With severe weather conditions at Fort William today, the gondola has been shut to riders, whose bikes are transported on the outside of the gondola. UCI race organisers have therefore decided to postpone practice and qualifications until tomorrow.
Revised timings for tomorrow are as follows (note, all times are local):
With high and gusty winds, the Fort William gondola is unable to ferry bikes and riders today.
in reply to "chris who rides bikes" the wind also shut the enduro down to 2 stageson sunday last week....lol doesn't seem to matter what type of riding you do in scotland the weather will fubar it....only last week me and my missus were gettin kinky up the local brae when lighting hit me right up the ass!!!!! now that was a good ride ruined!!!!
I'm a bit worried about the live coverage. It looks like this has pushed the elite mens and womens start times back. In the past when things have over-run, for example when Cam Cole got hurt and had to be helicoptered off, the live stream finished before the last riders had come down (but the whole thing was available on the replay). Something to do with the satellite use - I guess they have a fixed time slot to use the satellite for broadcast? Hopefully this isn't the case this time around. Can't wait for this round.
By the comment I assume having the bikes on the outside is an issue? Surely they could just run it as one rider and one bike per gondola? Obviously a slower service but much more logical than cancelling qualification for the day
Yeah I assumed that was the issue too but they made the specific reference to the bikes being outside the gondola so I thought that might be the reason they stopped practise which wouldn't make much sense to me
nah not got anything to do with bikes they close the gondola anytime of year when its too windy. been instances before at nevis range where gondolas have got stuck or fallen in the wind so they are pretty cautious about it now
The thing that's interesting to me is that Ft William is so open compared to ski places I am used to seeing gondolas. I wonder how much of the wind issue is as a result of trees being unable to grow there.
thats happened only once Ismack and it was nothing to with the wind and everything to do with a faulty runner. for sure they are cautious but you can hardly blame them. the weather this year in scotland has really sucked ass. literally every 7-10 days since February it implodes in a weather bomb of low pressure
I know this wont help but superbesse and several other places in france have gondolas with 2 arms and 2 wires each so that the lift is safe in wind.
At the top of the superbesse track the wind was almost enough to blow you off the bike but the gondola kept on running just fine all day.
Maybe its upgrade time
I wonder how much a gondola system refit would cost? got to be into the 7 figures! I suppose compared to alpine elevations, this is a 'baby' but they can't come cheap! Have to try and ride here soon! So embarrassed that I've never made it happen yet!
Just to clarify, the gondola was running today - I went up and walked down the track (the weather was brutal).
They just weren't letting the riders up for whatever reason. Possibly the safety of marshals being left up on the hill under the extreme circumstances.
+1'd him for you camikaze. yeah Scribd is shite. can't do f-all on my wifes Ipad when looking at results, but seems to work fine on the desktop. why are so many races using this "scribd" for results listings anyway?
Idea: 1. Put the athletes in one gondola. 2. Put their bikes in the second gondola. That way their bikes are not on the outside and there will be enough room to fit the bikes in. TAADAA
I just watched a video of the event organiser saying it was because of them not wanting to transport bikes on the outside. I know they are mainly doing it for safety reasons, but they keep stating the fact about not wanting bikes to be transported on the outside on gondolas. If they want the Gondolas to not run due to strong winds, why not just say that instead of talking about bikes not being allowed on the outside.
Yeah i get it, high winds. Not having a go at you.. just wondering why the following was included: "the gondola has been shut to riders, whose bikes are transported on the outside of the gondola".
Could have just left it as "the gondola has been shut to riders", because it made me and a few others think that the gondola can still run for those whose bikes fit inside the gondola.
I know mate, no worries. I'm not there as I have to work, but I know they shut the gondolas in high winds to people as well, regardless of whether something is on the outside. Winds should drop tomorrow so fingers crossed.
Hey @NateTeh, sorry if there was any confusion caused. I wrote this piece and wanted to highlight the fact that at Fort William, bikes are transported on the outside of the gondolas, rather than inside. The gondola may still run to the public today, it depends on the direction and speed of the gusts. The same issues was had at the British Downhill Series a few weeks ago as highlighted in our coverage here. Unfortunately, despite May/June being typically the least severe period for weather in Fort William (hence why the national and international races are held around then), this part of the world is seeing unusually high amount of high winds for this time of year.
www.uci.ch/mountain-bike/ucievents/2015-mountain-bike-uci-mountain-bike-world-cup-presented-by-shimano/162153115/widgets/live-timing-169224
They just weren't letting the riders up for whatever reason. Possibly the safety of marshals being left up on the hill under the extreme circumstances.
www.nevisrange.co.uk/mountain_report.asp
1. Put the athletes in one gondola.
2. Put their bikes in the second gondola.
That way their bikes are not on the outside and there will be enough room to fit the bikes in.
TAADAA
Depends if it's west or east coast doesn't it?........ I'm sure over here we had summer last night for a few hours or so : )