When it comes to races on the World Cup circuit there are few events that carry such weight of expectation on their shoulders as Fort William. Right from day one the event has been an amazing success and now, in its tenth year, we see the second stage to the major renovation started in 2010.
Bernat Guardia, getting flatter than your breakfast table on the top hip..
Multiple awards have been showered on the venue over the years, then there is the energetic, spine tingling atmosphere that could be wired to the national grid come finals time on Sunday and of course those damn midges. But hey, no-one’s perfect. The highs have been incredible. Watching Ruaridh Cunningham clinch the Junior World Champs in 2007 was incredible to be a part of, Kovarik winning the first event back in 2002 by nearly fifteen seconds in conditions which could be described in many ways, from filthy to vile and brutal. That’s fifteen seconds on flat pedals against the world’s most successful downhillers; that’s a result that few have ever come close to emulating.
Sam Blenkinsop rocking the 2012 Formula brakes - this track's hard on brakes and soon tells you if they're working well or not
Of course all these highs are tempered by the lows; Peaty crashing out in 2002 whilst being plagued by injury in subsequent years before finally clinching his one and only victory in the shadow of Ben Nevis in 2005; Tracy Moseley tearing apart her hopes of winning the World Championships on home within sight of the start. These are the well known heartaches but there are of course so many more happening each and every time the World Cup rolls into town, from the big guns to the small fry.
Scott Laughland suffered in the trees during qualifying and failed to make it through to the finals - time to go home and prep for a better weekend in Leogang just seven days later.
But it is of course these moments of utter devastation, trauma, hardship and injury that make, like in any avenue of life, victory and success all the sweeter. For success is not just victory. Success for many is to just make it through to the final eighty, to be able to say that on that day, they are among the best eighty racers in the world. Make no mistake; these riders are all more than just good bike handlers, the differences between them and the outer reaches of the top ten or twenty subtle and finely graded. But few are in the position to call themselves the next Hill, Gee or Gracia, or even the next Gwin after his taming of Pietermaritzburg. Of the two hundred men and nearly fifty women who turn up to race, few are factory riders with the pro life, mechanic and masseuse. Instead you would be surprised to see that many are parked in what could unglamorously be called the tradesman’s entrance. Instead of the glamour that the main expo area positively sparkles with, they will be seen with their vans that have long since lost their showroom shine. The masters of ingenuity in desperate situations, they sit there long after many riders have gone back to the hotel; cooking pasta on a camping stove, maintaining their bike and trying desperately to rebuild their other spare wheel that they managed to trash on yet another bloody rock somewhere down Aonach Mor. But they’re there because they love it. The scene needs its hero’s; it also needs its privateers.
Nick Beer is a solid rider which doesn't do any harm to the Scott 11 team's overall leading status after an 8th place qualifier
In ten years, the course at Fort William has changed significantly, not in one fell swoop, but as an evolution, small steps here and there to polish the edges and keep it fresh. Could it be Darwinism in the downhill world where only the fittest survive? In the case of The Bill, the weak and diseased parts have been cut from the winding gravel and rock snake, the damage tended to and the favourites polished. In 2007 there was the extension of the very top section to the gondola station, then last year there was the exposure of the bedrock and in 2011 it’s the year of the jump. The jump of course being the new section cut into the end of the World Cup Woods which launches rider off a wooden platform into a steep landing through the now cleared trees to the location of the second split. It’s a sweet section although the woods above needed some serious maintenance after qualifying when some equally serious holes appeared to likewise hole many riders chances of qualifying. Some riders lucked it and stayed on, others went down in a tangle of legs and chrome. Fort William is a cruel mistress and takes no prisoners. If you lose concentration, you’re out of it. If you get unlucky you’re out of it. It’s a tightrope and one which many riders breathe a sigh of relief from once in the safe territory of the finish arena.
