
Stay tuned to the e.thirteen blog for some behind-the-scenes pics from the races, including pics of Dan Atherton's titanium 4X bike, as well as the live Freecaster race coverage from Val de Sol, Italy.
About ethirteen componentse.thirteen components is a small, rider-owned and operated company that strongly supports dozens of grassroots races, series, contests and other riding events all over the world every year. Founded in 2001, e.thirteen’s innovative, functional, simple and lightweight chain retention systems have made them a world leader in this category, and the choice of top pro and amateur riders and mechanics alike. They support a worldwide distribution network and take great pride in offering devoted customer service.