Fabien Cousinie qualified 28th with the number 15 plate on Saturday - here he is just under a minute into the track and about to break the first split beam
Having miraculously stayed dry each day of the event there was some light rain overnight on Friday but not so much as to cause any real change to the track’s running. Of course the results from qualifying have been well noted, with the continuation of Aaron Gwin’s dominance from the southern hemisphere in the mens and the resurgence of Rachel Atherton in the womens. But look beyond that and there was Danny Hart’s blistering run to third place. He’d been looking loose, lairy and on the brink of something big all weekend and in qualifying tipped it over the brink to score third, just one thousandth back on Gee’s second place time. Troy Brosnan lost time on the first and third sectors but had a storming run through the main middle section to take eighth – the reigning Junior World Champ is a tiny rider and the relative lack of technical requirement to pedalling effort on those sectors perhaps hide what he may be capable of later on in the year.
Cedric may not be the fighting force for podiums that he once was but still has the skills to pay the bills - launching a suicide off the stepdown in his race run says it all.
It was a bad day for the Brits all round on Saturday, or at least it was for a large number of them as rider after struggled to qualify. There’s a huge contingent at each and every world cup, many qualifying regularly but the pressure builds here exponentially and can cause riders some big problems. Punctures, crashes, mechanicals and just plain old not being fast enough cursed a lot here this weekend but on the flipside was Manon Carpenter's blinding Saturday ride. The Junior World Cup overall leader qualified fifth, just over seven seconds down on the time of Rachel. She’s growing in experience, ability and confidence, it’s only a matter of time before she steps the game that one notch higher to become a regular world cup podiumer – it’s hard to remember sometimes that this is only her second year of racing on the world stage.
Dan Stanbridge, the nicest man in downhill and back after a tough and injured year in 2010.
And then without warning but a lot of sore heads it’s Sunday and finals day is upon us. It’s the pinnacle of the sport, the head of pressure and the point of charge that the spectators come to experience. It’s the end of three days of traipsing around if you’re a journo, or if you’re a rider, days of brutalising your body on one of the roughest World Cup courses in the world, certainly the longest.
Josh Button qualified in a solid 33rd place, capping it off with 21st in the final.
The finals for the girls kicks it all off with the top twenty from Saturday getting that elusive golden ticket to take the final gondola to the top for the big one. One quarter are British and with the top two qualifiers being from home ground it was clear that the race was theirs to lose. Emmeline Ragot was riding here this weekend with a broken ankle, compounded by a bad crash up top on Friday which left her with a bad knee too but she was an early leader having headed into the finish with a 5:38. It looked like it would take a while for this to be beaten as rider after rider failed to improve, not even her higher qualifying team mate Fionn Griffiths. But then Sabrina Jonnier blasted into view, having taken five seconds out of Em on the bottom split alone. With crowds roaring, the time was a 5:31. Manon didn’t quite make the time needed to hold onto fifth and had to settle for 8th at the end. Pom Pom (Myriam Nicole) was on fire, crossing the second split with a nigh on seven second advantage, an advantage that had whittled down to nothing as she crossed the line for fourth with a 5:30. Floriane Pugin was the first to break the ’30 barrier but what the crowd were waiting for were the two Brits; Rachel and Tracy. Up at the first split, five seconds up at the second and it was looking good for T-Mo, the crowd were jumping, the tunes were pumping and Dan Jarvis was about to lose his voice on the mic. That wasn’t going to be before he came out with quote of the weekend and the almost perfect way to sum up the battle between the Brits: “This is going to be tighter than a midge’s nadger”. Could Tracy do it? She had secured the hotseat with a 5:23 and a blinding seven second margin but could Rachel improve yet further? Not quite, having taken the fastest top split she didn’t have quite the pace and had to take second. So the top three were Floriane Pugin, Rachel and then the reigning World Champion, Tracy Moseley – now also the World Cup leader.
Emmeline Ragot not doing her broken ankle any good at all - going down hard on Friday
Tension, tension, tension. The mens final. After a puncture in South Africa, Brendan Fairclough’s season went from bad to worse on Saturday with a small crash and no protected status pushing him outside the top eighty and into a seat on Sundays sidelines. Could Danny keep the lid on his nerves and hold it to a maiden World Cup podium? Could the big guns like Sam Hill and Steve Peat claw back any of their deficit to Aaron and secure a step in front of the crowds and the metalwork to go with it? It’s all to play for once the clock starts ticking, there is no way to undo those crucial mistakes, just a long drive and a long seven days to think about it, for the weak to fester and think of what might have been, the strong to bounce back and come in all guns blazing.
"Made in the Toon" Scotty Mears gets wild during Friday practice
With just minutes of the finals remaining and fourteen riders to go the helicopter looms overhead, the cheering gets louder and the atmosphere is turned up to eleven. Which must mean that Steve Peat is in sight. He may not be having the perfect weekend in Scotland but crosses the line and into third, a result which will surely slip as riders come into view. Sam Hill is the king of comebacks, you only have to look at last year’s World Championships to see that but he failed to improve as much as he needed to here, dropping into third just ahead of Steve. Troy Brosnan was one of the later riders to run after a storming qualifier but couldn’t put together a run to do his earlier pace justice and slotted into place outside of the top twenty. Next up was Steve Smith but the Devinci rider made a huge mistake up top and although saving it from a crash haemorrhaged time, finishing just a few seconds off the hotseat and thinking of what the run could have been. At one point it looked like the podium could well be a trio of Kiwi’s with Brook MacDonald at the top but after twenty five riders it was Minnaar who finally pushed him off with a near two second lead.
Lewis Buchanan may not have had the qualifying run that dreams are made of but it got him into the final for Chain Reaction Cycles
Greg Minnaar professed to having been surprised with fourth on Saturday, would he again be surprised? Danny Hart was up at the first split by two seconds, up at the second...could he hold it for the line? Crossing the line two seconds down and in second to Greg Minnar was a blinder and as I write this I’m still shaking from the excitement; this weekend has been the making of Danny Hart and the culmination of years of effort and graft. Gee crosses the line but fails to break the times of Danny and Greg; Danny is the top Brit. Just one rider to shake Greg from the top and that is your round one winner, Aaron Gwin. A dab out of the woods into the new stepdown; he’s pushing hard on this one and has the fastest first split. Late into view of the crowd at the finish, he’s down on time. Can he make it stick for round two? Not quite. He drops into 5th. The Brits are ecstatic; there may not be a British winner but in Danny Hart they have the next best thing – second and his first ever World Cup podium. Greg takes his fourth win, Danny second and Brook MacDonald in third. Gee sits fourth with Gwin rounding out the five man podium.
Evil's Markus Pekoll rocking the iridium lenses and proving that the sun does shine in Scotland, something that wasn't easy to believe during the week running up to the event
Jack Reading has had a steady start to the season, one of the many World Cup riders to balance Uni, exams and racing. Expect yet more improvement from the Manchester rider as he gets into the next rounds.
Aaron Gwin - going into the final with a win under your belt and leading quallifying will have given him a massive confidence boost for the finals but it wasn't to be. Fifth place here in Fort William.
Danny Hart with riding to match his kit; lairy! He outqualified three times winner Greg Minnaar and surprised many but it was a result which has been a long time in the making and one which was mightily deserved. The position to Greg may have changed come Sunday but he held the nerves, pushed it hard and came home with an amazing and long time coming second place. His year is only just beginning...
It may be often said but Fort William has such an atmosphere there is little to challenge it and rides like those put in by the podium riders here will do nothing to harm that hard earned reputation. Look out for further round ups and photos from the Mighty Fort soon.
A rider may have put in an awesome first split and held the fastest on the UCI site but lost it further down and got a poor final time. All other first splits will be compared to his (or hers) and ranked accordingly on UCI site. Freecaster timing was just letting you know if you rode each section quicker than whoever was currently in the hot seat. Don't know how they didn't realise this??